Year in Review: 2016

Bart Allen was virtually nonexistent in 2016. The New 52 version of him, Bar Torr, ran away off page in his only appearance of the year. An Impulse did appear in a KFC advertisement, and the real Bart did make a tiny cameo in a flashback. In the 23rd year of this character's existence, this was hands-down the worst.

However, 2016 was a huge year for superheroes. Captain America: Civil War was the top grossing film of the year at $1.15 billion. Deadpool was a surprisingly huge success, and X-Men: Apocalypse and Doctor Strange weren't too bad, either. Doctor Strange was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, but lost to The Jungle Book. And, finally, DC came back to the big screen with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, which actually did win an Academy Award for Best Makeup. And speaking of Academy Awards, this was the year of the famous La La Land/Moonlight mixup.

I was initially quite defensive of Batman v Superman, arguing that Civil War shared many of the same flaws. However, time has proven me wrong. Civil War still is fairly low on my list of favorite Marvel movies, but it fits in very well with the other 20 films of that massive, incredible story. The whole of the Marvel Cinematic Universe elevates Civil War and helps it withstand the test of time. Batman v Superman does not enjoy this benefit. The DC Extended Universe devolved into a hot mess, with each subsequent film overcorrecting the sins of the previous. This created an unbalanced and bland story that can never figure out what kind of tone it wants. And on repeated viewings, years later, all the hope and ambition is lost, leaving all the flaws naked and exposed.

So yeah, DC's big films of the year were rather disappointing, but the CW TV shows were still fairly interesting in 2016. Unfortunately, the Flash show did not — and still hasn't — brought in it's own version of Bart Allen. Young Justice was still in hiatus. So we end up with some pretty lame awards this time. But I shall persist!

Best Story: DC Universe: Rebirth #1

There was no question here. That "conclusion" of Bar Torr's story arc was completely awful. And even though Bart didn't do anything in Rebirth, the story still had a massive impact on him. This was DC's way of acknowledging after five years of pretending otherwise that Bart Allen really did exist and the old continuity did happen. And then the door was opened for these old characters and ideas to slowly trickle back into the comics. This trickling was much too slow for my tastes, but I am still thankful to this story for creating that possibility.

Best Writer: Geoff Johns

Last year's winner, Will Pfeifer, forfeits this award for writing off Bar Torr in the lamest way possible. I seriously could not come up with a more unsatisfying ending for that character. So Johns wins his seventh award for helping DC find a way to move forward, utilizing the best aspects of all the previous continuities. And, of course, one of those great aspects was the Flash family.

Best Artist: Jorge Jiménez

Jiménez wins his third award purely for one cover. But it was a great cover. And we didn't have any other good art to compete with this year. Rebirth had a slew of excellent artists, but unfortunately, the weakest artist of the bunch, Ethan Van Sciver, was the one who drew the one panel of Kid Flash.

Best Supporting Character: Wally West

As remarkable as it seems, in 23 years of Bart Allen stories, this is the first time Wally West has been named the best supporting character. He was always a strong candidate, but usually his relationship with Bart was just too antagonistic to justify the award. But finally, Wally wins for being the only person in the DC Universe to remember the real Bart Allen and actually take the first step toward bringing him back. And you don't get much bigger than that.

Last year's winner, Red Robin, almost won again for freely admitting he could kiss Bar. I like to imagine that Bar didn't run away because he suddenly remembered Solstice, but that he was embarrassed by Cassie mocking his budding romance with Tim. But that's just me creating a more interesting story than what we got.

Best Villain: The Durlans

This was the weakest category of the year. I guess the Durlans win by default more than anything. They were the only source of conflict in the only story where Kid Flash actually did anything. They successfully trapped him in an energy field he conveniently escaped from off-page. But more importantly, they inspired him to leave the team and the DC Universe forever.

Next time, we begin 2017, which is sadly not going to be much better than 2016. We'll kick things off with a quick, but crucial cameo in The Flash #27.