Comic Quick Pick: End of the Year Awards
Sadly, with all of the comics-related things that Jamie and myself do for Comic Nsanity, the Comic Quick Pick has gone from a regular feature to more of a “when we can squeeze it in” feature. If you have been listening to Comic Nsanity, though, you know that Jamie and I, along with our other cohost, Dan “Shadow” Shatto, have plenty to say when it comes to comics. All this month, we’ve been running an end-of-the-year special where we talk about the best–and worst — comics of 2010. As a tie-in, we both discussed our top comics for 2010 through Nfamous.net. Here’s a taste of some of the awards we handed out for the world of comics this year, originally posted here and here on Nfamous.net.
Jamie’s Comic Awards for 2010
Tron: The Betrayal
- Most Porn-Tracing Artist: Greg Land - My first award goes to Greg Land for being the most Porn-tracing artist. He recycles his own work, which isn’t exactly a problem, except that he traces images of porn actors, even down to the “O” face in some scenes. There’s hardly any variation in faces, and he even draws characters that should be much less “mature” looking as though they stepped right from the pages of Playboy. I challenge anyone reading this to go look up his art and then tell me I’m wrong. Why does Marvel keep hiring him? Will he ever do something unique? Can I get paid to trace porn stars?
- Most Overused Character: Deadpool - Deadpool wins the Most Overused Character award. I love Deadpool, don’t get me wrong, but seriously, how many titles are out there with Deadpool in the name or that include him or have special appearances? He’s getting around more than Wolverine! It’s a shame, because he’s one of my favorite characters and is so much more fun when he’s got one title a month. I totally miss Cable and Deadpool, because the two had such a buddy-comedy vibe to them that was entirely too entertaining, especially when they started referring to themselves as a married couple.
- Writer of the Year: Jim McCann – Writer of the Year goes to Jim McCann for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. He gave us back Bobbi Morse, who is one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time, and he brought her back in an awesome way. I’ve really loved how he’s dealt with her mental state and relationship with Hawkeye and by how much fun the title is. He also did a Dazzler one-shot and handled it very very well. He knows the characters he writes about, and it definitely shows. He’s smart and personable, and I’m looking forward to seeing more good things come from him!
- “He Who STILL Pisses Off His Fans” Award: Joss Whedon - My next award goes to Joss Whedon for being “He Who STILL Pisses off his Fans” for what happened to Kitty Pryde at the end of his run on Astonishing X-men. I’ve had very little Kitty this year as a result, and now that she’s back, she has to hang out in a bubble, phased into almost nothing. They did this before, you know, when Dr. Doom was taking care of her after the Fall of the Mutants storyline. Oh, Joss. You love pissing us off.
- Most Under-Appreciated Character: Jessica Jones – Most Under-appreciated Character goes to my favorite, Jessica Jones. She’s got strength, she’s married to Luke Cage, she still fits into the costume after having a baby, and she’s STILL running around in civvies not doing much or anything. She’s being used a lot, which makes me happy, but I wish she’d be used more often and actually kicking a lot of ass. Did anyone read Alias and The Pulse? She was amazing in those! She’s dealt with her issues and has a better life now, but that doesn’t mean she’s less edgy and shouldn’t be kicking a little more butt out there.
- Best Movie Tie-In: Tron: The Betrayal – Best Movie Tie-In goes to Tron: The Betrayal. This was a little two-issue story set to fill in the gaps between the upcoming movie and the original Tron. The writing was fantastic, the art was amazing (especially actor likenesses), and it was very smooth. I feel like it set the perfect leaping point for the movie I’m personally looking so forward to seeing. For so many things that went on in these two issues, it definitely plays to fans of the first movie and introduces characters that one can easily find memorable. I can’t wait to see them in the film now.
- Worst Character of the Year: Norman Osborn – Worst Character of the Year goes to Norman Osborn. I hated his whole Dark Avengers thing. I hated his Iron Patriot armor. I hated him killing the Skrull Queen. I still hate his hair. I hated just about everything he did. I had to go back and read the old issues of The Pulse where Jessica Jones goes crazy on him and punches him repeatedly to make myself feel better. So they finally got rid of him and threw his awful can into prison. Am I done with him? No, Marvel apparently doesn’t think so, because they’re doing another book about him. I AM DONE, MARVEL. No more!
Tiarra’s Comic Award for 2010
Iron Man Noir
- Best Mini-series: Heroic Age: One Month To Live – Probably the best story to come out of this whole Heroic Age deal, One Month To Live shows what an ordinary man, Dennis Sykes, is capable of when faced with terminal cancer and amazing new superpowers. We see Dennis at his best and at his worst; this is a great story not only about the fallibility of man, but also the potential in each and every one of us to be a hero.
- Best Psychotic Breakdown: The Sentry, Siege – It’s hard to be sane when you have multiple personalities. Norman Osborn thought he had his under control and, therefore thought he could keep Robert Reynolds, the Sentry, under control, too. This led to the best psychotic breakdown in history, where the Void is unleashed (again) and the most jaw-dropping sequence of events unfold; namely the eye-popping scene where Reynolds literally rips Ares in half. So. Awesome. Even more awesome than when he tore Carnage in half in New Avengers. Man, this guy really likes tearing people in half, doesn’t he?
- Best Iron Man Story of 2010 – Iron Man: Noir - The Marvel Noir stories were hit or miss, but the Iron Man: Noir story was definitely a hit. A story that played out like a 1930s adventure serial, it was kind of like a cross between Iron Man, steampunk, and Indiana Jones. Considering how awesome all three of those things are separately, you can imagine how great they are combined.
- Artist That Should Draw Every Comic Ever: David Messina - An Italian comic artist, David Messina is the main artist for just about everything that IDW Publishing puts out that’s Star Trek related. He’s also the artist for the True Blood mini-series. This guy is a great artist whose specialty is portraiture. This guy can draw a face like nobody’s business. His art style is clean and beautiful, and I would love to see more of it (of course, if that means more Star Trek comics, I won’t complain).
- Best Crazy British Writer: Warren Ellis - Oh, sure, Alan Moore worships a snake god, but it’s really Warren Ellis that takes the cake when it comes to crazy English writers. Warren Ellis is witty, snarky, and — simply — an amazing writer. This year alone, he breathed new and interesting life into the X-Men and wrote an amazing Ultimate Iron Man story. Not only that, but his Twitter is the best comics writer Twitter to follow, hands down, giving us wonderfully strange and random tidbits like: “How am I supposed to corrupt robots? I can barely operate my iPhone. CURSE YOU COLD NEW FUTURE” and “this is going to be like that time when Joss Whedon tried to make me drink his spit, I just know it.” The world is a better, crazier place for having Warren Ellis in it.
- Best Story About Zombies: Victorian Undead - Zombies!! Zombies have invaded 1800s London, and nowhere is safe! The police can’t help, the royals can’t help, not even drinking yourself silly at the pub can help. Well, who can help, then? That’s right: it’s Sherlock Holmes, and his trusty sidekick Watson to the rescue! Only the vastly superior intellect of Holmes, tempered by the wit and courage of Watson, is enough to solve this mystery. The best part about this book is that Holmes and Watson stay in character and true to the original books remarkably well despite the fact that they’re fighting zombies. Poor zombies, they never stood a chance.
- Worst Homage to a Fallen Superhero: Hank Pym as the Wasp - Hank Pym will never live down that time that he pimp-slapped his wife, Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp. But, it’s not his fault that he was a total jerkface after that; he was abducted by Skrulls! Being abducted by Skrulls obviously did nothing to improve his mental well being, and seeing his ex-wife die probably didn’t help either. But, come on… Hank Pym as the Wasp. Not only is it somewhat creepy to take your dead wife’s mantle, but Janet — a former fashion designer — is probably rolling in her grave, because that Wasp costume of Pym’s is horrible. And by horrible I mean it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. What’s with those goggles? And those shoulder pads? Yuck! At least he’s not cross-dressing and pretending to be Janet… Yet.
So, there you have it! What do you think? Do you have some special awards that you’d like to hand out for your favorite or least favorite comics of 2010? Sound off in the comments!
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