Weekly Awards For The Comic Books From August 20, 2008

The Followers of The Revolution voted for Captain America #41 to win The Che for the best comic book of the week. This was an extremely close vote as Captain America just barely edged out Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1 by only two votes. I was glad to see Superman/Batman #51 getting some love and taking third place in the poll. The results for best read of the week were as follows:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #41: 29% (27 votes)
FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #1: 27% (25 votes)
SUPERMAN BATMAN #51: 9% (9 votes)
X-FACTOR SPECIAL LAYLA MILLER: 8% (8 votes)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #568: 3% (3 votes)
FLASH #243: 5% (5 votes)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24: 4% (4 votes)
GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #4: 3% (3 votes)
TRINITY #12: 2% (2 votes)
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #10: 1% (1 vote)
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #16: 1% (1 vote)
MARVEL 1985 #4: 1% (1 votes)
MOON KNIGHT #21: 1% (1 votes)
SQUADRON SUPREME 2 #2: 1% (1 vote)
UNCANNY X-MEN #501: 1% (1 vote)
TANGENT SUPERMANS REIGN #6: 0 votes
IRON MAN DIRECTOR OF SHIELD #32: 0 votes
X-FACTOR #34: 0 votes

The Followers of The Revolution voted for Uncanny X-Men #501 to win the Sequential Methadone Award for the worst comic book of the week. And it was not even remotely close and Uncanny X-Men #501 absolutely destroyed all the other titles and simply ran away and hid with this award. The results for the worst read of the week are as follows:

UNCANNY X-MEN #501: 37% (25 votes)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #568: 10% (7 votes)
TRINITY #12: 12% (8 votes)
FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #1: 7% (5 votes)
X-FACTOR #34: 6% (4 votes)
CAPTAIN AMERICA #41: 6% (4 votes)
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24: 3% (2 votes)
GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #4: 3% (2 votes)
MARVEL 1985 #4: 3% (2 votes)
TANGENT SUPERMANS REIGN #6: 1% (1 votes)
MOON KNIGHT #21: 1% (1 votes)
SQUADRON SUPREME 2 #2: 1% (1 votes)
FLASH #243: 1% (1 votes)
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #10: 1% (1 votes)
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #16: 1% (1 votes)
X-FACTOR SPECIAL LAYLA MILLER: 1% (1 votes)
SUPERMAN BATMAN #51: 0 votes
IRON MAN DIRECTOR OF SHIELD #32: 0 votes

All right, let’s go ahead and dish out The Revolution’s weekly awards.
The nominees for the Che for the best read of the week:

Captain America #41
Superman/Batman #51
X-Factor Special Layla Miller

The Winner: Superman/Batman #51

This was a pretty damn good selection of titles this week. All in all, I enjoyed the vast majority of the titles offered up by both Marvel and DC. I have already praised Captain America #41 in my review. It is absolutely stunning what Brubaker has done on this title.

X-Factor Special Layla Miller was also a great read. Thom pretty much summed up my feelings about this issue in his review. This issue more than made up for the real stinker that David gave us with the Secret Invasion tie-in issue of X-Factor that also came out this week. I definitely miss Layla Miller. She is a fantastic character and certainly the most intriguing member of X-Factor. I will be happy when David finally returns Layla back into the mix over on X-Factor.

However, I had to break with the Followers of The Revolution and award The Che to Superman/Batman #51. Now, I know that everyone is probably groaning as I pass over Captain America #41 for the Che. And I know that some people think that I must be immature to enjoy an issue like Superman/Batman #51. The fact is that Captain America is always in the running for The Che and has won it numerous times. Giving Captain America #41 would be the easy and predictable move.

Instead, I have decided to go with the dark horse in Superman/Batman #51. This was a fantastic issue. I absolutely loved it. And I had way more fun reading Superman/Batman #51 than I did any other comic book from last Wednesday.

What was so great about Superman/Batman #51 is that it was pure fun. This issue was proof that there is still room for comic books that do not fit the mold of the post-1986 comic book that is dark, gritty, serious and realistic. Superman/Batman #51 was such a refreshing change of pace from the normal diet of darker and realistic comic books that I consume each week. Now, would I want a steady diet of this style of story? No. But, I dig variety and I like that Green and Johnson decided to give us something different and fresh with Superman/Batman #51.

Superman/Batman #51 delivered a story that was decidedly Silver Age in feel with all the goofiness of the ‘Lil Justice League of America. I found these ‘Lil Leaguers to be highly entertaining. I dig that these cartoony little kid versions of the JLA. And I liked all the little touches with the cartoonish symbols that appear above their head based on their emotions. An example of this are the hearts and kissing lips that appear above the heads of Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Vixen and Zatanna when they fawn all over Robin. And the best part is that all the characters can actually see these little symbols as Robin asks everyone what is up with the little hearts and kissing lips flying around.

Green and Johnson do an excellent job crafting a story that has the Silver Age zaniness but is delivered with a modern fashion. The appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk as the “villain” of this story was a great choice. The story is straight forward as the ‘Lil Justice League has been transported by Mr. Mxyzptlk from their Earth over to New Earth. And to top it all off, at the end of the issue Mr. Mxyzptlk sends the ‘Lil Injustice League to New Earth to lock horns with our heroes.

Superman/Batman #51 is a perfect example of how the return of the Multiverse was a brilliant idea. The Multiverse provides unlimited fertile ground for writers to let their creativity run rampant. The Multiverse lets writers get as imaginative as they want to be in crafting some truly entertaining stories. And the Multiverse has the flexibility to allow the writer to introduce characters that are deadly serious and dark or hilarious and funny.

Green and Johnson have been absolute money on Superman/Batman ever since they came aboard. They have demonstrated a great range in their writing abilities. Green and Johnson have been equally adept at delivering action packed issues, dramatic and serious issues as well as humorous and fun issues.

And now the nominees for the Sequential Methadone Award for the worst read of the week:

Uncanny X-Men #501

The Winner: Uncanny X-Men #501

Honestly, there was no need to even bother to try and nominate another title for this award. Just like with the Highlander, there can be only one nominee for the Sequential Methadone Award of the week. Uncanny X-Men #501 practically stood at the top of the mountain and screamed out for this award. I simply had to agree with the Followers of The Revolution and award the Sequential Methadone Award to Uncanny X-Men #501.

I have already completely eviscerated Uncanny X-Men #501 in my review. So, I am not going to re-hash everything at this point. Suffice it to say that there has been a startling drop off in quality now that Judd Winick, I mean, Matt Fraction has assumed handling the scripting for Uncanny X-Men. If this is a sample of what is to come when Fraction completely takes over this title from Brubaker then it looks like Uncanny X-Men is going to slump right back to the dumpster that it has languished in for so many years.

It is obvious that Marvel knows that they do not need to worry about placing any quality talent on Uncanny X-Men. We all know that this franchise is a complete juggernaut and will post huge sales numbers now matter how atrocious the writing might be.

So congrats to Superman/Batman #51 for winning The Che for the week and “congrats” to Uncanny X-Men #501 for winning the Sequential Methadone Award for the week.