Results X-Books Awards 2019

[Master of Sound]

Favorite Cover of 2019

Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words is what they say. When it comes to art, many have different styles they like or dislike. What I might find great, you might dislike. I consider comic book covers as art. Some covers got lots of votes because the art was great, others because they captured an important moment in the books. As there were so many, there were lots of covers that received votes, but these are the ones who stood out the most. Fun facts: Thjere were a totel of 40 plus covers that received votes and all the top 3 covers were from the same series, same is applicable for the Runner-up: House of X #5 by Pepe Larraz and that is not the only cover by Pepe that received plenty of votes.

Number 3
With 17 points and received 3 number 1 votes
Cover + 3.JPG
House of X #1 variant by Joe Mad
Oh, the romantic pictures of Mr. & Mrs. X always do very well and isn't this a beauty?

Number 2
With 18 points and twice voted as #1
Cover + 2.JPG
House of X #1 by Pepe Larraz
The opening issue of House of X cover with Xavier, Magneto, Scott, Logan and Jean coming through a Krakoa portal, I think this will become a classic!

NUMBER 1
With 21 points and three times voted as #1
Cover + 1.JPG
House of X #2 by Pepe Larraz
Yeah, House of X was primary all about Moira and the shocking revelations around her person. As that story was voted as best mini series, it should not come as a surprise that this already iconic cover has won the award for most favorite cover of the year.

[Master of Sound]

Least Favorite Cover of the Year

Every artist has a closet full of bad art. They will keep their bad art to themselves, because they are ashamed for it. However, some seem to publish that bad art anyway end no one stopped them. Though bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all, right? Unfortunately we came across some examples of art we rather saw kept in the closet and these were picked by you as the wordt ones of 2019 and coincidence or not, all series in this top 3, of where these covers were for, do no longer exist. Runner-up was X-Men #1 by Francis Yu, but was that one really that bad?

Number 3
With 16 points and three times voted as number 1
Cover - 3.JPG
Uncanny X-Men #14 by Salvador Larroca
I don't think I will need to comment on what we did not like about this one, as it is obvious. We did not like this cover of Salvador Larroca and yeah,.... what to say,.... it is indeed awful!

Number 2
With 28 points and 5 number 1 votes
Cover - 2.JPG
Major X #2 by Rob Leifield
Major X seems to be THE let down of 2019 in general. The one-shot made it to the least favorite at number 1 and the same goes for the mini-series. Not only did we not like the writing of Rob Leifield, we also disliked his cover art, as all covers of the series received votes in this category.

NUMBER 1
With 32 points and 7 times voted as number 1
Cover - 1.JPG
Uncanny X-Men #22 by: Whilce Portacio
Sometimes you see a cover and realize a 10 year old girl might have created a better one. Well, for this years winner of the Least Favorite Cover this is surely the case. Wolverine and Cyclops have rarely looked so terrible.

[Master of Sound]

Favorite X-Men Crossover/event of the Year

Last year I combined crossovers and events. Because both contain major stories than impacted the X-universe in a big way, or at least wanted to do so. This year there were only a very few and the outcome will not surprise you at all s the winner has already won several other awards for 2019! The events that finally changed how the comic book fans look at the X-Universe are of course the winners of 2019. Runner-up is it's sister series: Powers of X, who received 67 points and was votes twice at number one.

WINNER
With 126 points and 29 number 1 votes(!)
Crossovers-1.JPG
HOUSE OF X

[Master of Sound]

Least Favorite X-Men Crossover/event of the Year

Due to events/crossovers, there was one major disappointment this year. It also reflect in some of the other categories and as I said before, they could have made a great crossover but in the end, they just messed it up for us. The number 2 was also not that great as well. To me, the number two should have won, as this crossover, besides Chaos War, this was the biggest failure of crossovers for Marvel ever: War of Realms, with 36 points and a couple of number one votes.


WINNER
With 62 points and 14 times voted as #1
Crossovers - 1.JPG
AGE OF X-MAN

[Anduinel]

War of Realms was more disjointed and (imo) worse quality writing, but AoXM had a higher profile and more hype, not to mention it ended on a whimper. So not surprised it got more attention (negative attention in this case, lol).

[Havok83]

Dont recall all my voting choices but love that X-force (Percy) got voted best book

[Master of Sound]

Dont recall all my voting choices but love that X-force (Percy) got voted best book

You did have that series as your number one, followed by New Mutants and Marauders, so the same to[p 3, omnly your number 2 and 3 were switched

[Master of Sound]

That's it for today!

Tomorrow the results on Favorite and Least Favorite Storylines, Writers and Artists.

[Master of Sound]

Favorite Story-line of the Year

There were some big surprises this year, that really no one was expecting. The most exciting things happened in the House of X and Powers of X stories of course. Who would have expected this all to happen? No one, that is for sure. Marvel stepped up their X-Men game in 2019 and brought back the love for the merry mutants. All best story-lines of this year com from there. Last years winner was Hate Machine from X-Men Red, the Cassandra Nova story. Runner up for this year is I Am Not Ashamed (House of X #5-6), who actually had the same amount of points as the number 3, but with lesser number one voters.

Number 3
With 28 points and 7 times votes as #1
Story+3.JPG
All Hail the King and Queen of Thieves, Mr. & Mrs. X
Many times b=y the time to vote for these awards, the moments early in the year are quickly forgotten, but not this one. The very last story of the Mr. & Mrs. X series brought us back two old time villains: Candra and Bella Donna and it did feel like an old time story, with Gambit as the big hero, who saves his captured wife and a beautiful role for Spiral.

Number 2
With 51 points and 9 number one voters
Story+2.JPG
Assault on Orchis (HoX #3-4)
House of X does really well in the 2019 Awards and this impressive story made it to the number 2 spot. A team of great X-Men, Archangel, Cyclops, Husk, Marvel-Girl, Wolverine, Mystique, Monet and Nightcrawler go after Orchis to shut down the Mother Mold and they did succeed, but the price was high. Captain Erasmus Mendel of Orchis, killed himself while taking the Scout ship with him and taking two of the assault team with him. The rest of the make an end to Mother Mold, but all died in the end by the hands of Erasmus weeping widow. Though a big surprise came right after....

NUMBER 1
With 73 points and 14 times voted as number one.
Story+1.JPG
The Uncanny live of Moira X
Yeahhh, this was the big unexpected turn in the history of the X-men and will a big landmark for Xavier and his X-Men. Moira is not only alive again, but she has been for many times. She turned out to be a mutant who had lived multiple lives. We get a glimps of each live and how she learned from each of them and this is the base of the current status of the X-Men and mutants in general.Well deserved number 1 spot!

[Master of Sound]

Least Favorite Story-line of the Year
We have X-Men that can bring down building, or in the past even planets. Well, with the X-Office, it seemed that before they build up to make the X-books fantastic again, they razed everything to the ground that was realeased before that, before building a better foundation. Good thing that also in this category, all series that contained the least favorites stories, are no longer published.

Number 3
With 15 points and twice voted as number 1
Story-3.JPG
Sins of the Past, X-Force #1-5
Well, we did not like the Kid-Cable, replacing the real thing to start with, but now he got his very own X-Force and his very on fight against Stryfe. We did not like to see the 90's villain Stryfe again, we did not dig his minions, we hated the art and did not like the story one little bit.

Number 2
With 46 points and receiving 6 times a number 1 vote
Story-2.JPG
Disassembled (Uncanny X-Men)
The battle of Legion and X-Man, resulting in Nate taking over Legion and then brainwashed several X-Men to become his Nate's Horsemen of Salvation, all for world-peace and those were the main ingredients of this awful event which we were served. Ending in the apparent death of almost every X-Man. We rarely saw such an unimpressive and out of character villain. Well,... remember Bishop killing Xavier? Anyways, Disassembled might have been a success within the Avengers books, is surely was not for us X-fans.

NUMBER 1
With 54 points and 11 number one voters
Story-1.JPG
This is Forever (Uncanny X-Men)
After Disassembled we saw Cyclops and Wolverine would collect their own band of X-Men, including fan favorites Madrox, Magik and Moonstar. Finally Karma and Wolfsbane became X-Men, only for one being killed off and the other laving the team really quick. Many, many died, many many were written totally out of character (Hope, Magik, Blindfold) and many many of us did not like it a bit.

[Master of Sound]

Favorite Writer of 2019

Good writing makes the reader feel richer when reading. Good writing makes the reader want to read more of it. A good writer part make us anxious and impatient for the next issue to come out. We love a great cliffhanger! Some of the writers really understood their job and brought us unexpected developments, great character developments and made our heart tick faster or melt. These are the writers we want to keep at the X-office! The one that brought us the biggest changes, was most loved. The number 2 and 3 were brought to us with exciting new series. Let's us all hope they will continue to bring us these great stories in 2020. Runner up was last years number 1: Kelly Thompson, for her work on Mr. & Mrs. X. As this series, it's stories, it's main characters and the creative team all did nicely for this election two years in a row, maybe Marvel should relaunch the series?

Number 3
With 28 points and one #1 voter
Gerry Duggan.JPG
Gerry Duggan
For his work on the Dawn of X series Marauders. With Captain 'break a nose' Kate Pryde, leading a boat of mutants across the seas and Hellfire Bay with now not only a black King and White Queen, we now also have a Red Queen and a bishop of each.

Number 2
With 35 points and 6 number one votes
Percy.JPG
Benjamin Percy
Another Dawn of X writer, Benjamin Percy, gave us an awesome new title to look forward to: X-Force! Before that he also wrote a beautiful Wolverine story: Long Night Adaption. But I think most points were for writing a awesome version of X-Force, which became one of the most popular Dawn of X title for now. And... he gave us back Gateway and Sage! Now mister Percy, can you bring back Indra and Danger as well?

NUMBER 1
With a massive 101 points and 23 number one votes
Hickman.JPG
Mister Jonathan Hickman
He surely is the savior of the X-universe! After the X-Men were treated very bad by Marvel for years, making the X-Men series barely reaching top 10 sales anymore, there, after so many dreadful years, there came Jonathan Hickman and even the most critical reviewer applauded his work. House of X and Powers of X made the world change for the X-Men and for us fans. He did it! Now he is writing New Mutants and X-Men. X-Men had a slow start, but now fans love the latest twists and turns and it is gaining on us. And we love his part of the New Mutants writing a lot as well.

[Master of Sound]

Least Favorite Writer of the Year.

Sometimes you read a X-Men story and wonder if the writer really loves their job and seriously doubt if they feel any connection to the X-Universe. Because some write stories so badly, thgat we would be better off if these stories were never written. We also learned that trying to bring back successes from the past does not always work. The one 'positive' thing this time is, that all those who wrote a bad series, are no longer working within the X-Office and the series they wrote, are no longer published. Fun fact, our number two, was last years number 3 in the BEST writers category.

Number 3
With 21 points (3 x #1 votes)
Tim Seely.JPG
Tim Seeley
For his contribution of his short lived X-Force series. As this also was in the top 3 Least Favorite ongoing series and Least Favorite Story-Lines, I do not think it required further explanation. But if you like to, you can go ahead of course.

Number 2
With 49 points and 11 number one votes
Matthew Rosenberg.JPG
Matthew Rosenberg
The Uncanny X-Men title reached the lesser popular top 3s in other categories as well, so we know why Rosenberg got so many votes, he just killed of to many and his writing was waaay out of characters on many of our beloved X-Men. You really made Hope shoot an eye out of Cyclops>really? Nope Rosenberg, you will not be missed.

NUMBER 1
With 51 points and seven #1 votes
Rob Liefeld.JPG
Rob Liefeld
Yeah Robbie, your return to the X-office was no success at all. You seem to be stuck in the 90's and all of your characters feel a bit the same of previous ones you created. And did you really need to create soooo many new characters, just for one mini series? Your title Major X was definitely one of the biggest failures of 2019.

[Master of Sound]

Favorite Artist of the Year

Someone is a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected. Art is a matter of taste, sure, but some just stand out in such a way it makes us happy. Seeing a certain cover for the first time make you come back again and again to take another look or stories and actions so well drawn, you scan it and want to make a poster of it. These were the artists we all liked the most. Runner up in this category is Joshua Cassara for his work on X-Force.

Number 3
With 28 points and 3 number one votes
Marcus To.JPG
Marcus To
During the Age of X-Man he brought us a smile on out faces when he draw NextGen. Who can ever forget the beautiful scenes with Glob's chickens? Now he is showing his artistic side in Excalibur where he gave many a beautiful new look and feel and contributed in telling a beautiful, magical and Mysterious tale or Otherworld.

Number 2
With 39 points and twice voted on the #1 spot
RB Silva.JPG
R.B. Silva
The Powers of X would not be as fantastic as it did not have Silva's unique and recognisable style. Rasputin and Lesser Nimrod were drawn so great, that they landed right in our hearts.

NUMBER 1
With 117 points and 27 times votes at number 1
Pepe Perrez.JPG
Pepe Larraz
By far out the best with a remarkable score! Where Hickman wrote the best story since ages, it was accompanied with the wonderful art of Pepe. Did you know this is the second year in a row he took this award? Yup, last year he won as well. Let us all hope he keeps on contributing to X-books in the years to come and he might just win the price for yet another year.

[Master of Sound]

Least Favorite Artist of the Year

Just because you are an artist, doesn't mean you are a good artist. Anyone can make art, but not everyone can make you feel something positive when viewing their art and these artists did not make us happy this year. We want to relate to characters and their stories, but some artist make it very hard for us to do so. Sorry to say, but these were the artists we did not have much love for in 2019 and again Rob Leifeld's unsuccesfull return pays out here. Remarkable is that the last 3 years(!) Greg Land was the number 1 in this category. Good thing we did not see him anymore.

Number 3
With 18 points and receiving three number 1 votes
Leinil Francis Yu.JPG
Leinil Francis Yu
Now this one is one I do not really get. I will admit I do not love his style, but it somehow fits the X-Men series. Maybe people have to get used to the style, I woner. Anyways, once he draw big events, s he was the artist of the Secret Invasion crossover, but hey, maybe people disliked his art back then as well.

Number 2
With 24 points and 5 times voted at number 1
Salvador Larroca.JPG
Salvdor Larroca
His art feels a bit off indeed. His proportions are off sometimes and his action pictures feels somehow like they are all standing still. The way he draw Joseph's death... Not that fantastic to be honest. Though I will admit I was surprised the art of Ed Piksor was liked more than any of these artists....

NUMBER 1
With 64 points and 13 number one voters.
Rob Leifeld.JPG
Rob Liefeld
Poor poor Rob Liefeld, not only voted as the worst writer of the year, but also as the worst artist. What is there to say, he draws still the same way as always, still loves the big shoulder pads and still like to give his characters a similar hairdo. I seriously doubt if Rob will ever leave the 90's.

[Master of Sound]

That was it for today.

Tomorrow we will see who you favorite (and least favorite) heroes and villains were.

Feel free to leave your comments on the results so far.