Favorites of 2015

2015’s installment of favorites of the year will have a different look. 2014 saw my television consumption increase as my appetite for movies slowly diminish. Well, that trend continues as I’m more or less tapped out with the number of shows I’m following (please, stop making good television shows, I can’t watch anymore). I hardly make it out to the movie theater nowadays (a toddler and an infant may have something to do with that). To add to the madness, I’ve becomes somewhat (okay, totally) of an avid comic book reader. Long form story telling is at a ridiculous high, which is another way of saying that television and comic books are killing it right now. Without further ado…

Favorite Movie


The incredible trailer came out of nowhere last year, and immediately Fury Road was on my radar with the big question being: could it possibly live up to that trailer? Short answer: absolutely. The most fun I had in the theater this year and it’s as simple as that. Highly recommend taking a trip to the theater if its re-released for an unexpected awards push (yes, it’s that good).

Favorite Apology

I never got around to writing about The Force Awakens, so here it is:

The Force Awakens was made for me. Specifically, an original trilogy (OGT) fans who felt betrayed by the abominations that were the prequels (yes, they were that bad). I lost faith that we were ever going to get Star Wars after the debacle that was George Lucas’ return to the directors chair. It got so bad for me that I even began to question the OGT. Then Lucas sold Lucasfilms and JJ Abrams was brought on board. There was hope. The Force Awakens NEEDED to be a Star Wars movie. More than anything else, it needed to bring the world back to a galaxy far, far away. It did, and that’s all I needed it to be.

Apology accepted.

Favorite Drama

Mr. Robot left the deepest impression on me. There are five or six other shows that could have been in this spot (seriously, stop making good television shows, I can barely keep up), but I went with the where-the-hell-did-this-come-from newcomer that was inexplicably in tune with the zeitgeist of the this crazy world we live in now. A fascinating story that is executed damn near perfectly with beautiful cinematography and moving performances.

Favorite Sitcom

Binged the second season of You’re the Worst on New Year’s Day, but I’m keeping it here as my favorite sitcom of 2015. YTW works because it succeeds in making four incredibly depraved people sympathetic.

On top of that, it’s a show that can be both hilarious and poignant. There are some nice, quality sitcoms out there on network, cable, and streaming, but none of them got to me as effectively as You’re the Worst.

P.S. Aya Cash had one the consistently great performances for any show this season. While the ensemble is solid and without a weak, Cash was so, so good this year and it worth mentioning.

Favorite Episode

bruh

I MEAN…BRUH

Favorite Ongoing

Look. It’s one thing to be the cool new book with the flashy new concept and the ever growing buzz. It’s another thing to be It and be It for an extended period of time. Saga is and continues to be that book that comic book readers recommend to the casuals. Saga has been consistently good for so long that it has become boring for the comic community to recognize its excellence. Saga is the bestest.

Favorite New Series

To avoid being giving in to my BKV fanboyism (read Paper Girls, it’s great), I went with Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s wonderful science fiction book about a boy android who may hold the key to the survival of the human race. The art is one-of-a-kind and the story moves in all the right place. The recently started second arc hit with a incredible new plot line and there’s no doubt this series will continue to astound.

Favorite Piece of Entertainment
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Favorite Album

Like You’re the Worst, I didn’t get to Hamilton until after New Years, but I’ve been listening to this damn album for the past week and I’m full blown obsessed with this show. This is THE BROADWAY show right now. Want to get tickets to see it? Have fun coughing up large sums of money to see it as early as September 2016.

The musical is based on the Ron Chernow’s biography on Alexander Hamilton. Another fun thing about Hamilton…it’s a hip-hop musical. Yeah, I brushed it off at first, too. A hip-hop musical set in colonial times following one of the America’s founding fathers, and, and, and IT’S THE BEST DAMN MUSICAL I HAVE EVER HEARD.

The Pull #3

Well, this is going to be fun. After a long hiatus, we’re going to cover a lot of ground here. To make things easier, I’m going to break these up into three different posts. This first post is going to cover the Image books: Saga (#27 & #28), Descender (#2 & #3), Chrononauts (#2 & #3), and Injection (#1).

With two more issues left in the current arc, Saga began to pick up and continues to maintain its standing as one of the best ongoing series. BKV continues to do an excellent job of balancing the many storylines without sacrificing the character moments that have become of staple of the series. Speaking of staples, Fiona is the best damn artist out there right now. Her character designs are unique and, despite their quirkiness, very much feel like they are part of this wonderful universe that Brian and her have created. The last panel of the issue #28 is magnificent and tragic:

Descender is classic sci-fi, through and through. The latest two issues focus on the little android, Tim-21, as he’s fleeing a group of bounty hunters while continuing to recover his memory after being reactivated. The flashbacks were effective in showing how Tim transformed from a stiff, emotionless android to a boy who became a part a member of a human family. The water color from Dustin Nguyen is breathtaking and effective in evoking the emotions of the scene. Take for example a moment during Tim’s flashback:

There’s a warmness to this collection of memories despite it being in black and white, and it does a wonderful job in making Tim-21 an empathetic character. Jeff Lemire is becoming one of my favorite writers as this series and his work with All-New Hawkeye have been excellent series to follow. Descender moves at a wonderful pace as character introductions are given the right amount of time and care. The mystery behind the Harvesters is slowly unraveling and will begin pick up now that Tim is reunited with his creator. I, for one, can’t wait to see where this goes.

If you’ve seen or read Kingsman or Kick-Ass, then you know that Mark Millar has a penchant for unbridled insanity. Chrononauts is Millar playing with time travel. In pure Millar fashion, he has no regard for consequence and time paradoxes. Just look how this scene plays out:

The bro-mantic leads of the series are pursued by a time travel security force and interrupt Super Bowl III. Instead of being restrained in their pursuit of the main characters, the security force decides to open fire and kill civilians with no regard the effects of this senseless violence will have on the future. There’s a part of me that wants the time travel to be well thought out and explore the repercussions of altering the past. Then there’s the other part of me that wants to have fun with this premise and treat the whole damn thing like a giant playground where anything is possible.

Chrononauts is just a big ole’ bag of fun and I can appreciate it for that. Sean Murphy’s art remains fantastic, and he’s proven to capture the kinetic nature of this book while also hitting on the humorous moments. There’s only one more issue left in this limited series, but both Millar and Murphy have indicated that they will return to this world next year with another limited series. Regardless, it’s been a fun ride, and I eagerly await the conclusion of this story.

Injection is a new series from the team that reintroduced Moon Knight to much acclaim. Essentially, Injection is Fringe in comic book form. With this first issue, acclaimed writer Warren Ellis doesn’t rush to introduce the characters and the overarching story, and only offers a glimpse of a few members of the Cultural Cross-Contamination unit that has since been disbanded. These brief glimpses at the characters are just enough to remain intriguing, despite having no clue of their origins or where the hell this story is going. The art is exceptional. Just look at the cover for the first issue:

I love how our introduction into this series conveys a grand scale while maintaining an air of mystery. The first issue is a slow burn, but it ends on quite the note that is hauntingly and beautifully depicted by artist Declan Shalvey and colorist Jordie Bellaire:

The pedigree of the creative team is what drew me to this series, and I wasn’t disappointed with this wonderful introduction to this strange new series.

The Pull #2

This issue of The Pull will cover the third and fourth weeks of March, which includes Chrononauts #1 and Silk #2.

FAVORITE PANEL

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Sean Murphy is one of my favorite artist and, as with last issue’s favorite panel, it’s the little details that make Murphy’s work so enjoyable. Here we see some clergy members reacting to the live telecast of our Chrononauts embarking on their journey into time. While all the nuns seem to be shocked at the telecast, we have the single male in the room, a priest nonetheless, mimicking one of the Chrononauts. I also enjoy the framing of the panel which is a wonderful angle of the room with a close up of a mortified nun clutching her rosary. Once again my favorite panel is a comedic panel, but panels like these are filled with minute details which makes rereads enjoyable and warrants your attention.

Chrononauts is a limited series from Mark Millar (writer) and Sean Murphy (artist). Like most original Mark Millar books (Kick-Ass & Kingsman: The Secret Service), Chrononauts looks to be heading the big screen, not too long after the first issue was released. The story begins as modern machinery is being discovered within ancient landmarks, which intrigues NASA scientists who are about to unveil their newest discovery: time travel. The first time travel event is sending a drone into a Civil War battlefield to be broadcasted to the world in the present. Panels are dedicated to capturing the public watching this historic broadcast, depicting a scene similar to what it must have been like when the first moon landing occurred. It’s moments like these where this book hits the mark.

Overall, this is a solid start to this four part limited series. The art is wonderful. The combination of Sean Murphy’s (Punk Rock Jesus and The Wake) ink work and his Matt Hollingsworth’s (Hawkeye and The Wake) coloring is just a joy to see. Murphy is pretty much the best at drawing machinery and the level of detail in his work is awe inspiring. The time travel sequence is especially spectacular with an explosion of lights and color. Mark Millar does a good job of opening this story and introducing us to the two main characters. I felt the pacing became a little uneven right before the two Chrononauts are about to make their first jump. One of the characters has a backstory with his ex-wife that seemed a little forced, but it’s obvious this storyline is going to factor in later on. So, I’ll give Millar the benefit of the doubt and let him develop it as the series progresses. Regardless, it’s a solid start to this series and I can’t wait for more.

For the record, I have yet to read the first issue of Silk due to it flipping selling out in Colorado Springs. I’m waiting to pick up the second printing of the first issue, but I went ahead and read the second issue anyways. Cindy Moon was bitten by the same radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker and made him Spider-Man. Cindy was then locked into a bunker by her parents to protect her from the vilains of the Spider-Verse arc that concluded last month. Spider-Verse introduced us to the Cindy’s superhero incarnation, Silk, and upon the conclusion of Spider-Verse, Cindy set out to find her family. Issue #2 continues Cindy’s search for her family as she hits her old neighborhood to see if anyone knows their whereabouts. During her investigation she encounters a Hydra bot that she easily dispatches after the fight is taken to the sewers. It’s later discovered that some shadowy figures were behind the bot’s attack as a means to retrieve information on Silk.

Robbie Thompson did a great job with the pacing of the story, as we got more insight on Cindy as she struggles to find a place in the world after being locked up in a bunker for nearly a decade. The structure of the story could have been confusing and messy, but Robbie does a good job of making sure it’s clear where (and when) we are in the story. I really enjoy Stacey Lee’s art. While, I’ve only recently begun reading comics, I have been reading manga for the past eight years (Naruto and Bleach). So, Silk is a wonderful transition coming from the manga world. Panels like these evoke art that I’ve been exposed to with manga artists:


This art style is obviously intentional considering Cindy Moon is an Asian-American character, and I can’t help but love it.

Initially, I was more excited for Spider-Gwen, but I find myself enjoying Silk more (Spider-Gwen was on my pull list months before it was released, while Silk didn’t even make the list until after its first issue). Given some thought, though, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Silk is the better story so far considering it takes place in Marvel’s standard universe (Earth-616), whereas Spider-Gwen is trying to develop and establish a new universe (Earth-65). Also, Silk has the benefit of having an over-arching storyline (Cindy’s search for her family) that is fairly easy to follow versus Spider-Gwen who is merely trying to establish herself as a superhero (which is something Silk is also doing). Regardless, both books are worth the read, I just prefer one over the other.

Whew! Well, that was fun. Next issue, we got the latest issues of Saga, Descender, All-New Hawkeye, and Spider-Gwen.

The Pull #1

And just like that I’m already off my supposed schedule

This issue of The Pull will cover the first two weeks of March, which includes Saga #26, Descender #1, All-New Hawkeye #1, and Spider-Gwen #1.

FAVORITE PANEL

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One of the aspects of All-New Hawkeye I was curious about was how much of the humor from the previous series would be carried over to this new series. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to see that the goofiness found its way into this series. This panel is proof of that, specifically the Hydra agent that was taking a selfie (circled for your attention). It’s little details like this that make the medium so enjoyable.

Saga continues to be solid per usual, and proves it can be heartbreaking at any moment. I kind of wish each issue would be limited to one or two story lines, as I feel that each of the three story lines weren’t given enough attention. It’s a minor gripe and may be a result of me recently rereading the series up to this point, which highlights a drawback of the issue by issue approach (it’s the follow television week by week vs. the Netflix binge dilemma). Essentially, I enjoy this series so much that these issues never feel long enough or get here soon enough. I find it interesting that Brian K. Vaughan continues to give us narration that foretells the future, and yet when the crap hits the fan, I know I’m going to be stunned. BKV has made a career was giving us the unexpected and it just hurts so much more when he tells us it’s coming and the realization that the wait is so agonizing.

I didn’t know too much of Descender going in outside of Sony picking up its movie rights before the first issue even came out. After reading the first issue, it’s easy to tell why Sony took the risk in securing the movie rights. Descender has a cinematic feel to it and the way the story unfolds seems like it could easily be translated to the screen. The water color art hit the right note with me, and was a joy to look at on the reread.  I can’t wait for the next issue and see the story unravel as this issue was a wonderful entry into a series I look forward to following.

Another new series from writer Jeff Lemire is All-New Hawkguy, which had the unenviable task of following Matt Fraction’s acclaimed Hawkeye run. Whatever concerns I had going in were abruptly put to rest after one issue. I mentioned before that the humor made its way through the transition, but another aspect of Fraction’s Hawkeye that made its way into Lemire’s series is the relationship between Clint (Hawkeye) and Kate (Hawkeye, I love that they don’t differentiate from each other). Another stand out of this issue was the art during Clint’s flashbacks. There’s a haziness to these panels (if you even want to call them panels) that establishes that these are Clint’s memories, however tough and foreboding they may be. I’m really encouraged by this first outing, and I guess I’m a Jeff Lemire fan considering he went two for two with his #1’s this month for me.

Spider-Gwen is an interesting series that started out as a twist on a charater to participate in the recent Spider-Verse event. What was meant to be a cute one issue introduction (Edge of Spider-Verse #2), gained a huge following and earned itself its own ongoing series. This is one of three spider women with their own series (Spider-Woman and Silk being the other two), and this one gets the added wrinkle that its taking place in a separate universe from the other two (them being from Marvel’s standard 616 ‘verse). My favorite twist from this universe out side of Gwen’s kickass costume is Matt Murdock being the Kingpin’s lawyer and muscle. It was quite surprising to see Daredevil enforcing on behalf of the Kingpin in this issue, and it will be even more interesting if Gwen ever comes to blows with the man without fear. The series still seems be finding its footing, but I’m encouraged by this issue with the direction its going.

That’s a wrap for this edition of The Pull. See you in two weeks for thoughts on Silk #2 and the first issue of Chrononauts.

The Pull #0

A little background about my comic book hobby and what to expect with this bi-weekly post. Last year, I got into comic books through a co-worker and since then this has been an interest that has grown and took a life of its own. Growing up I somehow imagined that I was really into comic books, but the truth of the matter was that I was a super lazy kid and was instead into animated television shows based on comic book properties. The proliferation of comic books into pop culture has fostered my growing interest in comics and everything came to a head last year when I was introduced to Matt Fraction’s and David Aja’s Hawkeye series. I briefly wrote about this series and getting into comics last year. What started off as me picking up up a few trade paperback collections grew to me getting hardcover omnibuses of completed series and eventually to collecting individual issues on a monthly basis. Now I’ve got a pull list at a local comic book store (Escape Velocity Comics, First and Main location) and a growing comic book collection.

As for preferences this is where I stand. I’m a Marvel guy plain and simple, with my favorite character being Spider-Man (thank you 90’s animated series). I haven’t read any DC stuff with the exception of Scott Synder’s Death of the Family Batman arc. Oh, and my favorite DC character is Batman (again, 90’s animated series). My favorite writers are Brian K. Vaughan and Matt Fraction, with a nod to Mark Waid and Johnathan Hickman, whose works I also enjoy (surprise all Marvel guys). Artists that have caught my eye are Fiona Staples, David Aja, Annie Wu, Sean Murphy, and Stacey Lee. While I am a Marvel guy, I actually really dig what Image Comics is doing and tend to prefer their books. Well without further to do my pull list:

CURRENT
Silk
Spider-Gwen
All-New Hawkeye
UPCOMING
A-Force
Runaways

CURRENT
Saga
Sex Criminals
Descender
Chrononauts
UPCOMING
Injection
A.D.: After Death
We Stand Together
Paper Girls

The first week of March is going to be a big week with new issues of Saga and Silk and the debut issues for Descender and All-New Hawkeye. So, come back later in the week and get my thoughts on these books.