Geek Sheets - 2019 Superlatives

by Steve “Cookie Man” Monnich, GGR Content Director

Well its December so just like about 90% of all other internet sites out there, time to do a 2019 in review! This year we at GGR decided to go the route of “2019 Superlatives” so just like when you were a senior in high school you can go “huh…why is that even a category?” or “Really, that lady won?!”.  Basically, I want to make sure in the holiday season everyone can come together with the common sentiment, in peace and harmony, in universally disagreeing with both the categories selected and the “winners” of said category. Don’t ever say I never did anything for you internet! Also, special shoutout to James Rambo for his co-authorship on this article in adding his knowledge and expertise to the comics section.  Now, onto the nerdom!

• Most likely to have an inside joke / pop culture reference as a nickname

Mike “Enter stupid joke reference here” Lunsford.  All year long in the Geek Sheets, I have littered dumb little jokes/jabs/references towards our intrepid Editor-In-Chief Mike.  He always takes it in stride and with a smile, and really this is just a spot thank him for all the hard work and dedication he has put into the site this past year.

Honorable Mentions

Literally everyone else at GGR. MC Brooks, TK Walker, Rambo, Andy Bartsch, Russ Brown, Ben Shapiro and all the members of our community.  You all deserve the mediocre nicknames I give Mike every week!

Film

• Biggest Gap in Fan Response vs. Box Office

Shazam.  I was totally surprised with the returns on this one! Frozen 2’s opening weekend of $130 million made almost as much as this film’s entire domestic run of about $140 million.  Yet on Rotten Tomatoes, this hilarious flick is sitting at 90% certified fresh, showing that it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride, yet seems like a ton of people waited to see this one on home media because Endgame was only a few weeks after Shazam’s release.

Honorable Mention

Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood made about the same as Shazam and its Tarantino with Pitt and DiCaprio so you’d expect a little better, but it’s rate R and Quentin isn’t everybody’s cup o’ tea so this isn’t as surprising as Shazam’s final total.

• Most Divisive Film

Captain Marvel.  This was a much closer one than most other categories, but when Rotten Tomatoes has to readjust its entire process for your film, I suppose we can call that a tie breaker.  This film had all kinds of non-sense flying around it before a single screening happened. People were so pro-Brie Larson and so anti-Brie Larson, people were claiming all sorts of groups were being pandered too and a ton of hot-button terms were thrown out there.  At the end of the day, the film was not really anything people were claiming it was, but it still started a number of fires before for people who were already holding matches and buckets of kerosene just looking for a place to use it.

Honorable Mention

Joker.  Some loved its message and depictions of classism and mental health issues, others found it to be a Taxi Driver rip off, and just about every other opinion in-between.  For a far more in-depth breakdown of this film’s pro’s and con’s check out our man Rambo’s article.

TV

• Biggest Hit Yet to Air

Star Trek: Picard.  This series dropping in early 2020 has TNG fans salivating over the return of THE best Federation captain in it’s history (yeah sorry Kirk and Janeway, I said it). With a continuation of the storyline from the series and 4 films, a slate of returning characters and a little clout brought to CBS All Access from the success of Discovery, this series has all the makings of hit.  Now this category is this article’s “Most Likely to Succeed” and just like that dude from high school who ended up being a illegal drug dealer instead of a multi-millionaire, this could flop hard. But with the facts laid out, this valedictorian has all the opportunity in the world.

Honorable Mention

Any of the new MCU Shows on Disney+.  Since we don’t have definitive details or release dates on these various series they had to take a back seat to The Captain, however it’s a no-brainer that these will smash things once available to the public.  Come on, Moon Knight? ‘Nuff said.

• Biggest Let Down

Game of Thrones season 8.  Sheesh, shortened season run, forced storylines, production gaffes, unsatisfying resolutions to series long stories and Cleganebowl was only sorta okay.  After 7 prior seasons of world building and development, it was like the writers forgot their scripts were due the next day and rushed thru it like a college student hopped up on “study pills”. While the score, set design, costumes and acting were on point, all that is for not when the audience just can’t give two craps about what the plot is around it.  It’s like a beautifully wrapped Christmas present and then the box is full of a monkey’s butt. Someone worked really hard to make disgusting non-sense look nice. 

Honorable Mention

None, I cannot emphasize how much time people spent on GOT re-watches and reading the books and theories and hype and expectation only to get what we got.  And no this isn’t “I’m a fanboy and it wasn’t my exact theory on the screen so everything sucks!” mentality, as I would have been happy to be wrong in every aspect of what I expected to happen if it was actually quality writing.  When so so so many fans of the series had a collective “huh?” and “why are they doing this?” and “I have to adjust the brightness on my screen to even see this damn fight!” its not a small collective of fanboys sulking in the corner, it’s a legit mess. Sorry Thrones, but you EASILY take the cake in biggest let down of the year.

And now, for some insight into the comic book world and the “best of” from the shop, here’s GGR contributor, James Rambo!

Comics

• Best Use Of A Retcon

Moira MacTaggert: Secret Mutant. Since her 1st appearance in Uncanny X-Men’s #76 from 1975, Moira MacTaggert has been depicted as human. With 2019’s House of X #2 (written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Pepe Larraz) we learn that she’s been harboring a secret: Moira’s secretly been a mutant her whole life. All of them. Wait, what now? See, Moira’s mutant power is the ability to reincarnate back to the moment of her birth with her full memory intact. This revelation is the catalyst for a revamp of Marvel’s complete line of merry mutants. 6 new series featuring most every major player the X-Men have seen since their inception. It’s a truly ambitious approach and it’s all rooted in one big reveal about one minor character.

• Best New Combo Comic & Table Top RPG

Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans’ lively new book. Ok, technically the first issue of Die was released in December of 2018 but the majority of the series dropped this year so I’m claiming it. Modeling characters around a standard 7 piece RPG dice set (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, and a percentile die) Gillen’s “Goth Jumanji” comic Die sees a group of former childhood friends literally sucked back into the world of the TTRPG campaign they played decades ago. High fantasy meets dysfunctional family horror, all executed in a beautifully brutal, painterly style from series artist and co-creator Stephanie Hans. Additionally, each issue features an afterword from Gillen discussing the development of the comic and layout of the rules and format of the playable RPG. It’s a game! It’s a comic! It’s two great tastes that taste great together!

• Worst Event

Event Leviathan. I can’t even be clever about this. Aside from some pretty but under-expressive artwork from his longtime partner Alex Maleev, Brian Michael Bendis’ miniseries left us feeling — disinterested? Apathetic? I don’t know, what’s a good word for “confused as to whether or not this should be something I care about when it sure seems like I should?” A mystery featuring two teams of the greatest detectives in DC Comics chasing down a villain that has found a way to cancel out most of Superman’s powers while dismantling all the intelligence organizations in the DCU. That should be really engaging and exciting. It is not. Bendis’ trademark talking heads talking ad nauseam is at play for the majority of the story and we are not the better for it. Oh and the mysterious Leviathan? It’s Manhunter! No, not that one, the old one. No, the younger old one. Just ask a DC fan in his forties about him.

• Most Consistently Excellent & Bananas Comic Featuring A Mainstream Superhero

Marvel’s Live, Die, Repeat. We are now 28 issues, 2 1/3 years, into Al Ewing and (primarily) Joe Bennett’s Immortal Hulk and boy do I get giddy when it drops. The pitch is relatively simple: following the murder (albeit voluntary) of Bruce Banner by one Clint Barton, Banner’s body disappears. He is alive again! How novel a concept. But the catch here is when the sun sets? That’s the Hulk’s time to emerge. A savage, brutal, self-aware and articulate Hulk. A Hulk that can’t die. Cronenbergian body horror and the OG Lee/Kirby concept of the Hulk only coming out at night takes us back to the original monster-story aesthetic of the titular Jade Giant and the creative team (including Alex Ross on covers, doing some of the best work of his career) have only gotten darker, weirder, and more disturbing with each passing issue. #25, for example, focuses almost exclusively on a distinctly alien being in the distant future that sees itself having to cope with a cosmically large Hulk figure destroying the universe at-large. And it still gets us uniquely human moments from characters, like when Joe Fixit mentions off-handedly that he appreciated a journalist character’s article about trans rights. “I get that… folks wanting to be themselves…” Of course a man that is stuck in the head of another guy who transforms into a completely different person would understand that struggle. Addressing issues of life and death, both in-universe and meta-textually in superhero comics, and doing so in such incredible detail, Immortal Hulk stands alone. A superhero comic that is anything but superheroic, Immortal Hulk showcases the width and breadth of talent and hardwork among its creative team. If you thank you can handle it, pick this up

Our editor-in-chief Mike wanted to make sure he had his say in the comics realm, too! Here’s Mike

Honorable Mention

Best comic book by a guy we know and love who got some awesome representation at baltimore comic con

I mean, after that introduction, I’m sure you guys know who I’m talking about…but it’s Steve Conley. His comic, The Middle Age has been killing it. He seems to be hitting every Kickstarter goal, every stretch goal, he got to be the one who drew the program for this year’s Baltimore Comic Con along with the signage all over the convention. We’re so happy to know this amazing artist and super nice dude. There really is nothing cooler than seeing someone you know do great things. Keep up the awesome work, Steve, GGR loves you!

Music

• Best New Song

Better Days by MC Brooks.  If you say it’s favoritism or whatever because the dude works with us, you clearly haven’t listened to his stuff.  Stop reading this terribly written article, look the man up on Spotify and listen to his entire catalogue. I’ll wait…

Honorable Mention

Untethered Angel by Dream Theater.  The first single of the new album from my personal favorite band.  This one is favoritism, just putting all the cards on the table.

Podcasts

• Best GGR Podcast

Ooooh I’m going out on a limb here with this one, but going back thru our catalogue from 2019 I think I have to give it to the episode that dropped on 2/24/19 titled “The Diner – Katsucon 2019; Danny DeVito and Missed Connections”.  There was just some magic in the air that night and going thru MC’s misadventures at Katsucon and all the madness that ensued made for one of the funniest podcasts to date.  

Honorable Mention

Truly all the episodes bring something unique to the library, but “The Heavy Stuff” episode was a pod in which faith and spirituality was discussed within the same playlist as topics on pop culture, which to me shows the breadth and diversity of topics our group is capable of tackling without getting into the weeds of harassment or petty insults.  This one showed the scope of what GGR can handle, but the winner was a quintessential “Diner” episode that in one show illustrated all that our team can do.

So there you have it folks.  The year is wrapping up with The Rise of Skywalker which should give us plenty to discuss to kick off our 2020 slate.  If you like the articles, podcasts or anything else we do, jump into our thriving facebook community or reach out to us if you would like to contribute.  GGR was founded as a place of expression and enjoyment of the things this world has to offer, so please continue to plug into this tiny slice of the internet we are carving out and who knows, maybe something you make or patronize will find its way onto this list next year!  As always, thanks for stopping by and don’t be a juicebag!