2008 - A Year In Review

[angelophile]

I'm in trouble this year.

In the past I've done my Year In Review thing come December and rant about comics, TV, movies and music released throughout the year.

The trouble is, this year, well, my TV viewing's dwindled to a few shows, I've hardly bought any DVDs of recent releases and I've not seen a single movie in the last 12 months apparently. I could have sworn I had, but going through this year's releases, apparently not. And, hey, guess what? Yeah, I haven't bought a single album either. I bought some books, but only one or two and the majority of my purchases was old stuff.

But! Never let it be said that I'm backward in coming forward. So I'll give this a stab.

The categories:
BEST MOVIE
BEST TV SERIES
BEST NOVEL
BEST ONGOING COMIC SERIES
BEST LIMITED SERIES/CROSSOVER
BEST COMIC WRITER
VILLAIN OF THE YEAR


BEST MOVIE

I'm in trouble here as I've hardly seen any of the movies that have been released in the last twelve month. I haven't been to the cinema at all and so my viewing has been restricted to DVD and I tend to wait for movies to come down in price before grabbing them. However, it's not a complete washout. I've seen Jumper, the ultimately unsatisfying Burn After Reading, the amusingly entertaining Horton Hears A Who.

I have to promote While She was Out, the latest movie from my mate Don Murphy, whose wife Susan Montford wrote and directed this thriller starring Kim Basinger as a suburban housewife who is forced to fend for herself when she becomes stranded in a desolate forest with four murderous thugs. Notable for Basinger's performance, I found it an entertaining thriller.

But top of the list and right from the top of the year is JUNO, which sneaks in by virtue of being released in the UK a couple of months after the US (February as opposed to late December). No surprise as I'm on record saying how much I loved this movie. Not quite as sharp and biting as Jason Reitman's debut "Thank You For Smoking", nevertheless it's equal parts sweet and heart-warming and funny and snarky and sharp and cynical and even if Ellen Page is probably gay, I still want to have some kind of weird sexless marriage to her and to bear her children. Yeah, sometimes it's a little bit too knowing, trying a little bit too hard to be kooky and cool, but it's still never less than adorable.

BEST TV SERIES

A tough choice this year. Worthy of mention is the recent Wallander trio of feature-length dramas with Kenneth Branagh playing the Swedish detective with a brilliant eye for vulnerability and near-despair. I've once again thoroughly enjoyed the X-Factor, a guilty pleasure of mine and warmed to this year's contestants. Dead Set is worth a mention as a great spin on the zombie genre. Top Gear, as always, is a delight and this year hasn't disappointed with Truck Driving Stig, home made police cars and the Alfas. A special mention, too, for Wolverine and the X-men, which has been as good as I'd hoped and better than I had any right to expect.

But it comes down to Doctor Who and Torchwood, which both upped their game this year. Doctor Who reached its peak with the superlative "Turn Left" and "The Stolen Earth" and once again reminding the British public what a national treasure Bernard Cribbins is and delivering a truly unexpected pleasure in Catherine Tate, who I was expecting to hate after her one-note performance in the past Christmas special.

But, I have to give it to TORCHWOOD. After giving up with this series entirely partway through its first outing, I decided to try the second series and I don't think I've ever been so turned around by a show. Ridiculous plots and equally ridiculous attempts to make the show "edgy" and "adult" had been replaced by genuinely great writing, some amazing performances, particularly from Burn Gorman, tighter plotting and humanity in the characters. It didn’t hurt to have James Marsters swaggering through in his guest appearances. Some of the series was variable but any series that can boast an episode like "A Day in the Dark" has to be applauded.

BEST NOVEL

A section where there's more of a default winner than anything, but this year's winner is NATION by Terry Pratchett. I've been complaining for a while now that Pratchett's work had become pedestrian. With Nation he turned that around and delivered his most thought-provoking novel since "Small Gods". It's a curious beast in some ways, much more serious and intriguing than most of Pratchett's recent works, but he couldn't help but throw in a comedy foul mouthed parrot, which seems to be in the book for now good reason at all and doesn't even provide light relief in the way, presumably, it was intended. Like old Pratchett and the new Pratchett, whose tone has been affected by the diagnosis of his alzheimers, were in conflict. But it's a interesting and impressive read.




BEST ONGOING COMIC SERIES

It's a tough one, this year, it really is. There's two titles competing hard for this crown and a huge gap between them and their nearest rivals - in fact the majority of books I've been reading this year have been underwhelming - X-Factor's not had a good year and the X-titles in general have seen a decline in quality. Runaways was struggling under the curse of Whedon for most of the year and Terry Moore's still hitting his stride. So, out in front, Captain Britain and MI:13 and The Incredible Hercules. Both great books. Captain Britain promised to "bring the hero back" and it's done that along with pathos, drama and great characters.

But, this year, the winner is THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES for taking a character that is unashamedly old school (ancient Greece, it doesn't get more old school than that) and seamlessly blending humour, and lots of it, with classical mythology, surprisingly dark moments, super heroics, romance, beer and teenage sidekicks and simply being better than it has any right to be when it spun out of one crossover (Civil War) and crossing into another (Secret Invasion). It's just simply bloody brilliant and wonderfully smart and fun without trying too hard (like, alas, I find many of the First Class titles do), has consistently looked great with a team of great artists. So, a deserved winner for taking a B-list hero who I've always had a fondness for and pushing him squarely into the A-list. Zounds!




BEST LIMITED SERIES/CROSSOVER

Obviously as a Marvel zombie myself, most of the year's been dominated by Secret Invasion. But there've been a few other crossovers and miniseries to enjoy, despite that non-event making up most of the schedules. Although Secret Invasion wasn't entirely worthless (the X-men and Young Avengers/Runaways tie ins were harmless enough) the name was wholly misleading and they were, in effect, simple slugfests. Marvel Zombies 3 deserves a mention, for being unexpectedly good, but it's not over yet. Then there's All Hail Megatron, out of the Marvel universe and an unexpected, old fashioned pleasure for a Transformers fan. But still not over yet, too. Then there's been Patsy Walker: Hellcat, which looks absolutely beautiful.

But winning and just sneaking into this year is the X-men crossover MESSIAH COMPLEX. Not flawless by any means and frustrating in some regards (the fate of Bishop and breaking up of some great creative teams to relaunch lesser titles annoys the heck out of me), but this was a crossover that actually succeeded in shaking up the status quo, for a while at least, and played each of the writers involved to their strengths. Gripping, bloody and in some ways epic, it was the 90s back in a good way and a decent closing chapter on what had been a brief renaissance for the X-titles.



BEST COMIC WRITER

Somewhat unexpectedly, this year's stand out winner is a name I'm still only on passing familiarity with - FRED VAN LENTE.

Mostly he wins because of his work with Greg Pak on The Incredible Hercules, which has been a source of constant entertainment and the most consistently entertaining book Marvel are producing right now. Why not Pak? Well, Van Lente has also produced MODOK's 11 (which I haven't read, but I've heard good reports of) X-men Noir (which, again, I didn't pick up, but seems to have gone over very well), a bunch of the First Class and Marvel Adventures stuff and also, which I have read, Marvel Zombies 3, which is simply far far more entertaining than any Marvel Zombies series has any right to be after they drove the concept into the ground. So, for his work with Herc and Aaron Stack he gets the prize.

Also worth a mention - Brian K. Vaughan, who had a light year, simply for his final few issues of Y: The Last Man, which was, simply, a masterpiece and Paul Cornell, who had a very good year with Captain Britain and only just missed out on this one.



BEST ARTIST

It's another close one here. Mike Cho produced some absolutely beautiful X-men work earlier in the year and I almost stuck with X-force just for him. David Lafuente comes very close for making Patsy Walker: hellcat look so lush and marvelous, packed with style and sugar sweetness. But after some deliberation, the medal goes to LEONARD KIRK for some really really solid work on Captain Britain and MI:13. Crisp, visually grabbing without every losing clarity, he's hit the mark with every issue of this title and created distinctive looks for all the characters, avoiding the pratfalls of many comic artists of the same faces with different hairstyles or reaching for the light box. Consistency is to be admired.

Plus, as seen on Paul Cornell's blog, he invented Amazing Scale Guy.




VILLAIN OF THE YEAR

I do so hate to sound overly dramatic, but this year's villain - JOE QUESADA.

It's hard to love Marvel right now. The person who had the "Marvel Fandom: The living shall envy the dead" icon on Scans_Daily didn't have it too far wrong. This year I've seen my general interest in comics severely reduced by a number factors, but I find glancing at Scans_Daily a frustrating experience. Depowered mutants, a marriage-less Spider-man, Norman Osborn running SHIELD, hero vs hero while the villains run riot, Ultimatum, a massive Summer crossover that came to nothing… And presiding over all this is Joe Quesada. Credit has to be given for the things done right, but I've been turned off by a lot of the major editorial decisions at Marvel this year and I think next year's going to be a very light year for comics.

Comments

[distractedone.livejournal.com]

Hahha...NICE!

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have to ask - where's that icon from? It's hysterical.

[distractedone.livejournal.com]

I asked the person who made it, and she said it came from some anime photo board. I'm pretty sure it's fan-created. :)

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

I want the original. :(

[kirke-novak.livejournal.com]

I stopped caring about Marvel a year ago, around the middle of WWH. I'm actually starting to get interested now, because of the DR. It totally became "so bad it's good". Alas, we still have MA :D