“Pork and Beans” by Weezer and “So What” by Pink. 2008 was a really great year for “fuck you” songs, as the general frustration of the world with stupid bullshit finally hit its boiling point, and these were two of the best. Weezer’s song was “Fuck you, I’m a nerd” and Pink’s was “Fuck you, my marriage didn’t work out and who are you to comment.” They both had fantastic hooks (Pink’s “na-na-na-na” in particular will burn itself into your brain) and great musicality, and while Weezer’s video might have been a love letter to internet geeks, Pink’s video had Pink dancing naked and chainsawing down a tree, so at best the “best video” contest between these two is a wash.
The Incredible Hercules. Let’s face facts: 2008 was a remarkably shitty year for Big Two superhero comics. Other than the tail end of All-Star Superman‘s glorious twelve-issue run, what was there? “Event” comics repeatedly failed to impress (something which, at this point, should surprise absolutely nobody) and most superhero comics held up as this year’s exemplars of the form (Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider, say, or Geoff Johns’ work on Green Lantern, or Abnett and Lanning’s writing on Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy) are barely more than what should be expected out of the form – competent, entertaining storytelling that isn’t particularly revolutionary. The one bright light in all of this was Incredible Hercules, a comic which takes the mythological scope of Walt Simonson’s Thor and marries it to a humourous style not unlike that of Giffen and DeMatteis’ Justice League International (with the same core of pathos that that latter title had). Constantly wonderful and only getting better with time.
WALL-E. The single best film Pixar Studios have ever made – and considering this is the studio with Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and The Incredibles under its belt, that says something. Confident enough to wed most of its storytelling to physical comedy – and physical comedy created by a junky little robot no less – the scope and ambition of WALL-E is only more breathtaking. Yes, Andrew Stanton and company walked it back in public, claiming that it wasn’t “about” consumerism and the ecological destruction of the planet. The rest of us knew ass-covering bullshit when we heard it.
Nation by Terry Pratchett. Nobody knows how many swings at the plate Pratchett has left in him at this point, so that makes this home run of a book all the more glorious; a book which manages to be horrifying without being gory, romantic without being crass, sad without being melodramatic, spiritual without being moralistic, and praiseworthy of science without being annoyingly self-satisfied. As it is a Pratchett book, it is of course also very, very funny and clever throughout, and its message – of the possible comingling and even necessary interdependence of science and religion – is timely and welcome.
Leverage. God, how did John Rogers pitch this and ever have any trouble? “It’s Ocean’s Eleven versus evil corporations who screw over the little guy.” Why did it take so long for someone in Hollywood to throw money at him to get it made? But finally it happened, and this show is a glorious triumph – funny, exciting and most of all you never, ever have to watch it in Idiot Mode because the characters are doing stupid things for stupid reasons. Leverage is a show where the characters, at their worst, do smart things for stupid reasons. Or stupid things for smart reasons. And that makes all the difference.
Furr by Blitzen Trapper. I like music with energetic beats and operatic ambition, so the fact that I’m putting simple, folky, gentle Blitzen Trapper on my “best” list should serve as notice to how brilliant this record was. The title track is a love song about a werewolf, for crissake – just saying that should prepare you for some of the shittiest filk imaginable, but instead Blitzen Trapper makes it work, avoiding cute jokes and writing pure, eloquent poetry, and sounding all the while like a young version of Bob Dylan backed up by The Band. Just fantastic.
Berlin: City of Smoke. Jason Lutes’ epic continues to be absolutely fucking staggering. You should read this comic. Enough said.
In Bruges. Tanked at the box office, as people expected from the shitty advertising campaign that it would be another Lock, Stock-lite English gangster caper film, but instead this was by turns a funny and solemn story about two gangsters (in Bruges) taking cover after a crime gone horribly wrong, a crime that left scars. The comedy comes from razor-sharp dialogue; the pathos from absolutely brilliant work by Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes, and a story that inverts the usual heh-heh-we’re-gangsters tropes and unabashedly, without moralizing, points out that the criminal life really, really sucks at your soul. The best directorial debut of the year, by a country mile.
Northlanders. Brutal, vicious, and utterly fantastic Viking stories that only served to once again remind comics fans of why Vertigo still matters if you’re not interested in medium-dark fantasy (along with the equally fantastic Scalped). Totally hard-ass and uncompromising about both the virtues and flaws of the Viking world, and the lack of an overarching supernarrative means that Brian Wood can do what he does best – stories more connected by theme than by plot. (With Vikings in them.)
Fallout 3. Everybody else has already said everything that could be said about this game, so I’ll just throw in a backhanded compliment: the game is so crazily chock-full of content that I maxed out at level 20 when I was less than a third of the way through the main plot. Dear Bethesda: please to patch game to give more levels please.
Bob on Survivor. You have to love it when a 57-year-old physics teacher (and clearly still a very fit one) dominates the competition challenges over people half his age and invents multiple realistic-looking fake immunity idols to keep himself in play. Bob was the runaway fan-favorite of Survivor: Gabon and easily one of the most dominant players in years, his only failing being an early willingness to trust the wrong people (which merely made him all the more sympathetic).
The Boys. The next time somebody tells me that Garth Ennis just likes to take the piss out of superhero comics and that’s the only reason he’s writing The Boys, I will make them read #15, wherein Annie, undergoing a severe crisis of faith, demands that God give her a sign He exists, and leaves the church disappointed and on the brink of collapse when nothing happens – and then promptly runs into Hughie, who of course is exactly the sign she asked for. Then I will beat them to death with a lead pipe because I am sick to fucking death of people whining about shit that isn’t true. Be forewarned.
The Battlestar Galactica board game. An ingeniously designed board game, featuring the standard cooperative-survival mechanics one would expect given the setting, but with a brilliant twist: some of the players are actually Cylons and they are secretly trying to destroy humanity. The game’s system is designed to make hiding and striking against humanity a thing of subtlety and play-skill; if you’re really good you can even set up other players to take the fall for you, framing them as Cylons using nothing more than your own ability to lie. Similarly, it takes true observational skill to ferret out a really good Cylon player, as well as time your incarceration of them properly. Yes, it’s kind of a shame that Boomer sucks compared to most of the other characters, but other than that this game is seriously just about perfect in its execution.
Chuck. With a promising mini-season start last year, Chuck was already a solidly entertaining little show, but now? Far and away the most improved show on television; the plots are more clever, the dialogue snappier, the action higher quality and the unrealized romance between Chuck and Sarah satisfyingly boiling away behind a thousand actually-good reasons for them to not be together. Also good: the elevation of the Buy-More supporting cast to credits-level importance. Last season I was worried Chuck might waste them in favour of the annoying guy who plays Morgan. This season – well, less Morgan! That’s a start.
Metropolis by Janelle Monáe.
I trust that was self-explanatory, but if it wasn’t – that blend of nu-funk, futuristic soul and utter batshit craziness (it’s a concept album! Set in 2719!) is like what I think Legion of Super-Heroes should be if it were transposed into musical form. And she’s an obvious music nerd. Any other P.Diddy “discovery” diva-lite would want to be all pretty and sexified in their debut video. She wants to be Robot James Brown. How awesome is that?
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Metropolis: Wow, that was pretty awesome.
Of course, who wouldn’t want to be a robot James Brown (with a bit of Michael Jackson footwork)?
The Boys was great until the end of the 9/11 arc. The G-Men story is a pretty boring fill-in.
And Pink? REALLY?
I agree with everything else, though.
You might like this mod at Fallout 3 Nexus — since the release of the GECK, the already-robust modding community has practically exploded, and whichever direction your interest lies, there’s probably a mod to tweak the game more toward your liking.
And yes, still game of the year, unmodded, out of the box.
I quite like how Ennis pokes fun at sexism in comics by including a GIGANTIC amount of over-the-top sexism that only serves to make us sympathetic to its victims. I also like how stupid that makes the hundreds of people who go on and on about the poor mistreated fictional characters.
True dat on In Bruges. Best film of the year.
Great list; I can agree with almost all of it, especially on your musical and movie picks. Furr’s opening track, Sleepytime in the Western World is one of the best jams I’ve heard in years, and In Bruges was so strong in comedic and emotional impact I couldn’t believe its absence in many lists.
Noootttt a huge Pink fan, though….
Janelle Monae is indeed ten gallons of awesome in a three-gallon jug, but I can’t hear the hook to that song without thinking of the Sesame Street of my youth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDm0PqjAF78
And I, too, was pleasantly surprised by In Bruges. “They’re filmin’ midgets!”
I sort of assumed the Sesame Street hook was intentional.
I finally got around to renting In Bruges the other day and was stunned at how good it was. I saw all those shitty previews for it and totally got the wrong impression about what the movie was like. Colin Farrel played an annoying, smarmy little douchebag, but he was so tortured and mournful that you really felt for him anyway. It may have been his best performance to date.
On top of all that, it was FUNNY, with all caps.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never, ever get Weezer. Most of their songs bore/annoy the pants off of me. (I like Hash Pipe, though.)
Dude, she dances like Andre 3000. And sounds like Siouxsie Sioux.
I missed Pink? Naked Pink? Damn.
Leverage has Gina Bellman in it, That’s a plus. I dunno if she has her accent, though.
Am I the only one who saw IN BRUGES based on the trailers and didn’t actually feel like I’d been misled? It’s weird, my expectations going in matched up pretty well with what was on screen, except that what was on screen was Even Better.
I can also attest to the BSG Board Game being awesome. It’s well balanced and plays smoothly while also capturing the feel of the show better than I thought would be possible. It’s almost an RPG at points as your character interactions become important- I played Roslin, was a Cylon from the start, and decided as things started to get worse that I actually wanted to see the fleet make it home.
Yes. Gina Bellman has her accent in Leverage.
“‘Event’ comics repeatedly failed to impress”… SOMEONE hasn’t been reading Final Crisis, I see.
How did you manage to credit 7 creators in the write-up on Incredible Hercules and omit the ones who actually made the thing? (Yes, of course I could look it up in about 30 seconds. Not the point.)
[…] is where I link to Christopher Bird’s site MightyGodKing and his posts of what was awesome and what sucked for 2008. I question his inclusion of the Battlestar board game within his things […]
I’m glad we managed to introduce the Battlestar Galactica Boardgame, mere hours before midnight.
While the main event books weren’t great, both have had remarkably high tie-in quality (particularly notable in the case of “Secret Invasion”, where numerous writers did far more interesting things with Bendis’ concept than Bendis himself).
Glad to see you like “Incredible Herc”; my favourite book of the moment.
SC: “numerous writers did far more interesting things with Bendis’ concept than Bendis himself”
This is not hard. Same thing happened with House of M.
Although Leverage is pretty good, it has some flaws which bug me – primarily the use of Magic Technology and the fact that this bunch of crooks never seems to want any of the profit for themselves any more.
A similar (and IMO much cleverer) show is Hustle, produced in the UK. I think they’ve made 4 seasons so far, I highly recommend checking it out sometime.
I played the Battlestar Galactica board game without ever having seen the show, and it’s still great.
Oh, and you’re totally wrong about Boomer. I played as her, and her ability to avoid a potentially terrible crisis once a turn, and COMPLETELY CANCEL ONE once per game (including Cylon supercrises) makes her an unexpectedly powerful character. Unless she turns Cylon, in which case her abilities are moot.
Thank you for the new musical artist to love.
In Bruges was wonderful for me, not only because it was a masterfully done film, not only because it was one of the most effective yet subtle uses of symbolism I’ve seen, not only because it was a chock full of character without having to be chock full of the absurd, but because it really made me want to visit Bruges. I mean really really. Bruges is now on the list of places I need to see before I die. And not because of some nerdy movie fan-ness — because it makes Bruges look fucking beautiful. Like a fairy tale.
1.) There is no Magic Technology in Leverage. The creators are very proud of that fact – there is literally nothing on that show that is not possible with modern technology. Some of it might be cutting edge, but it’s all real.
2.) It’s implied from the first show that the crooks skim a chunk off the top to cover operating expenses, and they’re all rich from their first score in the pilot so they don’t need the money – this is about feeding their need to be crookish.
So The Boys is good because you found ONE scene that isn’t hateful and just mean? Its a comic with TWO decent human beings in it who you get to watch be dragged down into the shit by EVERYONE else around them. Its not funny, its not clever and I was saddened when another company picked it up after Wildstorm or whoever it was dropped it…
In Bruges IS clever and funny and at times sweet and dark and good…
I’ve been watching John Rogers since a friend said “watch this unaired pilot for a Global Frequency show” and I was hooked. His smart writing at Kung Fu Monkey stoked my geek love for him, and when he wrote a comic about Feynman and Einstein battling ninjas, well, that was it. So I’m pleased as punch at how great Leverage has been.
1) It might be possible, but not in the time they show black hacker dude doing it. In the last episode I saw he managed to wirelessly hack into a bank’s security system, and alter the security video so it showed the judge as the bank robber. He did all this while outside, on a laptop, and in less than an hour.
In an earlier episode it took him a few seconds to wirelessly hack into Mark Sheppard’s car and have total control over it. What. And in that same episode Gina Bellman’s character was instantly transferred $12 million via a Blackberry.
I know I’m nitpicking, but you get the idea. It’s still a good show, just not as polished as I’d like 😛
2) I guess that kind of makes sense (though I maintain that it’s out of character for Parker in particular, who loves money) but it’s the sort of character development thing I would really like to see the writers spend a little more time on.
Jassa:
Well, since they are apparently showing the epiosdes out of order, it’s possible they DID/WILL spend time on it.
AAHHHH! stop Rap from steeling my childhood!!!
that’s the melody from sesame street god damn it!
ya know the funky pinball machine… 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tweeeelvvvve… doo do ndoo doo do
I’m going to kill myself if i here more ripped off music i swear… I hate them all!
My problem with the boys is that the only parts of it that people seem to ever talk about is the parts that are much too crude for me, and they never give the impression that Ennis dials it down from 11. That, and I read Preacher start to finish and didn’t like it one bit.
While I simply cannot argue about Hercules being the best comic of the year, I have to point out that there was at least one strong (although still distant) competitior for that honor among the Big Two. Captain Brittain and MI:13 hasn’t been getting nearly enough attention considering how incredibly good it is. In the last issue, Blade attacks a demon with a paper mache sword made out of pages from a book of magic. That’s clever and awesome, and Blade even points out that it’s really impractical most of the time. It’s just a great book that everyone should be reading.
Also, if your only complaint is that Nova and Guardians are only as great as they’ve consistantly been in previous issues, then that’s not really much of a complaint at all.
My problem with Captain Brittain and MI:13 is that I’m not convinced that Paul Cornell is as great a writer as everyone says he is. Father’s Day was to melodramatic to be really good. Shadows of Avalon was to streched out for my tastes. Human Nature (episode) was pretty good, but I attibute that to him getting his exesses out with the novel ten years ago. Wisdom issue one was a decent read, but not enough for me to bother with any of the other issues. There’s nothing to draw me to it, characters, writing, plot or art.
That’s a fair enough reason, Lister. Honestly, I’m not sure why I picked up the first issue myself. I’d stopped reading the last Excalibur series when Claremont came back to it (all due respect to him, but his best days are behind him), and I don’t have any particular love for any of the characters in the book. I didn’t read Wisdom, and I wasn’t familiar with the writer before this. I picked it up anyways, though, and I’m really glad I did. Somehow, all the pieces come together really well, even if they may not necessarily be your cup of tea individually.
You forgot the return of Marvel Masterpieces:
http://fullbodytransplant.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/weekly-wonder-word-masterpieces/
I forgive you.
Wow, I love that video! Yeah, okay, the hook might be Sesame Street, but the staging and costuming for the video were *fantastic*. Complete high-fashion high-street stuff there, that.
Janelle doesn’t quite have the voice to carry off “robot James Brown” but if there were ever a time to award points just for trying, that’d be it.