Beth's review - "Brent and I just talked about how we have watched some great horror movies this year (“Hush” and “The Invitation”). This was a well made horror movie that had a pretty scary bad guy. If you enjoy watching movies with things that jump out, then this one is made for you. The scares are centered around this kind of scare. I agree with Brent that the characters did not make the best choices, but they are not so stupid that it ruins the movie. This is a good movie if you just want to sit down, eat some popcorn, and have some fun scares. 8 out of 10.”
Brent's review - "I didn't realize until I looked it up on wikipedia that this film was a remake of a short film, but it makes a lot of sense after watching it. It certainly has the feel of film that was created to take advantage of the scary image of something that can only be seen in the dark, and that advances on you with each flicker of light. The plot would have probably been better served by not trying to explain the existence of such a creature, and the protagonists certainly could have been much smarter in preparing to combat it. The plot to this movie was also very similar to the Wes Craven film "Them" but was a much slicker version. The main character, played by Teresa Palmer was also not entirely convincing, but for a short fun film with plenty of jumps you could do much worse than this one. 7 out of 10."
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, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10" and "Savage Dragon," and to be honest "Savage Dragon" would probably rank in Brent's top 3 books every year so you get more variety this way.
10.
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Emanuela Lupacchino
Last Year's Rank: None
Beth's thoughts - "Starfire was one of the new DC books about a twenty-something year old alien girl that is trying to live a normal life in Florida. Although this book was only 12 issues, they were all great. I loved having this book mixed in our stack because it never took itself too serious, instead it made you laugh and smile while you watched a likeable character learn the ins and outs of human civilization."
9.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Michael Gaydos
Last Year's Rank: None
Brent's thoughts - "This is the newest series that made our top ten list, but we feel pretty confident in it for a few reasons. One, it's bringing back the same writer and character from an earlier excellent series called "Alias." Second, Marvel recently released a Netflix series about this character that was one of the best comic book comic book adaptations of any genre. Most importantly, the first few issues have been great, dealing with a mystery of why Jessica Jones has hidden her baby from its father, Luke Cage. Along with "Motor Girl" from Terry Moore, and "Reborn" from Image comics, this is probably the series I'd most expect to leap in the standings next year."
8.
Publisher: Boom Studios
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Michael Dialynas
Last Year's Rank: None 2015 Rank: #4
Beth's thoughts - "The Woods is about a fully populated high school that mysteries vanishes and reappears onto an unknown world. This series started in 2014 and started out strong because of the mystery of what was going on. I will admit that it went through a lull at the end of last year and beginning of this year (not that it was bad, just not as good as it had been). They managed to find their way out of it when they started introducing flashbacks to Earth to tell the stories of the families that were left behind. This book has a good mixture of surprises to keep you interested."
7.
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Last Year's Rank: #7
Brent's thoughts - "This series finished 2016 in the exact same spot we had it at the end of 2015, as our 7th favorite book of the year. This book is the consistently excellent story of a future where giant alien machines have caused catastrophic loss of life, and a small companion robot may hold the key to preventing it from ever happening again. This last year of the series has focused more on flashbacks for the characters, which has helped fix one of the major problems that can happen with on-going comics. Sometimes as the cast of a book gets larger, it's tougher to remember from month to month why each character matters and what their motivations are. Lemire has done a great job of make every character matter, even down to inaudible mining robots. The art on this series is probably as weird as a book can get and still make our top ten list, which is another testament to the great writing."
6.
Publisher: Aftershock Comics
Writer: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Rafael de Latorre
Last Year's Rank: None
Beth's thoughts - "Animosity is about a world where one day all animals gain human like consciousness. The story follows a little girl and her bloodhound. I know at first thought some of you are thinking that Beth picked another talking animals book and yes this book does have talking animals, but it is definitely made for adults. Reading the book brings up a lot of ethical questions as well as being a pretty action packed story. "
5.
Publisher: Valiant
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Art: Doug Braithwaite
Last Year's Rank: None
Brent's thoughts - "Every year a Valiant book or two makes our top ten, with the previous years best of represented by Harbinger and X-O Manowar. The company that puts out the most consistent line of titles every year continued that in 2016 with some great stories boosting the already solid prior runs on books like Rai and Eternal Warrior, but no book benefitted more than Bloodshot. Beginning with a great storyline where Bloodshot found himself on an island with other rebirthed soldiers from WWI, WWII, Vietnam and other conflicts, each one was hunted to death every day by a super weapon before being reborn the next day. As the group made it off the island, they found themselves in New York City where the entire city had been inflicted and converted into nanobot infested supersoldiers. This title also gives writer Jeff Lemire the honor of being the only writer to make it our best of list twice, an honor Brian K. Vaughan (Paper Girls) just missed the cut on.
4.
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Art: Ben Dewey
Last Year's Rank: #6
Beth's thoughts - "Autumnlands is a fantasy comic about a society that lost it’s magic and is trying to restore it. This last year has really been a great adventure/buddy story with a young magician and the mysterious hero they brought to help solve their issues. This comic is different from a lot of other comics we read because at times it feels more like a fantasy novel instead of a comic. It even starts out each issue with a substantial (for comics) prose section. They do a good job of establishing the rules of the world and following those rules. This might be a great pick for any of you readers that like fantasy novels, but have not really tried out comics."
3.
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Art: Fiona Staples
Last Year's Rank: #5 2015 Rank: #1
Brent's thoughts - "The continuing saga of a family on the run from warring races, bounty hunters and fugitive monarchs rebounded a bit this last year as the reuniting the core family allowed for stronger stories than last year when the group was divided. I don't know that there is a better artist working today than Fiona Staples in terms of originality of character design and bringing humanity to its characters (although spoiler alert, my favorite artist is still to come on this list). Definitely not an all ages book, Image Comics benefits yet again by telling adult stories in fantastic settings in a manner that is almost completely unseen in mainstream books or movies. Saga is a testament to how great creators can keep consumers entertained for years when given the freedom to tell a complex story in an adult manner (think tv's "Game of Thrones" as another example).
2.
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Mark Millar
Art: Rafael Albuquerque
Last Year's Rank: None
Beth's thoughts - "Huck is the story of a young man that might not have the highest intellectual ability, but does have the unique ability to find anything he looks for. This is probably one of the sweetest comic characters that we read this year. Out of all the books we read this is the one that I cared about the main character the most. This story was just a limited series, which might be the most disappointing thing about the book."
1.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Mike Allred
Last Year's Rank: #2 2015 Rank: #3
Brent's thoughts - "Congrats to our book of the year, "Silver Surfer," a series that has been closing in on number one since we started doing these lists 3 years ago. The story is so simple it's ridiculous how original every issue feels. Silver Surfer is taking a human named Dawn Greenwood around the galaxy with him, and together they go to different worlds and help people out while also growing closer together. The artwork by Mike Allred is the perfect fit for this title, as every page is both fun and eye catching and the characters are always recognizable. It seems like after every issue either Beth or I is saying something like "I can't believe how good that one was," as it continues to surprise month after month."