BEST...
New Series
Matt: Avengers: Children's Crusade, without a doubt. Even when I'm too busy to eat, this series will get me into the comic store. Birds of Prey is a runners up, as is S.H.I.E.L.D.
Arnab: There have been a lot of great new series' this year, but my vote definitely goes to American Vampire. The creative team have been putting out consistent, quality, exciting work since the first issue.
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| Avengers Children's Crusade |
Ongoing Series
Matt: Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps have been great this year in the aftermath of Blackest Night.
Arnab: Red Robin. If you've been reading this, then you can't possibly need a reason why. But with a change in the writer mid-year, this series has continued to be excellent in every aspect.
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| Tim Drake as Red Robin |
Matt: Return of Bruce Wayne given my choices, but my feelings on Morrison's work are well-documented.
Arnab: Return of Bruce Wayne. I think Grant Morrison did a terrific job of taking a simple story of bringing Bruce back to the future and added layers of depth to both the story as well as the myth of Batman in general.
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| The unanimous choice for Best Event |
Event
Matt: Blackest Night except I'm not sure it counts. I found every new turn to be incredible, and I loved all the colors in the art. Otherwise Second Coming which I enjoyed, especially at first, but felt it lost it's stride a little.
Arnab: Second Coming. This event was filled with amazing art, fantastic writing, and some really great moments. Overall, this event was the best in terms of excitement, storytelling, and artwork.
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| The Return of Hope |
Issue
Matt: I have no clue. Green Lantern #54 when the entities are revealed for the Emotional Spectrum, I think. The mythology was just so damn cool, and things were building to a great climax.
Arnab: Batman and Robin #16. This issue brought Grant Morrison's run to a conclusion in spectacular fashion.
Moment
Matt: Nothing has topped the Blackest Night scene where the new lanterns were deputized, but that was technically 2009 by two days, so instead I will choose probably the scene in Red Robin where Bruce and Tim hug. My favorite part about Bruce's return are his emotional reunions.
Arnab: The scene in issue #17 of Red Robin, where Bruce and Tim hug, is my moment of the year. It was just, perfect.
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Cover
Matt: All of the X-Men Djurdjevic alternate covers that made the big poster. Specifically whichever issue had Phoenix, Scott, and Storm on it.
Arnab: X-Force #28 by David Finch. I think this cover did an excellent job of encompassing both the issue itself as well as the entire event.
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| Francis Manapul's take on Superboy |
Artist
Matt: I've got an answer for least favorite, but not favorite. I liked the distinctive art style in Chew, and I think Dustin Weaver does good work with S.H.I.E.L.D. And Francis Manapul will always have a soft-spot in my heart.
Arnab: This is a very hard decision for me, but I think I'm going to have to go with Rafael Albuquerque from American Vampire. For this one series he produced multiple styles that were all fantastic.
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| Albuquerque's work in American Vampire |
Writer
Matt: Geoff Johns for his work on Blackest Night and Flash. Tony Bedard is also doing good stuff with Green Lantern Corps.
Arnab: Another hard decision, but I'm going to go with Chris Yost on this one. Not only did he have an amazing role in creating X-Force and Second Coming, but his run on Red Robin was all kinds of great.
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| A slice of Djurdjevic's X-Men Poster |
Surprise
Matt: The fact that I now read more DC comics than Marvel comics. I've been a Marvel boy my whole life but the Green Lantern and Batman titles are just so good, overshadowing much of the X-Men universe that I love so much.
Arnab: The biggest surprise of the year came at the beginning for me, when Nekron reclaimed all of the reborn heroes and turned them into Black Lanterns.
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| We can't let 2010 go without mentioning Blackest Night |
Kick-Ass Scene
Matt: A tough one. I guess in tribute to my love of Phoenix I'll choose Hope manifesting, although the White Lantern Reveal was also pretty bad-ass.
Arnab: Kick-Ass Scene of the year for me was when Hope Summers' powers manifested in X-Force #28. As a reader you knew it was coming but even then, when it happened it was awesome.
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| Bad ass, if obvious |
WORST...
New Series
Matt: X-Men, namely because of this ridiculous Vampire plotline. It's not that there isn't the occasional interesting scene, but overall the thing is so bandwagon it earns its place here.
Arnab: I'm going to go with First Wave on this one. I couldn't get hooked onto this series from the first issue, so that's why it's here.
Ongoing Series
Matt: Superman gets landed here purely because of the recent "Grounded" story arc which, while I'm still reading it, I'm constantly confused about. But I also just remembered how bad the new Astonishing X-Men was.
Arnab: I make a strong effort to avoid reading things I don't like, but of the titles I do read, X-Men Legacy would have to take this dishonor. After Second Coming this series has struggled both in its writing and art.
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| I dislike Emma Frost, but this is offensive |
Mini-Series
Matt: Batman Beyond started off well, and then just got weird. I'm never a fan of a clone plot.
Arnab: The four part mini-series Nation X has to take this honor. The stories had no unity, the art was hit or miss, and overall it was an unnecessary addition.
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| If only the event was as interesting as the cover |
Event
Matt: Nation X was deathly dull. I had to literally drag myself through each issue. I don't even know why it was an event.
Arnab: I will probably go with Nation X on this one. I think overall it was not as good as all of the other events, even though there were portions of the story that were good, such as the Uncanny X-Men issues.
Moment
Matt: In the larger scale, I'm going to say it was when Bruce reappeared in Batman and Robin. The scene was awesome, but it was so out of the blue I think it betrayed the lead-up from all the other Return of Bruce Wayne books. Arnab and I spent the next week debating if it was even Bruce.
Arnab: I think the worst moment for me was in Blackest Night #8, when Hal Jordan tells Nekron that the heroes that returned from the grave didn't do so because Nekron allowed it, but simply because they wanted to.
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| I know what people say, but I disagree |
Artist
Matt: I hated, hated, hated Frazer Irving's work on Batman and Robin. I also hate what Salvador Espin is doing in Generation Hope.
Arnab: There were a lot of pretty artists throughout the four part Nation X mini-series. So while I can't name them individually, just pick up an issue and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Writer
Matt: Believe it or not I don't think Grant Morrison is the worst writer, I just hate his stuff. I don't think I have an answer for this, to be honest. There are writers I hate, but I can't remember them.
Arnab: It's not that I think Adam Beechen is a terribly horrible writer. However, I think the manner in which Batman Beyond, the mini-series, ended was poorly written and lacking the strength that was present in the beginning.
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| Didn't live up to expectations |
Disappointment
Matt: Brightest Day. After coming off of the cramazing Blackest Night, the slower pace threw me off, and I didn't like any of the characters.
Arnab:The conclusion to the War of the Supermen accomplished nothing more than to make the last two to three years of Superman history null and void.
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| Just kidding! |
WTF Moment
Matt: When I found out the Vampires were attacking the X-Men.
Arnab: After much thought, this would have to go to Sinestro taking in the White Entity. At the time it felt like a major turning point, what with him boasting about being the "greatest Lantern of all time." In the end though, his position as a White Lantern didn't last any more than a couple pages.
haha. I'm glad nothing I thought was good was in your 'worst' lists. Both of your "best" lists were spot on. I'm glad I didn't have to answer these questions.
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