It’s the Second Annual Atomic Romance Awards! This is my special tribute to the comic books of 2008 that have earned fame or infamy in my little corner of comic fandom. The Atomic Romance Awards reflect my personal preferences so that's why some obvious choices may not appear. But before we begin I'd like to take a moment to thank She-Hulk, my Co-presenter this time around. Also, I'd like to thank all of you, my net buddies, for stopping-by Atomic Romance this last year. It's been one hell of a ride.
Now on with the show!
Best Overall Title: The Astounding Wolf-Man, Image Comics Runner-up: Conan the Cimmerian
Best Writer: Robert Kirkman for both Astounding Wolf-Man and Walking Dead (and probably Invincible too, but I'm nont reading it right now), IDW
Runner-up: J. Michael Stryzinski for The Twelve, Marvel Comics (He could have won top honors if he had finished this series)
Best mini-series: Star Trek: Assignment Earth, IDW Runner-up: The Age of Sentry
Best Adventure Comic: Tor, DC Comics Runner Up: The War That Time forgot,DC Comics
Best Sword and Sorcery Title: Conan the Cimmerian, Dark Horse Comics Runner-up: Wolf-Skin, Avatar
Best Sci-Fi: North Wind, Boom Studios Runner Up: Star Trek: The Hollow Crown, IDW
Best Art: Chris Weston, The Twelve. Marvel Comics Runner-up: John Byrne, Star Trek: The Hollow Crown. IDW
Best Horror: Necronimicon Runner-up: The Crossed
Best Death: Rebecca gets accidentally slapped to death by Zecheriah the vampire, The Astounding Wolf-Man #7, Image Comics Runner-up: Drunk Officer pulped by a propeller in Phantom Eagle #1, Marvel Comics
Best Cover: Army@Love: The Art of War #3, Vertigo Runner-up: Amazing Spiderman #560
Worst Cover: 1985 #4, Marvel Comics Runner Up: The Man With No Name #2, one of the greatest western characters ever is drawn to look like Bush
Best Dramatic Moment: Dynamic Man (from the 1940s) discovers interracial marriage, The Twelve #2 Runner-up: Captain Wonder at his wife’s grave, The Twelve #2
Best Butt: She-Hulk on King Size Hulk #1 Runner-up: damsel in distress on cover of Conan the Cimmerian #2
Best Animal Hero: Monkey Speedball, Marvel Apes Rocket Raccoon, Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Geekout: Reading how Mirror Kirk assassinated Mirror Pike in Star Trek Mirror Images 1-5
Worst Costume: THE BLUE BLAAAADE! Oh come on, could there possibly be any other choice from 2008!? Runner-up: Jack Pot
Best Costume: Female Starhawk, Guardians of the Galaxy #5 Runner-up: The Crimson Reporter, The Twelve, Marvel Comics
Favorite Hero: Ambush Bug (If you can call him a hero)
Favorite Villain: Cranio, The Man with the Tri-Level Mind! The Age of the Sentry Runner-up: Catman, Secret Six
Horniest Villain: King Crimson, Dark Tower, Marvel Comics
Best New Character: Ape X, Marvel Apes
Worst New Character: Jackpot
Best Fake Covers: Marvel Apes
Best Essential or Showcase Presents: Savage Sword of Conan… Ha!
Most Likely To Piss Off PETA Badger Saves the world
Best Gunfight: Brothers in Arms#4 Runner-up: Bat Lash #6
Best Formerly Ugly Aliens that Are Now Sexpots: Skrulls
Best Sword Fight: Wolfskin Annual, Avatar
Best Reprint: Dr. Who Classics, IDW
Best Cross of Hellraiser Cenobites with Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality: Army of Darkness: Home Sweet Hell
Lamest Series I’m glad I didn’t read: It is a Tie Secret Invasion/Final Crisis and all of the spin offs
Best Single Issue: Fantastic Comics #24 Image Runner-up; Jonah Hex #33, DC Comics
Best Comedic Moment: Ambush Bug, it turns out, is responsible for the death of Sue Dibney, Ambush Bug Year None #1 Runner-up: A Medieval wizard buys a shit-load of goods at S-mart, AoD/Xena #1
Best Free Comic Book Day Comic: Gumby… of course
Best Trade Paperback: Zot!: The Complete Black and White Collection: 1987-1991 Runner-up: Captain Carrot and the Final Ark!
Biggest Warm Fuzzy: The Medieval Silent Knight is revealed to be an ancestor of Superman’s adopted Family, Brave and The Bold #10, DC Comics.
Best Collection of Older Comics: I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets Runner-up: The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics
Best Cameo: ‘Mazing Man: Ambush Bug: Year None. #1 Nazi Super Villains in the entrance way in Berlin Building The Twelve #1
Coolest Country in Marvel Atlas Volume 2: Boca Caliente (doesn’t that mean spicy hot mouth?)
Dumbest Moment: New Gods, New Gods New Gods!
Best Monster: Giant Eyeball Demon, Iron Man Legacy of Doom #4, Marvel Comics Runner-up: Ursus the Ultra Bear, The Age of The Sentry #2, Marvel Comics
Best Golden Age Retcon: The Twelve, Marvel Comics Runner-up: Fantastic Comics #24 Image
Worst Golden Age Retcon: Project Superpowers, Dynamite Entertainment
Worst Retcon Period: Red Sonja #29, her own Goddess set’s her up to get raped and have her family murdered.
Best Pimp Scene: Star Trek: Mirror Images #2, IDW
Best Terrorist Acronym: NACHO (Nihilist Anti-Capitalist Hate Organization) Badger Saves the World IDW
Best New Trick for an Old Dog: John Byrne doing Star Trek Comics Runner-up: DC Fontana doing Star Trek comics
Most Ruined Character: Red Sonja Runner-Up: The Wasp… because she’s like dead
Best Supporting Character: Cheeks the Toy Wonder (Of course) Runner Up: Abdul Alhazred, Fall of Cthulhu, Boom Studios
Best Western: Jonah Hex
Best Nonfiction Comic: Comic Book Comics, Evil Twin
Biggest Yawn: The Flash is coming Back!!!!! Zzzzzz
Best Revival from Suspended Animation: The Creature Commandos in Action Comics #872
Best Origin Story: The Black Widow, Twelve #8 Runner-up: Ungrounded Super Agent The Twelve #6
Lamest Promotion: Those Skrull "Who Do You Trust" ads Runner-up: What were you doing final crisis
Best Crossover: The Army of Darkness/Xena: Why Not, Dynamite Entertainment
Title I would Have Liked To Try from the Beginning But It Was Always Sold Out: Guardians of the Galaxy
Favorite Lesbian: Golden Age Black Widow, The Twelve, Marvel Comics She was Goth before there was Goth...
Best One Liner: “Hi Lois! I’ve got a weenie with your name one it” Earth 2 Superman. Ambush Bug: Year None # 3
Best Meh Ending: Y: The Last Man.
Best Capturing of the Spirit of 1980s Comics: Amazing Spider-Girl
Best Corporate Foot-Stepping: Moonstone vs. Dynamite over the publishing rights to The Phantom.
Biggest Disappointment: Project Superpowers, The heroes have been stuffed in a jar all these years? ...give me a break... Runner Up: What... No Poo flinging in Marvel Apes?
Dean Wormer tagged me with a the "Six Random Things About Me" meme. see here
The Rules
1. Link to the person who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
Six random things about me-
1) I have driven on the autobahn... it's not as fun as you might think... but there were some great views
2) While I was reading Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All Folks, he died. I was kinda freaked out about reading autobiographies for awhile...
3) I have two vague memories of being in a baby crib... ...(when I was a baby, sheesh)
4) I rule at connect four.
5) I was never able to watch CBS when I was a kid because of bad reception so I missed that whole Dukes of Hazzard thing...
6) Thundarr has to be my all-time favorite Saturday Morning cartoon. Demon Dogs!
I know I'm supposed to tag six folks but I haven't been very good about commening on other folks blogs so I feel kinda weird about demanding a tag from anybody.
In the latest issue of The Last Generation, it's revealed that in an Alternate Universe where the Federation has been conquered by the Klingons, Ro Laren and Tasha Yar are lovers. These panels are pretty much all we get... but it's fun to imagine the possibilities which I guess is the whole point of the Star Trek Myriad Universe line.
Star Trek is so bogged down with continuity anyway you need an alternate Universe just to tell interesting story anymore it seems.
Also in this issue, Wesley goes nuts and gives himself a mohawk...
Hey remember when there was all that buzz floating around about Marvel working on a Deathlok movie...? No? Well I sure did as he is one of my favorite characters (at least the original Luther Manning version is...) anyhoo, yes they WERE working on a Deathlok movie and Paul McGuigan was going to be the director. Here's the scoop from this i09 article
Finally, I asked McGuigan about those internet rumors that he was working on a movie based on Deathlok, Marvel Comics' cyborg character. "It wasn't a rumor, it was true," says McGuigan. He'd been working with Marvel and writer David Self on a Deathlok movie, but then Marvel put it on the back burner. "I was really into it, but Marvel changed their mind."
McGuigan got pretty excited about working on Deathlok, and he has all of the character's back comics. The biggest challenge in doing a Deathlok film would have been the fact that the killer cyborg is always having conversations with his on-board computer. "In a way it felt like Knight Rider, where you have the machine talking to him." It would have been a challenge to make that work on screen. "The script was really good. David Self is no slouch, he's a great screenwriter. And the whole idea of nanotechnology was fasinating." The movie included a "weird professor" character, who created Deathlok because he wanted to go down in history as another Da Vinci. (And McGuigan had envisioned Robert Downey Jr. for that character, which would have been a very different role than Tony Stark.)
"It would have been a good movie," he adds. "Maybe they'll still make it with somebody else."
It looks like it wouldn't have been set in a near apocalyptic future as the original Astonishing Tales comics were, which I think is the best way to do a Deathlok film, but now it doesn't matter I guess.
I was toodling around youtube this weekend and came across this video of Daft Punk's Around the World. I watched it over and over again. This is definitely my kinda thing. It's got the playfulness of Devo but without the spudboys sexual frustration. I love all the pop culture gems that are just hiding in plain sight. Plus, the choreography is absurdly fantasitc.
I had a weird thought too If I went back in time to say... the 1920s and the folks there asked me what the future was like, I'd just show them this video without any explanation.
I've been thinking about Valerie D'Orazio's post about supporting women superhero comics and the related fallout to Josh's Tyler's anti-Female Superhero rant. In regards to Josh's post (and film in particular) all I'll really say is that Female superhero movies have generally sucked. They have been poorly written, poorly designed, and poorly produced. So I don't think laying the whole thing at the door of the Female superhero trope is really fair. When a Male superhero movie bombs we don't say the whole concept of the male superhero is dead, we just say "they" didn't get the character and made a bad movie. I submit that Hollywood in general doesn't know how to make a good female superhero film and certainly doesn't know how to attract a female crowd.
When it comes to comics I think there is somthing to the fanboys not buying into and simply not buying female superhero comics. But I'm not all fanboys... I'm just me and I can only speak to my personal habits.
As women heroes concern me, it would seem, superficially, that I'm not one that really supports the "girl characters" all that much other than drooling over the occasional stacked drawing but if I look closer a few things do pop out namely She-Hulk... and I guess, Red Sonja.
To be honest I wasn't totally into She-Hulk from the beginning. I found her interesting when I first encountered her in the Avengers but it wasn't until John Byrne got ahold of her that I became a fan of Jennifer Walters. I can't say I was a consistent fan but I always maintained a fondness for Shulkie since her FF days. As for Red Sonja I'll cop to some good old male horndogness, but I also really like the idea of a female warrior in the vain of Conan. In fact, the idea of Red Sonja has a lot of power for me because I'm still following the Dynamite Entertainment title despite the beef I've had with a lot of the plotting.
But is that really it? Is that all the stock I put in female characters? Well maybe when it comes to DC I think so. I've never been very compelled to pick up any of the gal books by the Distinguished Competition. A lot of this reflects my disinterest the DC Universe. The Marvel characters just always seemed richer, deeper and absolutely a lot cooler (not in the last several years though). Sadly marvel had less books featureing gal heroes in the 80s and so there wasn't much women stuff except for team books... and I sure did loves me some female heroes in my X-men (Storm, Shadowcat, etc). There's a few random mini-series in there too like firestar...
Outside of superheroes I've picked up Love and Rockets, and Strangers in Paradise...
...Uh, Strangers in Paradise? OK kiddies, this post has officially gone off the rails. I'm not even sure what I'm talking about here. So I'll just wrap up by saying when it comes down to it, I've thrown my lot in with She-Hulk for better or worse. She just has that certain something that other characters don't seem to have...
Nazi Super Villains in the entrance way in Berlin Building The Twelve #1
