Your 2013 Predictions, Part One: The Hellbound Heart.
Well, here we are, looking back at your comic industry predictions for 2013. This is probably part one of mumbletymumble, so you’d better get used to it. Also, I’m still looking for 2014 predictions so we can do all this again next year.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN:
Derooftrouser, whose handle I’ve wondered about for years, predicts
“Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Man of Steel do well at the box office, but not quite as well as expected, and The Wolverine somehow manages to make less money than Origins, leading to lots of headlines going ‘Zap! Pow! Superheroes are Box Office Kryptonite.'”
I think, if anything, Iron Man 3 outdid expectations, being the highest grossing film of 2013 at $1.2 billion worldwide. Of course, some executive somewhere may have slammed his fist down onto his massive desk and shouted “DAMMIT, I wanted $1.3 billion!” Man of Steel made just shy of $700 million in its worldwide take, and the Thor sequel brought in $630 million, which aren’t numbers to sneeze at, surely, but again, someone somewhere was probably hoping for an Avengers-esque phenomenon (particularly in the case of Man of Steel) and didn’t get it.
The Wolverine did about $400 million, which was a bit more than its predecessor…at least worldwide. By U.S. takes alone, The Wolverine is the lowest grossing, but including international ticket sales, it’s solidly in the middle.
At any rate, a whole lot of people who aren’t me are making a lot of money, so let’s move on.
Roger Green greened
“Someone will put a mass killing of children in a comic book, and unlike every other mass killings in comics, this will engender some controversy.”
I was totally ready to say “pretty close to a ‘hit’ there” but the story I was thinking of occurred in 2012. There were a fair share of public controversies over comics this year, but nothing specifically involving that particular topic. Matter of time, probably.
Michael Jones revealed
“I predict that I won’t read any comics over the following year but I’ll continue to enjoy Progressive Ruin.”
Well, I don’t know if Mr. Jones read any comics in 2013, but I know for a fact nobody enjoys this site.
MrJM has a lot to say, and what he says is:
“1. Kal-El’s supertrunks will return.”
Well, kind of. Not in official DC Comics continuity, but there they are in media tie-ins and the continuity-free Adventures of Superman series.
“2. The Dick Tracy comic strip will continue to baffle and entrance me.”
Hey, Joe Staton’s doing the strip! I’m entranced now!
“3. A major newspaper will discover that, ‘Bop! Zip! Comics aren’t just for kids anymore!’ while continuing to run strips that appeal solely to pre-literate children and octogenarians.”
A brief Googling reveals some news stories along those lines, but not too many. No idea if they’re in print or just online, but it’s good to see some old reporting traditions continue.
“4. Bully the Little Stuffed Bull will once again be my favorite superhero.”
Yes. He should be everyone‘s favorite.
“5. Plastic Crimewave’s rock and roll history comics — http://goo.gl/UxhJ1 — will inspire a cartoonist to document other overlooked figures in pop culture.”
No idea if those did specifically, but there are similar projects out there and the more the merrier, sez I.
“6. Marvel will, at long last, acknowledge that the Avengers were co-created by Stan Lee and Walt Disney.”
Geez, I thought everyone knew that.
Dean Hacker schools us with
“1. DC will begin quietly backing away from the new 52. They’ll revive some bits of old continuity and then re-relaunch a character that is a full-blown throw-back. The smart money is on Green Arrow, but don’t rule out Superman.”
Little bits of old continuity creep in here and there (like the pre-New 52 Swamp Thing popping up recently), but no full-on Return to What Was with anyone, far as I can tell.
“2. Marvel will roll out a big wave of cancellations and everyone will start questioning the commitment of the Disney folks to comics as a medium. Then, they’ll kill someone off and everyone will forget.”
Marvel is currently in the process of canceling and relaunching and / or renumbering or whatever the hell it is they’re doing, and I don’t know if they’re trying to shore up the bottom line on their publishing end to keep Disney from cutting it entirely or what.
“3. Image will launch a creator-owned title from a formerly exclusive Big Two talent that will be much bigger than expected.”
Rick Remender used to be exclusive to Marvel, and his recent Image book Black Science opened big, I think. And Matt Fraction was exclusive to Marvel at one point as well, and his Sex Criminals has been in enough demand to warrant reprints of the first three issues (the latest due out this Wednesday at your local comic book shops…and for the love of God, look at that fourth printing of #1!). So, yeah, they’re not Walking Dead-huge or anything (but what is?), but it ain’t too shabby.
“4. Dark Horse will lose the Star Wars license to Marvel, who will promise to roll out a new line of Star Wars comics. It won’t happen. Meanwhile, the Dark Horse folks will replace Star Wars with Battlestar Galactica (or something).”
SO CLOSE. We all figured this was a done deal, but wasn’t officially announced ’til a couple of days into 2014. Too early to say how Marvel will drop the ball on this, or what Dark Horse will do to replace the franchise in their publishing schedule, but check back in 2015 for details!
“5. Superhero movies will start to seem a bit past their prime as at least one hyped Marvel sequel tanks and the rest of the slate disappoints.”
As discussed previously…not yet!
Bill Gatevackes unleashes:
“1. There will be at least 3 more ‘waves’ of the new 52. In one these waves, there will be a Kamandi book,a WWII superhero book, and new take on one of the books that were in an earlier wave yet was cancelled.”
It didn’t feel like there were “waves” of New 52 replacements like there had been in the first couple of years of this particular publishing effort. But sadly, no new Kamandi title, no new WWII title, superhero or otherwise. Nor were there any attempted revivals of previously-deceased New 52 books, but characters like OMAC and Frankenstein did pop up again, frequently, so at least there’s that!
“2. Peter Parker will be dead for the whole year, though the prelude to his inevitable return will begin in the fourth quarter of 2013.”
Still dead, not counting the flashback storyline in the stupidly-numbered Amazing Spider-Man #700.1 – #700.5. I don’t know if they’re dropping hints to Parker’s return in the Superior titles, since I don’t read them. Maybe one of you can tell me.
“3. Marvel will kill of two more major characters in the next year, one will get major press, the other won’t.”
I cheated a bit and Wiki-ed Marvel deaths, and didn’t see any deaths of “major” characters, aside from one or two that will probably be reversed soon, if not already. Anyway, there weren’t any big stinks this year over supposed character deaths at Marvel, which is fine by me. People are tired of that “plot” “development” anyway.
“4. Issues will come out regarding the new Neil Gaiman Sandman series centering on corporate involvement in the creative process. It might actually cause the project to end up being scrapped.”
Well, there were delays, and I guess a signing tour for a book is a kind of corporate interference, but probably not what you meant. It’s still coming out, though!
“5. Image will continue to build on their line of popular, respectable books, and might rise to such a stature that the challenge DC and Marvel for sales dominance. However, unlike the 1990s, this time they wont fade away so quickly.”
Image has certainly put out its fair share of quality books, but (aside from Walking Dead sales) it’s not quite at Big Two sales levels yet. A brief glance at Diamond’s market share charts shows Marvel and DC pretty much neck and neck, with Image a distant third. Still, they’re doing fairly well.
“6. Disney will buy Hasbro, returning G.I.Joe and Transformers comics back to Marvel. IDW will be able to withstand the loss by adding more original content and expanding the licensed content the already have.”
That would have been interesting, and not a bad prediction, but nope! But someday, Disney will own everything and your prediction will, by default, become true, so don’t feel too badly.
“7. This was the first time in history that there were three comic book adaptations in the top ten highest grossing films of the year (The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Amazing Spider-Man). In 2013, there will be four films in the list. If not more.”
Well, looking at this list of top films for 2013, there are only two comic book movies that made the top ten cut: Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel, with Thor: The Dark World at #12.
swamp mark gives us:
1. Without Snyder,Swamp Thing will be cancelled around issue #29.He will make guest appearances in JLDark after that until Lemire leaves that book and it is cancelled too.
The solicit for Swamp Thing #29 doesn’t say “LAST ISSUE” and it kicks off a three-parter, so we’re good at least for a little while longer!
2. A Swampy movie will finally be made based on Moore’s work (which he will disavow) which will be a huge sleeper hit and cause DC to start up a half dozen different Swampy titles.
Ah, if only. So I guess we still only have Return of Swamp Thing as the only Swamp Thing movie at least partially based on Alan Moore’s work.
3. Mike and I will be seen dancing in the streets.
Alas, no one saw us. It will only be in our memories, and our memories alone, swamp mark.
On that note, let’s leave off for today, and we’ll pick up again tomorrow, hopefully. We’ll get through this together, my friends…and again, I’m still looking for your 2014 predictions so send ’em in!
Dean Hacker was closer than you think – the new GREEN ARROW seems to be backing away pretty hard from the “glib playboy” version of the character that premiered in the Nu52. Last I saw he’s again got the beard, is gruff and serious and acting a bit more Grell-esque.
I’d give Roger Green partial credit. Harley Quinn murdered a bunch of children, but there was zero controversy outside of comics blogs.
http://robbydude.tumblr.com/post/61033430643/what-the-fuck-dc
Man of Steel made a lot of money, but I’m guessing not as much as WB was hoping for since instead of a sequel they’re making a team-up movie.
Aw, thanks, MrJM! I promise to wear red shorts for underwear and continue to snap absolutely no one’s neck* during 2014.
*Occasional gingerbread cookie or chocolate bunny excepted.
Re: Dick Tracy
I immediately followed the link and, as part of trying to see how long this’s been going on, I started skimming backwards on the calendar.
I ended up at http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2013/01/01
That’s… pretty much guaranteeing I’m at LEAST finding the start of that story line, and maybe the start of Staton’s tenure.
E-Man Forever!
This’ll do as a place to start my Dick Tracy Archive Dive…
http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2012/11/11
““5. Plastic Crimewave’s rock and roll history comics will inspire a cartoonist to document other overlooked figures in pop culture.””
There’s a Beatles/Brian Epstein graphic novel coming out from Dark Horse!
The last time i checked in on Dick Tracy, it was using terrible, terrible typography…possibly even Comic Sans. Looks like the Staton version not only is well-designed, it reads well too. I’ll have to start checking it out as well!
I think the Marvel deaths thing happened. Rogue, Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man all popped their clogs in an issue of Uncanny Avengers but people only seemed to care about the first two deaths.