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2011 ABCP YEAR-IN-REVIEW

It seems like just last year we didn't put our year-end show up until several days after the year was over! And it was! And now it is again! And again it shall be next year! But from now on, we shall have an always-valid excuse for being late with anything and everything, which is this:

(With a ridiculously huge thanks to listener JR Jenks for the onesie!)

Yes, everyone welcome little May to the world of Awesomed By Comics, joining the cats, our dryer, and our singing Pokemon clock in the ranks of "noisy things we have that interrupt the show". Except it's a lot harder (and far more irritating to the neighbors) to ignore this one. May is celebrating her three-week birthday today the same way she has celebrated every other day so far, and the same way we assume she will continue to celebrate every day for the foreseeable future; eat, defecate, sleep, repeat.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, and please always remember that you are more than welcome to list your own winners for our categories in the comments.

As always with these year-end shows, we've got a list of nominee-nominees ... that is to say, things we thought were among the best the year had to offer and were deserving of mention. Of these lists, we've narrowed down each category to five or so nominees, about which we talk at some length, and then from those nominees we pick winners. Some were tough to narrow down (we could have had 10 writer nominees easily) and some were tough to pick enough nominees from to fill out a segment (rough year for compelling villains overall) but here you go.

PRESENTING: The Nominee-Nominees for this year's ABCP Year-End Spectacular!

Hero of the Year:

Tom Taylor (the Unwritten)

Ultimate Spider-Man (Peter Parker and Miles Morales)

Gus (Sweet Tooth)

Stephanie Brown (Batgirl)

Johnny Storm (FF)

Rocket Raccoon (Annihilators backups)

Red Hulk (Hulk, Avengers)

Horny Namor (various)

Power Girl (Power Girl)

Superman (Action Comics)

Cupcake (Bake Sale)

Villain of the Year:

Loki (various)

The Homelander (The Boys)

Bane (Secret Six)

Poker Face (Power Man and Iron Fist)

Satana (Thunderbolts)

The Plutonian (Irredeemable, Incorruptible)

Red Skull (Red Skull Incarnate)

Spider Queen (Spider Island)

The Cabal (Unwritten)

Dan DiDio (SDCC)

Writer of the Year:

Mike Carey (The Unwritten)

Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Animal Man)

Jeff Parker (Thunderbolts, Hulk)

Greg Pak (Hercules, Alpha Flight; Silver Surfer, Red Skull)

Fred Van Lente (Hercules, Alpha Flight; Power Man and Iron Fist)

Gail Simone (Secret Six)

Garth Ennis (The Boys)

Bryan Q. Miller (Batgirl)

Kieron Gillen (Journey Into Mystery, Generation Hope, Uncanny)

Peter David (X-Factor)

Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man, Moon Knight)

Nick Spencer (Morning Glories, Infinite Vacation, Ultimate X-Men; Cloak &

Dagger)

Abnett & Lanning (Annihilators; Heroes for Hire)

Mark Waid (Incorruptible, Irredeemable, Daredevil)

Charlie Huston (Wolverine: The Best There Is)

Artist of the Year:

Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth)

Peter Gross (The Unwritten)

Sara Pichelli (Ultimate Spider-Man)

Yuko Shimizu (Unwritten covers)

J. Calafiore (Secret Six)

Andres Guinaldo (Gotham City Sirens)

Timothy Green II (Rocket Raccoon and Groot backup)

Juan Jose Ryp (Wolverine: The Best There Is)

David Hahn (All-Nighter)

Emma Rios (Cloak & Dagger)

Travel Foreman (Animal Man)

JH Williams III (Batwoman)

Paolo Rivera/Marcos Martin (Daredevil)

Crap of the Year:

Smallville

Prelude to Schism

Bendis' interview trope

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Fear Itself

Secret Six ending

Treatment of women by DC in the relaunch

Detective #1

Comic-related non-comic Item of the Year:

Doctor Who

Adam Warrock

Harry Potter 7: Pt. 2

Smallville

Pokemon Black and White

Looking back at the career of Dwayne McDuffie

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

X-Men First Class

Iron Man Armored Adventures

Yu-Gi-Oh 3D: Bonds Beyond Time debacle

Captain America

Thor

Best New Series:

Power Man and Iron Fist

Annihilators/Rocket Raccoon and Groot

FF

Journey Into Mystery

Moon Knight

15 Love

All Nighter

Daredevil

Rachel Rising

Punisher

Animal Man

Action Comics

Ultimate Spider-Man

Story of the Year:

The Unwritten: Leviathan, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Sweet Tooth: The Further Adventures of the Boy and the Big Man, by Jeff Lemire

The Boys: Proper Preparation and Planning, by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun - Evie

Ultimate Spider-Man: The Death of Spider-Man, by Brian Michael Bendis, Sarah Pichelli, and Mark Bagley

Secret Six: Infernal Affairs, by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore

Wolverine: The Best There is: Broken Quarantine, by Charlie Huston and Juan Jose Ryp

Bake Sale (Original Graphic Novel) by Sarah Varon