Year in Review: 2023

 Year in Review 2023

My consumption rate for media and my mental health kind of went hand and hand tumbling down the rabbit hole of reality. I’m not sure how far I fell, but with the death (and second death) of my computer I realized that there was a lot more in my life that I could do or be doing. Earlier in 2023 (maybe even 2022) a friend of mine desired that I write a campaign for us all to play. Now I love writing these adventures, since you can never predict what will happen and where the party will roam, but that’s besides the point. I never had the focus, the time of day to sit around and write, between work and the internet. Mind you at this time I was on a quest to be more internet than man, and succeeded in this falsehood. I am still human (from what my faculties tell me), but I had less of a brain when it came to focus and enjoying the media I was partaking. It all felt more like I was within the cockpit and not controlling the machine. One of the good parts of detoxing my mind from the computer was realizing these moments and tasks that should have been done many times over, but where hushed by my own incompetence as someone consumed with the obsession that is the ever expanding internet. Long and short, my focus for matters of personal gain were shoved aside by my ever dwindling desire to gain it back, I was content in my stupor (what a horrible state). Though with all of this backstory aside we can start the review, since I’m better (to a degree), but getting back to more productive person in my opinion. Update 2024; I got a new computer and it’s been a battle, though one I feel I’m winning (ever so slightly), but I’m balancing life better from my all encapsulating attention machines.

Graphic Novel: Batman Universe

Anything with Batman will get a fine toothed comb, brushing the follicles aside and exposing everything that the Dark Knight should be, well from person to person, since Batman has many facets. And with that idea, he’s the World’s Greatest Detective, a Martial Artist of the highest teaching, and an all around Noble guy, it’s safe to say this story covers all of these bases. This reads like a Batman primer story, a simple standalone that brings the character to the current affairs of the World, essentially modernizing some of the more outdated devices (technology and personality) to the present from his previous update and 85 year old power fantasy persona. Bruce is a little younger, but he’s been doing this for a long enough time in this story. It’s a nice blend between this being his first time fighting the good fight, and finding out about the Weird World of Detective Comics (DC Universe), and not being anything different than he’s been doing for the last 8 decades (and hundreds of Artist interpretations). That’s what makes this balancing act so interesting. How far, as a writer (Brain Michael Bendis wrote this Bat-Tale), do you push the character knowing as much of their own history as possible for the story to make sense, but keep the reader from being bored and amplify their curiosity. In both cases this is perfectly tuned, since at no point I was in a position that I felt I wanted to close the book. Not to mention that the illustrations from page to page, panel to bubble, were immensely detailed and sensationally designed renderings by Nick Derington (honestly the main reason I was drawn to this book). This thrill didn’t stop with the clawing mystery, even the characters, since the cast was expanded to the Bat-Family and the timeline was thrown to a period that advanced the story. Everything felt like an introduction into this new World, though nothing was too solidified that you had to have read something before this graphic novel to enjoy it. It was a sample of everything that one would expect from comics, but nothing felt out of place, since the pacing kept you wanting to push along our caped crusader. Though like most stories there’s an ending, this has that, but it felt like a proper beginning to something more, so that’s why it’s my favorite introduction for new readers into comics, since you will taste a little of it all and we’ll weed out the rest.



Movie: Bill & Ted Movies

This series has lived way beyond its intended decade, and I love it for doing it for so long. Bill & Ted, played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves respectfully, is about two burnouts, not stoners, which a lot of people misplace them into that genre of teenager, who are given a chance (supernaturally/technologically) to be better. They’re more of that friend you have that doesn’t really know where they’re going, in life, or in their career, or currently (the car’s over here!). Though through each feature we see that they help each other and try to find a way in the future doing something for the greater good that they never thought they could be, an acolyte of World Peace/thrall of World Unification (they’re not leaders to me [the movies makes you think they will be one day]). That’s all three movies in one small space, don’t get me wrong, I love these films, it’s where I first found Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, also my desire to see more of their antics like in the movie Freaked (1993). All three of these movies are your classic cult films, the first one deals with time travel, second goes into pseudo-theology, the third one deals with alternate timelines and in a way brings the first two films into the third one as a new wave. Though that was the down fall for me, since the third movie felt more like a second movie to the first and not a third to the series. If anything a parody of the past, but not a progression of time within the present. Long and short, I love all three movies, I can’t tell you how funny the third movie is, it’s the best in the series if you are looking for comedy in your science fiction. To wrap things up, don’t watch them as separate films, marathon them each time, enjoy all the in-jokes and bits that they’ve trailed into the next film. These movies are a must watch, at least once in your life.

 

 

And that’s the highlights of 2023 for me, there was just two standout pieces of media that really captured my attention within that year. I usually read a lot and watch movies, but nothing has within this year (2023) brought me as much enjoyment as this two notes. Anyhow, 2024 shows a lot more promise than its predecessor. Hope you’ve enjoyed this novelty review more articles to come with a New Year on the horizon.