The Anna Devane Kick Ass Female Award had a lot of possible winners this year. Admittedly, Wonder Woman would probably have made this list had her WW84 film not been pushed because of Covid-19. Black Widow too might have made the list. Neither did though. Maybe Natasha makes it in 2021.

I typically try to keep this fictional women, but this year’s list actually has two real life people (sort of). It is not unprecedented though as the Shirewolves were former winners from the Movie Trivia Schmoedown.

Speaking of previous winners….

Previous winners:  Rey (Star Wars), Mockingbird (Marvel Comics), Wonder Woman (DCEU), The Shirewolves, Captain Marvel

Here we go…

#10. Crystal Creasy (The Hunt). This is the character played by Betty Gilpin in The Hunt. This was a star making performance in one of the last movies in the theaters this year. Gilpin was an awesome action star.

#9. Andy (The Old Guard). The Netflix film The Old Guard starred Charlize Theron as a warrior who could not die. Or at least, she would not stay dead. She lead a crew of the same type of individuals in an exciting action flick.

#8. Bo-Katan Kryze (The Mandalorian). The fan-favorite Bo-Katan arrived on the Disney + series, The Mandalorian played by Katee Sackhoff, who also voiced the character in the animation. Bo-Katan may be just starting her rise on this list.

#7. Enola Holmes (Enola Holmes). Millie Bobby Brown has been on this list before in her Stranger Things character, Eleven. Now, she is Sherlock Holmes’ sister and she was great. The Netflix movie was one of the surprises of the year and Millie was wonderful as the lead.

#6. Harley Quinn (Birds of Prey). Margot Robbie did a fantastic job reprising her role as Harley Quinn in the DC film, Birds of Prey. Robbie is perfectly cast as the Joker’s ex and she took another step improving upon her work from Suicide Squad.

#5. Ahsoka Tano (The Mandalorian). The excellent Rosario Dawson arrived on The Mandalorian as the lady who debuted in animation. People had been anticipating Ahsoka all year long and her episode did not disappoint. This is another character who may have her future ahead of her (Disney + series???)

#4. Asuka (WWE). The Empress of Tomorrow is the first of two real life women on the list. Asuka became one of the biggest stars in the WWE during the pandemic. Arguably, Asuka was the RAW MVP during the time. Her humorous color commentary turned her face and her kick ass in ring performances led her to become the RAW Women’s Champion.

#3. Cecilia “Cee” Kass (The Invisible Man). The main protagonist in the new The Invisible Man, Cee is played by Elizabeth Banks and she dominates the film. The way the film begins, you wouldn’t think that she belonged on this list, but The invisible Man was one of the best films of the year and that was mainly about Banks.

#2. Erica Slaughter (Something is Killing the Children). The first comic character (second if you count Harley Quinn) and Erica is one of the most original and epic characters in one of the best comic books in the industry with Something is Killing the Children.

#1. Kamala Harris. We tend to avoid politics here at EYG if we can, but Kamala Harris has created history as the first woman, first African American, first South Asian to be elected to the office of Vice President. Her background as a prosecutor influenced her reputation and, when Joe Biden selected her as his running mate, she solidified the ticket. No matter your politics, the history she brings should be appreciated.

2020 was a tough year for comic books and comic book retailers. The virus caused plenty of trouble for specialty shops and caused the comic companies to close down for a stretch in the early half of the year.

Still, there were some really great books out when they were able to be published.

I now have to make a list of both Top 10 Marvel books and Top 10 Non-Marvel books. I used to collect only Marvel, but I expanded my comic reading out more the last year or so.

Non-Marvel Top 10

#10. Batman/Superman (DC). This is one that I have currently stopped collecting, but I actually enjoyed in parts this year.

#9. Plunge (DC). A mini series that jumped into the new trend of horror comics. Plunge started really strong, but kind of weakened as the series continued. It was hurt by the time off.

#8. Lois Lane (DC). I enjoyed this series even though it did not feel as if it were telling one complete story. There were decent issues with the reporter and I liked the use of Superman here.

#7. Stillwater (Skybound). Chip Zdarsky is the reason I gave this comic a try. This is still newish, but the Twin Peaks vibe intrigues me.

#6. Family Tree (Image). This one is a really great story with some surprising moments. I did not expect teh book to go where it went but I was happily along for the ride.

#5. Strange Adventures (DC) Tom King has been amazing. Who would have guessed that a DC book featuring Adam Strange would make a list like this?

#4. The Department of Truth. (Image) I have really enjoyed the first few issues of this mind blowing series. This is the first of two books from writer James Tynion IV. One of the most creative comics of the year and it should only move up the list as it develops.

#3. The Death of Nancy Drew (Dynamite). Another surprise, this series, co-starring the Hardy Boys with Nancy Drew, brought back memories of reading these mystery stories as a kid. This was pulpy fun.

#2. Spy Island. (Dark Horse). I love Chelsea Cain. Her run on Mockingbird may be my favorite run of comics ever. Spy Island gave me feels of that comic. Plus, there was a bunch of wild adventures with Nora Freud and I wish it had been more than just 4 issues.

#1. Something is Killing the Children (Boom). Here is the second James Tynion IV book and it is the book that is the biggest reason I have expanded my comics collected out from just Marvel. This is consistently the best book I read every month. It is horror comics perfection.

Marvel

#10. The Magnificent Ms. Marvel. Another comic that was hurt by the lay off, Ms. Marvel was going to be vital in the Outlawed storyline which is only now picking up. However, Ms. Marvel is some of the best teen hero comics available.

#9. Atlantis Attacks. Another issue hurt by the layoff, but it came straight out of the Agents of Atlas series that I was enjoying and these new characters were fun to read. Plus, you can’t go wrong with Namor.

#8. Dr. Strange Surgeon Supreme. Marvel seems to have a tendency to cancel books I really enjoy. I was loving this new take on Stephen Strange. Unfortunately, it did not last very long.

#7. Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Miles has been very solid all year long and he has faced some serious trouble (especially in the most recent issue- no spoilers, but tragedy struck). Miles is beginning to take his place in the Marvel Universe.

#6. Thor. The God of Thunder got a bit of a reboot this year and spent the first part of the year messing around with Galactus in some of the best looking and most shocking issues of the year.

#5. Dr. Doom. Another Marvel book that is destined for cancellation, I have really found the political thriller aspect of Dr. Doom to be fascinating.

#4. Jessica Jones: Blind Spot. One of my favorite series from the very beginning of the year. Jessica Jones is such a well written and fantastic character developing book. Kelly Thompson brought the goods being the first writer besides Bendis to write a Jessica Jones series.

#3. The Amazing Spider-Man. Always near the top of this list for me, Amazing Spider-Man is currently as good as it can be with the Sin-Eater stuff, Amazing Spider-Man #850, Amazing Spider-Man #50 and the return of Harry Osborn as you have never seen him before. Plus, there is MJ. Love this book.

#2. The Immortal Hulk. Honestly, there was a stretch of issues early in the year that dropped the quality down a tad. That meant that it may not have been the absolutely best comic that week. The Immortal Hulk has reupped its awesomeness as the book builds toward the end of the run of Al Ewing in issue 50 in 2021.

#1. Daredevil. Chip Zdarsky has made Daredevil one of the greatest Marvel books every week. He tore down the character of Daredevil this year, and really looked at Matt Murdock and his internal struggle. And it was epic. Issue 25 was just released and was fabulous. I reviewed issues 18, 20, 21 this year (as well as 25). There is so much brilliance on display here that you never know what might be next.

Honorary Mention (Non-Marvel): Far Sector, We Only Find Them When They’re Dead, Undiscovered Country, Sea of Stars, Bang, James Bond

Honorary Mention (Marvel): Hawkeye: Freefall, Ghost-Spider, Maestro, Agents of Wakanda, Ravencroft, Empyre, Black Widow, Avengers, Star

Special Mention of individual issues:

Captain Marvel #17. Love this issue. It have Carol in a card game. It is a wonderful stand alone issue. Something we should do more often.

Immortal Hulk, Great Power #1. A team up with Immortal Hulk and Spidey written by Tom Taylor. I think Taylor is the perfect Spider-Man writer. This was awesome.

Last month, a strange item that reminded many of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey appeared in the middle of a Utah desert. How it arrived there was a mystery. Strangely, then the monolith disappeared overnight. As amazingly as it appeared, it disappeared. Jokes were made.

Then, a monolith appeared in Romania. WTF?

Where will the monolith show up next?

Where will the Monolith show up next?

Who knows for sure….????

This year, there was an explosion of shows on YouTube. It seems as if there are all kinds of shows and only so many hours in the day.

In January, Collider Video fired a group of on air talent and sent them out into the world. That beginning helped bring about the current golden age of YouTube.

Here are the EYG Top 12 YouTube shows.

#12. Steve Hofstetter. Just discovered this comedian who specializes in taking on the hecklers of the world. He does it with the sharpest wit around.

#11. The Outlaw Nation. This stars John Rocha, one of the Collider people let go in January. He brings on guests and talks about anything he wants to. It gave him a much greater freedom than COllider ever would.

#10. Schmoedown Rundown. A reaction show for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown, Schmoedown Rundown features Brad Gilmore and “Frankie Numbaz” Frank Janisch. They discuss the matches from the week before and discuss the MTS.

#9. Jamel AKA Jamal. Jamal watches videos of classic music and comments. He makes his comments in the most engaging and entertaining ways. He has such a love of music and he shares it with you beautifully.

#8. Live at the Roxy. Roxy Striar is another of the Collider cast offs who have taken advantage of the opportunity by creating her channel. She has had a Live at the Roxy every day since, not yet missing a day. Whether for holiday, illness, grief or Nazi trolls invading her show, Roxy has been there.

#7. Backstage. The behind the curtain look at the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. Hosted for most of the year by Ben Bateman and John Rocha, the show has recently replaced Rocha with Innergeekdom legend Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing.

#6. Golden Ticket. “Thank you for being a fan.” A special game show type show where the Top 10 Show guys, John Rocha and Matt Knost, invited their Patreon members to compete in a Jeopardy style contest for a guest spot on their Top 10 Show. Lots of fun and the charisma from the two hosts come thorugh.

#5. Up & Downs. The “Bald *sshole” Simon Miller wields the finger of power and reviews Monday Night RAW, Smackdown, and other WWE PPVs giving the best parts of the shows an up and the bad parts a down. Simon is funny and shares his thoughts on the WWE product weekly.

#4. Fatman Beyond. Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin get together weekly at the bar Scum and Villainy in LA to discuss the current world of pop culture. Kevin and Marc are funny, engaging and thoroughly intelligent, approaching movies and TV with not only a critical eye, but also a fanboy perspective.

#3. Top 10. Matt Knost and John Rocha each week set a topic, compile their individual top 10 lists of those movies and then count them down. Finally, after they reveal their personal top 10 lists, they compile it into a list for the show. I have loved listening to these two for several years now.

#2. SEN Live. SEN stands for the Schmoedown Entertainment Network and it is a morning zoo type show, hosted by Kristian Harloff. They discuss movie news along with whatever else may tickle their funny bone. This year, regular member of SEN, Brett Sheridan, created a character called ZaFlertinflause that took over the internet for a couple of weeks during the pandemic.

#1. Movie Trivia Schmoedown. The MTS was dealt a tough blow this year with the pandemic bringing the show to a halt. However, Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis did not let the virus derail the momentum their show had been building. They took the show virtually and found more of an audience. Between a brilliant live Star Wars tournament on Twitch to the broadcast of the surprising matchup between Kevin Smith and Chris Jericho, the MTS took the challenges thrown at them and made the best of them. A partnership with Skybound gave the show a special burst.

The John Carter Memorial Award is given each year but, to be honest, feels like it is not too fair this year.

That is because the John Carter Memorial Award goes to the film which is considered the year’s biggest flop.

Past “winners” of this award include:

Previous winners:  John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie

A flop does not need to be a bad movie. It is just one that did not perform well at the box office for whatever reason. And this is the reason why this year may not be a fair year to present this award. The box office was nonexistent for much of the year because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Pandemics do cause issues with movie theaters.

However, I did look at early in the year (with one exception) for the films under consideration. So… here is the John Carter Memorial Award recipient.

The Rhythm Section

Blake Lively’s character becomes an assassin who is after the people who were responsible for her family’s death. It lost a bunch of money early in the year. While it may not have been the final award winner in a regular year, this year’s reduced box office makes this one look worse.

Runners-Up: Dolittle, Tenet, Call of the Wild. (Tenet is the only one not from the pre-pandemic world mainly because it did not save the box office as Christopher Nolan seemed to believe).

The 2020 Star of the Year was difficult to determine because 2020 was such a dump fire of a year. So much happened that I felt like it sorely limited the potential choices.

I started brainstorming a list of possible choices but none of them felt right. I’ll address those in the runners-up list. Finally, the idea popped into my head and it fit perfectly. It was not unprecedented that the “Star of the Year” was not an individual person. A few years back I gave the Star of the Year to Marvel Studios (ironically, Marvel Studios did not release a movie or TV show in 2020) so I knew this was going to work.

Previous Winners:  Gal Gadot, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jennifer Lawrence, Marvel Studios, J.J. Abrams, Josh Brolin, Damon Lindelof & Regina King

What, then, was the Star of the Year for 2020? What was something so vital and so important to us in the months of isolation and quarantine? And what came through with its best year of movie entertainment ever?

Yes, The Star of the Year is Netflix!

Not only did Netflix have amazing binge-worthy series such as The Crown, including something for everyone, not only did they have tremendous documentaries like The Social Dilemma that were both chilling and sometimes hard to watch, not only did it give the world a true pop culture iconic show with Tiger King that everyone talked about, but it also provided us with some of the best movies of the year. These include, among plenty of others, Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Adam Sandler’s Hubie Halloween, the comic adaption of The Old Guard, Chris Hemsworth starring in Extraction, and the upcoming final performance in the career of Chadwick Boseman with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

This is just a few examples of the content dropped on Netflix in 2020. This streaming service played such a major part in keeping us sane and entertained as the world went to crap around us. Netflix provided an outlet that made the world not feel like it was collapsing in on us. The nightmares of the real world were kept at bay as we blamed Carol for killing her husband or watched as the game was afoot with Enola Holmes or laughed along with Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani as they tried to prove that they were not involved with a murder in Lovebirds.

All this and the streaming service did not even have Stranger Things this year. 2020 is clearly a highlight for Netflix and, with all the more streaming services nipping at their heels, Netflix truly came to play.

Runners-Up: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, President-Elect Joe Biden, Late Night Talk Show Hosts, Baby Yoda, Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin, Roman Reigns.

Here is a brand new award for the Year in Review. Debuting this year is “The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year” Award.

This was inspired from this year’s winner. The craziness that can come into the world from social media locations such as Facebook or Twitter makes several corners of the internet a toxic place. So much so that many celebrities have left the platforms because of the trolls.

However, I decided that since that toxicity can be a serious situation, we would only “honor” those moments of internet rage that consist of pop culture references that should be considered silly to fight about. Though there were many instances of internet rage directed toward and for President Trump, for or against Black Lives Matter or threats directed toward people, I plan on keeping those out of this award consideration.

I debated about “Karen” videos that are all over the place, but I decided that those fall into the other serious category.

So… here are the three runners-up

Movie Trivia Schmoedown- Marc Andreyko puts down the answer Idris Alba instead of Elba and he wins the challenge. This led to so much chaos for several weeks over something that was not worth the time.

Roxy Striar fights off the trolls from her show. This just happened a few days ago on her Live at the Roxy when a bunch of internet trolls invaded Roxy’s chat with their hate speech and white supremist ideals. I left this in here because of how Roxy fought off the trolls until her moderators could clean them out.

What is the Snyder Cut exactly? The internet trolls were out and heavy for the announcement of the release of the Snyder cut of Justice League but you had better not make any sort of comment about the film not being a complete cut. The utter insanity here was amazing. It is going to be released. Calm down all.

The first winner….

Clearly it should be something about Star Wars, right? Yep…

Baby Yoda eats frog eggs.

Yes, the beloved character from The Mandalorian was not even immune to the trolls as the world lost their minds after Baby Yoda (aka The Child aka [SPOILERS] Grogu) ate some of the frog lady’s remaining eggs that she was trying to get safely to her husband. Cries of genocide echoed through the land. Sure, it may be a little dark, but it is not as if these eggs were fertilized yet. It was like having a boiled chicken egg. Some people used this as evidence to support the theory that Baby Yoda is evil. That sure feels like a stretch to me.

2020 has been a flaming pile of crap.

I hope that I am not being too subtle about my feelings.

Honestly, Kobe Bryant’s death feels like it was 20 years ago.

Still, we will be doing our annual Year in Review over the next month. We will still be doing our Top 30 best and worst movies of 2020. The movies that will make those lists may not make a normal year’s list, but I have currently (as of 11/27) seen 131 movies (which, by comparison, in 2019 I saw 177 films) so there are enough for the two lists.

And with the awards that we present every year, there will be no asterisks! The lists may be lower, but they still count!

We will also be having some extra lists that may reach into the different areas that we typically cover.

Either way, I am looking forward to 2020 coming to a close and wiping this out of the memory .

And with that happy note….. 2020 Year in Review!