Series of the Year — Criminal
There was more than one Ed Brubaker title in contention for this award, let me tell you. I decided finally on Criminal because it fires on all cylinders, all the time. I don’t think there has been a single mis-step in the entire series, and even though every arc deals with different characters and different situations, there’s a continuity and flow to it that most comics only wish they could have. Brilliant from top to bottom; and without flashy gimmicks and people wearing capes and underwear on the outside of their pants.
Writer of the Year — Ed Brubaker
I chose Brubaker because he’s not just an awesome writer; he’s a consistently awesome writer. Almost everything he writes is just amazing. Where other contenders in this category (Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, Robert Kirkman) also put out amazing work, Brubaker’s just seems a hair above everyone else’s this year.
Artist of the Year — Carlos Pacheco
Looking at his art on Ultimates 4, Pacheco’s art (which was always great) has clearly hit another level. It’s clean and beautiful and expressive and awesome. But what really cemented his place in this category is the fact that he can actually draw more than three pages a month, unlike contemporaries like Steve McNiven and John Cassaday. Quantity AND quality.
Villain of the Year — Norman Osborn
Placing Norman Osborn as the main villain in the entire Marvel Universe was one of the smartest things Bendis has ever done. He has vast political powers and influence, he’s malevolent and brilliant and dangerous, but the thing that makes him great is his constant struggle with his own insanity. He’s not a well man, and there’s something exciting about watching him try to destroy all his enemies while wondering if this is the moment he’s finally going to snap and lose it all.
Hero of the Year — Buchanan Barnes (Winter Soldier)
Brubaker turned Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s gee-whiz WWII sidekick, into a character with strength, depth, and intrigue. Under Brubaker’s hand Bucky turned into a wetworks killing machine, doing all the dirty work Cap couldn’t. Now he struggles to redeem himself while living up to his former mentor’s legend.
Fight of the Year — Superman vs Brainiac
This fight was great for so many reasons; Gary Frank’s pitch-perfect art being one of them. But watching Superman struggle against a foe who’s surprisingly mightier than him, then seeing him do something out of character but necessary (and awesome) to win was really engrossing. Then the heartbreaking conclusion brought everything crashing down. Superman wins, but not in the way that’s really important.
Cover of the Year — Agents of Atlas #7
Well, here we have a picture of a gorilla dressed like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and striking a disco pose on a dance floor. If you don’t know why this is cover of the year, you and I can’t be friends.
Best Splash Page of the Year — Marvin gets eaten, Teen Titans #62
Um, holy shit! Not only was this moment unexpected, not only was it a metaphorical “suck it” to the Super Friends cartoons of the 70’s, the way Barrows draws this page is so horrifying and scary, it really took me back for a second. One minute I’m happily reading my little comic book, the next I’m shouting, “RUN BITCH, RUN!” at one of the protagonists.
Biggest Disappointment – Poorly Timed Comics/Lateness
Marvel and DC (especially DC) need to get their acts together. If they’re going to slap us upside the head with a billion “world altering” crossovers and miniseries and all this other crap, they should figure out how to do it in order. Steve Rogers has appeared back from the dead, in numerous comics recently, but is still to officially return in the very late Captain America: Reborn #6. And DC, Barry Allen has returned and there’s a new status quo established for the nature of the speed force, but even though Allen is sprinting through every comic DC puts out these days thanks to Blackest Night, we won’t know what that new status quo is until the final issue of Flash: Rebirth comes out…IN MARCH. Three months from now. And it’s difficult to count how many comics have been pushed back because some super-important crossover issue is still being worked on by somebody who didn’t realize that drawing takes a long time. Do you know what happens if you’re three months late with a project in the real world and it holds up the projects of fifteen other people? You get fired. Shape up immediately, jerks.
Most Pleasant Surprise – The Norman Osborn Era
When Osborn fired the killing shot during Secret Invasion and became the media darling of the Marvel U, eventually supplanting Tony Stark as head of SHIELD and becoming THE main bad guy, I was skeptical. But I’m genuinely impressed with how well Bendis and the rest of the Marvel staff have kept this status quo consistent and relevant. So many status-quo altering events are anything but, and don’t ultimately matter. For example, what has been the fallout of Infinite Crisis or Final Crisis aside from Superboy and Batman “dying” for ten minutes? Does anybody even talk about that wacky time that Darkseid took over 99% of the world’s population? No (which is fine, because that story was bullshit poured over a bullshit nougat covered in bullshit sauce and the sooner we can pretend it never happened, the better). A few individual characters were affected, but that’s it. But in Dark Reign, shit! Tony Stark’s on the run, the Avengers are underground, Spider Man’s a fugitive, the X-Men are getting into punch ups with Osborn’s team, Norman is working with Dr Doom, The Red Skull, The Hood, Loki, and so on. Everyone has to act differently because the world is different. It feels very organic and logical, instead of the usual everyone-on-Earth-contracted-amnesia-just-after-the-last-“earth-shattering-event”.
Biggest Hate In Comics Right Now – Stupid, Stupid Editors
We all know that writers, being artistic types, are prone to episodes of foolishness or insanity. This is when the editor is to step in and make rational decisions for the common good. Except in 2009 most editors seem to have been on the can or something, because I can not BELIEVE what some writers are getting away with. For example: Batman RIP, a story in which Batman is set to meet his ultimate end. Except the story is pure fucking ridiculous insanity from start to finish because you put a mad drug addled Scotsman in the writer’s chair and gave him free reign, and worse, Batman doesn’t even meet any kind of end in that story! He prevails and moves on to Final Crisis, where he “dies” or whatever, in a story even MORE retarded than Batman: RIP. As far as I can tell, Batman kills Darkseid by shooting him in the arm with a bullet made out of something that is poisonous to gods, which was originally fired backwards through time to kill somebody else, and then the Flash shows up and saves the day by running directly at Darkseid so that the Black Racer, some sort of downhill skier of death who’s chasing the Flash, accidentally smacks into the already-mortally-wounded Darkseid and kills him (faster than he would have normally died?). Can somebody tell me where in that synopsis an editor shouldn’t have jumped in and put a stop to it??
And Marvel is no better. Who the fuck let Jeph Loeb near a typewriter? Look at what he’s doing to the Hulk. The first ten or so issues of his Hulk run read the exact same way: some mysterious red-hued Hulk beats the tar out of one of the green Hulk’s old sparring partners, just so we can see how badass he is, while being comically evil and doing ridiculously impossible things. Like punching out the Watcher. What the fuck Jeph Loeb, are you twelve? Are you pulling a Benjamin Button and aging backwards, so you genuinely think all this wafer thin immature crap is actually funny or entertaining? Jeph Loeb is literally writing the worst comic ever written and somehow people are letting him get away with it. So what if they’re making money. I want to see some editorial pride, and I want to see it now. Stop subjecting me to this horror.
