I read some stuff, and I watched some stuff. Now I'm writing some stuff about the stuff I read and watched, starting from the worst and ending with the best.
WORST: Avengers Annual (2014) #1 by Kathryn Immonen and pencilled by David Lafuente: It's a Christmas issue, which automatically puts it in my shit-list: there exactly one thing I like about Christmas, and that's Doctor Who. It's also by Kathryn Immonen, whose work has a madcap tone that just irks me. I'm not sure that this is a bad comic, but it's certainly one that I don't like.
WWE Smackdown episode 819: Nothing actively bad happened on this show, but it was back to the standard quality of Smackdown, with loads of storylines treading water and no memorable matches. My highlight was probably the New Day, who continue to be amazing as they vainly try to stay positive while the crowds rubbish them mercilessly.
WWE NXT episode 274: This is the first NXT I've seen that featured all of the top people, and it really made a difference. I'm still not blown away by it, but seeing guys like Hideo Itami, Finn Balor and Kevin Steen do their thing is entertaining. I have a lot of time for Steen, who looks more like Kevin Smith than any wrestler should, but somehow still manages to kick arse convincingly.
WWE Raw episode 1143: This was not a great episode, or even a very good one, but I was still into most of what was going on. Unfortunately, none of the storylines can progress until Extreme Rules on Sunday, so a lot of plate-spinning gets done here. I have to give credit to any episode that has Randy Orton just hitting RKOs on every random person he encounters, though.
Iron Man (2013) #1-12, written by Kieron Gillen, pencilled by Greg Land and Dale Eaglesham: This is, of course, quite a fun read: it's by Kieron Gillen after all. The first story suffers, though, from being a retread of the Extremis arc from 2005. (Holy shit, a decade ago? Really?) The second, in which Tony goes to space is an improvement, but where I'm at now they're doing some seriously dodgy stuff with Iron Man's origin. I'll reserve judgment until I see where it goes, but it's looking a bit iffy. (Bonus points for the appearance by Death's Head, who is never not awesome. Anti-Bonus Points for the Greg Land art, which is superficially great looking but stiff and lifeless.)
Avengers (2013) #29-37, 34.1, written mostly by Jonathan Hickman, pencilled mostly by Leinil Yu: These are still good comics, but I feel like Hickman has gone a bit off the rails here. It starts well, with Captain America finding out what Iron Man and the Illuminati have been up to (destroying planets, mostly), but then it veers off into weirdness with the Time Gem, and Cap being thrown further and further forward in time. I'm sure it will make sense when the whole story is over, but right now I'm not entirely sure what the point of it all was.
Game of Thrones season 5, episode 2: So, they're serious about deviating from the books, aren't they? Jaime Lannister never went to Dorne, and Brienne never found Sansa Stark. To be honest, I'm fine with it. Now I can enjoy the show without feeling like it will spoil the books when it inevitably overtakes them. Conversely, I can watch the show without knowing everything that's going to happen. It's a win-win, really.
Daredevil season 1, episode 8: How did I only watch one episode of Daredevil this week? I should be done by now! Anyway, this featured the origin of the Kingpin, and it was very good. It wasn't exactly super-happy fun times, but what TV show is these days?
BEST: New Avengers #22-25 and Annual #1, mostly written by Jonathan Hickman, mostly pencilled by Kev Walker: This title continues to be the best of Hickman's Avengers work, and one of the very best Marvel comics out there. After Namor's actions last issue the Illuminati disintegrates, but Namor continues their work with a team of villains. It's the highest of high-stakes drama, and smarter than any Marvel comic has a right to be.
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