I almost didn’t post one of these this year. If I’m being honest, 2022 was a period where I lost more family and friends, felt like I was falling away from people I want to stay close with, and didn’t truly grow much as a writer as I would have liked. It wasn’t all bad, however, I debuted at a few new places, wrote some bigger pieces, and other than a couple of misfires, had several things published. As is tradition, I post these to not only remind those who missed some of my work of what I did this last twelve months, but for myself as well. I always want to do bigger and better things in my field, but I’m unsure if this is the motivation I need or not. Still, the plan hasn’t changed. I want to remember the cool things I accomplished and keep working hard on achieving more. I know I can do it. Sometimes it’s just about finding the right time and opportunity.
January of this year started off pretty thick with pieces, but there wasn’t much fluff. I got to talk about some of the ‘90s best animated female villains and characters we wanted to see cameo in the (now canceled) Saved by the Bell reboot. It’s hard to go wrong with these two.
–https://www.looper.com/720277/the-best-animated-female-villains-of-the-1990s/
–https://www.looper.com/749709/classic-saved-by-the-bell-characters-we-want-to-cameo-in-season-3/
I did a lot of articles about film anniversaries and that started in February with my piece on Swamp Thing, followed up by my first video game feature of 2022 on Life is Strange, which I somehow tied back to my albinism.
–https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1212252-wes-craven-swamp-thing-retrospective
–https://culturedvultures.com/life-is-strange-powers-albino/
March was a full month and I spent a lot of time analyzing Marvel’s Moon Knight show to look for Easter eggs, then I told people what was new in GTAV for GG Recon, and wrapped things up with talking about new characters introduced in The Boys: Diabolical.
–https://www.looper.com/810099/easter-eggs-you-missed-in-moon-knight/
–https://www.ggrecon.com/reviews/gta-5-grand-theft-auto-ps5-review/
–https://www.looper.com/779042/the-best-new-characters-in-the-boys-presents-diabolical/
We started off with a cool debut at Space and talked about Star Trek in April, followed up by praising the good G.I. Joe movie, and talking about how Ghostwire Tokyo lacked substance. Finally, Stone Cold made his comeback at Wrestlemania and I just had to write about that!
–https://www.space.com/albino-no-more-how-ash-tyler-overtook-voq-in-star-trek-discovery
–https://scwilds.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/ghostwire-tokyo-ethereal-substance/
May saw another article in a print magazine, one about Saints Row characters, and then I debuted at Reviewed talking about accessible video games. After that, I got to review a Vampire: The Masquerade game, Swansong, and finally saw my long-awaited interview with writer Paul Jenkins.
–https://culturedvultures.com/vampire-the-masquerade-swansong-review/
–https://www.comingsoon.net/games/features/1221941-paul-jenkins-retrospective-interview
After giving Eternal Darkness some credit on its anniversary and reviewing a couple of odd movies, I did one of my favorite reviews of the year on The Quarry. Next, it was time to remind people about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, before rounding it out by discussing how Far Cry 6’s violence helped the experience for TheGamer.
–https://culturedvultures.com/the-quarry-ps5-review/
–https://www.thegamer.com/far-cry-6-brutality-ending-cycle/
The end of July was a bit rough, but before that, I talked about ReoboCop on Looper and then told some readers about Troma’s Surf Nazis Must Die.
–https://www.looper.com/923815/the-best-and-worst-things-in-robocop/
During August, I got to review a book of Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror comics as well as a film named Glorious, but the fun part was ranking a bunch of TMNT games on the Cowabunga Collection.
–https://www.comingsoon.net/games/features/1237058-tmnt-the-cowabunga-collection-ranked
The beginning of September was a bit slow, due to getting over COVID, but that didn’t stop me from talking about Batman: The Animated Series again or ranking the RoboCop films.
–https://www.looper.com/1016751/the-unsung-villains-of-batman-the-animated-series/
–https://www.space.com/robocop-movies-ranked-worst-to-best
In October, I participated in Polygon’s Fashion Week, talking about the stylish Final Fantasy X. After that, I was fortunate to get an early look at the new animated Mortal Kombat movie, Snow Blind.
–https://www.polygon.com/23386744/final-fantasy-10-fashion-1990s-time-capsule
–https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/reviews/1242898-mortal-kombat-legends-snow-blind-review
Other than reviewing a couple of odd movies in November, I was into the Resident Evil Village DLC. I will also take any excuse to write about the X-Men, especially those ‘90s trading cards or the cartoon.
–https://www.looper.com/1093883/the-unsung-characters-in-x-men-the-animated-series/
And most recently, I got some wonderful attention on my pieces for The Orville and another wrestling feature about Mandy Rose. I did my first controller review and hope to get a few more under my belt, as well as discussed a lesser-known Justice League movie and a lot more TMNT.
–https://www.space.com/the-orville-started-as-a-spoof-but-it-has-evolved-into-so-much-more
–https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/features/1256040-mandy-roses-rapid-wwe-release-showcases-hypocrisy
It wasn’t a slow year, that’s for sure, and here is to hoping that 2023 is twice as busy. A big thank you to everyone who supported me, who shared my work, or just clicked on a link. It means a lot when you read the words I wrote. I couldn’t have done it without my friends and incredible wife. She’s a dork, but Aimee is also the reason I’m able to do anything.
Happy New Year.
Stephen Wilds 