X-Book Awards 2009 As Voted by the CBR Forums- RESULTS!

[worstblogever]

I wont hate the messenger. Just realize these folks are on an unsupportive campaign of hate on an innocent, inocuous, loveable character.

I'd have agreed last year, if that's any consolation.

[Pixie_Solanas]

I'd have agreed last year, if that's any consolation.

Who else will report toilet paper inventory on Utopia? Think about that, rude folk!

[podmark]

Not surprised at all that Wolverine was on the best hero list. I totally understand people having issues with him, but he's front and center and used excellently in X-Force and I believe Arron's series is well liked - that goes a long way.

This has been fun WBE. Thanks for doing this.

[worstblogever]

Who else will report toilet paper inventory on Utopia? Think about that, rude folk!

Pixie, guardian of asswipe everywhere.

[worstblogever]

In a category that may not surprise you with its results...

The Crossover of 2009!

What mixing of X-Characters was voted the best of the year? The nominees were...

• Messiah War (X-Force/Cable)
• Necrosha (X-Force/New Mutants/X-Men: Legacy)
• Original Sin (Wolverine: Origins/X-Men: Legacy)
• Runaways (vol. 2) #10 (Molly Hayes at Utopia)
• Utopia (Dark Avengers/Uncanny)
• Want You to Want Me (Deadpool at Utopia)
• War of Kings (Starjammers/Inhumans/Shi'ar Imperial Guard)
• X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas

We had an absolute tie for second-runner up!!!


Original Sin!

Coming in with 45 points worth of votes, and 5 first place votes was Original Sin, a story beloved for its wonderful dynamics between the five principal characters. There's Wolverine, because he's like, in every book. There was Professor X, who was still on the road to redemption in X-Men Legacy. And their antagonists included Daken (this might have been the first arc where he was actually tolerable), Sebastian Shaw (always a total wonderful bastard), and the big spotlight shone on Miss Sinister, who won over hearts with her love of bondage gear and binge drinking. With those five all facing off as the saga ended in early 2009, it was remembered fondly enough to tie for the bronze medal. So to the creators involved, well done.

Next, the other second runner-up...



Messiah War!


The second part in the "Messiah" trilogy, this saga managed to feature Stryfe, and in spite of his ridiculous helmet, it did not suck! With the futuristic despot having Cable and Hope trapped, X-Force time-travel in at that exact moment to try and help them back to the present.

But against Stryfe and his army, and with a futuristic Deadpool staring them in the face, would they manage to succeed, or fail in their mission? And would Vanisher scream like a little girl?

Well, all that pulled down 45 vote points, and 5 first place votes. Again, congrats to the creative teams of Cable and X-Force here.


The runner-up...


Utopia!

Say what you will about Uncanny X-Men, this was still the best it was all year. Fights! Fights! Fights! The Dark X-Men vs. Hellion's Misfits! The Dark X-Men vs. Simon Trask! Colossus versus Venom! Ares vs. Dani Moonstar! X-23 vs. Daken! Rogue vs. Moonstone! Namor & Emma Frost vs. the Sentry!

Sure, a good portion of these fights were skimmed over, or were resolved off panel. But other than that, I'm not sure how it got 48 vote points on but 4 first place votes. Maybe people just felt obligated to vote for it because it was widely promoted? I dunno.



Your winner, though, and 2009's best crossover was clearly...


Necrosha!

Pulling down more points than any other nominee, in any category, Necrosha was the buzz of 2009. For the record, that's 123 total vote points out of a possible 195, and 34 of 65 first place votes. What's to love?

Think of a character you love, and a story that gives you the chance to see them in action, one last time. Maybe, if things pan out alright, more than that. Then get a team of bloodthirsty psychos who'll kill anyone who opposes them. Then, have that team fight Selene's bloodthirsty psychos. Heh. And this isn't just mindless slaughter. Oh no. This s*** is personal. Emma Frost staring down the Hellions. Warpath staring down Risque. Berzerker hunting for Cyclops. The whole thing has been gold. Necrosha was mentioned a lot in the "highlight of 2009" and "shocking moment" categories, and it blowing away the competition in this category should come as little surprise.

Best part? It's not over yet, and will still be eligible in 2010. So be ready for that.

[Pixie_Solanas]

WBE, promise you will always be my "straight" man?!

[worstblogever]

WBE, promise you will always be my "straight" man?!

I can do that. Just keep lovin' bitchin' boots in return.

[witness]

Had to laugh myself silly at the resurrection of dead characters making the 2nd most shocking moment. Have a lot of virgin comic book readers been voting?

[witness]

Much appreciated. This project was a lot more work than I was expecting. But I just didn't want to say, "_____ won." I felt a little paragraph or so to try and talk about what may have moved voters would be good/more entertaining.

I'm a bit nervous about attempting that on the awards that involve actual people, though.

The work paid off. A Highly entertaining thread worstblogever. The commentaries were spot on and highly amusing.

[Cyke]

One thing that I love about Utopia is how much the X-Universe got to interact with the rest of Marvel, which yielded some pretty fun match-ups, and it all started with House of M. To think that a decade ago, X-books had to be segregated into their own separate corner of Marvel, and to me that robbed a lot of fun and potential there. A decade ago, nobody would ever imagine that Norman Osborn would cause the X-books such huge amounts of grief. Well done, Marvel!

[timbox]

I'm pretty sure there is no way that Dr. Nemesis got more votes than Hope for Break Out Star. Stop cheating, WBE.

[yanapryde]

How many categories will there be??
I am hopeful to see Magik make it into one of them. Even as a runner up!!

[worstblogever]

I'm pretty sure there is no way that Dr. Nemesis got more votes than Hope for Break Out Star. Stop cheating, WBE.

Go back to the original thread and count 'em, if you don't believe me. She got more first place votes in that category, in any event, but more people mentioned Dr. Nemesis as a #2 and #3 breakout to increase his total.

[worstblogever]

It's a category I find sort of dubious, and unfortunate to report the results for some of its winners on, since I feel that art can be objective... it's an X-Razzie for...

The Worst Artist of 2009!

I don't even agree with who made the top four, personally, but this was a democracy, so I'll tell you who got votes, and throw some theories out there. I'll also point out that only 48 voters chimed in for this category, not wanting to throw criticism to the artists, therefore, the total scores could only be up to 144 total points, as opposed to the 195 in the other categories. Let's get to it, though.


Your third-runner up!!!


Simone Bianchi!

Bianchi personally amazes me in what he does with crazy sci-fi backgrounds. But I feel pretty safe in saying, his cardinal sin to get 14 points worth of votes (but yet, no first place votes) was the above image- his redesigns of the X-Men uniforms. If memory serves, and I will not be hunting down quotes from posters... if memory serves, there were various complaints about the redesign, including the size of the "X" on Emma's uniform, comparing to wearing a hubcap on her boobs, and that Storm looked like a drag queen wearing a shower curtain. At least, those are the ones I can remember. So, in spite of Bianchi's attention to detail, it was having poor fashion sense, I suppose, in how he dressed the X-Men that really snagged him a fourth place finish for this award.

If anyone feels there was another reason why they voted for him. I'd love to hear it.



Anyhow, the second runner-up...



Terry Dodson!


Again, not something I'm proud to report, is that Terry Dodson got 24 points worth of votes, and 2 first place votes. And I have to ask myself of the hows and whys. Theory? Well, the guy specializes in cheesecake, let's be honest. And we've seen a lot of Emma Frost in cheesecake. Like a lot. Like, extra duplicates of her in various outfits in her own head. Which, perhaps by giving us more images of the character who was voted "Worst Hero". there's some venom there?

Maybe it's that sometimes, as I've read in discussions, all of the characters look "too fat" (totally not seeing that one). Or maybe it's just that there are too few fight sequences, and when there are, they really look too "pretty" and not rough and tumble?

Or, the most obvious answer could be, he's working on Uncanny, and if there ever were a higher profile to cause disgust in people who just want a change of creative team (guilt by Land association), he's going to get it.

Eh, whatever. Terry might need to lay off showing us Emma's jugs 24-7.



The runner-up...


Larry Stroman!

This one's probably a style issue. I mean, in some aspects, Stroman can spend time, and detail, drawing some crazy s*** in the periphery, if you're looking, that blows your mind. By and large, though, he gets grief for having some really downright disproportionate faces , and some huge keesters on folks. Really, the amount of grumbling about his return to X-Factor during Secret Invasion hadn't died down, and a lot of folks who remembered that may have cast votes for what he did on Times & Life of Lucas Bishop, where his style was suited really well, particularly when Bishop would daydream about what the X-Men must've been like.

In any event, Stroman got 30 total points of votes, with 6 first place votes out of 48. But that's pretty kind, considering who took home the golden Razzie for art duties.



Your winner, and 2009's worst artist as voted by CBR's X-Forums was...


Greg Land!

In no other category of 2009 did anything pull away with the vote like Greg Land as worst artist. He pulled down 121 of a possible 144 points. What's even scarier is, that's 91 points more than the second place finisher in this category, who Land blew out of the water. He got 33 of 48 first place votes, meaning, over two out of three people believe, hands down, Greg Land is the worst artist employed by Marvel comics to work on the X-Men franchise.

I mean, for this category, I tried to post examples of their work, to show what fans may or may not be disgruntled about. I could've gone with so many images... Lady Deathstrike whipping her tongue out like she was trying to catch a money shot while impaling Wolverine... Spiral managing to have there arms all mysteriously in the same pose... comparison heads or bodies from other Greg Land art that are nearly identical (there's whole websites created for that), the bondage porn scene with Lady M and Emma Frost...

But I digress. I opted to go with the easiest, and most telling lightboxing/photoshopping example of Greg Land's work from 2009, and that being his interpretation of the Stepford Cuckoos. See that bottom panel? Where all three girls (who yes, are twins, but...) have the exact same pose, and their hair is whipping about in the exact same way? There was another panel I recall where they even had the same blood spatter pattern on their uniforms.

Whatever ability Greg Land might have for translating photo reference (trace, lightbox, photoshop... whatever the method), you can't help but admit it's obvious with those that it's happening. What's sad about the Cuckoos, with it, is no effort at all is made to hide the fact that it's going on. It's just a lazy "cut and paste" style. One that can be downright distracting from a story, since the facial expressions being rendered have no bearing on what's happening on panel. It's just the fastest thing that could be found in a google image search.

So as far as the gold medal goes, no, I don't feel in any way remorseful that it went where it did due to voters. Seems well earned to me.

[Psycwave]

Good for them!