Your 2015 Predictions, Part Three: Changes.

§ January 22nd, 2016 § Filed under predictions § 8 Comments

Here we are…part 3 of 53 consecutive posts examining your 2015 comics industry predictions…you can find parts one and two…um, right where I just linked them, actually.

And, of course, give me your predictions for 2016 so you can experience all this fun next year, too!

And awaaaaay we go:

• • •

Dave Carter presents yet another list of comics predictions:

“We will get a LEGO Batman comic from DC, likely as a digital-first offering.”

I haven’t seen any straight-up Lego Batman comics offered through Diamond or digitally just yet, but I suspect it’s just a matter of time with a Lego Batman movie heading our way in 2017. I mean, I don’t keep track of every digital comic, so I don’t think there’s been one yet, unless there was some kind of exclusive download with a Lego set or game or something I missed.

“The Fantastic Four movie will not stink, but will nevertheless underperform at the box office.”

Sir, you were half-correct!

“We will get a Complete Matt Howarth’s Bugtown reprint project. (Hey, I can dream, can’t I?)”

That would be pretty neat, but not in the cards yet, it seems. There is a Bugtown ebook, so maybe that’s how we’ll eventually get a complete collection.

• • •

Michael Grabowski seizes me with

“One of DC’s special cover months will be actor-in-costume photos augmented with artistic elements. Some of the images and actors will be from films or television shows currently in production.”

Pretty close…Marvel had their cosplay variants just a few months ago. They didn’t have any added “special effects” like you were suggesting, but we’ll probably see something like that soon. (I mean, it’s been done before.)

“IDW publishes Moore/Bissette/Totleben Swamp Thing Artists Edition, with the promising subtitle Volume 1.”

Alas, not yet. Believe me, I’ll let you know when it happens.

“Comixology stops supporting ios 5.1, stops working on 1st gen iPads, and then the next day offers all Fantagraphics Books at half-off. (More of a dreaded personal nightmare than a prediction, I suppose.)”

Okay, Googling didn’t tell me anything, and I can’t find anything on the Comixology site that tells me one way or another, and I 1) don’t have an iPad, and 2) don’t use that service, so I have no idea if this is true or not. I did see some complaints about something or ‘nother not working, but every computing machine or app or what-have-you gets those. Thus, I am asking you if this was a Thing That Happened because I have no idea. I did have a pal report he’s had no problem with his iPad 1, so that’s my one point of data I have for this.

• • •

demoncat_4 uses up one of his remaining 5 lives with

“dc will finaly decide the new 52 did not work and do a crisis and bring back the old dc universe.”

Well, no one’s admitting that the New 52 isn’t working, but they did drop the logo from the covers, and Convergence kinda sorta brought back various versions of old continuity.

“marvel will anounce that neil will begin picking up where he left off on miracleman.”

I’m pretty sure that was a given from the get-go, but we should be seeing those new stories sometime this year!

“dc will launch both a suicide squad tv show and new comic with swamp thing as a member.”

No to both, aside from the Squad kinda/sorta being on Arrow, but we are getting a Suicide Squad movie this year, and I have no idea what’s up with that del Toro movie starring Swamp Thing and some other less important characters. Not holding my breath.

“dc will finaly let see print the legendary rick veitch story where swamp thing meets jesus. in a new trade of his swamp thing work.”

DC skipped right over it, the jerks.

“ragman will finaly get another shot of being a dc big gun in his own mini.”

I don’t know if Ragman even popped up post-New 52? Has he? Did I miss him?

“the constantine tv series managing to survive will have john cross paths with swamp thing.”

Unfortunately, the show was a goner, but we did get one last hurrah on Arrow. Hey, Arrow’s green like Swampy…that’s close!

• • •

James, who’s appeared in this round of predictions previously, the big sneak, has a BONUS PREDICTION:

“Wolverine will come back to life. However he will promptly die from a heart attack when he finds out Marvel is publishing Uncanny Inhumans.”

Boy, not just Uncanny Inhumans but All-New Inhumans and a theoretically-monthly Karnak series. That’d be enough to put the old Canucklehead into shock three times over! But he’s still dead, so I guess that works out.

• • •

Philippe Leblanc barbs me with

“DC Comics moves to Burbank California proves disastrous. Their ‘Convergence’ event undersell (except for Swamp Thing and Harley Quinn, maybe Jean-Paul Valley’s Batman). The move was incredibly more costly than they thought and Time Warner isn’t interested in bailing them out. A massive Kickstarter/Patreon/Indiegogo is launched to save DC Comics and help them buy furniture, office supply and pay their moving bills.”

Looks like they made the move okay, and the main Convergence sold…okay, and some of the tie-ins didn’t do horribly, but I think everyone would have been happier with the regular series instead. This sales chart shows that the Harley, Justice League, and Batman books did the best (or at least were ordered by retailers in the highest numbers, whether or not they actually sold to customers), while Swamp Thing shows up at about #85. …DC may have taken a financial hit on this, but they’re not out in the streets selling pencils out of cups just yet.

“Marvel continues to publish off beat superhero titles to critical acclaim with very low sales. Bizarre titles like Man-Thing, Aunt May Fantastic Adventures and Lockjaw and friends begins outselling the big Marvel event titles like Secret Wars and everyone is surprised.”

People do like their offbeat titles…while I’d kill for an Aunt May book, stuff like Howard the Duck and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl are holding their own, despite Marvel’s best efforts to strangle them in their cribs with their immediate relaunchings. Sales aren’t a patch on Secret Wars, natch, but I’d be shocked if they were.

“The concept of ‘The Big two,’ which normally referred to Marvel and DC becomes outdated. We now refer to ‘The Big Five’ as: Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Image, IDW and Dark Horse. They dominate the sales chart in 2015.”

Not yet, not yet. Maybe someday.

“Bonus Round: Marvel publishes only Avengers titles, Everyone and everything is an Avengers. Including their furniture catalog: Furniture Avengers”

I have to say, I do like my Moondragon futon.

• • •

Tim O’Neil hurts me with

“Rather than predicting that one of the many comic book movies released this year will flop and bring the whole edifice down with it (everyone’s favorite prediction for fifteen years running!), I will say that they will all continue to do good-to-great business, and the whole thing will keep rolling into the future as planned.”

OOOH, bad timing, Tim! 2015 was in fact the year the superhero movie completely died. No more after that ill-fated Forbush Man flick, I’m afraid.

“Charles Soule will take me up on my challenge and write Quasar, somewhere or other.”

What’s up with that, Charles? What are you…chicken?

• • •

Mike Nielsen drops himself with

“We will get at least 1 new Showcase Presents volume in 2015.”

Well, we got Blue Beetle and Unknown Soldier, and a new Batman volume is due this month, sometime.

“It will not be Showcase Presents Tomahawk or Showcase Presents Rex the Wonder Dog.”

You are correct sir.

“I will buy said Showcase Presents, but not as happily as I would Tomahawk or Rex the Wonder Dog”

My Mike Nielsen Happiness Meter is on the fritz, so you’ll have to tell me yourself!

• • •

DavidG foresees

“Ant Man will be a hit, finally ending the Paul Rudd jinx.”

I wasn’t aware there was a jinx, but Ant Man was certainly a hit. And he’ll be in the new Captain America movie, too, so I guess that’s a jinx-ender? We’ll see how that flm goes.

“DC will release yet another unsatisfactory movie that will look crappy next to Marvel.”

I don’t think we had a DC theatrical release in 2015, unless there was an Ambush Bug movie nobody told me about. There were some direct-to-DVD animated movies…I thought Gods and Monsters was pretty good.

“I will not buy a monthly comic book as they are pretty much unreadable.”

I don’t know…did you? It’s okay if you bought one…I won’t tell anybody!

• • •

Darius Smith forges ahead w…wait, I’ve already used that joke

“MARVELs will cost $5/copy!”

Not for lack of trying. Marvel’s still Holding the Line at $3.99, by and large, though there’s a few $4.99s in the mix!

“DC will focus on 99-cent digital copies”

I don’t think they’ve quite cut the cost down that low…digital comics are a bit outside by purview, but I think they’re still at the standard pricing, not including special sales.

“SPAWN 250 will outsell SPAWN 1”

They almost had more covers for #250 than there were copies of #1, but I think Spawn #1’s million copies or whatever are still the tops.

• • •

Pedro de Pacas smokes up the following

“Howard the Duck will get a new ongoing series, which will last 11 issues.”

I don’t think there have been 11 issues total between the two(!) series we’ve had so far. But it seems to be doing okay saleswise.

“Agents of SHIELD will be renewed for a third season, which will be its last.”

No news on a fourth season yet, but I think it’ll probably continue. We’ll find out!

“The Flash TV series will continue to be super awesome. DC’s movies will continue to suck.”

The Flash is definitely awesome! DC’s movies…well, if you thought Man of Steel sucked, I guess it continues to suck through 2015. …I don’t know, I liked it.

“After the Fantastic Four movie bombs, Fox will outsourcing the franchise to Marvel Studios and allow use of their characters in crossover films.”

I think everyone wants this except Fox, which is a shame. Look forward to more bad FF movies in the next decade or so.

“Wolverine will return to the living, after being revealed to be stuck in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay.”

I see what you did there. [CHEVY CHASE VOICE] Wolverine is still dead. [/CHEVY CHASE VOICE]

• • •

That’s enough for now…more coming…in the future! That I can predict with certainty.

8 Responses to “Your 2015 Predictions, Part Three: Changes.”

  • JD says:

    Ragman showed up in the later issues of Batwoman (after Williams left, IIRC).

  • Michael Grabowski says:

    The Comixology app works pretty well still on a first gen iPad stuck with ios 5.1, thankfully, though there is an occasional glitch while trying to open a book. The website itself (which you have to use to purchase the books if you use an ios) will often crash the browser on my device. In any case, I was able to take full advantage of a great Fantagraphics sale last fall and Drawn & Quarterly added a handful of its books to the service at good prices so there’s that.

    My fear remains, though, that Amazon will do something ultimately in its management of the store or app that will diminish my ability to use it on this aging device. That’s just the way of the world.

  • Adam Farrar says:

    Regarding Miracleman, the drawn but never published Miracleman #25 will finally come out in April as “Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age #3” so completely new stuff should be out in May!

    Interestingly, nothing has been said about “Apocrypha.” Maybe they’re saving it in case they need to print something later to give Gaiman/Buckingham/Klein/D’Israeli more lead time. Or maybe they couldn’t sign all the deals and they’ll skip it. Or maybe they don’t care.

  • David Alexander McDonald says:

    I finally stepped up yo an iPad Air, though Comixology continued working fine on my iPad 1 under iOS 5.1, as did YacReader. The main issues is that both apps only run in earlier versions — the versions for iOS 8.1 and above have major improvements.

  • Matt Jeske says:

    Rayman showed up in the new 52 in an issue of Batwoman.

  • Matt Jeske says:

    *Ragman

  • DavidG says:

    Nope, didn’t buy a single monthly comic. I did buy vol 3 of the Matt Fraction Hawkeye trades from Sterling Silver Comics though!

  • DavidG says:

    Oh, and the Paul Rudd jinx, take a look at http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?id=paulrudd.htm Ant Man is the first movie of which he is the indisputable main star to gross more than $100m at the box office in the US