Good Hooded Utilitarian, Bad Hooded Utilitarian

The website hoodedutilitarian.com is devoted to comic books and proprietor Noah Berlatsky has published some excellent articles over there. Just a few days ago I referred you to his fine cataloging of the songs and singers that appeared on the Batman television show.

But some things that Noah does I am not as fond of. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of his page he is encouraging readers to write in to tell what they feel is the worst comic book of all time. This exercise has been dubbed The Anniversary of Hate. Ouch. Where do I begin?

Gleefully celebrating awfulness seems wrong-headed to me. Noah explains that this idea came to him as an urge and he felt compelled to follow through with it. Temptations can be resisted, though, and I personally would find frightening a society in which every individual acted out their every urge. I'm not playing the role of Pollyanna and saying that only positive things should be written, but isn't it better for negatives to be presented in a constructive spirit rather than with a celebratory cynicalness?

There is a new comic book title on its second or third issue right now and it's being hailed by many comics creators on twitter as one of the best comic books currently being published. But it's not good at all. It's terrible. The dialogue is overwritten and the artwork is muddy. I was going to write an article revealing that the emperor has no clothes, but decided against it. I know that the artist involved is talented (because I was very impressed with his previous project) and I'm confident he will shine again in his future work without me besmirching him in an internet article that will remain online forever. I was going to trash the comic book mainly to lash out at those who are lauding it, and I resisted the temptation. There are so many good things to write about instead!

The Hayfamzone Blog quietly had its SIXTH anniversary last month and our focus continues mainly to be on the positive things to be found in comics. I like hoodedutilitarian.com and I encourage Noah to veer away from the Dark Side.