Year in Review: 2004

I was still in high school in 2004, still in marching band, learning how to drive, doing all the normal high school stuff, basically. I wasn't reading comics yet, and I was still a little wary of the Teen Titans cartoon at this point. But I did still enjoy the Justice League show and the big superhero movies of the year.

Shrek 2 dominated the box office with over $900 million. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was second, followed by what are still two of the best superhero movies of all time, Spider-Man 2 and The Incredibles. Spider-Man 2 won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and The Incredible won the Best Animated Film award. Million Dollar Baby was the big winner at the Oscars, winning for best picture, director, actress and supporting actor.

In addition to the great Spider-Man sequel, Marvel also produced Blade: Trinity and rebooted The Punisher. Neither of those enjoyed even half the success of Spider-Man 2. And DC sort of had its first movie since 1997 with Catwoman. That movie really has nothing to do with the DC character (so I've heard — I've never actually forced myself to sit through it). But even though DC has seemed to distance itself from that movie, I saw them excitedly promoting it on their DC in Demand pages in 2004.

Now that brings us to Bart Allen. This was the first complete year of Bart as Kid Flash, minus the one Thanksgiving special where he was still Impulse. As Kid Flash, Bart almost exclusively appeared in Teen Titans, making only a few quick cameos in The Flash, Action Comics and a few others. Bart did make his first appearance on TV, guest-starring on Smallville as a character who actually had very little in common with his comic book counterpart. For me personally, there was little to get excited about with this crop of comics. On the plus side, though, I do write faster when I'm angry.

Best Issue: Teen Titans/Legion Special

All the awards were tough to choose this year. Bart was relegated to a minor character in Teen Titans and a meaningless cameo in The Flash. Bart was featured on the cover of Teen Titans #5, but his transformation from Impulse to Kid Flash was really the focus of last year's Teen Titans #4. So I'm left with choosing between the Brother Blood issues (which were weird and stupid and didn't have Bart do anything in them), the Beast Boys and Girls arc (which was more enjoyable, but again didn't have Bart do anything) and the Legion crossover. The first part of the Legion story was poorly set up and the Superboy drama was underdeveloped. But the second part had Mark Waid, some really nice art, and a couple of nice Bart moments. He was reunited with both his cousin and his mom, providing a necessary reminder of who Bart is a person. And even though he had a boring role in the adventure (just running on a treadmill) and it was kind of cheesy how he needed to be motivated by name-calling, Bart's actions were essential to saving the day. In any case, it was much better than his usual role this year of rescuing bystanders off page.

Best Writer: Geoff Johns

Johns wins this award purely by default. I was frustrated by his continuity problems between The Flash, JSA and Teen Titans; and I was very frustrated by Johns completely forgetting about Max Mercury until the end of this year. But the worst of all was how he turned lovable, impulsive Bart Allen into a boring know-it-all. However, I will admit that Johns did some things I liked. The Beast Boys and Girls story was interesting, and the Titans of Tomorrow are intriguing.

Best Artist: Tom Grummett

As the main artist of Teen Titans, this was Mike McKone's award to lose. And, sadly, I could not justify giving it to him. And it's not just that I don't enjoy his style. His action sequences are too often muddy and confusing. This became readily apparent through the art of McKone's regular backup, Tom Grummett. Grummett's art gave me crisp, consistent characters and clear, exciting action scenes. His style really isn't that different from McKone's, which is why he makes such a great backup artist for him. But it's Grummett's storytelling ability that really makes him stand out so much.

Best Supporting Character: Beast Boy

This was an incredibly difficult award this year. Bart has completely abandoned his old girlfriend, Carol. His current guardian, Jay Garrick, was basically nonexistent. Wally spent most of his time yelling at Bart or pushing him away. And Superboy was too busy solving mysteries with Robin and building a romance with Wonder Girl to spend any time goofing off with Bart. Kid Flash really feels like the unnecessary "fourth wheel" on the Teen Titans. Sure, everybody's friendly with Bart, but no one's really his friend anymore. So I reluctantly gave the award to Beast Boy. The few scenes of Bart's frivolity this year almost always included Beast Boy, and I felt the two of them had a nice moment at the end of Beast Boys and Girls, discussing how being normal is overrated.

Best Villain: Deathstroke/Jericho

Slade Wilson and his creepy ghost son share this award for the second straight year. We began 2004 with Bart beating up Deathstroke while he was possessed by Jericho. Then they both came to cause big problems for everyone during the Brother Blood arc. And what really sets them apart from Brother Blood, the Zookeeper and the Fatal Five Hundred is their personal connection to Bart. Not only did they destroy Bart's knee, but Deathstroke later turned his daughter, Rose, into his psychotic slave. And apparently Bart is in love with Rose again, fondly remembering the 15 minutes he spent with her on the New Titans.

Well, that was a rough year for Bart. Frankly, it was a rough year for DC as a whole. Identity Crisis cast a dark shadow of rape, fear and ethical dilemmas over the whole DC Universe in 2004. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does create an environment difficult for a character like Bart to thrive in — even as Kid Flash. The year 2005 will be much of the same for Bart, and it will actually be his last full year as Kid Flash before undergoing more major changes in 2006.

Next time, we'll begin the new year with a quick cameo in Wonder Woman #210.