We watched a couple of new movies this week, the first up being “Bad Times at the El Royale,” starring Chris Hemsworth (“Thor: Ragnarok”), Dakota Johnson (“50 Shades of Grey”), and Jeff Bridges (“Hell or High Water”) and directed by Drew Goddard (“Cabin in the Woods”).
Brent’s review – “This was just about everything I want in a movie. It had a great cast, plenty of memorable moments, some shocking twists and a very distinct and memorable vibe. Several strangers all end up at a isolated motel at the same time, each one has secrets and danger following them around. I thought Jeff Bridges gave one of his best performances in this movie, and Chris Hemsworth was awesome as a creepy cult leader. I didn’t realize it until looking it up later, but Bill Pullman’s son looks just like him. 9 out of 10.”
Beth’s review – “This movie was pretty great. I never knew what was going to happen and I even jumped a couple of times because I was taken by complete surprise. I agree with Brent that the casting and acting in this movie was spot on. Who would have thought of Chris Hemsworth in this role, but it really was a perfect fit. I thought this had some great twist, but still stuck with the characters to really keep you invested. 9 out of 10.”
We also took the boys to the dinner theater to see “A Dog’s Way Home” starring Ashley Judd (“Double Jeopardy”), Edward James Olmos (“Blade Runner”) and John Hauer-King (“Howard’s End”) and directed by Charles Martin Smith (“Air Bud”).
Beth’s review – “This movie is a way worse “Homeward Bound.” Like A Dog’s Purpose it is meant to tug on your heart strings, but really just feels like a Lifetime movie. They never really develop the human characters much and Bella (the dog) who is developed the most is pretty boring. 4 out of 5.”
Brent’s review – “I can sum this movie up as ‘how long can we stretch out making you feel bad for this dog?’ While I liked it more than A Dog’s Purpose, I thought the acting was a bit worse than in that movie and the CGI special effects took me out of the movie a lot (basically any time there was a bobcat on screen). 4.5 out of 10.”
Cliff’s review – Cliff thought this movie was sad, and it made him emotional a few times but luckily no tears at the movie theater. He did say he hopes nobody takes his dog River because that would make him sad. Cliff also said he liked Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse much better. (Dean watched most of the movie but this was one he was definitely more interested in his French fries and cuddling up with mom and dad that what would happen to the dog.)
Our little guy Dean moved from a crib to a bed this week. All in all it has gone OK. Dean was a bit scared to be left along the first night, then fussed a little bit the second night but has slept through both nights in his new bed. We were a bit spoiled by Cliff’s transition to a big boy bed, but Dean’s done a very good job as well. Next week, we’re going to start potty training.
Thanks to global warming, it’s halfway through January before we got our first snowfall of the year and our boys were ready for it. Cliff in particular has been asking about when he could build a snowman (in particular with Uncle Aaron) and play outside in the snow. We spent about an hour outside today, with the boys enjoying being pulled on the sleds, going down the slide and running around with River. Unfortunately, either the snow was too fluffy or mom and dad are bad at building snowmen because we had no luck creating one for our boys.
We also took the boys to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese this weekend for Cliff’s fellow school mate Anna. It was a really fun time, with Cliff getting to spend some time with other kids, both of our boys got to play some arcade games, and for plenty of pizza and cake.
Our Favorite Comics of 2018
Continuing one of our favorite yearly traditions, this week we look back on 2018 and pick out our favorite comic book series of the previous year. By comparison, here are our favorite picks for the following years:
As in previous years, the list was made by ranking each of our favorites of all the books that we both read, and then combining to find whatever our favorites were. After so many years together, there are only two books we pick up that both of us aren’t caught up on and reading together, “Invincible” and “Savage Dragon,” and to be honest both would rank in Brent’s top 3 books every year so you get more variety this way. Our other honorable mentions, just missing the top ten were Astro City, Mech Cadet Yu and Uncanny X-Men.
10. 
Publisher: Abstract Comics
Writer: Terry Moore
Artist: Terry Moore
Last Year’s Rank: 10
Last year, Terry Moore’s Motor Girl made our top ten list, with us calling it the best work he’d done since Strangers in Paradise. This year, he’s brought back Strangers in Paradise, focused the book on Katchoo (always the best character) and connected the book to his other works for Abstract, including Rachel Rising, Echo and Motor Girl. It’s been a lot of fun seeing it all come together, having read all of those books as well.
9. Cyberforce (Vol. 4)
Publisher: Image Comics (Top Cow)
Writer: Bryan Hill
Artist: Atilio Rojo
Last Year’s Rank: N/A
Cyberforce is about a group of people given cybernetic implants that turn them into human weapons. Originally coming out in the 1990’s, it’s been rebooted a few times and we’ve checked out all of them. Bryan Hill’s newest take is actually the best we’ve seen the book, with the series being delivered in very character driven issues that have been building toward a violent confrontation.
8. Saga
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Last Year’s Rank: 4th
How’d Saga end up so low on our list this year? Well, only 3 issues came out, so it’s tough to call it the best of 2018. Not only that, but the three issues that did came out included one that killed off a major character in a very sad way. Still, Vaughan’s long running space epic about a family on the run from a variety of political and social enemies has never wavered as one of our best books.
7. Skyward
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Joe Henderson
Artist: Lee Garbett
Last Year’s Rank: N/A
Skyward tells about a future of Earth where a technological breakthrough inadvertently disables the gravity of the whole planet. The result is a world where people can float off into outer space, bugs have developed into giants, and only the richest people are able to afford magnetic boots to travel on the ground. It’s been an interesting start, with a mystery running through the book as well that has us interested where it’s headed.
6. Outpost Zero
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Sean McKeever
Artist: Alexandre Tefenkgi
Last Year’s Rank: N/A
There are several science fiction books on our list, but Outpost Zero is the most straight forward in the genre. The book takes place on another planet. The humans present live in an enclosed structure because outside is so inhospitable survival is nearly impossible. When teenagers adulthood, they are placed into a career path like engineering, exploration, etc. In the first issue, somebody dies opening a gate to the outside, and the others must discover why it happened.
5. Valiant High
Publisher: Valiant Comics
Writer: Daniel Kibblesmith
Artist: Derek Charm
Last Year’s Rank: N/A
Much like the next book on this list, your enjoyment of this title will likely be related to how much you know about the characters prior to reading. Valiant High is a four issue series where all the characters of the Valiant Universe are reimagined as high school students or faculty. This was the funniest book of the year, and it also told an interesting story where everything was unpredictable because of who could show up and the possibility that anybody could die. An example of the type of switcheroos being done was how the immortal and deadly Eternal Warrior was converted into an older kid who had been held back a few times in school and was now known as the Eternal Sophomore.
4. The Wildstorm
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jon Davis- Hunt
Last Year’s Rank: 10
DC’s The Wildstorm has continued to remake the Wildstorm Universe in very surprising and interesting ways. Although this isn’t a book for everybody (those who are not at all familiar with the Wildstorm characters may find this a steep entry point), the currently evolving story is telling a really cool story about aliens on Earth, a secret government security branch in outer space, and a man hunting down superpowered individuals that all tie in together.
3. Bloodshot Salvation
Publisher: Valiant Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Various
Last Year’s Rank: 6
For the last few years, we’ve been spoiled by the high quality of Valiant Comics. Almost across the entire line, all of the books have been solid, but Bloodshot had pulled away as the very best. Bloodshot: Salvation was the culmination of a few years of storytelling, where the deadly soldier has a family, a strong cast of supporting characters and a deadly villain that made every person at risk feel very important to the reader. The series ended and has since been relaunched as the vastly inferior Bloodshot: Rising Spirit which is part of a new direction of Valiant Comics that likely won’t be making any more top ten lists.
2. Descender
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Last Year’s Rank: 7
Another great book that ended this year, Descender is Jeff Lemire’s second book in our top ten. Picking up decades after man kind was nearly destroyed by giant robots, one small companion robot may hold the key to all intelligent robot life in the universe. Descender did a great job of slowly growing the cast of characters to make the reader care about bounty hunters, scientist, military people and even construction robots.
1. Fantastic Four
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Sara Pichelli
Last Year’s Rank: N/A
Last year our favorite book of the year was Silver Surfer which wrapped up in a very satisfying and emotional arc. It left a hole in our hearts that was tough to fill (particularly with Copperhead and Saga on hiatus). The only book that could do that was the return of Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four. The last time we had an ongoing book about the Richards family, Jonathan Hickman was knocking it out of the park. Dan Slott (writer of Silver Surfer) has so far brought back the group and completely nailed what makes the book so great among superhero comics. More than anything the book is about family and adventure, and every issue has nailed that dynamic thus far.
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