What Do I Think Of 2019 So Far

So we already reach the halfway point of the year, and I think its time to reflect on what has happened in the world of pop culture so far.

This year DC Comics has had an up and down year with terms of everything they want to do this year. They hit gold with season one of DOOM PATROL, Batman turns 80, Detective Comics reach #1000, Shazam was a hit in theaters and The Joker will have a film that may do the villain justice, but besides all of that, they made some wrong decision as well. Another re-branding which was a cut, copy, paste from the ESRB, the ending of both Vertigo and most recently Mad Magazine, the canceling of Swamp Thing after the first episode and have nothing to show at this years SDCC will hurt them unless they are playing the long game. Not only that but the biggest story that came out of 2019 in comics so far was the ending of The Walking Dead comic series, which came out of nowhere. Take the time to find it and read it for yourself.

While all this was happening, the video game world was on fire. Google introduced to the world Stadia, which in paper sounds great, but still not a seller. So many companies are doing its own subscription service, which is stupid if you ask me, Sony a no show at E3 this year and of course Cyberpunk 2077 has an official release date with thanks of Keanu Reeves who is also in the game as Rockerboy Johnny Sliverhand. Not only that but we had a lot of great games that came out so far such as MK11, Samurai Shodown, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled, and it’s just a handful of games.

Cartoons and anime took a flip this year so far. Last year anime had a lot of great series that were coming out in both the winter and spring, while its summer was ok at best. Cartoons last year was so so during that same time, but this year it changes a lot. Cartoons have had the best year so far in terms of what has been coming out so far. She-Ra, DC Super Hero Girls reboot, Love Death + Robots, Costume Quest, Looney Tunes reboot, The Bravest Knight and Tuca & Bertie have all been great. In anime, the only shows that were worth watching were Dororo, Boogiepop, and Others, my roommate is a Cat, The Magnificent Kotobuki and the anime that came out of nowhere Rilakkuma and Kaoru.

TV and Cinema were on par this year. TV had some great series with the likes of Luther, Sabrina, Lucifer, DOOM PATROL, SwampThing, Kingdom and When They See Us. In cinema that was a different story, Disney is starting strong with both Avengers 4 and Captain Marvel doing so well at the box office while at the same time they buy 20th Century FOX and hit the massive house cleaning button. Netflix won its first Oscar with “Roma” and so did Spike Lee with “BlacKkKansman.”

So as of now, 2019 has been somewhat reasonable, but it can’t overcome the bad news that keeps coming out left and right. Hopefully, the second half of this year can finish strong, but I’m not sure if it can if it keeps going at this rate.