by the YMB Staff

Clusterf*cks of the Year

Wildstorm Relaunch
Wow. It was a darn shame to see one of the strongest relaunches we've ever seen get so messed up. We :heart: Jim Lee. And we :heart: Grant Morrison. And we :heart: just about everything Wildstorm does. But when you have two of comics hottest creators set to relaunch a title, you really need it to come out on a regular schedule. That said, it is okay if someone else draws WildCats to get everything back on track, you know?

Civil War Continuity
When your editors have to go online every week to re-explain the law the crossover revolves around... When other books keep spoiling the main book... When the book's delayed twice, creating a scheduling nightmare... And when the most widely praised book in the crossover is a last minute fill-in designed to take up space between delays but ends up telling integral story elements the other parts of the crossover neglected, well... you've got a bit of a problem.

WizardWorld Atlanta
Wizard got a little swat on the nose this past year. They decided to schedule a convention for the same weekend as (and thus in direct conflict with) the already announced HeroesCon. So what happened? Fans saw it as Wizard trying to create a monopoly over the convention circuit and creators rallied around the little guy and HeroesCon became the convention to attend this past year, drawing such big names as Bryan Hitch and Warren Ellis.

Collectibles

Sideshow Collectibles Invincible Iron Man
This re-creation of the cover of Invincible Iron Man #76 by Adi Granov retailed for $250, but was selling on Ebay for nearly double that amount just a month or two later. For many collectors, even with Sideshow's past successes, this statue (or "comiquette," as they like to call it) put Sideshow firmly at the forefront of comic book-related collectibles.

Marvel Legends MODOK
Toy Biz ended their Marvel license strong with a great selection of figures in the MODOK wave. The variants? Whole new characters. The build figure? Awesome. The guys taking over the license? A little nervous about them.

Transformers Cybertron Primus
Cybertron finally gets its due, becoming one of the biggest Transformers ever, the creator of the Autobots and Decepticons, Primus. Now we finally have a giant planet robot transformer to fight against Unicron atop our entertainment center. Heavens be praised.

Celebs Behaving Badly

Mel Gibson and Michael Richards
Suffering from diarrhea of the mouth, Gibson and Richards remind us that sharing all of your deepest, innermost thoughts isn't always caring. Please. Just take a big heaping gulp of STFU and call it a career already, okay?

Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan
Apparently having just signed endorsement contracts with the Gillette company and hootchiemamas.com, Spears and Lohan showed us how smooth a shave they can get. Firecrotch? Please. More like Pastycrotch.

Tom Cruise
After a bizarre 2005, Tom Cruise went out of his way to prove to America he wasn't nuts. And he failed pretty spectacularly. From weirdo stories about whether his daughter even existed, to an over-the-top star-studded wedding, everything about him screamed "trying too hard."

Movie Watching

Superman Returns
Didn't it make like, a billion dollars? In all seriousness, despite being slow, this was a great addition to the franchise, just by writing off 3 and 4. And don't forget, folks, the first X-Men movie was a little on the slow side, too.

Borat
I want to make love explosion on your stomach.

Rocky Balboa
Who would have thought thirty years after the original that there would be a new Rocky movie and that it would be good? Stallone hits all of the right notes in sending off a nearly mythical figure from our childhood the way he deserved.

Television Viewing

Battlestar Galactica
When the Galactica jumps into the atmosphere of New Caprica early on in season 3? That's just about the damn coolest thing we've ever seen on television.

Heroes.
NBC does the impossible and takes a premise that most people on face value would dismiss and turns it into the breakout hit of the season. What, by all rights, should have been the concept of a failed 90s syndicated show that was broadcast between "Hercules" and "Xena," damn near saves NBC.

The Lost Room
Remember when the national networks would run pretty decent fantasy miniseries during sweeps? Things like "Merlin" and "The 10th Kingdom"? Well, Sci-Fi brought back the fantasy miniseries with the superb "The Lost Room". Well-written, well-acted, well-executed, and from Sci-Fi? I know, it boggles the mind. But it also shows that BSG isn't a fluke and Sci-Fi is capable of some really superior television.

Bits of Comic Gossip

Tightlip Entertainment's Meltdown
Wow, was this ever an entertaining Internet shitstorm. Allegedly, aside from constantly cancelling small upper New York comic book conventions, it appears that Tightlip also has a problem with paying creators for work done. The numbers of pros willing to come forward about non-payment and other creepiness from Tightlip seemed to grow exponentially with every passing week, despite bizarre (and likely un-enforceable) non-disclosure agreements that the talent had been forced to sign. And the public blog-meltdown of TLE owner Rick Olney finally shows that MySpace does have a good reason to exist.

Matt Busch vs. Steve Niles
Right. Matt who??? We know. Earlier this year, Matt Busch learned the very important lesson of why you should not take your hot girlfriend with you to meet nerdy, hard-up comics creators, especially nerdy, hard-up comics creators who just signed huge Hollywood option deals.

On the other hand, Steve Niles learned to never again use voice-mail.

Allegedly.

The Byrne Board Christmas Day Massacre.
So... the details of this one are hazy. But allegedly, a member of the ByrneRobotics forum passed away. Another member went to the funeral "on behalf of the board" bringing with him print-outs of posts of condolences. In a move that seems too bizarre to believe, Herod, I mean Mr. Byrne, apparently decided this violated his copyright and banned the forum member. This then led to an exodus from the forum of biblical proportions.

Ongoings

Ex-Machina
It's a political drama, it's a superhero tale, it's a furniture polish, it's a dessert topping. It's all of these things and so much more. The story that Brian K. Vaughn (the "K" stands for "Kickass!") and Tony Harris have put together in this book works on so many different levels and has maintained the high-level of quality in workmanship since the blow away splash page at the end of issue #1.

Daredevil/Captain America
It's really hard to pick between these two, and it's no coincidence that they're both being written by the same person, Ed Brubaker. Bru is writing two of the very best books in the market right now, and on one of them, he had to follow another incredibly good run by another writer.

Fault him for his honked up dialogue, hate him for his pacing, villify him for his choppy endings, Brian Bendis wrote some great Daredevil stories. It's hard to follow a great act, right? Well, not only did Brubaker successfully follow Bendis, he actually topped him. Dare we say it? Daredevil right now is the best it's been since Frank Miller was on the book.

And as for Cap? Well, let's just say this: Brubaker has brought Bucky back to life as a brain-washed, deep cover, former-Soviet double agent . . . or something. We're not quite sure. But the story actually works. This plotline has some of the best twists and turns in it since Brubaker was writing Sleeper.

X-Men
Mike Carey enters the Marvel Universe in a big way. Not only does he assemble a team of mostly castoffs and psychotics and make it work, he also deftly nods his head to previous continuity. X-Men is dark, a bit angry and a whole lot of fun. Chris Bachalo is turning in his best work in years.

Mini-Series/OGNs

Pride of Baghdad
Okay, we know. Talking lions as the main characters? Please. And who really wants to read a preachy story about the atrocities we're perpetrating in Iraq, right?

Well, get over it. If you haven't read this book for either of those reasons, you're depriving yourself of simply the best read of the year, and some of the best work of BKV's career. And that's saying something.

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness
The best way to describe Scott Pilgrim is equal parts self-aware emo story and manga superhero story, throw in a dash of do-it-yourself production value and sprinkle in some Boy Crazy Wallace and you have quite possibly the best book published today. Seriously. We haven't heard from one single person who's read it who dislikes it. Even dour old Grandma Dandy can't wait for the next one. And neither can we.

52
At HeroesCon we asked Dan Didio what the plan was if/when 52 started running late. He just confidently told us that it would not ever run late. And he was right. 52 was a huge gamble for DC, even one late issue could have impacted many other books as the missing year of DC history was being revealed concurrently with the ongoings One Year Later. But they pulled it off, successfully introducing new characters and themes and revitalizing characters many had written off.

But, come on now... where is L-Ron?

Collections

Absolute Sandman
Someone tell Ted Turner that recoloring worked, for a change. Lovingly remastered, this collection of the first three Sandman trades sees new life breathed into the work of Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Charles Vess and Kelley Jones. The first of four planned volumes, this collection marks a sea change in the nature of the Absolute format and gives Vertigo fans everywhere hope for Absolute Preacher.

Absolute DC: The New Frontier
The Absolute treatment for Darwyn Cooke's magnum opus, a love letter to DC's Silver Age, comes in the same year as some other notable names: Kingdom Come, The Dark Knight Returns, and, of course, Sandman. The fact that DC recognizes this modern masterwork in similar regard should tell you all you need to know about this book. The Absolute edition includes additional story pages, footnotes and script excerpts, and it's the best way to explore every nook and cranny of this 400-page story.

New X-Men Omnibus
Already bought all of the trades? Here's a perfect opportunity to share the love for Grant Morrison's run by regifting them to a friend. Not only is every page of Morrison's run lovingly collected in this $100 monstrosity, but the unexpurgated "Morrison Manifesto" is included, along with alternate covers and character sketches. This may well be the only X-Men book you'll ever need.

Unfulfilled Promises

Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine
Take one of the driving forces behind "Lost" and let him write a big throwdown between two wildly popular characters with rising star Leinil Yu on art and you should have a monster hit. Except you need to actually write the book. The stuff we got to read was great, don't get us wrong. Hulk asking Wolverine if he wants some hot cocoa was great. We just want more, dammit. Poor Leinil Yu, between this and the delays on Civil War, what should have been a breakout year for him will have to wait.

All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder
How could this title not work? You have Frank Miller and Jim Lee on a continuity free retelling of Batman's early years. Oh yeah, only one issue shipped this year, that's how. Maybe Miller's too busy making movies at this point. Although, since Miller seems hell-bent on taking Batman to some really odd extremes, maybe this is a good thing. Anyone want to lay bets on who gets Osama first, Bush or Miller's Batman?

Infinite Crisis
Unfulfilled for everyone who bought the floppies, when so much of the story was missing. At least, that's what we were led to believe by the expanded HC edition.

Artists

Seth Fisher
Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan should have been the beginning of great mainstream success for Fisher. It's a tragedy that we will not see more from this unique voice.

Steve McNiven
The immensely popular Civil War catapulted McNiven to a whole new level. Which is why it was a shame that Marvel undeservedly threw him under the bus over the second Civil War delay. You deserved better, Mr. McNiven. Your stellar work on Civil War should not be overshadowed by Marvel's scheduling errors.

Frank Quitely
Yeah, he blew a big lead on All Star Superman. Okay, he blew a huge lead. But the book is really, really pretty. And yeah, maybe it's hypocritical to praise Quitely while giving Wildstorm a hit for WildCats being delayed... but the book is really, really pretty.

Writers

Brian K. Vaughn
Not many writers inspire the kind of loyalty Vaughn does. Runaways, Ex Machina, Y, the Last Man... people don't like these books, they love them. Vaughn's got a knack for creating characters that people love to read month in and month out.

We know he's headed off to work on "Lost," which we've heard is some kind of television show or something... he better just promise to come back to visit. Often.

Ed Brubaker
Broke one of the two major pillars that the modern Marvel universe is built upon and brought back Cap's dead partner Bucky (the other pillar, Uncle Ben is dead, was broken by Peter David over in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man). But Bru made it work. The Winter Soldier storyline is one of the strongest Cap stories in years, maybe ever. That, combined with his other work this year, puts him on the top of the heap.

Mike Carey
How many writers currently working have such diverse output? From big mainstream superhero epics on X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four to more thought provoking adult titles like Crossing Midnight and Lucifer, Carey easily switches not only genres but writing styles. He had a stellar 2006 and bears watching in 2007.

Please Come Back to Comics

MD Bright
In a time of constantly late books, why isn't Bright, with his smooth style, on a book? From his website it seems he's doing a lot of storyboarding work. We need the co-creator of Quantum and Woody back on a monthly.

Allan Heinberg & Damon Lindelof
Ok, we know you write for TV. That's great. But Lindelof is depriving us of some amazing Leinil Yu art, and Heinberg, on top of delaying DC editorial's plans for Wonder Woman, is preventing us from getting more of a seriously quality new book, Young Avengers. We love your books, guys. We just want to be able to actually finish reading them.

John Byrne
If only to keep him from milking his cronies, sorry, fans on his message board for Fixodent money with more of his "commissions" (like the six-fingered Invisible Woman).

Industry Workhorses

Stephen Wacker and Michael Siglain
Editing a weekly comic is hard enough. Editing a weekly comic written by four people? Damn hard. Editing a weekly comic written by Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka and GEOFF JOHNS!? Don't know how Wacker and Siglain have managed to pull this off, but we at YMB tip our collective cap to them.

Mark Bagley
Not only did he and BMB set the record for consecutive issues on the same series this past year, but he's managed to maintain a consistently high level on almost all of those issues. And for some of us, he's been THE definitive Spider-Man artist of our comics-reading lives, having drawn the same character in one book or another for the better part of 12 years now. Congratulations, Mr. Bagley. And thank you.

Warren Ellis
The author of Nextwave, Planetary, Ulitmate Galactus, New Universal, Iron Man, Fell, and Down was a busy man this year. He finished his opus Planetary with a controversial ending that kept fans talking, he turned Iron Man into one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe, and his creator-owned Fell was consistently entertaining. All this, and he still found time to travel all the way to North Carolina to be a headliner at HeroesCon.

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