TV
Good Superhero Shows - When I was little I watched reruns of the old Adam West Batman show, the Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman, and even some of the George Reeves Superman Show. The only show that was running current episodes was the Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk show. All of those were enjoyable programming for a young boy not yet 10 years old. Trying to watch them now fluctuates between amusing and painful. West's Batman was not a serious show so you can live with that but the others were supposed to be and that just makes them worse now than they were then. After those days other than a very short lived Flash series there wasn't much being offered. There was Lois and Clark, which I didn't watch so I got no real opinion on, and then not much else until we got Smallville. Smallville ran for 10 seasons so it had a following and I won't bash them. But after a season or two, I just couldn't stick with it. And while that was going on there was a short lived Birds of Prey series that I really wanted to like but......in hindsight it wasn't very good. Now that may sound like a lot, but mind mind you that this all happened over a span of 30 years. Given the sheer number of series that come and go on broadcast television, that's a drop in the bucket. So for there to be four quality superhero shows on now (Arrow, Flash, Agents of Shield, and Constantine) on now with more on the way (Supergirl, Marvel's Agent Carter miniseries, and a possible Teen Titans series on TNT) is huge and something we can't take for granted.
Movies
We went four for four on superhero movies this year - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Amazing Spider Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Guardians of the Galaxy. There was also a lot of stuff that I didn't get around to seeing but was very successful - Godzilla, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Hobbit series wraps up this December as well. Next year we get Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Fantastic Four (I'm not particularly optimistic about it but I'll still give it a chance), and we close out the year with a little movie called Star Wars - The Force Awakens. With the Star Wars teaser trailer dropping today, the Internet may actually break. This is high tide to be a fan of these movies. For the next five or six years we're going to get a plethora of goodness between the Marvel Studios films and the DC film Universe getting kicked into gear and Star Wars getting jumpstarted. Don't listen to the naysayers and enjoy it all.
WWE
It's been a tough year for the WWE with major losses financially (largely due to the costs of the WWE Network they started up this year), injuries to key players like Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns, and departures from stars like CM Punk and major contributors like Alberto Del Rio. But despite all that, the company has given us some great things. When the fans turned on the originally planned Batista vs. Randy Orton WrestleMania main event, they listened and gave them what they wanted by inserting Bryan into the match and putting the belt on him. When Bryan went down they smartly put the belt on John Cena as a placekeeper to set up a decisive win by Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. And when all looked lost heading into Survivor Series they gave us Sting in a WWE ring to turn what would have been a forgettable night into one a lot of us will remember. Hopefully, the injured players will be able to go again in 2015 and more people will sign up for the network. The Network is awesome - there is no reason to skip out on it if you are a fan. You get every current Pay Per View Event, along with access to the entire back catalog of WWE and WCW Pay Per View shows, and old shows from damn near every company that was relevant in the 80s and forward (with the obvious exception of TNA). I highly recommend it for any fan out there, and hopefully it will turn profitable because it was a great addition in 2014.
Comics
There was lots of good stuff in the print world. DC's Forever Evil event series wrapped up with a bang, Lex Luthor joined the Justice League, Future's End and Batman Eternal have entertained on a weekly basis and we got another great Superman event with Doomed. On the Marvel side there was Death of Wolverine, Orignal Sin, and the Axis series. Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider Man was excellent all year as were some other series that I don't read personally that scored high with those who do - Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Hawkeye, and Superior Spider Man. As we end the year with new chapters of Captain America and Thor with Sam Wilson and an yet to be revealed lady taking on the titular roles in both books. Both major companies put out some really great work this year and I'm especially thankful for Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman, Gail Simone's Batgirl, Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow run and anything done by Geoff Johns. On the Marvel side I'm thankful for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, Black Widow, and Storm. All three have been great reads.
So yeah, a lot to be thankful for in 2014, with a lot more to come in 2015!
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