Most Depressing Storyline for 2004

At first, Bendis' Avengers Disembowled was the hands down most depressing storyline of 2004 for me. I've said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating, I believe Vision and Hawkeye intentionally committed suicide to escape the storyline. But having endured Heroes Reborn those many years ago (where fortunately Franklin Richards brain was big enough to retain the good storylines), I'm not too worried about long-term implications. Hint to Bendis' inevitable replacement: having Frankie fix this mess would be considered homage in some circles--keep it in mind--you'd win extra points with me if you brought back the old FF much older Franklin [no not the Tom Brevoort one in Fantastic Force, but the version from Fantastic Four 245 where if I recall correctly he looked like a hippie version of then writer/artist John Bryne]. I'm only partially joking with my suggestion, but man did anyone but the Bendis faithful enjoy that stuff. Yuck.

That being said, Identity Crisis was my most depressing storyline. Ray Palmer was so gaga for his ex-wife she could have said: "I hate you." and he would have said: "Thank you, honey." To think she had to go to all this trouble to "win" him back, well, yeesh. And I helped hype this project way early on (more than a year ago), so this is my official apology for my mistake. Meltzer will almost definitely write better stuff in the long term (his Green Arrow run still sticks with me), don't get me wrong. But this IC deal is most depressing because it seems to have pleased both editorial management as well as the accounting department at DC. As a result, more than likely DC faithful will see more dead heroes and mistrust in the DC universe in 2005. Oh joy. Here's hoping Waid/Kitson's Legion makes DC reconsider the IC direction long term.