72. Hot Pursuit (1/5)
71. Child 44 (2/5)
70. Mortdecai (2/5)
69. Seventh Son (3/5)
68. True Story (3/5)
67. Good Kill (3/5)
66. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (3/5)
65. Blackhat (3/5)
64. The Final Girls (3/5)
63. Cut Bank (3/5)
62. Fantastic Four (3/5)
61. Sinister 2 (3/5)
60. Pitch Perfect 2 (3/5) 59. Shaun The Sheep Movie (3/5)
58. Justice League: Gods & Monsters (3/5)
57. The Gift (3/5) 56. Minions (3/5)
55. Mississippi Grind (3/5)
54. Pixels (3/5)
53. Ex-Machina (3/5)
52. The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge Out Of Water (3/5)
51. Unfinished Business (3/5)
50. Tomorrowland (3/5) 49. American Ultra (3/5)
48. Sicario (3/5)
47. Black Mass (3/5)
46. Poltergeist (3/5)
45. Results (3/5)
44. Focus (3/5)
43. The Stanford Prison Experiment (3/5)
42. Crimson Peak (3/5)
41. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (3/5) 40. Hotel Transylvania 2 (3/5)
39. Get Hard (3/5)
38. Paddington (3/5)
37. Taken 3 (3/5)
36. Goosebumps (3/5)
35. Spectre (3/5)
34. Mcfarland, USA (3/5)
33. Sisters (3/5)
32. Aloha (3/5)
31. Batman Vs. Robin (3/5)
30. The Woman In Gold (3/5)
29. Victor Frankenstein (4/5)
28. Run All Night (4/5)
27. Spy (4/5)
26. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (4/5)
25. Ted 2 (4/5)
24. Krampus (4/5) 23. The Wedding Ringer (4/5)
22. Dragonball Z: Resurrection F (4/5)
21. Entourage (4/5)
20. Batkid Begins (4/5)
19. Cinderella (4/5)
18. The Walk (4/5) 17. Southpaw (4/5)
16. Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis (4/5)
15. Paper Towns (4/5)
14. The Peanuts Movie (4/5)
13. Mad Max: Fury Road (4/5)
12. The Night Before (4/5)
11. Ant-Man (4/5)
10. Jurassic World (4/5)
9. Straight Outta Compton (4/5)
8. Inside Out (4/5)
7. Chappie (4/5)
6. Avengers: Age Of Ultron (5/5)
5. The Big Short (5/5)
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (5/5)
3. Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (5/5)
2. Kingsmen: The Secret Service (5/5)
1. Creed (5/5)
Last year: #10
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues released last year: #4 - #6
Horror can be a difficult genre to truly pull off in the comics medium, but Scott Snyder and Jock deliver absolute dread in their first arc of Wytches. The series is packed with suspense, and the stakes climb higher and higher until the story hits a gut-wrenching, gasp-out-loud crescendo of a conclusion. Few comics can make me cry, but I'll admit I wept openly as this six-issue arc drew to a close.
9. Silver Surfer
Last year: #8
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues released last year: #8 - #15
Plain and simple, Silver Surfer is the most possible fun readers can have from a monthly comic book series. Dan Slott loves Norrin Radd (and his companion Dawn Greenwood) and it shows in each and every issue. And if ever there was an artist worthy of illustrating the Jack Kirby-created cosmic character, it's Mike Allred -- realizing full-well that long legacy includes industry legends John Buscema and Mœbius.
8. Batman And Robin Eternal
Last year: Unranked
Publisher: DC Comics
Issues released last year: #1 - #13
As a fan of Batman and the various versions of Robin, I've been loving this weekly series. The story is focused and the flashbacks to the early years of Batman and Robin remind me of how much fun that era of Batman can be.
7. Fight Club 2
Last year: Unranked
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Issues released last year: #1 - #8
Readers, and viewers, of 'Fight Club' probably thought there wasn't much room for a sequel, or even if there was, that it could never deliver a story with the same kind of impact. Palahniuk proves them wrong on both counts, using a different medium to tell the story of his dual personality protagonist that opens up all new storytelling potential; potential that Palahniuk uses effectively to continue and build the character's evolution. Like the novel and film, readers are made to think and question what they see, and in doing so are rewarded for it; the comic even uses elements from the original story that makes readers rethink what they thought they had already seen, skillfully applying the very same trick that the original novel and film had done so brilliantly. This comic has the distinction of being a sequel that no one thought needed to be told, until they actually read it.
6. Howard The Duck
Last year: Unranked
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues released last year: #1 - #5 & #1 - #2
Chip Zdarsky is one of the strongest comedic talents working in comics. Taking the reins of 'Howard the Duck' alongside series artist Joe Quinnones, Zdarsky incorporated meta, self-referential humor into the Marvel Universe, while maintaining the integrity of every character (and there were a ton) that made guest appearances. And we got to see a Howard/Rocket Raccoon team-up-- which we can all agree was long overdue.
5. All-New Hawkeye
Last year: #9
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Issues released last year: #21 - #22 & #1 - #5 & #1 - #2
The long-awaited finale to Matt Fraction and David Aja's run on 'Hawkeye' arrived this year and, boy, did it live up to expectations. The battle for Barton's apartment building reaches its bloody climax with an energy and pacing that's masterful. Along the way, every character in the book gets their chance to kick Tracksuit Dracula ass, including Pizza Dog. For fans of 'Hawkeye,' this two-part series finale was absolute perfection. Then Jeff Lemire came in and lived up to expectations even if it hasn't been quite as good as Fraction's run.
4. Batman
Last year: #2
Publisher: DC Comics
Issues released last year: #38 - #47 & 1 Annual
On the heels of what some thought to be Scott Snyder's definitive Joker story ('Death of the Family'), he delivered another with 'Endgame,' and then shook up essentially everything in the Bat-world immediately thereafter with the still-unfolding 'Superheavy.' Making no pretense that the status quo will remain forever changed, Snyder flips every Batman trope that he can, while he can, and every issue teaches readers to expect only one thing: the unexpected. Greg Capullo takes all of Snyder's larger-than-life ideas and somehow fits them into each issue, all while colorist Danny Miki makes them look even more impressive. This comic continues to demonstrate amazing writer / artist synergy, and even amidst a controversial stab at a new Batman, it's never been stronger.
3. Nailbiter
Last year: #3
Publisher: Image Comics
Issues released last year: #10 - #18
In amazing fashion, this comic seems to be riding the fine line of all the intriguing emotions that go into your questions about killers. To add a personal touch, imagine living in a place where your entire town could be in on a joke, or could possibly be covering up something. The constant fear that at any point you, or someone in your family, or one of your friends could snap simply based on the legendary history of your city. It’s almost as if due to where you are born you are condemned to fail or snap. That is something I picked up on, the conditioning and effect the town has on its residence, the ripple effect it causes making everyone a candidate for something gruesome, the fact that everyone has that dark side that at any moment could be released.
2. Grayson
Last year: #7
Publisher: DC Comics
Issues released last year: #6 - #15 & 1 Annual
The art is amazing and this James Bond-ish take on Dick Grayson works great. While I'd love to have Nightwing back, I'm really enjoying this series.
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Last year: #5
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Issues released last year: #42 - #53
After four years of top-notch storylines, twists, turns and character development, IDW’s ongoing TMNT series celebrated its 50th issue in 2015. To Eastman, Waltz, Curnow, Santolouco, Smith and anyone else who has worked on this series over the last four-plus years, I tip my hat to you. You guys and gals have put together something truly special, and I hope you realise how much us Turtle fanboys and girls out here appreciate it. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I absolutely cannot wait to read the next fifty issues. Turtle power!
Hey folks we're back with another look at the ongoing weekly series Batman and Robin Eternal. For a complete recap click HERE for issues #1 through #5 and HERE for the last instalment, issues #6 through #10. Now onto this post...
So in issue #11 we learn about The Sculptor who, when we left off, Grayson and Blue Bird had just met inside David Cain's house. Turns out The Sculptor sculpts children for Mother and after the ballet incident Mother is on her way back into hiding. The Sculptor wants to help our heroes so she tells them they need to do a mind meld (Sculptor is a telepath). Grayson warns that given his hypnos implants his brain and hers may be fried so Blue Bird decides to do it instead. Sculptor shows her images of David training his daughter Cassandra in unorthodox fashion, such as telling her not to speak since words are all lies and killing many men in front of her so she gets numb to the feeling. We also learn that David was one of Mother's "children" and that he was training Cassandra behind her back since he wanted to demonstrate his way was more effective however Mother disagreed and told him never to go against her again. He plans to show her however "when the time is right" (now perhaps?). She then shows her Batman meeting with Mother to find the new Robin but during this time Grayson gets concerned so he breaks the connection. When Grayson finds out what Sculptor was showing her however he demands that they mind meld so he can see regardless of what may happen,
In the mind meld Sculptor shows Grayson how it all started. David and her were Mother's first children... Her Adam and Eve and that she has since discovered a chemical that can do the work that years of training and telepathic suggestion has done thanks in part to Scarecrow's fear toxin. She also shows Dick that Batman was trying to replace him and in fact was ready to kill for Mother, the link then broke and Grayson and Blue Bird were off to stop Mother since Sculptor have her all the information that was needed to find her before she becomes myth again.
Next up we have Cassandra returning to the Nursery, the place where she and many other children were made to serve Mother's purpose. She of course runs into her Dad who is carrying out Mother's final order, kill all the previous Children. David blames Cassandra for the genocide since months prior she escaped and gave Batman the information he needed and he returned her a copy to give to Grayson in case anything happened to him, which obviously it did. It's then that Grayson and Blue Bird arrive to help out with the fight. It's then that Mother appears and informs them that there is a nuke in the Nursery about to go off and kill them all.
We then get a flashback to that original case Batman and Robin (Grayson) worked on versus Scarecrow. We learn Scarecrow wanted out of his deal with Mother and wanted Batman to lock him up in Arkham as protection. Batman declines, wanting to use Scarecrow for his own gains to catch Mother and only then will he stick him in Arkham. Flashback to today and Grayson is left dueling David Cain (Orphan) while Cassandra and Blue Bird make a run for the control room in hopes to shut down the nuke and hopefully stop the robots that Orphan set to destroy them all, before sending them just after the 2 females in hopes of stopping them. At the control room they learn there's a jet that can get them out in time however it can only be started with David's eye. Luckily Grayson was able to subdue him and stop the robots at the same time. So they jet off with an explosion in the background and head to Spyral HQ in England to get some answers.
Finally we check in on Tim Drake and Jason Todd. Drake shows up at the gates of the Church of St. Dumas dragging Todd proclaiming him to be his tribute to St. Dumas and his allegiance to the group. He gets taken to see the leader while Todd is placed in a cell. Todd eventually escapes his cell and as it turns out it was all a ploy to place an electromagnetic charge in the building to stop the church and more importantly Azrael. While Drake was with the leader and Azrael in the royal chambers Todd was able to get his hands on Project Ichthys, the project being developed for Mother, we also find out Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael) was a product of Mother's. Too bad for Drake and Todd the leader was still able to subdue Drake and turn the project on which cause Todd to remember his past... Specifically his dealings with Joker that became his last as Robin. We also learn that Scarecrow told Mother, as Batman commanded, that he needed a new Robin that she should make a deal with him. So as it turns out the whole Batman wanting the perfect ward created was simply a ploy to get closer to Mother.
That about wraps up issues #11 to #15. It's getting to a nice conclusion as we rush in to the final 11 issues. No more is the book plagued by slow pacing however the art continues to be a mess in some parts, at least the flashbacks are the areas that different artists jump on the book but some of them are just sub par for a big book like this. One thing I will say is despite me commenting previously that they show us all our characters in quick succession so we don't forget about them from issues 10 to 14 we only get one mention of Todd and Drake and it's an off the cuff mention by Mother stating she'd like for them to be in the Nursery getting nuked as well. We definitely need them to be shown more to properly follow along though perhaps the book's overview had their story ahead of the others and hopefully now they've caught up with each other. We'll see you in 5 weeks when we check in on issues #16 through #20 in the penultimate article!
And we're back! This isn't exactly what I expected when I took on this project since issue #13 came out last week but I wanted to stick to my Christmas themed specials in December and in January I usually do end of year lists but I still have time for those so stay tuned! We'll try to stay on track from here on out so in 2 weeks you'll have your next "Checking In".
So last time (link HERE) we found out that the mysterious Mother runs a human trafficking ring and has ties to Batman. We also know that she can control anyone with the help of nanobots. Dick Grayson and Tim Drake also aren't on speaking terms since Grayson thought Drake and his parents were being controlled. We also met a new character, kinda named Cassandra Cain who unfortunately can only say "Mother" she's hanging out with Harper Roe. Grayson doesn't want them being harmed so he's keeping them tucked away, a notion Harper is none too pleased with.
Issue #6 opens with Grayson and Jason Todd discussing the events of last issue. Roe and Cain are still holed up in an apartment Grayson has kept in Gotham under an alias. Drake is still not speaking to Grayson and Todd is being told about one of the first cases Batman worked with the first Robin (Grayson) which involved Mother. Batman and Robin went to Prague and Grayson recounts that's when Batman cut him out so he decides he must go there and re-investigate from where Batman cut him out.
In Prague, Grayson decides to send Roe and Cain to the theatre to watch Sleeping Beauty performed and keep an eye out on the lone name left on Cain's list of people Mother infected, all the others have disappeared or died. Meanwhile Grayson will continue to monitor Orphan's signal to try to find their whereabouts since so far he's the only link to Mother but when the signal sends Grayson to the Ballet he quickly realises it's a trap and sure enough Mother is there to greet him.
Meanwhile in Gomorrah Drake and Todd are chasing down leads of their own that Drake discovered by following the data Cain provided. They're chasing down some black market kingpins but when they find him in a church he appears to have been affected by some sort of fear gas which leads us to question Scarecrow's involvement since he was the bat villain Batman and Grayson were chasing all those years ago. Back in Prague Mother tells Grayson he can follow her and learn everything or go help Roe and Cain who are in the middle of a fight for their lives against the entire ballet. Mother further states that if Grayson does not go with her he will never see her again, but Grayson still elects to help his friends and after the battle Cain runs off after having a horrible flashback of a throat slash, not clear if it happened to her or if she did it just yet. Grayson and Roe head back to the Prague batcave to hope to shake loose some clues as to where Mother is heading next.
Todd and Drake next find themselves in Santa Prisca investigating The Order of St. Dumas.Turns out The Angel of Death that the black market kingpin mentioned right before dying has killed 10 black market men, all had business with The Order of St. Dumas so they're hoping by heading to their HQ they will get answers, or at least a run it with the Orphan, instead they run into Bane. After a small tussle between Bane and Todd. Drake proposes an alliance since both want to find and stop this Angel of Death. Upon entering the Order's building they hear a voice speaking to them claiming to be The Angel of Death before finally revealing himself to be Azrael.
Azrael and his holy warriors go toe-to-toe with Drake, Todd and Bane and Azrael seems to have them beat even when Drake runs a patch through to his cave and discovers Azrael's real name and the connection between the Church and Mother. Drake gets his mind scrambled by Azrael and Todd is left to rescue his younger Robin. Meanwhile Roe finds all she needed on a muddied up paper trail so her and Grayson, impressed by Roe, now realising why Batman kept her around. They go to investigate a Stephen Cain who appears to be behind all this (Cassandra's father?) but upon arriving in his house they are greeted by a lady who calls herself The Sculptor, she's been waiting for them to arrive.
The review is much of the same, mostly set-up still although I'm glad they are touching on all the story lines in each book, even just a bit to keep your mind fresh as to what each of our characters are doing. The fight with Azrael was pretty boring as far as action sequences go but the ballet brawl was well worth it. They also appear to have creative teams shuffling through every two issues or so which is good to keep the tempo of the series going positively. The art has never been awful and in the last post I spoke negatively about the Steve Orlando scripted issue but really this book hasn't been bad, it just hasn't progressed as quickly as I would like. But there is that old adage that you can't rush greatness, not that I think this book will get there but with Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV mapping out the book the storyline has to be worthwhile at least.
72. Hot Pursuit (1/5)
56. Minions (3/5)
40. Hotel Transylvania 2 (3/5)
23. The Wedding Ringer (4/5)
