Hey, Phantomaniacs - it’s
time for the biggest awards event that Needless Things produces all
year long! That’s right, just like every other site on the
internet, at the end of each year I put together a list of the very
best stuff.
Next year I might
actually do some kind of voting thing; at least amongst the writing
staff here. But I didn’t think of that in time this year, so this
is all my opinion.
I’ve been a fan of
James Gunn for years now. When I heard that he would be directing the
unlikely Guardians
movie I had no idea what he would do with it, but I knew that it
would be great.
I had no attachment to
the Guardians and no real knowledge of them thanks to my general
disinterest in the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe (aside from
loving
the current Silver
Surfer
comic). I had faith that whatever route Gunn took, his humor and
cinematic flair would make for another wonderful entry into the
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I had no idea that he
would end up making not only the best film of the MCU, but the best
film of the entire year.
From beginning to end
Guardians
is nothing but pure delight. The visuals are astounding, the
world-building might be the best since Star Wars, the characters are
fully fleshed out and relatable, and the story is not only easy to
understand, but fits in neatly with themes throughout the rest of the
MCU.
We saw it twice in the
theater as a family and have watched it more since buying it on
Blu-ray. I highly recommend James Gunn’s commentary track – it’s
entertaining and revelatory.
As long as Saga
is being published I can’t see another title taking this slot. It
continues to be an engrossing, evolving epic narrative that connects
with me in a way no other comic book ever has.
That’s right – I’m
not just saying that this is the best comic coming out now. Saga
is the best comic I have ever
read.
It’s top of the stack every single time. When I finish an issue I
cannot wait to read the next one. There are a few comics on my pull
list that I might pick up sometimes and think, “Nah – I’m not
in the mood for this one right now”. They’re not bad
comics, but they might have a certain tone that I’m not always
into. I am always ready to read Saga.
This is the comic that made me realize that deadlines and timely
publication mean nothing in the face of an excellent narrative. Not
that Saga
has ever been late, but they do take a hiatus every six issues and
that doesn’t bother me in the least. No matter how long Vaughn and
Staples might take off, I will always be there waiting for new Saga
when they come back.
Next year I might have to
change this category to “Best Ongoing Comic Book That Isn’t
Saga”.
PLUS: The first hardcover
book collecting issues 1-18 was recently released. It gets my highest
recommendation.
I was never a fan of
Daredevil. He just seemed so miserable to me.
Then Mark Waid came along
and reworked Matt Murdock into a guy that was tired
of being miserable. He and Chris Samnee (and several other fantastic
and stylistically appropriate artists) crafted superhero comic books
that are what I want superhero comic books to be – full of fun and
adventure and excitement. That’s not to say there isn’t drama or
high-stakes, but it’s never at the cost of the overall fun tone of
the book.
The beginning of the
fourth volume of Daredevil
finds Matt relocated to San Francisco after having his identity as
the Man Without Fear outed. In an entertaining and surprisingly
realistic move, some folks believe that Matt Murdock is Daredevil and
some don’t. Matt himself denies it, up to and including wearing a
t-shirt that says “I’m Not Daredevil”.
The opening arc of the
new volume is one of the most rewarding stories I’ve read. Things
like Matt’s identity and ability to get around in a new environment
are addressed. The coastal change is done in the best way possible –
it presents new challenges to the character in a completely organic
way. Nothing about the change feels artificial. It’s simply part of
the narrative.
Afterlife
has managed to present new kinds of horror in a compelling ongoing
narrative with each and every issue. But issue six is where things
really got insane. Well, insane-er.
The issue focuses on
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, who hasn’t been seen since her aunts
banished her to some horrid nether-realm for starting the whole
zombie plague in the first place. Sabrina is in a hospital, trying to
determine what’s going on and where she is. It’s a very Hammer
Horror-type mystery.
As things unfold it
becomes clearer that sinister forces are at work (of course) and by
the end of the issue the Old Gods and Cthulu have been introduced in
to the fucked-up, horrifying world of Afterlife
With Archie.
And Sabrina has to marry one of them.
The phrase
“game-changing” is used all too often in the world of comics, but
this issue truly changed everything
and introduced a whole new world of horrors into a narrative that was
pretty messed up to begin with.
Best
TV Series –
Arrow
Best
New TV Series –
The Flash
Outside of Michael
Rosenbaum’s portrayal of Wally West on Justice
League
I’ve never been a big fan of Flash. He runs fast. Whoop-de-do.
Spinning Barry Allen off
of the Arrow
TV show was ingenious for so many reasons. First it allowed him to be
introduced in a pre-existing universe, so establishing his character
was a more focused and enjoyable process. We already knew the world
of Arrow
and the characters that inhabit it. There was nothing to interfere
with our getting to know Barry.
It was also beneficial in
that Barry is a light, hopeful character – something in short
supply on Arrow.
Not that that show is all grim and dark or that it’s characters are
morbid, but there is definitely a darker tone to the show. Barry
Allen, on the other hand, is full of wonder and heart. He was a
refreshing contrast.
It was also an advantage
in that once Barry was introduced and off on his own show, it had
enough separation from Arrow
to really give us more comic booky action that what Arrow
had allowed for. Don’t get me wrong – Arrow
has done a wonderful job of slowly but surely introducing more
fantastical concepts into the show. But the first episode of The
Flash
featured Weather Wizard, a guy that wouldn’t have totally worked on
Arrow.
At least, not prior to
the excellent and brilliant crossover that brought the slightly more
grounded and somber show into the world of metahumans with nothing
short of total success.
Anyway, The
Flash
has been engrossing, fascinating, and compelling from the get-go.
It’s the one show that Mrs. Troublemaker and I look forward to with
equal excitement every week. Aside from Iris the characters are all
well-rounded and entertaining and the stories have been great.
Additionally, the casting of the villains has been absolutely
top-notch. Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold was inspired and I can
only hope that we see a lot more of him in the future.
Best
Album – Mandatory
Fun
– “Weird Al” Yankovic
I listened to this album
for weeks straight after it came out. I don’t know whether that’s
more attributable to the source material of the parody songs or to a
reinvigorated Mr. Yankovic, but to me Mandatory
Fun
seems to be Al’s most inspired album in ages. The only song I was
familiar with prior to hearing the album was the Imagine Dragons
tune, but they were all strong parodies.
The two weak spots on the
album were “Sports Song” and “Mission Statement”. The former
was weak because it just really doesn’t have any replay value. It’s
funny and pretty much encapsulates how I feel about sportsball, but I
only ever needed to hear it once. The latter is in a style that I am
not fond of and typically refer to as “hippie crap”. But I have
to admit that over time it has grown on me. I listen to it now.
Everything else on
Mandatory
Fun is
fantastic. I think “Now That’s What I Call Polka!” is the
strongest polka since 1996’s “The Alternative Polka” from Bad
Hair Day.
“Word Crimes” might be Weird Al’s best parody and “Lame Claim
to Fame” is one of his strongest style parodies.
Overall I would say this
is Weird Al’s strongest release since Off
the Deep End
and is second only to Polka
Party
on my list of favorites from him.
Best
Existing TV Show That I Discovered in 2014 –
Deadwood
Hot damn, this is a great
show.
I like Westerns, but this
one came out during a time when I didn’t subscribe to premium
cable. I kept hearing about how good Deadwood
was, but since premium cable companies like to keep the prices on
their box sets high enough that I won’t buy them I never looked
into this. But then I got into the whole Amazon Prime thing (totally
worth it) and was able to check out some shows I’ve missed.
Deadwood
is, by far, the best of them.
If you don’t know, it’s
a graphic and visceral account of the town of Deadwood’s growth
during the late 1800s. Famous historical figures comprise most of the
characters and the narrative intertwines their stories and activities
within the town. Ian McShane’s portrayal of Al Swearingen is one of
my favorite things I’ve ever seen on TV. It’s a damn shame HBO
cancelled this before the story was done being told.
Best
DVD/Blu-Ray –
Halloween Box
Set
I left this one until the
last minute, hoping two things – 1) That I would receive the Batman
TV Series
Blu-ray set for Christmas and that 2) That the Batman
TV Series
Blu-ray set would take this category with ease.
While the episodes look
beautiful and the set is worth every penny, Batman
falls short on features. The set is notably Adam West-centric and
lacks any sort of commentaries or other episode-accompanying goodies.
It’s a wonderful set and I’m thrilled to have it, but overall it
simply doesn’t measure up to Anchor Bay’s treatment of the
Halloween
franchise.
Granted, the Bay had
years of special features and Special Editions to pull from (and
neglected to include the excellent 25
Years of Terror
documentary), but this Deluxe Blu-ray set is truly the best
compilation of Halloween
– or possibly any other horror franchise- we’re ever likely to
see. It’s packed with alternate cuts, commentaries, and special
features; many of which have never been available before. The
transfers of each film are the very best that have been released thus
far. Season
of the Witch
looked so good that aside from the dated hairstyles and costumes it
could have come out last year.
I spent all of October
watching this box set and I’m still not done. It’s well worth the
price, though many places have it for under a hundred bucks now. Check out my review here.
Best
Kid-Oriented Cartoon –
Gravity Falls
Like many of the great
things that I’ve discovered in my life, Gravity
Falls
took me a little while to warm up to. It’s a bit of an odd concept
and initially it can seem like it’s far too derivative of other
cartoons. While it most certainly is derivative, it’s pulling from
classics horror and science fiction much more than it is any modern
cartoons; even the best of them.
The show follows the
adventures of the brother and sister team of Mable and Dipper as they
explore the titular town, finding strange events and beings that over
the course of the show become intertwined in an overarching mystery.
The show gets deeper and weirder as it goes on and the fantastic
characters and voice actors keep you invested in the story.
The Troublemaker family
still adore our standards like Adventure
Time
and Regular
Show,
but this year Gravity
Falls
pulled out in front of the others as our go-to favorite.
We haven’t seen much of
Rebels
yet, as only seven episodes and a 44 minute feature have been
broadcast so far, but the show immediately enthralled me in a way
that Clone
Wars
never quite did.
Don’t get me wrong –
The
Clone Wars
was at times an epic and even revolutionary television show. But the
word that best describes it is “uneven”. There were entire story
arcs that I simply did not care about. And while I admired the show’s
ability to jump from one character or group of characters to another,
a side effect of this was that I frequently didn’t care about a
particular group and would check out of the show entirely.
Another thing Clone
Wars
had going against it was its prequel-era setting. While it certainly
rose above the movies, it was still stuck telling stories that – to
those of us who grew up with the Original Trilogy – didn’t
matter. No matter how you slice it, the Republic fell.
While Rebels
is still in the same boat – nothing major can change – it is the
story of individuals in the midst of events. We have very specific
characters whose arcs we will follow as the Empire starts to lose its
grip on the galaxy. This smaller focus will allow for more immediate
and fulfilling narratives. From the very first episode I liked Zeb,
Hera, Kanan, Sabine, Chopper, and Aladdin… er, Ezra. And Agent
Kallus makes for a fantastic antagonist and representative of all
that which is wrong with the Empire.
Best
Online Store – Amazon.com
Between Prime, the Wish
List, and the ease of navigation, Amazon wins it again. They don’t
always have the best price on items – rarely on NECA products, as a
matter of fact – but if you’re a Prime subscriber the free
two-day shipping usually makes up the difference. Patience is a
virtue here, as you can put something on your Wish List and within a
couple of months get it for up to fifty percent off of the original
price. Not always, but often.
Everything on this site
tends to be good to great. Plus, unlike other sites I frequent they
seem to have editors on the lookout for grammar issues.
This was one of the most powerful, memorable concerts I have ever witnessed. I still think about it all the time.
This felt like the party
to end all parties. Ever since I was a child I’ve seen movies and
TV shows that depict these larger-than-life events with bands and
people in costumes and all sorts of mayhem. Those things never really
happen. Except that on this night in October at the Atlanta Zombie
Apocalypse, one did.
This one was so close
that I actually typed up a header for Funko’s ReAction line to win
before changing it.
Hasbro’s line edges
Funko’s out for two reasons – pricing and vehicles. The ReAction
lien has nostalgia going for it, but from a purely aesthetic
perspective the figures look crappy compared to the Rebels figures.
Plus you can buy a two-pack of Rebels for the price of a single
ReAction figure.
And then there are the
vehicles. The Rebels line offered three vehicles, each of which is
full of features and
looks good.
As a whole this line is
nice to look at, sturdy, and fun. The figures may have limited
articulation at only 5 points, but they look great and interact with
the vehicles the way they are supposed to. On top of that, the first
wave saw the release of almost all of the major characters. I do
think it’s a shame that neither Sabine nor Hera made the first wave
of figures, but at the same time I do consider them major characters
that will carry the second wave. My son is just as excited about
getting a Sabine as he was about finding an Ezra.
I know there are
technicalities that could disqualify both of these lines. ReAction
really started at the end of 2013 with Super 7’s Alien
figures and the Rebels
line is really just an extension of Hasbro’s pre-existing
simplified Saga Legends line. But both lines started in earnest in
2014 and, quite frankly, were the only new things that felt
new and exciting. Regardless of license and innovations, all of the
NECA lines that I collect fall under the Reel Toys banner and
feel like ongoing extensions of what NECA has been doing for over a
decade, no matter how much better many of the releases seem to be
getting.
This category looks at a
toy company in its entirety – as far as the things I follow, anyway
– and how it has fared in the areas of quality, selection, and
relevance. Taking that into consideration, no other company has even
come close to what Hasbro did in 2014.
While releases across all
categories were more conservative than they have been in years, in
2014 Hasbro managed to satisfy collectors with Marvel Legends, Star
Wars Black, a small but surprisingly satisfying selection of GI Joe,
and what I understand to be a very good year for Transformers. At the
same time they managed to market most of those same brands to kids
with smaller scales and reduced articulation at very affordable
prices.
My son and I collect
various segments of those lines between us and neither of us had any
quality control issues with any Hasbro products, a claim I cannot
make about any other toy company that we buy from.
Okay, well – LEGO. But
that’s, you know, LEGO.
I have blown massive
amounts of money on NECA toys in the past year. Not only does the
company have licenses to tons of my favorite franchises – A
Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead, Pacific Rim, Planet of the Apes,
Godzilla, Alien, and Predator just to name a few – it continues to
innovate with every wave of figures. NECA always seems to be looking
for and implementing ways to make their toys better.
I can’t overlook the
occasional shitty paint app, but otherwise I don’t have any quality
control complaints. Nothing has broken on me in the past year and
NECA has been absolutely nailing it with their selections. On top of
that, the prices on their merchandise continue to be more than fair.
Okay, there was one more
QC issue – this guy.
And NECA did not give one tiny, little shit about helping me out with
him.
This was tough because
one of the hands on this guy did
break. But Mrs. Troublemaker got one for our son, as well, and
nothing broke on it.
Also I stabbed a bloody
hole in my finger with one of his pointy fucking bat ears, but that’s
my own fault.
This is a fantastic
figure that fulfills everything I wanted in a 6” scale animated
Batman figure. This is the animated Batman I’ve been wanting since
1992, and that’s a hard thing to top. It’s over twenty
years
of toy anticipation. And DCC nailed it.
Matty really killed it
with this guy. It’s the most fun, good-looking toy I bought all
year. I wish I had two.
Nothing will ever beat
Pallookaville. You should go and listen to the Jim Stacy Episode of the Podcast
right now.
Next year this category
might be “Best Restaurant That Isn’t Pallookaville”.
Miss Lady Flex gets the
unofficial Needless Things Person of the Year award. I don’t have
words for how much she brought to Whose
EFF,
which was undoubtedly the biggest thing I did all year. I could never
have done it without her and I would never want to. It’s not even
my thing, it’s ours.
Obviously I’m also
grateful to Sexy Wolverine for being amazing and bringing something I
didn’t even know the show needed. And of course I am thankful to
Gary, Shaun, and the Unknown Judge for their senses of both humor and
brevity.
Mostly, though, I am
thankful to every single person that took an hour (ish) out of their
Dragon Con to come and watch us be foolish. Whether you were one of
our incredible contestants or a member of the audience, it means so
much to me that you took away from your valuable Dragon Con time to
come and check us out.
We will be back –
bigger and blacker – in 2015.
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