Tireless poster Torsten Adair has incredibly spent part of his holidays toting up the most popular stories — as measured by comment response — here at The Beat, and we’ll rev up for ’10 with a brief look back. Here’s how things went a year ago in January 2009:

January 2009 (11 no comments)

114 Kim Condemns Hollywood Racism

94 Willingham calls for end to Hollywood Decadence

88 Today’s pet peeve— this was the “complimentary copy” kerfuffle — I notice people have started calling them “review copies,” perhaps part of the FTC crackdown on paid blogging.

80 Josh Tyler — Jerk of the year

76 New Diamond policies expected to have massive effect

67 Female superhero fight

61 DC layoffs include Schreck

57 DC Comics Month-to-month Sales November 2008

37 Marvel Month-to-month sales: November 2008

48 Kyle Baker’s Review of the Spirit