Year! In! Review! 2009! In 2010! Which is Now! We're Palpitatin'!

And now ... Awesomed By Comics presents ... the heroes, villains, writers, artists, new titles, stories and even craps that we were the most awesomed by in 2009! Who will win? We have no idea, because we recorded this a week ago! ....HOW COME?!?!

Perhaps you might want to ask one Ms. Gloria Estefan? Here she is, right here!


There she is! Right there! For you to ask! Why we were late! You might also want to ask her how my silence deletion filter got switched to such an aggressive setting, resulting in it sounding like our file is 'skipping,' which of course, it is not. Happy new year!

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In the tradition of the great awards shows like the Grammys, or little league banquets, here's a list of all the nominee-nominees for each categories. Some of these nominee-nominees will become actual nominees. And some of those nominees will become winners!

Hero of the Year:
Julie Martin (Echo)
Tom Taylor (The Unwritten)
Tony Chu (Chew)
Iron Man
Hercules and Amadeus Cho
Ms. Marvel
Wonder Woman
Dick Grayson Batman
Daredevil
Spider-Men
Moses Lwanga (Unknown Soldier)
Oracle
Mysterius and Delphi (Mysterius the Unfathomable)
Batwoman
Jamie Maddrox
The Orphan (Beasts of Burden)
Lucifer (Hexed)


Villain of the Year:
Norman Osborn
All of Secret Six
Alpha One (the Mighty)
Vulcan (War of Kings)
Alkyone (Wonder Woman)
General Lane (Superman books)
Moonstone
Dr. Doom
Red River (Herogasm and The Boys)


Writer of the Year:
Mike Carey (The Unwritten)
Gail Simone (Secret Six, Wonder Woman)
Jeff Parker (Agents of Atlas, Mysterius, Underground)
Ed Brubaker (Daredevil, Criminal, Incognito)
Brian K. Vaughan (Ex Machina)
Joe Kelly (Spider-Man, Bang Tango, Four Eyes)
Fred Van Lente (Incredible Hercules, Spider-Man, Comic Book Comics)
Mark Waid (Spider-Man, Strange, The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh)
Kieron Gillen (SWORD, Ares, Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter)
Warren Ellis (No Hero, Ignition City, Frankenstein's Womb, Ult. Armor Wars, etc.)
Greg Rucka (Detective)
Paul Tobin (All ages stuff)
Matt Fraction (Iron Man, sort of X-Men)
Joshua Dysart (Unknown Soldier)
Terry Moore (Echo)


Artist of the Year:
JH Williams (Detective)
Tom Fowler (Mysterius)
Amanda Connor (Power Girl, Terra)
Nicola Scott (Secret Six)
Emma Rios (Hexed, Strange, Runaways)
David Mazucelli (Asterios Polyp)
Charles Paul Wilson III (The Stuff of Legend)
Jill Thompson (Beasts of Burden)
Christina Strain (Buncha stuff, colorist)
Dave Stewart (Detective, Colorist)
Terry Moore (Echo)
Steve Lieber (Underground)
Rob Guillory (Chew)


Crap of the Year:
Blackest Night
Canceling Runaways just when Kathryn Immonen got started
Marketing on Marvel Divas
Sneakily gradual rise to $3.99
Wizard’s Con Wars hijinx
Super Hero Squad the TV show
Norman Osborn's irritating ubiquity
Dangerously low sales on the best books (Hercules, Secret Six, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.)
Attempted revival of Spider-Man clone saga
Cry for Justice


Comic-related non-comic Item of the Year:
Disney buys Marvel
Watchmen movie
Wolverine Origins movie
Iron Man: Armored Adventures
Wolverine and the X-Men
Coraline
Cancelation of Vs.
Our rap battle with War Rocket Ajax
Spectacular Spider-Man season 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Wonder Woman Movie
Batman, The Brave and the Bold


Best New Series:
Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory
Mysterius by Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler
Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thomson
The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Underground by Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber
Ignition City by Warren Ellis and Jean Luca Pagliarani
Power Girl by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Connor
SWORD by Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders
The Web by Angela Robinson and Roger Robinson
Wednesday Comics


Story of the Year:
Asterios Polyp – David Mazzucceli
Mysterius the Unfathomable - Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler
Chew – Taster’s Choice by John Layman and Rob Guillory
War of Kings - Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and various
Bang Tango - Joe Kelly and Adrian Sibar
Dominic Fortune -Howard Chaykin
Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil - Paul Tobin and Patrick Scherberger
X-Factor, the Cortex Equation - Peter David and various
Secret Six #8, Double Date - Gail Simone
Herogasm - Garth Ennis and John McCray with Keith Burns
Hexed - Michael Alan Nelson and Emma Rios
Scott Pilgrim #5 by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Ignition City - Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani
The Mighty - Peter Tomasi and Keith Champane and Chris Samnee
Empowered #5 - Adam Warren
Unknown Soldier: Easy Kill - Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli


WILL YOUR FAVORITES WIN?

No, ours will.

But you'll have to listen in to find out what those are!

ABC Podcast, Episode #23 and visual aids

Episode #23 of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by Pasta, because eyyyyyyy, how YOU doin? You wanna go get some wheels n sauce? Evie and Aaron gush over I Kill Giants, and wonder why Marvel keeps printing Wolverine fan fiction. Due to the success of last week's Zombie Variant, we include a special foil cover.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's Pick, from Fables #78, cover by James Jean:



Aaron's Pick, from Anna Mercury #4, regular cover by Paul Duffield:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from I Kill Giants #5 by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Nimura:


Evie's pick, from Booster Gold #14 by Rick Remender and Pat Olliffe:

It's really cold in here and my socks are wet

So the election is a week from today, and eight days from right now I'll either be elated, or suicidal, or homicidal, or fleeing the riot-torn streets, or feasting on Swiss Miss and Kraft Dinner in the name of delicious celebration or dire comfort food because either way everyone's still broke. And that led me to think about the economic crisis and how everyone's worried about their jobs whether they have supportable reason to be or not, and then about how if everything else went to hell, it would be so nice if we could all just relax and work in comic book stores. I imagine that those of you who own/work in comic book stores probably find that laughable for any number of reasons, but cut me some slack, I really needed to get my stream of consciousness away from the macaroni and cheese.

That sauce must be HOT and spicy. GET IT??

So the husband just IM'd me with the info that famed chef Mario Batali is at his workplace, with pizza. And there are pictures of Batali all over that say "Photography by Beatriz Da Costa".

It's nice to know that JLI members* find the time for other pursuits, although that's not the one I would have guessed. But you can never tell people's secret dreams from their elemental superpowers, I guess.

*What the hell is the status of the JLI anyway? It's confusing. Maybe Booster Gold #9 will enlighten. I seem to recall something about that.