It actually seems like the first ten years of this new millenium have been absolute heaven for all of nerds and geeks out there. Whether you are into comics, superheroes, movies, books, television, or music something awesome has happened in the last decade that has just made you absolutely exstatic. As much as we would like to give you a “Best Nerd Stuff of the Decade” list it would just take too long – that, and we are a group of surprisingly lazy robots.
Instead, a few of us bots have compiled an extremely abbreviated list of what we consider to be our favorite “nerd goings ons” of 2009. Of course, this is just simply our opinions and events that stuck out to us over the last year in the world of comics, television, movies, etc. Sound off in the comments section and let us know what YOUR favorite nerd thing/event of 2009 was!
Zombietron
- Borderlands – This was a huge sleeper hit of 2009 in video games.
- Batman Arkham Asylum – Best. Batman game. Ever.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Does this really need an explanation?
Proletariatron
- Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 – Simply put, the best book/graphic novel of 2009.
- Better off Ted – Best new sitcom of 2009. Funny, smart, and only 30 min.
Swank-mo-tron
- Cad Bane – This has been perhaps one of the most interesting and amazing contributions to both the nerd world and the Star Wars universe.
- JJ Abrams’ Star Trek – The new movie has helped introduce an entirely new generation to the world of Star Trek and did it in perhaps the most entertaining way possible.
- Avatar – I haven’t seen it yet, but the process of HOW they made the movie will change the way movies of this size and spectacle will be made forever.
Dr. Simulcast
- “Cheap Geek” – Bad economy makes for good geek times! Why? Because companies that cater to a nerd crowd recognize that they pay for what they can afford in really hard times. Even the most hardcore collectors, when left with ten bucks to buy a comic or ramen noodles, will buy the ramen to stay alive and read old issues. A lot of items went down in price this year, and we’re not just talking average DVD sales. Two of the most prominent of the year… The Playstation 3 (once originally priced at $700), now just $299. Where most stand-alone BluRay players are around $250, an extra fifty bucks gets you a top line game system with it. So what if there’s no clock on the front? And the second… the standard iPhone becoming just $99. Originally priced at $300 just last year (before the bug fixes), you now have a multi-purpose phone with thousands of free applications ready for download at an affordable price. Other objects that went down in price from January to now… flat screen televisions, the Wii and 360 (although minor), graphic novels, storage devices and media players.
- “Gooferine” – I’ll keep this one simple. Make all the horrible jokes that you want, Disney buying Marvel was probably one of the best decisions the company could have made, and in turn will probably benefit Marvel as a whole more than vice versa. My only case in point… Marvel’s 90’s cartoons. Finding an audience after the animated Batman series became big, Marvel went all out and made several series into cartoons. X-Men, Spiderman, The Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer… and they were somewhat ideal… but the quality lacked. If you think I’m full of shit, please, do me a favor, click pause on this podcast and go sit through an episode from any of those series in full, and then come back and tell me it was golden. Many were thrown together in haste, chopping up footage and using every animation trick in the book to stretch a 1960’s ten minute read into twenty-two minute 1990’s update. Now for a brief moment, Family Guy joke aside, picture the Disney animation department doing the work instead of Saban. How good would that old X-Men series be? Forget the films and the merch and everything else Disney probably bought them for. I believe a new dawn is on the horizon for Marvel and animation, where an actual effort will be put behind the content. …Now if only Marvel could hire some good writers to adapt the stories for television without pulling random material out of a hat. (I’m looking at you Wolverine & The X-Men)
- “The Great Internet Crash” – While not viewed so much as geeky on the surface, delve deeper into these two subjects and you’ll find greater value for the tech savvy. The death of Michael Jackson and the Iranian Riots. The internet, while a valuable tool for millions, has been viewed more as a “play thing” over the years (insert porn joke here) than a mainstream source of information. One look at a Wikipedia article can tell you that. But over the summer two events changed MANY opinions. Jackson’s death, started as a simple text message, brought many search engines to a screeching halt within hours and forced many providers look at how they not only delegate service but examine what improvements the US (and the world in general) needs going into the future. While Iran’s election and subsequent revolution was documented in full… on Twitter. With updates and information coming in faster than some news organizations could keep up with, and continued to provide info long after many news crews were threatened with being shot if they didn’t shut down their reporting. While much more could be said on these subjects, in the ideal of keeping it short and sweet we’ll leave it at this. I believe its fair to say that 2009 was the year that the internet finally grew up, came into its own as a major source of information, and officially became a necessity as opposed to a commodity.
Botasaurus
- Zombieland – Because life with zombies is epic. Woody Allen killed it and Bill Murray is hilarious.
- Ontario Math Scholars – Writing a mathematical thesis on the chances of the world surviving a zombie apocolypse using older zombies that are slow, not the new super zombies.
- Jim and Pam Get Married – I’m a girl and I was waiting for it for what seems like forever.
- Dexter Season 4 – Holy cow!!! That was so freaking amazing. Quite possibly the best season yet.
Kill-tacular-Tron
- Ghostbusters – Ghostbusters merchandise, Ghostbusters anniversary, Ghostbusters videogame, Ghostbuster 3 movie news! It was a great year to be a fan of Ghostbusters!
- Netflix on Xbox 360 – A great addidtion to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Sign up and stream TV shows and movies straight to your TV via your gaming console!
- Saberforge Lightsabers – Best lightsaber replicas! You can actually hit stuff with them and they don’t break!
Arse-bot
- LOST Season 5 – This show has been absolutely addictive and this was a great season leading up to the finale season.
- DC Feature Length Animated Movies – DC release two really solid feature length animated movies in 2009, Green Lantern: First Flight and Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. Both of these feature Bruce Timm involved to some degree and are great animated flicks to check out.
- (500) Days of Summer / UP – My two favorite movies of 2009. Joseph Gordon Levitt and the cast of (500) Days of Summer execute a great script and story perfectly and Pixar does it again with another amazing entry to their library of films with UP.
Budgetron
- 70 Minute Phantom Menace review – Your heart knew the Phantom Menace sucked as soon as the “new car smell” wore out and you were left with nothing but a 3 year wait for Attack of the Clones, but you never knew exactly why you hated it so much. Well, don’t worry, you’re about to give your brain a blow-by-blow of why your heart was right about the Phantom Menace. You may be thinking, “Yeah, it might be fun, but 70 minutes?”, yeah, I thought that too…but if you’re any kind of Star Wars fan, this uber fan’s review of the film is a thoroughly entertaining and insightful MUST WATCH.
- Swank-mo-tron’s Reaction to the 70 Minute Phantom Menace – And as much as I loved the 70 minute review of Phantom Menace, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could have prepared me for the level of seething hatred Swank-mo-tron had for the creator of said review. Without even WATCHING the review, Swank furiously hit the internets with a purpose; oh yes, he was going to take the whole internet to task with an eye single to the glory of George. You would have thought the murderer of his children was getting set free, but no…someone just made fun of Star Wars. It was great.
There’s our list for 2009! Tell us what your favorite Nerd/Geek thing/event of 2009 was in the comments section below!
Also, be sure to check out our December Big Shiny Podcast where we break down some nerd news from December and highlight some of the items from our “Best Nerd Stuff of 2009” list!