This post is dropping the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so I thought it might be appropriate to do something a little bit different. Instead of a single comic, trade or story arc, I’m going to briefly recommend a number of genre-related items that might have made very small posts on their own. Several are genre-related shows and films currently streaming, just in case anyone out there is looking for something to watch. I hope you enjoy them.
First up is something I recently enjoyed on Netflix with my family and can’t believe I failed to mention a few weeks ago: The Netflix re-boot of “Lost in Space.” I spent some time this fall discussing some Lost in Space comics. If you missed those posts, you can find them here, here and here.
I can’t believe I failed to even mention this latest incarnation of the Space Family Robinson’s adventures when discussing the comics. I discovered the show on the streaming platform shortly after it debuted in 2018 and, while it was very different from the original, I very much enjoyed the presentation. The third and final season of the program dropped on December 1, 2021, and the show did not disappoint. Again, the characters follow a very different path in this re-imagining, but there are echoes of the original show and a few cameos, too. I and my entire family enjoyed the show and heartily recommend it.
Next up is a fun little animated film streaming on the Disney-Plus platform right now called “Ron’s Gone Wrong.” I heard of it in a friend’s Facebook post. He said the entire family watched and enjoyed the film and laughed all the way through it. I thought it might make a good family movie night for my wife, my 10-year-old daughter and I, and we enjoyed it, too. The film took about 10 to 15 minutes to set everything up and get rolling, but then it was full of laughs. The story centers on one unpopular boy and his efforts to fit in while everyone around him is obsessed with personalized robots and the tech giant that sells them.
Another Facebook post led me to my next recommendation: “Slugfest,” a Roku channel original documentary about the lengthy rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel Comics. This 10-episode series just dropped on Christmas Eve, but each episode is only about eight- to 10-minutes long, so it runs pretty quickly. I’m a longtime comics fan myself, and there was not much new information in this series, but it was very well and entertainingly presented. Kevin Smith narrates, and a number of comics pros contributed to the series. There are also flashback segments showing the comics pros as younger men and women in past decades, and these creators are portrayed by several big name genre actors and actresses. If you’re still not sure, you can find a trailer for the series here.
My next TV recommendation is the just completed six-episode Marvel series "Hawkeye," also on the Disney-Plus streaming platform. I watched the original Marvel/Netflix collaborations on “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “Iron Fist,” “Defenders” and “The Punisher” as well as the more recent “Wanda/Vision,” The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “What If...?” on Disney-Plus, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. But the latest, involving both Clint Barton and Kate Bishop was a very fun adventure. I’ve never followed Clint Barton in the comics much and don’t know a lot about Kate Bishop beyond the original Young Avengers series. But this was a nice little storyline with some interesting twists, creators playing on the expectations of comics fans and more development for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But mostly, it was a fun show to watch.
Switching from one archer to another and from one medium to another, I would also like to heartily recommend the two recent 100-Page Super Spectacular issues DC Comics devoted to the 80th anniversaries of Green Arrow and Aquaman. Both issues are collections of short stories taking place at various times throughout each characters’ publishing history. They touch on a number of favorite eras in each character’s history and include a number of familiar creators and co-stars along the way. Both books are great reads, but then I’m biased when it comes to these characters.
Lastly, I want to recommend one other creator and comic title: the Collectors webcomic by Eddie deAngelini. You can find the home of Eddie’s web comic here. Eddie write about himself, his wife and his collecting habit to very funny effect. I first came across Eddie’s art several months ago, once again on Facebook. I’ve read a number of his random comics in the months since then and liked them enough to back his recent Kickstarter campaign to publish the sixth annual collection of his comics. He’s a creative and funny guy I’m happy to support, especially because I can readily see myself and my non-collector wife in some of his comics.
So there you have it: a small collection of genre-related recommendations for the holidays. I hope you enjoyed them and maybe discovered something new along the way. Come back in two weeks for a more traditional post to kick off 2022. I’m thinking something from Image that proved to be a pleasant surprise for me. See you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment