COMIC BOOKS

 

Series of the Decade: Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott

 

The idea of a supervillain trying to redeem themselves and become a hero isn’t anything new in comics. With Spider-man alone we’d seen Venom and Sandman both take a turn at it before this series came along. This is definitely the best. A dying Doctor Octopus manages to steal Spider-man’s body and leaves him to die. After realising the guilt and responsibility Peter faced as Spider-man Otto decides to take up the mantle and prove he’s a better Spider-man than Peter ever was. It’s a phenomenal look at what it means to be a superhero and I think it’s one of the best Spider-man stories ever written.

Best Writer: Geoff Johns

He’s really only worked for DC this decade but in that time we’ve seen Johns write a variety of books. Green Lantern, Flash, The justice league, Aquaman and even some Superman and he’s provided consistently solid stories with each series. Most writers have at least one character that they’re comfortable writing but it amazes me that Johns has managed that with virtually every character he’s been given. He’s working on Shazam now and it seems to be going the same way despite some delays. I can’t think of a more deserving person to name the writer of the year.

Best Artist: Mike Allred

It’s a hard choice but I think I’m going to have to go with Mike Allred. His distinctive style has helped bring comic books even more into the public eye thanks to his work on Izombie and its TV adaptation.  Meanwhile, his work across numerous other Marvel and DC projects such as Silver surfer, Batman ’66, FF and IDW crossovers like Mars attacks the real ghostbusters has helped to cement his unique style.

Best Issue: The Joker-Year of the Villain #1

I was skeptical of a Hollywood director like John Carpenter being able to adapt to the comic medium at this stage of his career. I thought his involvement would just be a marketing stunt for this issue but I was proven wrong. The Joker- Year of the villain is a fantastic take on the character, one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen and I wish we could see more of it. The fact that the art is fantastically gruesome and the story is completely self-contained just makes it even better. Easily the best single issue of the decade.

Best Publisher: 2000AD

I’d argue 2000AD hasn’t been near the top of its game this decade. It’s had better output in years past but that doesn’t change that the quality and variety of its stories have been amazing. They’ve put out great original stories through their weekly anthology comics such as Zombo and Nikolai Dante. Meanwhile, the Dredd-centric stories from the megazine have been just as good. Stories like The small house and the fall of deadworld have easily been highlights but I can’t think of a single bad story they’ve released this decade.

Best Miniseries: Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1

This was just a fun and well-written crossover. I’m not surprised that DC have followed it up with two sequels and an animated film. The turtles are the same goofy characters you’d expect them to be but the real treat of this story is seeing Batman show a more lighthearted side. It reminded me a bit of the Neal Adams run on the character as well as some of the more humorous moments of the Batman animated series.

MOVIES

Live Action Movie of the Decade: Birdman

I was blown away by this film. The technical achievement in filming almost an entire film in one continuous shot can’t be understated. This film was impressive from a filmmaking point of view. The acting was phenomenal too. The cast was spot-on. Here’s a story about a former superhero film star trying to reinvigorate his career through the theatre and he’s played by Michael Keaton. That’s just perfect. The fact that the other two major stars of the film were famous for playing the Hulk and Gwen Stacy is just incredible and the use of Edward Norton as a prima donna star actor was perfect. You can tell they did their homework while making this film in order to make sure it would appeal to both superhero fans and the general public and I can’t compliment this film enough for the artistic quality shown throughout.

Animated Movie of the Decade: Coco

Probably not a big surprise that a Pixar movie might end up as the best-animated films of the decade. Coco is such a touching film and its use of Mexican culture, as well as its themes about the importance of memory, really make the film stand out. I can’t recommend Coco enough.

Best director: The Russo brothers

Not everyone will agree with me since not everyone is a fan of the Marvel films and that’s most of what they’ve worked on this decade. What I find impressive though is how well they were able to work with other people’s characters. Not just in the sense that they’re adapting characters and plotlines from comic books but in how well they adapted the work of other directors and writers.

Take Guardians of the galaxy. Both those films were directed and written by James Gunn. Actors like Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, and Zoe Saldana may have been a big part of the success of that film but Gunn played a huge role in giving those characters and that film their flavour. Despite his not being involved in the writing or directing of Infinity war and Endgame the Russo brothers kept that flavour in the scenes that involved the guardians without detracting from more serious characters like Captain America or Iron man. That’s impressive.

On top of this they showed an ability to work in different genres. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was mostly a spy/espionage movie compared to the personal drama in Civil war or the alien invasion crossover seen in Infinity War and Endgame. I think they really deserve to be named best Directors of the decade.

Best performance: Christian Bale as Ken Miles in Le mans ‘66

Bale has always been a great actor but in this role, he just blew me away. This was beyond his time as Patrick Bateman or Batman in that it was far more relatable. The amount of emotion he put into this performance as Miles was breathtaking. I went into this film with minimal knowledge of the person the role was based on and I still found myself completely attached to the character by the end of the film. This is the kind of performance that all actors should be aiming to give regardless of medium.

Best actor: Michael B Jordan

Jordan has been great since coming into the limelight at the start of this decade. He’s proven himself in big franchises like the MCU and the Rocky/Creed films but at the same time he’s taken on more serious, political roles through films like Fruitvale Station and Just mercy. There have been one or two duds throughout this decade of course. His Fantastic four movie being the most famous example.  For the most part, though his films and his roles within them have been of great quality. Michael has even shown he’s a capable voice actor through the Justice league Flashpoint paradox animated film earlier this decade. I think he’s going to be an even bigger star going forward if he keeps this up.

Best actress: Emma Stone

I don’t think any other actresses have had as good a decade as Emma has. Between the Zombieland franchise, her appearances in the Amazing Spider-man movies, numerous kids films like the Croods or Marmaduke and her appearances in more mature films like Birdman, La la land and Magic in the moonlight Emma has shown she can adapt to almost any type of film and still give a good performance. Emma has a future role as Cruella De Vil in the 101 dalmations remake and despite my love of Glenn Close in the 90’s version I’m so impressed with Stone that I’m not worried about whether she’ll do Cruella justice. Easily the best actress of the decade.

VIDEO GAMES

 

Game of the decade: Minecraft

I’m not personally a huge Minecraft fan. I admit that but it’s done a lot to engage the minds of children and get them into gaming. Overwatch was the main competitor for Game of the decade but I feel the requirement of paying a subscription in order to play online via console makes it a bit less accessible to children and that as far as multiplayer competitive titles for adults go there are other options that would fit better. Minecraft is like getting free lego. You can be more adventurous and imaginative with it even by yourself. The lower cost is also perfect for the child audience that doesn’t have their own income. It might not be the most visually pleasing title of the decade but in terms of gameplay and impact on popular culture, it can’t be beaten.

Best game developer: Nintendo

Nintendo has been unbelievable throughout the 2010’s. They’ve produced good quality portable and home consoles and added to virtually every franchise they own through new entries, remasters and ports. Most of those games have been given the maximum effort possible with great and unique gameplay aspects, high-quality audio and artwork as well as some pretty good voice acting in the ones that use spoken dialogue. What impresses me the most is that this effort wasn’t limited to the games that would obviously sell well. More niche titles like Kid Icarus, Metroid, Yoshi and Kirby got the same treatment as the heavy hitters like Mario and it’s made Nintendos output throughout the decade just that little bit more impressive compared to Sony and Microsoft in my opinion.

Best game series: Mario

Mario has been a great game series pretty much since its first entry. I’d honestly be shocked if the plumber ever left his throne as king of platformers. In the past decade though there have been so many different types of Mario games beyond the standard platformers. We’ve had multiple each of the racing games, RPG’s, the Olympic game titles, Mario Party, the Mario maker titles, the usual platformers with most having their own unique twists to keep them fresh. Then you have mobile titles like Super Mario Run. I can’t think of another series that has been this adventurous with its titles and still maintained its success.

Best original soundtrack: Persona 5

The soundtrack to this game is gorgeous. I thought the title itself dragged on in places but the music, especially the jazz is just incredibly catchy. I could listen to any song on this soundtrack without the game and still enjoy it and that’s pretty impressive.

Best multiplayer game: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

I got into this game when it first came out after only playing 3 ultimate and it was amazing. Not just because it’s a fun and incredibly layered game in single-player but because its multiplayer truly allowed you to form friendships with other players. You could go on hunts in teams of up to 4 players but you could also sit in the gathering hall and dance together, have meals together and just chat. Between this and the friends list feature Monster hunter 4 ultimates multiplayer genuinely felt like a form of social media. I can’t think of a multiplayer title that I’ve enjoyed more in this decade or any other.

Best mobile game: Pokemon GO

I’m not going to write a lot on this since it’s probably the most influential mobile game ever. GO has been responsible for getting a lot of people into gaming. That hasn’t always been a good thing as shown by the news stories of people walking into traffic for pokemon.  Overall though, it’s had a great influence on the industry and continues to do so long after its release.

TV

Live Action show of the Decade: Game of Thrones

I’ll admit that I wasn’t a fan of most of the decisions made from season 5 onwards. The show turned into a bit of a mess toward the end.  That doesn’t change that Game of Thrones has had more impact than any other show this decade though. It’s gotten a lot of people into nerd culture and medieval fantasy who wouldn’t have even considered it before. The fact that it had top-quality acting for most of its run,  great music and an engaging, suspenseful story just added to what made it great. It really pushed the envelope in terms of what TV shows could accomplish. We’ll be feeling the influence of this show for decades to come.

Animated show of the decade: South park

South Park has been more experimental this decade. It’s tried to go from single-episode, self-contained stories to long-term storytelling and it hasn’t always worked since they’re also trying to parody whatever’s in the news each week but it still doesn’t detract from the amount of effort put into making this show, its humour or the high quality of most of the episodes it’s aired throughout the decade. They’ve proven that even if they lose a step South park is still head and shoulders above most shows on television.

Best performance: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister in Game of thrones

I never thought I’d like his run as Jaime Lannister in Game of thrones but as the seasons went on Nikolaj managed to take a character that on the surface should be easily despised and made him the most relatable character on a show filled with incredibly relatable characters. Nikolaj was so good that he was the main thing keeping me interested in the show throughout the later seasons. I was actually on the edge of my seat during the later episodes where he seemed to be in danger. It got to the point where I genuinely felt sad watching his eventual death and that doesn’t happen often to me. Easily the performance of the decade.

Best actor: David Tennant

The former tenth doctor has been on a roll this decade. Since leaving Doctor who on the first day of the decade David has been all over the place. He’s appeared in major roles in children’s shows such as the Dreamworks dragons series and Ducktales. At the same time, he’s also been appearing in more mature shows such as Jessica Jones, Broadchurch and Good omens, not to mention his brief return to Doctor who. The one consistent factor throughout all these incredibly different shows is that he’s always been a brilliant actor. Each role has the maximum effort put into it to the point that even when playing a sadistic murderer like his role as Kilgrave he manages to be relatable.

Best Actress: Gillian Anderson

Gillian hasn’t been in a great number of massive shows this decade. Nothing on the level of fame that Game of Thrones or Breaking bad had but her output has been great nonetheless. Throughout the 2010’s she’s appeared alongside David Duchovny as the highlight of a relaunched X-files. She’s also been in Hannibal, The fall, The crown and numerous other shows like American gods and Great expectations. She’s been great throughout it all. An incredibly underrated actress who’s more than deserving of being called best actress of the decade.

Best original soundtrack: Gundam Unicorn

The music for this OVA series was brilliant. Gundam Unicorn uses unforgettable orchestral tracks to represent the heroes of this story while making everything feel epic in scale. At the same time, we have more techno-inspired songs used to represent its villains. It’s a great little artistic touch to make the characters seem more distinct, especially in a story that operates in the shades of grey that this one does. As music alone it was fantastic but the way it’s incorporated here adds so much to an already incredible show. I have to call it the best OST of the decade.

Best intro: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency Arc

Damn! This intro gets me hyped! All the Jojo anime intros do if I’m honest but this one especially. Between the gorgeous imagery, awesome vocals and fast-paced music playing throughout it’s a perfect reflection of the series itself. I can’t think of a better intro to a show from this decade whether animated or live-action.