Sunday 12 January 2014

Ten Reasons 2014 Will Be Awesome...

Here are ten things that are going to be great in 2014. In no particular order:

1. XBOX ONE

I don't have an XBOX One yet, booo but am planning on picking one up in March. I'm not going to start a Sony Vs Microsoft debate here. I'm historically an XBOX owner just because the exclusives on the console suit my taste more than Playstations. But just take a look at some of the things being released for this beast in 2014 (probably).

Tom Clancy's The Division


Destiny


The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt


Titanfall


Quantum Break


Alien Isolation

Of course there are many, many more but the gaming year ahead looks like great fun. 

2. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

If you don't know who the Guardians are just think The Avengers in space. There's a little more to it but thats all you need to know to start with. Their comic year starts off with a crossover with the X-Men as Jean Grey (don't ask) is put on trial for the actions of the Phoenix, which this version of Jean hasn't encountered yet. Told you not to ask. 


The current lineup of Starlord, Drax The Destroyer, Gamora, Groot and Rocket Raccoon have been joined recently by Angela (who I'll be honest I know very little about) but with a new Thanos graphic novel coming this year I'm hoping that some of the wider Marvel Cosmic characters are going to start to make a few more appearances. Where the hell is Adam Warlock? or Quasar? The Marvel Cosmic universe is a little lost without them. Of and of course in August there's a small matter of Marvel's riskiest movie to date. Guardians could flop. I don't think it will and I REALLY hope it doesn't but it could. So all I'll say is go see it, I'll be in line at midnight. 


3. Sin City

Sin City isn't new but it is probably my favourite non-Big 2 comic of all time. Great art, superb characters and probably one of the best movie adaptions comics have ever seen. Why is it on my list for 2014. Well first there's this:


That's the entire run of Sin City in one massive ass Hardcover. I'm drooling just thinking about the thing. To go with it there's this:


The Art Of Sin City has been published before but man is it hard to get a hold of. To top it all off in August we get the sequel (although part of it is prequel) to the 2005 movie. 


Sin City is awesome, Robert Rodriguez is awesome when he isn't making Spy Kids movies. I may have to see this twice at the cinema, per day, for a week.

4. FILM 2014

2014 MOVIE TRAILER SPLURGE. First the ones you probably know:

The Lego Movie


Robocop


300: Rise Of An Empire


Journey To The West (Foreign Language Warning)



Captain America - The Winter Soldier


The Amazing Spider-Man 2


Godzilla


X-Men: Days Of Future Past


Edge Of Tomorrow


Transformers: Age Of Extinction


Jupiter Ascending


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) (fake poster)


Interstellar


The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I


The Hobbit: There & Back Again


The Monkey King (Foreign Language Warning)


And just a tad more on some of the films that you might not have heard of but will likely be better than the spectacle in the list above.

Snowpiercer (Foreign Language Warning)

Partly Korean film about the world in an ice age where the survivors live on a permanently moving train


Knights Of Badassdom

Comedy movie about LARPING starring Abed from Community, Tyrion from Game of Thrones & River Tam from Firefly. Has been sat on a shelf for years


Veronica Mars

Kickstarter funded film based on the TV series of the same name. Probably the most sarcastic character ever written


Welcome To Yesterday

Found footage movie based around time travel. Blame Chronicle


Under The Skin

Scarlett Johansson plays an alien sent to Earth to prey on men, or something along those lines anyway. Has done well at award shows so that tells you what to expect.


Transcendence

Johnny Depp turns himself into an AI. MUST WATCH will likely be this years Gravity/Looper/Inception


Earth To Echo

Alien contacts kids by mobile phone. Think along the lines of ET or Super 8


Lucy

Scarlett Johansson takes a drug that turns her into a Superhero (that's her third entry on this list, two superheroes and an alien). Best thing about this is it's being made by Luc Besson, the genius behind Fifth Element and Leon


Space Station 76

1970s style film about a bunch of people on a space station. Know very little about this.

Monsters - The Dark Continent

Sequel to one of my favourite films that you probably haven't watched (Monsters) this is properly exciting. 

This is by no means every film coming out this year. I have purposely left out some, like Muppets: Most Wanted & yet another Planet Of The Apes because I either really don't care or just think they will be a bit rubbish really.

5. NEW MUSIC

I'm not going to list every band releasing an album in 2014 because odds are the one that will turn out to be my favourite this time next year won't have been announced yet or will be by a band that doesn't yet exist. I will post about a few favourites as the year goes by, post some youtube links to things I like but this one is obvious really. There's good new music every year

6. NEW COMICS

Marvel & DC have got some great series going at the moment and both are launching more all the time. In fact the speed by which comics are rebooted now kinda gives you whiplast. But Harley Quinn at DC has barely started and looks to have a strong year in 2014.


Over at Marvel there's more going on than I'll ever have time or money for. But Wolverine looks like he's going to have a big year, that he may or may not survive. Nova is going reasonably well and Wolverine & The X-Men is being relaunched soon. Iron Patriot, Moon Knight & The Silver Surfer are also getting new ongoing series in the first half of the year, though don't expect any of them to last 50 issues.


On the independent side of things expect The Walking Dead to keep dominating everything, Saga to continue to be completely insane and completely awesome and Mark Miller to keep coming up with great ideas. Image Comics have announced more new series than anyone knows what to do with. Rogue Trooper is returning from IDW, the X-Files is crossing over with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Ghostbusters and expect me to post a lot about this girl in 2014:


7. LONDON FILM & COMIC CON 2014


'NUFF SAID

8. MARVELOUS GIRLS (yeah I know that was terrible)

Captain Marvel is returning in a new ongoing series from Kelly Sue Deconnick and I still have absolutely no idea why they bothered rebooting this one. The last series went 17 issues, didn't sell spectacularly (because books with female leads traditionally don't (facepalm)) but had a massive cult following, myself included. Hoping this one keeps going a little longer but it isn't the biggest news:


With Carol Danvers off being Captain Marvel the Ms. Marvel mantle is being taken over by another. Kamala Khan, a 16 year old Muslim girl.


Apparently this is a scary thing. Thor is a god, Tony Stark's an alcoholic, Superman's an alien but apparently praying to a different god is terrifying. Though being afraid of a 16 year old I totally get. The world is full of idiots and if this guy can get his own series who are any of us to judge:


9: OVERPRICE COLLECTABLES

Here are some new figures coming out in 2014:

Kotobukiya Mara Jade


Kotobukiya Art FX Batgirl



Play Arts Kai Xenomorph


Play Arts Kai Spock

OK yeah I could only come up with nine.

10. NEW TV

New tv in 2013 was really disppointing with Agents of Shield and Defiance not quite living up to their potential yet. 2014 promises more. Here are some suggestions:

Helix

Show about an Arctic Research base doing something they probably shouldn't from the guy who bought back Battlestar Galactica and wrote most of the best episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Started on Friday so look out for a review from me this week




Star-Crossed

Sci-fi romance where a bunch of aliens move into a normal high school. Yeah it's Roswell on the CW. Put down as possible guilty pleasure (starts Spring)




The 100

Bunch of teenage delinquents are sent back to Earth to see if the planet is safe. This could be awesome if done well, also based on a book. (starts Spring)


Believe

Potential failure as guy is asked to protect some girl for some reason. Could go absolutely nowhere but being made by the guy who did Gravity and J.J. Abrams so could also be the biggest thing on tv this year. (Starts Spring TBA)




The Strain

TV adaption of Guillermo Del Toro's book about a virus that turns people into Vampires. This will be huge and pretty much guaranteed to be great (Starts Summer)


Extant

Halle Berry plays an astronaut returning to Earth. Don't really know much else. (Starts Summer)

Outlander

Fantasy Romance as WWII nurse is sent back in time to 18th Century Scotland. Again made by the guy who bought back BSG (Starts Autumn TBA)

The Leftovers

HBO series by one of the guys who did Lost about people left behind after The Rapture (Starts Autumn TBA)

Star Wars - Rebels

This one is scary/exciting. Disney's first production since purchasing Lucasfilm. A sign of things to come... (Starts Autumn TBA)



The Flash

Spinoff of Arrow starring the fastest man alive. Almost guaranteed to happen. (Starts Autumn TBA)

The Last Ship

Pandemic has taken over the Earth as Naval vessel returns from Radio Silence. Great premise (Starts Summer)




Crossbones

Pirate series starring John Malkovich as Blackbeart (Starts Autumn TBA)

Gotham

Prequel to Batman starring 10 year old Bruce Wayne and Detective Gordon. Not yet picked up but 90% likely for Autumn

Black Sails

Another pirate series from Starz. Think Pirates of The Caribbean with likely a lot of nudity knowing that channel. (Starts January)




24 - Live Another Day

The biggest TV event of the year as the world's second least plausible spy returns to television (Bond obvs). Jack Bauer returns to television in an "Event Series" that starts in April. Action on TV has been lacking since 24 was cancelled (not counting Person Of Interest) so the return of 24 is a huge deal. 

Enjoy the year!

I know I will be...



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