Year in Review: 2012

In 2012, I had graduated from college and moved to Boise, Idaho, to begin my first real job at the Idaho Statesman. By far the best aspect of that move was my discovery of a store called Captain Comics. That's where I officially began collecting comics and, through the New 52 Flash, discovered and fell in love with Impulse. And the rest, as they say, was history.

It certainly was an exciting time in the superhero world. Beyond the New 52 comics and Young Justice animated series, DC and Marvel produced three genuine blockbusters for the big screen. The biggest one, by far, was The Avengers. It was Disney's first Marvel film, and the first real superhero team-up film. I had enjoyed the individual Marvel films for Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America, but I didn't think this could work. Well, I was completely, and happily, wrong, as The Avengers dominated the box office with $1.5 billion.

DC also crossed the billion-dollar threshold with the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. (I'll admit I cried at the end.) Sony also found success in their Spider-Man reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, at $758 million. Skyfall and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey also grossed more than a billion dollars, and Argo won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

And as for Bart Allen? Well, he technically didn't exist in 2012. The original Bart sacrificed himself at the end of Flashpoint (clinging to life inside his Flash ring in the Speed Force), and the "Bart Allen" we got in the following comics was actually a completely different version of the character. We also saw a return of the Smallville version of Bart in the Season Eleven comics. And, most exciting, we were introduced to the first animated version of Bart in Young Justice: Invasion. So, between these three Barts, we actually had a pretty busy 2012 (and it'll be an even busier 2013).

Best Episode: Bloodlines

This category is normally for the Best Issue, but TV episodes have always been eligible — they just never had a chance to win until now. Frankly, there weren't any comics that really grabbed me this year. The closest would be the wacky DC Presents with Kid Flash and the dinosaurs, but that's miles away from what Bloodlines did. This episode was such an amazing debut of Bart, who beautifully was allowed to be Impulse again, instead of Kid Flash. Impulse fans had to wait almost two decades for this moment, and when it finally came, it was practically perfect. Yes, he was different, but his core was true to the heart of the Impulse we all know and love that Mark Waid created in 1994. Bloodlines wasn't just the best moment of 1994 — it was one of the best moments for Bart ever.

Best Writer: Peter David

This is David's second award on this blog, but this time it's not for any comics he wrote. What David accomplished in Bloodlines far outstripped the fun Fabian Nicieza had with the dinosaurs and the marginally decent Smallville stories Bryan Q. Miller penned. Scott Lobdell was pretty close to being a travesty, so David faced no competition from him. In Bloodlines, David paid homage to the Flash family, gave us an Impulse that felt both familiar and fresh, and worked him into the larger Young Justice story in a meaningful way. He made Bart fun, talented and layered with an emotional depth that never seemed to betray his nature. True, I did hate how David ended that episode with the weird time-travel effect, but that was the only ding in an otherwise amazing episode.

Best Artist: Jorge Jiménez

I almost considered giving Young Justice a clean sweep here, but it felt too weird to give this award to MOI Animation, Inc. So I decided to reward the individual who drew the best Bart of the year. Booth's work is far too off-putting for me to seriously consider him, so that basically leaves us with Jiménez. And if the only work he gave us was Smallville: Season Eleven, then I'd be rather loathe to honor him. But Jiménez also gave us some truly inspired work with the side dinosaur story. It was fun, dynamic, and probably would even have given Humberto Ramos a run for his money.

Best Supporting Character: Blue Beetle

We only had two episodes of Bart interacting with Jaime Reyes, but they were rather significant episodes. They had a revealing heart-to-heart conversation in the cave, then got to hang out and show off their powers before getting into a real fight and sadly being captured. Bart does slightly annoy Jaime, but nowhere near enough for him to push Bart away. At the end of the day, he does like hanging out with Bart and they actually have a rather cute relationship. So cute, in fact, that many fans spent years speculating that Bart and Jaime were secretly a couple. While season 3 proved this not to be the case, the New 52 did actually make a girlfriend in 2012 — Solstice. I never seriously considered her for this award, though, because her relationship with Kid Flash wasn't near as interesting or organic as Bart's and Jaime's.

Best Villain: Harvest

This was a very difficult choice this year. Neutron wasn't really a villain, nor was Aqualad, who only captured Bart as part of his undercover mission infiltrating the Light. And I can't really choose the Light or the Reach because Bart hasn't directly confronted them yet. The Smallville Bart defeated Psimon and the Brain way too quickly to give them any consideration, and the Black Flash only just arrived. So that leaves us with the primary antagonist of the New 52 Teen Titans. He was frustratingly vague, displaying unlimited resources and powers combined with an entirely nonsensical plan. But he did provide the catalyst that created the Teen Titans and successfully kidnapped Bart twice.

Next time, we'll begin the year 2013. And as I said earlier, our three different Barts are going to keep us quite busy — we have 11 appearances in the month of January alone. It all begins with our Death of the Family crossover in Teen Titans #15.