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 #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

(click to enlarge)
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.

General Interest: Comics

With all the posts about How I Met Your Mother and Game of Thrones, I felt I should show some to my other interest. I’m going to try my best to to make General Interest ([salutes] General Interest) a reoccurring post, covering different areas of interest. This go round will focus on comics, as in comic books.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The MCU has to be my favorite thing going on in movies right now. Being a kid and growing up with some of those classic superhero animated shows, Batman the Animated Series, Spider-Man, and X-Men, it was hard to imagine we’d be able to see live action versions of these comic properties on screen. Then we got Batman, X-men, and Spider-Man movies with varying degrees of success. Eventually, these series would run their course, and we wondered what the next progression would be. Then in 2008, Marvel Studios started to lay the ground work towards something bigger, despite not owning the movie rights to their most popular properties (they belong to Fox and Sony).

Iron Man came out and it became a surprising hit. Then Marvel continued to push it to the point that in 2012, they swung for the fences with The Avengers. Their ace in the hole was tasking Joss Whedon, who was no stranger to ensembles and geek culture, to put it all together. One billion dollars later and now this thing has become a full fledged machine, where they are expanding to television, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Defenders, and the more unconventional (i.e. weirder) elements of the Marvel universe, like this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

The draw for me is the ambition. I’ll be the first to admit that not all these movies are good, but they are serviceable, and every-once-in-a-while they’ll knock one out of the park (for example Captain America: The Winter Soldier). I was thrilled to have Batman (Burton and Nolan), Spider-Man (surprisingly like both versions), and X-Men, but for Marvel to pull this off and create a universe that mirrors their comics is astounding and encouraging. Maybe all those geeky things I liked growing up may find their way towards popular culture, and that’s why I love the MCU for proving that this can be successful.

Hawkeye (Marvel Now)

I just recently got back into comic books, and the first trade of the Hawkeye series, My Life as a Weapon, is a big reason why. It’s ironic to be drawn to Hawkeye, a.k.a. Clint Barton, being that he’s the only Avenger without superpowers. Clint’s limitations make this series compelling. While he’s a highly trained soldier that is capable of doing extraordinary things, he is without the powers and abilities of his peers that make them appear to be invincible.

Matt Fraction’s story does a fantastic job of portraying Clint as an everyman that’s just trying to do right by the world despite his tendency to muck it all up. His relationship with the other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, is genuine and painfully real at times. They get each other and don’t all at the same time. The issues illustrated by David Aja are works of art. If I could eloquently describe what makes Aja’s illustrations great, I would…except I can’t. You just have to take my word for it. The art compliments the story and does a wonderful job of capturing Clint and Kate as they get thrown into wild situation after situation. Give that first trade a shot, and don’t be surprised to be drawn in.

Saga

Saga exudes Star Wars for me. The story is still in its infancy (18 issues in), but it’s building to something epic and grand. Classical story elements (relationship between two people from warring races) with some unexpected twists (like the bounty hunters chasing them down) mixed in with a stunning universe that is both beautiful and strange. The relationship between the two main characters, Marko and Alana, has a realness to it. They rag on each other, get frustrated with each other, and love each other despite the hardships. Also, my current life situation, may play a factor in me being able to relate to these characters as they try and raise a baby in this (well, their) crazy world.

Brian K. Vaughn is an established story teller, and he’s done a wonderful job with Saga. The story progresses at a solid pace, and he’s done an excellent job of mixing in humor to break up the dramatic moments. Fiona Staple’s art is just as fantastic as David Aja’s. There is a lot of strange in this story, but Staple’s illustrations give this story a pulse and make it seem real, no matter how bizarre the worlds or characters get. It’s amazing how well this series has come together. It tells a classic story, but manages to be new and refreshing. It introduces a lot of weird elements, but manages to feel authentic with rich, well developed characters. I highly recommend jumping on this ship and following it to whatever conclusion it may have.

Arrow

I know. This is a CW show, and I’m a 30 year-old man child, but this is a great show. I mentioned Arrow last year, and it continues to get better and better. Yes, it shares some of the same issues that all CW shows have. It’s populated with overly attractive people and appears to be “soapy” at times. The good, though, outweigh the bad. For one, it’s entertaining as hell. The action is well choreographed and can be surprisingly brutal. The show has a great sense of humor, and the general feel from the cast suggests that they all love doing this show.

The DC universe is a wonderful resource, and Arrow has been tapping into all aspects of this ‘verse. Along with the Green Arrow, elements of the League of Shadows (Batman) and the Suicide Squad (Justice League) have been interjected into the show. A spin-off is already planned with The Flash, and who knows how much further Warner Bros. will expand on the comics with these two series. While I feel that Marvel with their MCU is outperforming DC in movies, I don’t have a problem saying that DC with Arrow has a leg up over Marvel (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) in television.