January 1, 2010

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!

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.


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!

14 comments:

Hank The Crank said...

2 hour show... I am pumped! I hope there is some random Rhode Island references and zen! (Forgive the typos if any should present themselves)

Anyway as I am about to sit back, drink my coffee and enjoy the next 2 hours, I am going to pick my winners. (This kind of reminds me of listening to the year end countdown on WBRU and hoping an R.E.M. song made the list)... anyway...

Hero of the Year:

Tom Taylor (The Unwritten)
runner-up Aaron from Mysterius

Villain of the Year:
Norman Osborn

Moonstone had better stories and really came far as a character, but for better or worse, this was the year of the Goblin.

Runner-up: Car problems for Aaron and Evie

Writer of the Year:
(Toughest category so far!) Mike Carey (The Unwritten) Unwritten is amazing and his work on X-Men Legacy, while not as great as in the past was still pretty solid.

Missing nominee: Kyle / Yost from X-force. It is a great book and they are killing it and while people are down on Yost on Red Robin, I like it. Granted the compliants are Tim is out of character. Considering i never read Tim before, it is not an issue for me.

Runner-up and I mean razor thin runner-up!
Kieron Gillen - he is killing it at the moment and Phonogram singles club is awesome! You need to read that series when it is traded. 1000 times better than the first series.


Artist of the Year:
JH Williams (Detective)

I never bought a book solely for the art in my life... till now! I bought the back issues for my niece who is an aspiring artist. Simply the most stunning work, period. No contest!

Crap of the Year:

Can I just say yes to all the nominees except for blackest night?
Well a decision has to be made so I am picking...

Dangerously low sales on the best books (Hercules, Secret Six, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.) I mean seriously how many Deadpool books, random x-men mini's, etc. can we have that out sell these books which are awesome!(especially Herc!)

with a close second of Canceling Runaways just when Kathryn Immonen got started.I hope Runaways comes back soon with KI or BKV on it.

Comic-related non-comic Item of the Year:
Disney buys Marvel

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (you sure you didn't want to list this under crap of the year?)

Best New Series:
The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Hands down!

Story of the Year:

Scott Pilgrim #5 by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Runner-up (and winner if it was nominated)The X-23 Arc in X-Force. X-force in general was fantastic and it is sad that Kyle and Yost are leaving.

Thanks again for a great year guys! Your show has brought a lot of joy throughout a generally crap 2009.

Hank The Crank said...

BTW the only omissions (aka Snubs) I have for you guys are X-force and Phonogram - The Singles Club

Nick Jones said...

Meant to mention it when the Alcyone pronunciation question came up in a previous podcast, but you say the name as:

Al (as the "Al" in Albert)
cy (as the "cy" in cyclone)
o (an "uh" sound, as the "u" in "bug")
ne (as the "ni" in "mini")

Also, for Evie's reference, the "crying indian" PSA from the 70s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=862cXNfxwmE

Anonymous said...

ya know, singing Evie kinda sounds like (classically trained singer & actress) Zooey Deschanel when she sings! O.o

Clay N. Ferno | Clay Fernald said...

You say "Dick Batmn" like my Mom says 'Spidermn'

Thanks !

Eric Lyden said...

Sometime in 2010 you guys need to do Awesomed by Comics-the Musical. I know it'd be a ton of work, but it'd be worth it says the guy who will have to do absolutely no work on it and just has to sit back and listen.

Also, I would totally buy CHRIST, OUR KANG.

Unknown said...

Can't believe Terry Dodson didn't even get a nominee-nomination. Every time Greg Land's porntastic work on Uncanny makes me want to stop reading it, Dodson comes back and reminds me why it's awesome (then again, maybe being the Alka-Seltzer to Greg Land's 3-week old pizza that you eat 'cause it's the only thing in the fridge isn't necessarily the year's greatest achievement). Other than the grievous Dodson omission, your picks are pretty spot on.

I'm looking forward to another year of awesome ABCPs and laughing like a total idiot in front of strangers on the subway!

Evie said...

Laura, you're so right about Terry Dodson--particularly since every time he takes back over from Land on Uncanny we talk about it with a big sigh of relief and talk about how much we like him. I have no excuse--we did a big brainstorm before the show and somehow he just didn't cross our minds at the time, which sucks. So Terry, if for some reason you read this, please know that we sing your praises year-round.

Dustin said...

Hero of the Year
The Agents of Atlas = Not only are the individual members interesting, but they have a great team dynamic. If I see a book that includes the name "Agents of Atlas," I will buy it.

Runner Up
Alice Hotwire (Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead) = I am a sucker for sassy girls with short hair.


Villain of the Year
Vartox of Valeron (Power Girl) = I don't care that only half of his arc is in 2009. I don't care that he's supposed to be a joke. All I care about is that he's responsible for one of the most entertaining issues I've read this year, so he deserves this award.


Writer of the Year
Brian Clevinger (Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time) = Robo is incredibly fun, and Clevinger's witty dialogue is largely responsible for that.

Runners Up
Greg Pak (Incredible Hercules) = For reasons you two already mentioned.
Peter Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps) = His work on GLC is really good, and every time I read it I wish DC would make it the main GL book.


Artist of the Year
Amanda Conner (Power Girl) = You said everything I was thinking and more.

Runner Up
Steve Pugh (Hotwire) = One of the many things I loved about Hotwire was the interesting art style Pugh used, and it worked perfectly for the cyberpunk tone of the book.


Crap of the Year
Blackest Night = All the excitement I had for this event completely fizzled by issue 3. It's a good idea for a crisis event, but its execution is too bloated and lengthy for its own good. Johns' hilarious-in-a-bad-way writing certainly doesn't help matters.


Comic-related non-comic Item of the Year
Batman: Arkham Asylum = One of the best video games I've ever played. The fact that it's also a Batman game makes it that much more awesome.

Runner Up
The creation of the War Rocket Ajax Podcast = When I listened to their first episode and realized that they used Queen's "Flash Gordon" song--just as I hoped they would--I cried tears of joy.

That may or may not be an exaggeration, but you get my point.


Best New Series
Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead (Warren Ellis and Steve Pugh) = Beautiful art, a fun story and an interesting cast of characters combined to make this a book I desperately hope I'll see more of.

Runner Up
Beasts of Burden (Evan Dorkin and Jill Thomson) = For the same reasons as Hotwire. Honestly, if I liked horror more than I like sci-fi, the positions of these two would probably be switched.


Story of the Year
Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time (Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener) = Atomic Robo by himself is a lot of fun to see in action, but when he teams up with H.P. Lovecraft, Charles Fort and Carl Sagan to fight an omni-dimensional Cthulu? That's not fun. That's pure joy.

Mark said...

I'd like to think that the characterization for Norman was an homage to his first couple of appearances of the Green Goblin, where he expressed desire to be the Number 1 crime boss in America.

Dreams really do come true, Normie. They really do come true.

Story of the year: Batman Reborn. Morrison hitting all the right points and Quitely art turned up to 11? How can I resist?

Anonymous said...

I work in a comic store and I have to comment on your crap nomination for Blackest Night. To me people vote with their money and right now they are saying blackest night is better than 95% of anything marvel at almost a 10:1 ratio. We are a moderately sized shop with over 100 subscribers and we have maybe 2 or three requests for runnaways and guardians etc.
As for Kathryn Immonen, she wouldn't have a job at marvel if it wasn't for her husband, who I will say is a great artist.
You guys are way to bias against DC and give far too much love to Disney... err I mean Marvel.

Evie said...

Sigh. You're right. What the most people like is the best, especially if the award is coming from two people in their living room who have particular tastes (which is exactly the same as bias). I'm sorry. Thanks for listening.

aaron said...

Actually, I need to cop to this - we truly are completely biased towards Marvel, as evidenced by the fact that NOT A SINGLE ONE of our nominees for crap of the year were Marvel-related.

Except for Cancelling Runaways, the way they marketed Marvel Divas, the Super Hero Squad TV show, Norman Osborn's irritating ubiquity, and the attempted revival of the Spider-Man clone saga.

Anonymous said...

That being said I should now give you guys credit for being an excellent Marvel-ish comic podcast. You guys do do a great job.