The Inevitable Best and Worst List of 2018

Well, I failed to get this out in a timely manner once again! Oh well, 2018 is gone and in the books. The double shipping nonsense has continued and in some cases lead to WEEKLY books! (I’m looking at you Uncanny X-Men). I have continued to buy even more books, if you can believe it. However, my tastes are getting more and more diverse as I still consume a lot of super hero books, but I am also grabbing a lot of other genre books from the independents. Also, apparently, this year was one where I jumped back on to old favorite titles as they either shifted creative teams or came back after a long hiatus.

Anyways, without further ado, here is my review of 2018.

Dearly Departed (The Comics I dropped this year)

Before I get into the rest of my list, a moment of silence for the number of comics that I dropped this year after giving a good go at it:

• Green Lanterns – DC
• Iron Man – Marvel
• Doomsday Clock – DC
• Astonishing X-Men – Marvel
• Avengers – Marvel
• Gideon Falls - Image

Favorite Comic Book Movie of 2018

Black Panther (Marvel Studios) – There were a LOT of comic book movies that came out this year and although the year started with this movie, it remained my easy choice for favorite movie of the year. There was a cultural zeitgeist behind this movie and it was well deserved. I made my feelings pretty clear in my post about this movie, so I won’t regurgitate that here. Even though this came out in February, I felt that there was going to be nothing to beat it for my movie of the year. It held this title easily.

Honorable Mentions: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures)

Worst Comic Book Movie of 2018

Venom (Sony Pictures) – This was the easiest choice on this list. I also made my feelings known about this movie. It should have never been made and the fact that it was and actually did well, makes me sad on so many levels. Just thinking about this movie is making me mad all over again.

Honorable Mention: N/A

Favorite Comic Book TV Show of 2018

Daredevil – Season 3 (Netflix) - Since Netflix seemed content to just push all of their series out the door this year, there were a LOT of shows to take in. Also, there were all those CW shows. My TV stayed busy. At the end of the day, season 3 of Daredevil was so fantastic, that it nudges out my honorable mentions on this list. No other show does fight choreography like Daredevil.

Honorable Mentions: Luke Cage – Season 2 (Netflix), Black Lightning (CW)

Worst TV show of 2018

Jessica Jones – Season 2 (Netflix) – On the other side, we had this show. The first season was pretty strong and all that momentum was lost in this season. I won’t get into detail, but my full thoughts on this show already exist on this blog. It is easily the worst of the Marvel shows and other than Iron Fist, I’ve never been more bored or rolled my eyes so much. It’s a show I hate watched if we’re being perfectly honest.

Honorable Mention: N/A. This show sits alone.

The “Oh you still come out and I buy you” of 2018

Quantum & Woody (Valiant) – This is a book I can honestly point to and not understand why I still buy it. When it first came out decades ago, it was a very good indy book. Then over the past few years we have seen diminishing returns. The characters are borderline unlikeable at this point and I continued to buy it out of my damn problem with being a completionist. It’s not that I can’t stop a bad book, it’s just that when I need certain amount of books to get discounts at my local comic shop, some titles have their role to play…

Favorite New Artist of 2018

Bengal – Death or Glory (Image) - This category is misleading. I don’t mean this artist is new, they are just new to ME. This year I finally discovered work by Bengal and it is gorgeous. He showed some masterful cartooning and dynamic panel layouts. All of his action felt very kinetic. I think Rick Remender definitely wrote to Bengal’s strengths in this book.

Honorable Mentions: Lee Garbett – Skyward (Image)

Worst Artist of 2018

Mike Del Mundo – Thor (Marvel) – Look, every person has their own opinion of art and everyone always has their fans. As far as Del Mundo’s art, I do not like his art at all. His art has made me seriously consider if I want to keep reading Thor, even though I have loved everything Jason Aaron has done with these books. That says a lot. Bad art can ruin an expertly written book. I don’t know what this guy’s appeal is, but I hope they move on from him soon.

Honorable Mentions: N/A

Favorite Artist of 2018

Kris Anka – Runaways (Marvel) – I am going to have to give it up to Kris Anka this year. His work on Runaways has been outstanding. Even more amazing, in this day of double shipping, he had a consistent run which is increasingly rare. The quality never dipped and his portrayal of the Runaways is a big part of its success and my love of the new series. I’m glad he has been on the book for so long and appears to be staying after taking a few issues off. There was a lot of great art this year, but as I thought about it, his work is what I always come back to.

Honorable Mentions: Joelle Jones – Batman, Catwoman (DC), Pepe Larraz – Extinction (Marvel), Pere Perez – Rogue & Gambit (Marvel)

 Favorite New Writer of 2018

Saladin Ahmed – Abbot (Boom Studios!), Spider-Man (Marvel) - He’s been writing comics for a while, but I finally got exposed to a few of his series this year. From Abbot, to a few guest spots on Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel, I liked what I saw from Saladin. He’s going to be writing Miles Morales and it is good to have a person of color writing his adventures. The fact that he is younger also should bring a fresh voice. I might go and find his Black Bolt mini-series.

Honorable Mentions: Joe Henderson – Skyward (Image)

Worst Writer of 2018

Marc Guggenheim – X-Men:Gold (Marvel) – I usually like Guggenheim, but I don’t know what happened this year. He was writing X-Men: Gold and although I bought all the issues (which I shouldn’t have), I felt just exhausted reading this book. It just felt like the most bland, middle of the road characterization of the X-Men. They teased a wedding between Colossus and Kitty Pryde and then that turned out to be a swerve, ala the Batman/Catwoman wedding. Here it was not as masterfully done. Most of the writing this year was good, but this stood out because I had enough of a sample size.

Honorable Mentions: Matthew Rosenberg – Phoenix Resurrection (Marvel)

Favorite Writer of 2018

Brian Michael Bendis – Superman, Action Comics (DC)/Spencer, Nick – Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel) - I am going to have to cop out and split it between Bendis and Spencer. Nick Spencer did the impossible and got me to read Amazing Spider-Man again. Meanwhile, Bendis has made as splash with Superman. He has felt re-energized writing Superman and it feels like he’s really enjoying himself. He’s continued to humanize Superman in a way that we have not seen much of over the years. He’s run the gamut of having Superman deal with small time crime and big time events. We are getting good Bendis right now. As for Spencer, he gets credit for another award on my list which is just below…

Honorable Mention: G. Willow Wilson - Ms. Marvel (Marvel)

Pleasant Surprise of 2018

Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel): I have not read a main-line Spider-Man book on a regular basis in years (not counting the Miles Morales ones, to be clear). So the fact that I not only jumped back in with the new creative team, but that I enjoyed it so much speaks volumes. When I read the free comic book day preview, I was pleasantly surprised. Little did I know that they were able to keep up that same energy and put out an amazing (see what I did there?) run of issues. This run has brought back some deep cuts from the Spider-man lore and instilled that old sense of Marvel wonder. The way he expertly handled the Black Cat/Spider-Man dynamic was fantastic. Starting off with Ryan Ottley was another reason I picked up this book. I’m glad to see him in something else after his time on Invincible. I’m so happy to have Spider-Man back in my life. This was very close to being my favorite book of the year. While Nick Spencer was bad on Captain America, he is perfectly suited for the Amazing Spiderman.

Honorable Mentions:  Superman (DC), Action Comics (DC)

Worst Mini-series of 2018

The Wakanda Forever crossovers (Marvel) - There was a three part mini-series event starring some of the Dora Milaje from Black Panther with Avengers, Spider-Man and the X-Men. While well intentioned, every issue of this crossover mini-series was bad. It was definitely a cash grab after the success of the Black Panther movie. Instead, what we get is some poor characterizations of some of our favorite characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, namely Nightcrawler and Rogue. The art was also pretty pedestrian, bordering on bad. That didn’t help elevate the story at all. Nnidi Okorafor is new to comics, but I can’t give that a pass if the story isn’t at least enjoyable.

Honorable Mentions: Phoenix Resurrection (Marvel)

Favorite Mini-series of 2018

Rogue & Gambit (Marvel) – This series compelled me to actually write a post about it and that is very rare. This book made me wax nostalgic about their romance throughout the years, which I admittedly have not kept up with. What it did was made me realize how perfect these two are for each other. The art on the book was fantastic and the writing was superb. The story blended elements of their past history and used it to have them really talk things out because theirs is an extremely complicated history. They (and you the reader) realize finally how devoted to each other that they really are. I was happy that new series spun out of this and that Kelly Thompson continued to write it.

Honorable Mentions: The Man of Steel (DC)

Favorite New Series of 2018

Skyward (Image) – This has been an imaginative, high concept series. What we have here is a book about what happens to the world when Gravity is essentially lost and the world has to adapt. We pick up the story about twenty or so years after those events and follow the exploits of Willa. The art has been great and the writing has been superb. On another level, what I like is we have a person of color as the main character in the book and she is written like a normal person. Not some stereotype or any of the trappings you typically see. Out of all the debuts this year, this one has stuck with me.

Honorable Mentions: Farmhand (Image)

Worst Series of 2018

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom Studios!) – It pains me to say this. I was happy when this series began due to my love of the series. As it has gone on though, I’ve become less and less under the spell of nostalgia for this book. This year, there was a big, epic event called “Shattered Grid” that was going to change things forever. It combined Rangers from all over reality (various tv series). Instead, I found this event to be overly complicated. In juggling multiple characters outside of our main cast, there was less focus on Jason, Zack, Trini, Kimberly and Billy that we were supposed to be reading about. I don’t care about those other rangers. The story was extremely drawn out. Right now, the past few issues have been dealing with the fringe and not the main cast, as the previous writer has left. I don’t know where they are going, but I am teetering on the edge right now, about to jump off. Quite simply, I think this book has tried to do too much and did not do it very well.

Honorable Mentions: Jughead: The Hunger (Archie Comics)

Favorite Series of 2018

Marvel 2 In One (Marvel) - This was the Fantastic Four book that was not a Fantastic Four book. Writer Chip Zdarksy went a long way in really showing the friendship between Ben and Johnny. It was so good that I was sure that Zdarsky would be writing the revived, mainline Fantastic Four book. He even left breadcrumbs to explain what happened to the Richards family, who you knew were going to be coming back at some point. I was truly saddened when that book went to Dan Slott instead. With this book he earned the right to be able to write that book. It was always at the top of my reading list and I had always looked forward to it. While the art was not the strongest at the end of the run, starting off with Jim Cheung was a treat and put this book on the right footing. In the very least, I will now follow Zdarsky to his other works (Daredevil, Peter Parker: Spider-Man) and hope he gets to write another book within the FF family someday.

Honorable Mentions:  Amazing Spider-Man (Marvel)

Aquaman

Seriously, there were a lot of movies in the back half of this year! So with this being another comic book movie, of course I had to go see it. I know Aquaman is a punchline for the majority of the world. but in the comics he's become a much stronger character in the past few years. Honestly, I've really enjoyed him and was buying a number of his issues since the new 52 relaunch. One of the things they got right was level setting with Aquaman.

I say all this to say I was somewhat anticipating this movie. I say somewhat because DC doesn't exactly have the best track record. Outside of Wonder Woman, everything has been straight up bad. The less we say about last year's Justice League, the better.

I am happy to say that outside of Wonder Woman, this has been DC's best movie since they started their DC Universe line of movies. Granted, I know this is a low bar, but this movie was alright. It was better good than bad. There were certainly some bad parts and I will get to that.

First of all, I think Jason Mamoa is great as Aquaman. He brings a ruggedness to the character that I think makes you take Aquaman a lot more seriously. If they are trying to improve his status quo with the general public, you can't go wrong here. He starts off seeming like a hothead jock, but throughout the movie they show that he does have some intelligence. Otherwise, they risk having him look like a total frat boy. However, his relationship with his dad is genuinely sweet and that humanizes him.

I had to say, I was shocked to see Nicole Kidman in this, but I think she does a great job with what she is given. Everyone else is fine here. There weren't any glaring holes except for maybe Patrick Wilson's King Orm. There is scenery chewing and there is the job he does in this movie. Which kills me because he can be a good actor, but when he plays the villain he goes way over the top and that is what happens here. His acting combined with his delivery of being called Oceanmaster threatens to really doom this movie. It was 100% mustache twirling villain territory. I'm glad we have Black Manta as the other villain in this movie to temper that. At least he has a warped sense of motivation.

For the most part, this movie is really beautiful and they pack a lot of different locales in here. We go from cold marine town to underwater ocean kingdom to the desert to Italy and back to ocean kingdom. This movie is almost like scenery porn.

On the flip side, I was unimpressed with some of the special effects, as there are shots where they use digital stunt doubles and it is completely distracting. There is also some more use of that de-aging technology they have used on older actors. They do it here with Willem Dafoe and it looks super weird. While I'm talking about things I didn't like, let's hit a couple of other items. First of all, the musical choices and score are all over the map here. We get some orchestrated stuff that is then cut into by some weird daft punk sounding electronica from time to time. What the what? Also, this movie has some cutesy scenes where it tries to turn this movie into a romantic comedy. Also, this movie is way longer than it needs to be. There is an extended fight scene in Italy that goes on for way too long and could frankly have been cut from this movie for all I care. We all know where this movie is heading, but it takes so long to get there. This movie really tried to do too much.

All in all, I did not hate this movie. I did genuinely like it. I had fun with it and that is all I can ask. Clearly, DC is doing well with movies that don't have Batman or Superman right now. Hopefully Shazam will be equally as fun. Oh yes, I realize the Suicide Squad falls under the no Batman/Superman, but we don't talk about that.

Daredevil: Season 3

In the past, I would binge these Netflix Marvel shows in a weekend. As life has taken over, I have not been able to watch these at such a quick rate. Also, apparently, I take forever now to post about them!

This show has been out for months and I finished it a few weeks ago. What gives?? I'll do my best to share my thoughts in a coherent manner, but I make no promises. The best I can do is think about how I feel about this show after a couple of weeks.

Instead of making you wait till the end, I will tell you up front. I really loved this season. It made up for season 2, which I was not a fan of. This show took it back to basics for Matt Murdock. Don't get me wrong, I hate the "Woe is me" hero, but Matt has always been a tortured soul. We get to see him work his way back and I enjoyed watching that journey in the first few episodes after the events of the Defenders mini-series.

This season also made me realize that this show is at it's best when the central conflict is between Daredevil and the Kingpin. Watching how each of them make moves to get to the other is compelling television. This season, you get to see how far Wilson Fisk's corruption has permeated the city.

The best addition to this season was the additional characters of FBI Agents Nadeem and Poindexter. Even though it has been a few months, I don't want to give away the arcs of these characters. I will say that they get fully fleshed out and each leads to a conclusion.

I say all of this to add that I loved that Bullseye made his appearance in this show. He also makes for a great villain and he has a somewhat tragic backstory, but really, he is a complete psychopath.

The fight scenes between him and Daredevil are well choreographed and raw. Just like all the fight scenes in this show, which continue to be it's greatest strength. Seriously, they had some fantastic fight scenes in this season as well.

Going back to the characters real quick, I still like Foggy and Karen. However, I thought we got more of Karen's backstory than I really wanted. It helped provide context to events later on, but I don't think it was really necessary. I think they were just trying to give her something to do. At times, I feel like they don't know what they really want her to be. We also get to see Foggy do some stuff and show his value as well. The show is still full of superb actors and everyone does a great job.

I don't know if when this show was being made that they knew it was going to be the last season, but a lot of characters we have seen in all three seasons definitely make an appearance here. It's as if they wanted to make sure everyone gets sent off appropriately.

I hate to be cynical, but if this is truly the end of this series, it's a shame. With Netflix severing their relationship with Marvel, it's a race now to burn off the remaining shows they have left. After Iron Fist only getting 10 episodes, I was hoping this show would stick to that as well. At least the 13 episodes didn't feel too long in the tooth like past series.

If I had one gripe, I really wish we could have seen Matt back in the Daredevil costume. It appears here, but not in the manner we were hoping for.

If you haven't seen this already, be sure to check it out.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

If you keep up with me at all, for some reason I haven't said anything about this movie. I have seen it. In fact, I've seen it multiple times. Off the bat, that should give you an idea how I feel about this movie. I honestly might put this to the top of my personal Spider-Man mountain over Spider-Man: Homecoming, which until this movie, my top Spider-Man movie.

There are so many things to say about this movie and I want to make sure I get all my feelings out there. I generally say this about all comic movies, but I look for these movies to be considered a legitimately good movie, not just "Good for a comic book movie". I am happy to report that this movie is the former.

Even if you don't know anything about Spider-Man, I think it explains things enough to get you up to speed. There are a lot of different Spider-Men that show up here and they make sure to give a quick, cool intro about each of them and how they joined the story. With all of this, the movie's main character is undoubtedly Miles Morales.

Let's start there. Miles was a likable character. What person can't remember that time in their life where they were old enough to try and be independent, but also young enough where they weren't able to do that fully just yet. That never stopped them from trying to be their own person and not have to be controlled by their parents. There was some excellent voice work by actor, Shameik Moore, that grounded Miles. He had to go on an emotional roller coaster ride with Miles and he expertly pulls it off.

Next, we have Jake Johnson, who did a fantastic job as the Peter Parker (with the dad bod) from a different dimension that became a mentor to Miles. What I liked about their relationship is they quickly move on from the gruff, "I don't want to teach you, leave me alone" aspect that they started off with. You felt a real bond between the two and the later scenes between them carry a lot of weight. It was believable because the story built it up that way.

To complete the main triumvirate of our heroes, there is Gwen Stacy, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld. She was also excellent and bounced off the other two characters well.

Let me also mention that the rest of the cast was great with appearances by other actors such as Nic Cage(!), Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, John Mulaney, Liev Schreiber and Kathryn Hahn to name a few.

Moving on to other things I liked about this movie, the animation. This world was highly stylized and it was beautiful. There were pops of color every where. All the locations were fully realized and the characters themselves looked good and they were distinct. They were not cookie cutter at all. I also want to point out that I liked the diverse representation of New York (as it should be) and this does take place in Brooklyn, so that is reflected here. I think every race gets represented in one way or another and I think that is super important. All I could think about is how the kids that watch this will have something to see themselves in. This is the kind of movie I wish I had as a kid. I know I have said that a lot with my last couple of reviews, but that doesn't make it any less true.

The music selection was also key to the experience and it did not disappoint. Some of the characters had their own theme and the bombastic scores that appear during the fight scenes hit the right cord. This movie was VERY heavy, so the moments of levity that they have really help balance that out. There are some truly funny bits here.

I mentioned above how heavy this movie gets. There is a lot of tragedy in this story. Miles specifically. He goes through a lot in this movie and it's so much, you wouldn't blame him if he wanted to pack it in. This story does a great job showing the character that Miles has and you really root for him. You want him to overcome everything. It is a journey that I think is very well portrayed. He had help, but the fact that he actually responded to that instead of being a bratty kid only helped to further make him likable. By using alternate dimensions as a backdrop, they are able to drop in these other Spider-Men without it feeling ham-fisted. Even the reason for the rifts opening in the first place are also tragic. For those that have not seen the movie yet, I do not want to spoil it. This movie also moved at a quick pace, slowing down for more introspective moments from Miles and then kicking right back into the action. Miles has that moment that I always cheer for in movies like this. When he finally pieces it all together and starts to realize his potential. It is always an internal fist pump moment for me.

Finally, this movie is chock full of little easter eggs for those with eagle eyes. For instance, when Miles is scrolling through his phone to call his dad at one point, the names, "Bendis" and "Pichelli" appear on the screen. These are the creators of the Miles Morales character. There's the nod to that awful dancing scene in Spider-Man 3. There's your requisite Stan Lee appearance. Then you have the awesome re-imagining of some of his rogue's gallery here.

Even though it took me a long time to get there, these are all the reasons I really loved this movie. As you can see, I didn't really find anything to nitpick here, which is a rarity for me. Go see this movie if you haven't already!