12021 Wrap Up
Quick reflections on the last year:
Vaccines
Clearly the biggest and most impactful thing of the year was wide availability of vaccination. Much of human history has been defined by our battle with infectious diseases. Our society as we know it is possible largely due to advances in medicine, specifically vaccines. I got my jab as soon as I could and got boostered as well.
Multiversity Comics
I contributed to the Multiversity Comics Year in Review. Specifically, I wrote about how awesome Bilquis Evely is: Artists of the Year & Cover Artists of the Year; gave some props to Superman/Authority; and expressed my love for Young Justice.
Other Comics
To prepare for the Multiversity Comics Year in Review I had to make some lists. I didn’t do a great job keeping track or remembering all the comics I bought this year so my lists should be taken with a grain of salt. Probably lots of recency bias here, but my favorite ongoing books were:
- Action Comics
- Fire Power
- Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters
- Crossover
- Black Hammer Reborn
- Black Widow
- Batman/Superman
- Serial
and my favorite new books were:
- Not All Robots
- Human Target
- Mazebook
- Frontiersman
- Superman ’78
Superman
What an interesting year for Superman fans. It brought the end of the Supergirl CW show, but the start of Superman & Lois. We got Lois & Clark and the Animated Series in HD on HBO Max (and later blu-ray), but also Zach Snyder’s Justice League. We are ending the year with Clark as the main star of the fewest in-continuity ongoing books in more than 80 years, but also got the Red & Blue anthologies, the ’78 mini, Superman/Authority, Jon Kent in his own book, and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The end of the Bendis run, but the start of the Phillip K Johnson run. No news of any further theatrical Superman movies, but we got our first glimpse at Supergirl from The Flash. We had a Superman Celebration and despite it being low key it was still a highlight of my year.
Let’s see what 2022 brings us. Superman & Lois Season 2, the 30th anniversary of The Death of Superman, more Jon Kent, and reportedly a bigger Celebration.
Movies
It was great going back to the theaters this year (25 times personally). The theater experience just can’t be beat for me. I recognize it’s not for everyone, but it is for me. Letterboxd makes top movies lists much easier than my comics lists. I log every movie I see and give it a spur of the moment star rating. Inevitably I miss movies or they come out after the year is over in my area so I wouldn’t consider this list definitive. I plan to see Drive My Car this weekend (Omicron permitting).
Music
Lots of great music this year, plus like the theaters live music has somewhat returned. My band Glacier was able to play a couple shows and I got to see Stephen Brodsky play in Quicksand, Old Man Gloom, and twice with Cave In. Plus lots of local shows like Circus Trees at The Sinclair.
My favorite new releases of the year in alphabetical order:
- Amenra “De Doorn”
- Big Brave “Vital”
- Converge & Chelsea Wolfe “Bloodmoon: I”
- Divide and Dissolve “Gas Lit”
- Dust Moth “Rising // Sailing”
- Emma Ruth Rundle “Engine of Hell”
- Glassing “Twin Dream”
- King Woman “Celestial Blues”
- Kowloon Walled City “Piecework”
- Low “Hey What”
- Quicksand “Distant Populations”
- Rid of Me “Traveling”
- Seed “Dun Pageant”
I also loved the Let It Be (plus Get Back movie), All Things Must Pass, and Kid Amnesia reissues.
Here’s to 12022!
