So this is it, the big moment. The award that the rest of the awards were leading up to. The past is all prologue to this award.
But first, let me take a moment to link to back to all the previous awards.
They are Best Limited Series
Best Teams
Best Artists
Best Villains
Best Characters
Best Writers
Best Moments
Best Single Issues
Re-read them all in preparation for this one blessed moment.
Done? Good.
Let’s begin!
Best Title
1. HUMAN TARGET
(by Peter Milligan, Cliff Chiang & Javier Pulido)
“Thank you for reading! That a book like ours could be well received shows how diverse the comics community really is. To be voted Best Title of 2004 is incredibly rewarding and encouraging. The other creators and editors on this book have been doing wonderful work, and as for me, this is a welcome message of support that reaffirms my commitment to do my best work. You guys rock.”
-Cliff Chiang
(My apologies to those who read my column. Much of this you have already for.)
If you look all around the rest of the awards, you’ll see Human Target all over the place. You know why? It was smart, it had great art, the stories were unique and compelling. Human Target was all about Chance, sure, but it was really all about America. I know that sounds unnecessarily pretentious, but it is the only way I can think of to sum up the title. Every story took a slice of American life and held it under the microscope to reveal all of its ugliness and, often times, how it was still beautiful despite its imperfection. Chance was the perfect cipher to take the journey will: dryly sarcastic, unemotionally observant of others’ foibles, and always yearning to know who he was and what his place was in the world. The supporting cast (confidante/manager Bruno, almost wife Mary White) was interesting people with lives outside of Chance’s comings and goings. We all know that the book is now cancelled and that our time with Chance is coming to a close, but that doesn’t undermine its rank here. It was the best book of 2004, regardless of its sales. So though it soon departs, it was great while it was here.
-Tim Stevens
While The Human Target is not the best selling title on the market today, clearly a large percentage of The Nexus’s reviewers consider it one of the best. It’s great to see a book that doesn’t get the press it deserves garner one of the highest honors in our awards ceremony.
Peter Milligan is telling some of the most mesmerizing stories in comics. Couple the stories with Cliff Chiang and Javier Pulido’s artistic abilities and magic springs from the page. The story of a master of disguise and his problems coping with his own identity has been utterly brilliant. This is the type of stuff that transcends the age it was written in. We are talking about a classic series that’s still being published. The legend of The Human Target will grow as the weeks, months, and years pass us by.
-Chris Delloiacono
2. Astonishing X-Men
(by Joss Whedon & John Cassady)
It’s an X-Men book and I like it. From me, that is the highest praise possible.
-Matt Morrison
With this category, I find it hard after already commenting on the creative teams and characters of my favorite titles in other sections to really say anything new, plus I’m sure other people can do so better, so rather than summarize everything I like about the title, I’m just going to give my personal best moment(s) of 2004 in these books.
A lot of people will point to Colossus’ return and the moments that followed as the pivotal moment of the first half-year of Astonishing X-Men, and they’d be right, but I knew that this was something special far before that.
I didn’t love the first issue; I liked it, but I didn’t love it; the timing felt very off and I wasn’t blown away. The second issue was a vast improvement, stuff was really starting to gel, Joss Whedon was finding characters’ voices and Cassaday was turning it up to eleven.
But for me, the moment where I sat back and said, “damn, I’m reading history” was when Wolverine and Beast went at it tooth and claw in the third issue. Wolverine and Cyclops fighting, not a big deal, they’ve been doing it for thirty years, but when Beast, the nicest guy in the history of the X-Men, is throwing down with anybody, there better be a good reason to make it believable, and boy did Joss nail that one.
The emotion in the words of Henry McCoy, perfectly conveyed by the masterful art of John Cassaday, the sadness and conflict as he defended his consideration of using a “mutant cure” to his angry teammate even as he wondered if it was the right thing to do, it was incredible. And here was Logan not instigating a fight just for the sake of it, but because he felt strongly (and rightfully so) about what he was saying, about Hank having a commitment to the people that looked up to him; even as Logan barked at him, you could feel the respect he had for his friend, that he wasn’t mad at him, but rather proud of what he’d endured and unwilling to surrender that pride.
The fight was just the icing on the cake, the repartee with the rest of the team after the sprinkles and whatnot; the moment was that both men had valid points and you could feel what they were thinking. This, to me, is when Astonishing X-Men jumped from very good to the stuff of legend.
-Ben Morse
Joss Whedon has time again befuddled my expectations. A high school killer of the undead? A spinoff of that show? A sci-fi western? On the surface, none of these concepts do a thing for me. But in the delivery? Well DAMN, it’s tasty!
For the X-Men, it was a bit of a flip. I love the concept behind X-Men, the civil rights allegory implicit in the story. Yet, in delivery, I have never found that love in the stories themselves. So, if several writers and artists couldn’t make it work for me, could Joss?
As it turned out, yes. And boy did he make it work. And thus, #2 on our list.
-Tim Stevens
3. Y: The Last Man
(by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra)
It’s a Y-Man book and I like it. For anyone, that is a lame joke. But this book is anything but lame. It is, in fact, one of the best books on the market.
-Matt Morrison
What is there to say about Y: The Last Man that hasn’t been said and done a million times before? I don’t know if I’ve ever read a negative word about this book. Yorick’s adventures as the last man on Earth are thrilling, thought-provoking, and most importantly, character-oriented. Y: The Last Man started off great, and now that we’re halfway through the series, it’s still getting better.
-Chris Delloiacono
4. Ex Machina
(by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris)
Okay. So the hottest sleeper-hit writer on the market is writing. The artist is the most unappreciated cult-art guy in the business. The plot is based around a gimmick that never feels exploitive and indeed, less a gimmick than a good idea whose time had come. This are a paltry set of words to describe what is currently my favorite book, but I’m hoping the mystery will draw more of you into checking out what I feel is the best book published today.
-Matt Morrison
How can an ongoing series about the Mayor of New York City be so good? Mix Brian K. Vaughan with equal parts Tony Harris and you have the beginnings of an amazing tale of modern politics mixed with super-heroics from the not-too-distant past. Entertaining as can be, but Ex Machina is more special because it’s dissimilar from all other monthly comic offerings.
-Chris Delloiacono
I love politics and I love superheroes (obviously), but I never really concerned the possibility of them going together. I never thought that politics and superheroics could be the chocolate and peanut butter of the comic book world. So Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris come along and prove me wrong. For once, I couldn’t be happier to be wrong.
It should be noted that credit does not stop at Vaughan and Harris. Feister on inks, Mettler on colors (oh sweet Mettler, so excellent!), and Fletcher on lettering make the book what it is. Without them, it would still be great, sure, but I don’t think the book makes it to #4 if they aren’t on the job. This is one book I can point as truly a group effort in which each of the players contributes a great percentage to its success.
-Tim Stevens
5. The Flash
(by Geoff Johns, Howard Porter & Alberto Dose)
“I owe this one to Howard Porter with an assist by Michael Turner. It’s been a great book to work on, going on year five.”
-Geoff Johns
There was a time when I couldn’t wait to get rid of this book, a time before Johns. And now, I can’t imagine picking up my comics without getting an issue of this month. In fact, I’d just assume not imagine such a world. Bold beautiful colors over great Porter art boosted by Johns’s excellent scripts, this is my pick for best pure superhero book on the stands.
-Tim Stevens
Without a doubt, the Identity Crisis tie-in, “The Secret of Barry Allen” redefined the major crossover tie-in and showed again why Flash is the one mainstream super hero title you can always count on to be of the highest quality month in and month out.
Usually stories centered on the “big secret you will never ever believe!” flop because the secret can never live up to the hype and fans are ready to pounce as soon as the first issue comes out. This worked where others have failed because ultimately it didn’t matter what the secret was (that Barry mind-wiped The Top and tried to make him a hero, ultimately driving him insane”¦well, more insane), the story was far more about how the secret affected the characters, the hallmark of Flash.
It was another in a proud series of great stories giving more depth posthumously to the dearly departed Barry. In the flashback sequences, we got see sides to Barry we never got to see when he was alive, the concern he felt over his loved ones and the lengths he was willing to go to in order to protect them. As always, Barry’s intentions were noble, but the results were a disaster; Barry remains every bit the sainted hero the DCU and we see him as, but he was also only human.
Then you’ve got The Top, a decent enough Rogue, but never exactly Captain Cold or Zoom or even Mirror Master or Weather Wizard material. This storyline no only explained many of the inconsistencies in his history and behavior; it also gave us some truly powerful scenes in the exchange between Barry and Top as Top’s natural personality is conflict with his “new” one, Top’s rage against the other Rogues, and Top’s ominous warning towards Wally upon his “reawakening.” Those final scenes of Top battling Wally and Zatanna and calmly, arrogantly leveling threats instantly shot him up my scary villain list.
I more or less covered Wally in my entry for Best Character, but it bears repeating that this was a watermark storyline for him. Battling through the revelation of his hero being a human being who can make mistakes (something we can probably all relate to), his concern over his wife, his bonding with Nightwing”¦brilliant stuff.
The Flash isn’t a book that throws out things like big secrets or shocking deaths and expects the fans to react to them; it’s one where the characters’ reactions to those events are the hook and why the readers continue to love it.
-Ben Morse
It took me a while to warm to the idea of Wally West getting his secret identity back, and the wide range of changes the Spectre’s tampering with reality brought to The Flash late in 2003. While it made for a clunky start to 2004, I think the book really took off as the year wore on. The transition to stories that featured Wally with a secret identity opened the series up to a direction we had not seen for the two-hundred issues prior. It may have taken a little while to warm up, but in the end this book remained one of the best written again this year.
As far as the artwork goes, my glowing mention of Howard Porter in the Best Artist category should have been enough. Yet, I’ll say one last time, Howard Porter is one of the best artists that The Flash has ever had.
-Chris Delloiacono
6. Supreme Power
(by J. Michael Straczynski & Gary Frank)
This title shipped less frequently than Superman/Batman (bad thing) but each issue made the wait vastly more worthwhile (good thing). This year was explosive. Dr. Spectrum vs Hyperion. Hyperion & Zarda. Hyperion, Nighthawk & The Blur vs a super villain!
While the wait between issues may have been longer than expected, the product has yet to disappoint. By the way; Nighthawk Rocks!
-Mathan Erhardt
The Squadron Supreme miniseries is the magnum opus of Mark Gruenwald’s career. Re-reading it you can see that it has been an influence on such subsequent works as Kingdom Come and JMS’s own Rising Stars. Bearing that in mind, I was initially less than thrilled with the prospect of a MAX series playing with these characters again.
With year 2 (yes, year 2, those scheduling issues only make it seem like less) come and gone, JMS has more than stepped out of Gruenwald’s shadow. His slow burn of a story (aided quite excellently by Gary Frank’s beautiful art) is still a reflection of DC’s classic heroes, but taken in a far different path than Gruenwald did. The result is a story that is good enough to rival JMS’s classic maxi-series, Midnight Nation. Along with Alias, this is the perfect example of how to properly utilize the MAX label.
-Tim Stevens
7. Amazing Spider-Man
(by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr. & Mike Deodato Jr.)
In a year that saw the release of an amazing Spider-Man movie, there is only one Spider-Man related title that was never a disappointment and always left me wanting to read more. Though it stirred up more controversy than any other title this year, it cannot be denied that it was skillfully written and that it had beautiful artwork every month.
-Matt Morrison
8. JSA
(by Geoff Johns & Don Kramer)
“I consider myself very lucky to be working with Geoff. I hope one day the art can equal the writing on this book and more people will recognize the quality Geoff brings each issue.”
-Don Kramer
“First super-hero team ever. They deserve the respect.”
-Geoff Johns
I had a customer at my comic shop ask me if there were any books left that showed good old-fashioned superheroics in a team-setting that you didn’t need a history book to understanding. I pointed him to JSA and he’s been reading it happily ever since. Such is the greatness of this book, that it is a crash course in DC Comics history without seeming like a text book. It brings you into the obscure details by explaining all as needed, not by assuming you know it all or leaving the details up to a text box referring to Issue #471 of Vol. 2. And while the artists may change, the art is always every bit the equal of the writing.
-Matt Morrison
Maintaining a legacyâ€â€that’s what JSA boils down to. Geoff Johns has an uncanny ability to tell epic, time and space spanning stories with a massive cast, yet never lose site of the growth of the individual characters. JSA has been one of the steadiest reads in comics for a long time now. This book has been so good, for so long I almost take it for granted.
-Chris Delloiacono
9. Fallen Angel
(by Peter David & Peter Lopez)
I stopped reading Fallen Angel with issue #8. I was enjoying the book, but I felt like it was meandering. Recently I started reading again. I went back and picked up all the back issues and read them in time to pluck the most recent issue (#18) off the rack the day it shipped. The story read superbly in the large stack. Part of the problem with comics is that stories take time to develop, but few books have time to succeed in this brutal marketplace. Thankfully Fallen Angel was still around when I decided to get back into it.
-Chris Delloiacono
10. Daredevil
(by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev)
In 2004, Matt Murdock get married, get separated, got divorced, took over Hell’s Kitchen as its “Kingpin”, fought off a hoard of Yakuza out of costume, came face to face with the reality of his post-Karen Paige nervous breakdown, had his home invaded by Jigsaw, provided sanctuary to his ex-lover/partner Black Widow (but, sadly for the blind lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen, no nooky), all while trying shield his shattered secret identity. Bendis and Maleev handled each moment with a strong air of menace and noir trappings. The dialogue snapped and cracked against a background the gray, gritty world of Hell’s Kitchen. Life hasn’t gotten any better for Murdock, but at least his book has.
-Tim Stevens
So that’s it. That is all she (and he) wrote and the curtain now falls on the first annual Comics Nexus Awards. Thanks to everyone who has offered feedback on the boards (I’m sorry if we excluded your favorites) and an even bigger amount of thanks to everyone who contributed to this little project. I hope you all enjoyed writing for and about it and reading it. Hit the message boards to let us know exactly how you feel.
Unlike next year, keep hitting the spinner racks!
