Things I Thought Were Cool in 2008

I never kept any kind of list for a best of '08 post so I wasn't going to bother with one this year, especially since we're 30 days into it already. While doing my usual rounds of the blogosphere, however, I noticed that writer Rob Williams is saying "I don't swing that way" and doing an extremely belated hodge podge list of his own, regardless of the date. Taking his example (or at least using it as an excuse to generate content) I decided I was going to post a few random things I liked in 2008 posts to highlight the stuff that I remember liking. If I have any fun doing it, I'll maybe squeeze in a few things I remember hating, just for some balance.

It's no secret that not everyone was happy to see the return of Indiana Jones to screens in '08, but this was one Indy fan who enjoyed having the man in the hat back. After a very long drought post-Last Crusade it was exciting to have new stuff to be looking forward to, whether it was the comic books, the toys, the DVDs or the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull itself. I won't bother mentioning the Young Indiana Jones DVDs and the new paperbacks here because they're not exclusive to 2008. The first of the Young Indy sets came out in November of 2007, I think, and the new books don't drop until later this year.

Anyway, having new Indy comics has been a blast, especially in the hands of the aforementioned writer, Rob Williams. Many of Dark Horse's attempts at Indy stories in the past have fallen short of greatness and the Temple of the Gods has been a real trip, even if it's been plagued with delays, and the all-ages Indiana Jones Adventures digest/one-shot was marvellous. Probably one of the best Indy stories I've ever read.

The toys I won't really go on about here since I posted on them already a little while back.

I have yet to get my hands on a copy but a complete soundtrack collection was also released featuring all the music and some never before released extras from them man, John Williams.

And lastly, while the new movie is very much disparaged I had a lot of fun with it and have enjoyed it even more since grabbing it on DVD. The story moves at a quick enough pace that a lot of neat little things get lost as the plot zooms on and I love the callbacks to the last film in Indy's dialogue essentially showing that he's becoming his father. Actually, the shout out to the pilot episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was probably my favourite bit of dialogue in the whole film, believe it or not. And the spit after he mentions Victoriano Huerta, classic.

Overall a pretty good year for Dr. Jones and his many fans.

Cheers!

mike