Meaningless Awards of the Week- 12/12/07

Biggest Status Quo Change- The Walking Dead #45

This week in TWD: Dale, Andrea, Glenn, Maggie, Sofia and the twins all packed into the RV and left the prison, while in an attempt to take the fight to the Governor’s men, Tyrese is taken prisoner and Michonne gets her f$&#ing brains blown out. Yeah, not a good week for Rick and the half dozen or so people who decided to fight it out for the prison. Granted, I highly doubt this is the last we’ve seen of the RV gang, and Michonne “died” off-panel, so it’s more than likely she’s not dead. But just about every instinct I’ve ever had about this book was completely off, so virtually anything could happen next issue. And that’s the way I like it.

Best Countdown Tie-In- Green Arrow and Black Canary #3

I know what you’re thinking: “What are the words ‘best’ and ‘Countdown tie-in’ doing so close together?” While Countdown to Final Crisis has had more tie-ins than you can shake a stick at, quality tie-ins have been few and far between. And the best ones have been the ones you didn’t realize were tie-ins until the end. When Athena was revealed as Green Arrow’s abductor in GABC #2, I didn’t think much of it. When that issue came out, Athena was just some crappy character from Countdown. Since then, it’s been revealed that Athena is actually Granny Goodness, a slightly less crappy character from Countdown. Of course, she’s still not un-crappy enough for me to remember that little tidbit, so when it was revealed all over again in GABC #3 I was surprised yet again. What made this a good tie-in, though, was the revelation of Darkseid’s secret plans involving tricking Black Canary into training a new batch of Furies and destroying the metahuman community from within. Hmm…that seems like the sort of thing they might have wanted to spend more than two word balloons on.

Best Bludgeoning- The Joker

I’m not convinced I should pick up the third issue of Salvation Run, but I may have to buy it just for the antics of The Joker. Like this issue, when The Joker bashed Psimon’s brains in with a rock. Silly Joker! But that’s not the only brain damage The Joker inflicted this week. He knocked Booster loopy four times in Booster Gold #5, including clubbing him upside the head with Skeets (and that couldn’t have felt good for Skeets either). Man, it’s too bad they didn’t give The Joker a Sinestro ring or he could have done a lot more damage this week.