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Your 2018 Predictions, Part Three: The Lost Warrior.

§ January 18th, 2019 § Filed under predictions § No Comments

WHAT WE’RE DOING: going over your 2018 comic industry predictions.

WHAT HAVE WE ALREADY ONE: the first two parts are here and here.

HOW LONG IS ALL THIS GOING TO TAKE: probably forever, so let’s get started with today’s batch!

demoncat4 uses up his remaining 5 lives with

“after the disney fox deal is complete marvels first chance of using the ff and x-men characers will have the silver surfer pop up to help the guardians of the galaxy against galactus. with rocket trying to shove a bomb up the big purple guys butt.”

Alas, not yet…look, I want an actual big-helmet Galactus in a live action movie more than anything, and it that means he has to get a bomb in his butt, I am A-OK with that.

“tired of the delays with jl dark getting made warners will decide to just do a new swamp thing film that will lead to a new tv series and animated cartoon.”

As I’ve noted previously, we are getting a Swamp Thing TV show on DC’s streaming service, costarring Blue Devil, so all those crazy predictions that everyone laughed at about new Swampy media…TAKE THAT, HATERS.

“ragman will return to arrow and get his own tv spin off and comic at last with a guest apperance by swamp thing.”

Did Ragman come back? I Googled about and saw a lot of articles along the lines of “RAGMAN WILL BE BACK IN SEASON 6” but I can’t seem to pin down any episodes he may have been in. I even watched that season…I don’t recall him popping up. Could be wrong, and will allow correction…this time.

But no new Ragman series guest-starring Swamp Thing. Well, the last series ended mid-2018, but my Swamp Sense didn’t tingle when those latter issues came out, so I guess our favorite swamp monster wasn’t in there. …NO, NOT THE HEAP.

“Marvel streamlines its books after the late-2017 wave of cancellations, returning to a model of sublines of a few titles anchored by a single core title (Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man. Sales go up as readers are able to buy entire lines (even at $3.99) instead of books cannibalizing each other.”

Sounds like a completely reasonable and rational response to an overburdened marketplace…so of course that didn’t happen. Ah well.

“AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR’s postcredit teaser will suggest the entry of the Fantastic Four into the fight in AVENGERS/4 (turns out that the discussions over regaining that license was what launched the Disney-Fox discussions). As plans for the Disney-Fox merger coalesce, it becomes clear that the Avengers etc. will remain in a separate universe from the X-Men etc., but the FF will showcase their exploratory nature by traveling between the characters’ different Earths in their new films.”

I saw the suggestion that a “4” would have been on Nick Fury’s little thingie at the end of Infinity War, and I would have been all for (get it, “for,” “four“) that. I do like that concept for the FF, though I think we don’t need to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe more complicated that it is! They could probably figure out ways to retrofit the newly-reacquired characters into their milieu. (Still think the FF should be from the ’60s, lost in space after their accident, returning to Earth with their powers in the modern day. HEY, I’M A FAN, I THINK ABOUT THIS STUFF TOO.)

“With the Arrowverse now so we’ll established and ARROW reaching the end of Stephen Amell’s seven year contract, the nature of the shows involved are going to start changing, beginning to crossover more, have multiple shorter-run shows sharing slots within the year, and having characters move between programs with greater frequency, as the ever-changing slate of programs becomes more and more like a live action version of a comic book universe.”

They certainly do emphasize the crossovers, as they’re big ratings grabbers, but I do wish they would shorten the seasons. I haven’t even started on the shows for this season yet, beyond the openings for Flash and Black Lightning. There’s just too much…I mean, Legends of Tomorrow has a shorter season tham the rest, but I suspect that show’s not long for this world anyway.

“DC will launch a “BAT-MAN and the OUTSIDERS” series featuring Firestorm, Gotham Girl, and a New Gods character.”

Almost! A revival of the series was planned to launch last December, but the project was returned for regrooving as DC continuity hijinks necessitated story changes, apparently.

“Marvel will announce a SPIDER-WOMAN OGN or Mini-Series written by Dennis Hopeless and pencilled by Steve Rude.”

Not that I’ve noticed, but I would totally read a Spider-book drawn by Steve Rude.

“HBO will acquire the rights to Jim Starlin’s dormant “DREADSTAR” film project. The resulting series will replace and eclipse ‘GAME of THRONES’ as a critical and pop culture phenomenon.”

Man, just imagine the Syzygy cosplay. But unfortunately, no Dreadstar on the TV horizon. C’mon, Netflix, while shooting money out of that firehose, aim a little in Jim Starlin’s way so we can get this show!

“DC will relaunch Legion of Superheroes, trying the ‘Lets make them all teenagers’ ploy again. It will be awful.”

Still waiting in the wings, unless you count Saturn Girl’s appearances in Doomsday Clock, about which I’ll let you decide if it’s awful or not!

“The new Avengers movie will outgross the Han Solo movie, despite it being incomprehensible unless you have seen all 18 previous Marvel movies. This will make Marvel the most favoured child at Disney, who will therefore start meddling more.”

Well, yeah, sure did outgross Solo, fairly famously. Don’t know if Marvel is “meddling more,” but Infinity War was surprisingly easy to follow and flowed well, all things considering. I’m as shocked as you are!

“No matter how good Jodie Whittaker is as the new Doctor, there will be a bunch of dicks complaining about her incessantly on the internet all year.”

We will never be rid of guys like that.

“The Thing will join the Avengers and Wolverine will take his place in the FF.”

Negatory, though I would have absolutely plotzed if Wolvie was a primary part of the FF relaunch. ..I mean, either comics or movies, whichever.

“DC will attempt the ‘villain secretly takes over the hero’s body/role for several months’ storyline with Dick Grayson.”

No “Superior Nightwing” from DC last year, far as I’ve noticed.

“Either Brian Michael Bendis or Tom King will write a new Jimmy Olsen series.”

Well, Bendis is writing the Superman books, sooo…maybe sort of, I guess? But I’m all for a “Superman’s Pal” standalone series.

“The new movie helps Marvel realize the star power of Black Panther, causing him to guest star in a Wolverine/Deadpool degree.”

Oh boy, let’s hope not…let them be judicious with their use of Black Panther, not burning everybody out on him like Marvel did with, oh, say, Wolverine and Deadpool. …But on the other hand, Marvel’s gotta Marvel.

“A new Legion of Superheroes reboot is announced, possibly featuring a Supergirl TV inspired version of Mon-El.”

No new LSH, yet, but when they do, let us hope the creators were all conked on the heads just enough so that they forget the TV Mon-El ever existed.

“Frank Miller’s the Spirit is reappraised, taking its rightful place in the pantheon of movies. Egg will be on the face of its critics.”

This absolutely 100% happened. Good call!

Some ‘alt-right’ book is going to come out, and be utter crap, yet everyone who points that out will be a ‘SJW.'”

I don’t think any of them have made it to stores yet, unless there’s a Kickstarter-distributed one I don’t recall…but the sample pages that are out there don’t appear to have been well-received, no.

“Marvel’s gonna…keep being Marvel. Launch a bunch of books, cancel ’em, repeat. The returns have more than diminished, but they don’t have another trick.”

Why, it’s as if you’ve been watching the comics industry for some years now!

“I don’t think Disney’s going to take Alien or Predator away from Dark Horse yet, but I suspect DH is going to back out of the licensed comics entirely. (Wait, did Disney get Buffy and Angel too? Well, whatever.)”

Still hanging in there with the licenses, though losing some big ones (Star Wars, Conan, and as you mention, Buffy) has got to hurt. Boom! is the company that got the Buffy books, however…those should be out soon, but Whedon’s Firefly did very well for me, so I’m hoping Buffy does, too. Been a long time sine Buffy comics sold good numbers for me.

“I know we’re meant to wait till the end of 2018 before we respond to the predictions but I think we can guarantee new Miracleman in 2018. I chatted to Mark Buckingham at London Super Comicon back in August and he said he was already drawing it. Apparently Neil Gaiman had scripted the whole of the Silver Age but Mark took 6 months off as he and his wife have a new baby and he made enough money off Fables to take an extended paternity leave.”

Uh…hate to tell you this, Damien….

However, that is interesting information about the much speculated-upon comic, and I appreciate you leaving it here!

Okay, enough for today…back next week with more predicticatin’! And I know we’re over halfway through January…but there’s still over 11 months of 2019 to come, I hope, so place your predictions for the rest of the year right here!

Your 2018 Predictions, Part Two: Lost Planet of the Gods.

§ January 16th, 2019 § Filed under predictions § 8 Comments

Okay, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment early tomorrow morning, so your pal Mike needs to turn in and get some beauty sleep…but before I do, let’s try to do a few more of your 2018 predictions. (Part One was Monday, in case you missed it.) Also, special note to Max T: reader Allan covered the extra two predictions I didn’t, because he’s a nice guy whilst I’m cruel and heartless.

Okay, off to the races:

Thom H. had this to say

“DC or Marvel will attempt a new floppy format that is more pages for a relatively inexpensive price point (with cheaper paper stock or something). It will fail almost immediately, even though I love it.”

Well, DC did those 100-pagers for Walmart at $5 a pop, I suppose that counts. I presume they’re still doing okay, though as far as I know they’re still not at any of the 38 local Walmarts here.

“Brian K. Vaughan will start writing a new series at Image that everyone will go crazy for. It’s been a while since the last one, right?”

I think he just has to be satisfied with the immensely-successful Saga and Paper Girls, unless there’s something I’m missing. Maybe there’s a secret Boof and the Bruise Crew revival he’s working on.

“DC will put Tom King on a Superman book. I will definitely buy it and feel happy.”

Tom King wrote a story in Action #1000! So, you know, half a point there!

“My predictions re lame, but then so am I …”

Hey, everyone who participates in my yearly prediction nonsense here is a champion…a champion, I say! Specifically, The Champion of the Universe.

“There will be the faintest wisp of a reference to the Fantastic Four made in the new Avengers movie.”

I wouldn’t have put it past Marvel, but…I don’t recall one. There’s this claim, but it appears to be bit of a..well, stretch.

“Doctor Aphra will actually be announced as a character in the next ‘off year’ Star Wars movie.”

That would be an interesting development, to be sure, for one of the characters developed for the comics making the jump to the screen. It’s happened before, with the Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Secura appearing in the prequel trilogy after being created for the Dark Horse Comics Expanded Universe stuff. In that case, that basically amounted to a cameo, versus a starring role, but still, interesting. Not sure how many more “off year” Star Wars movies we’re going ot get after Solo, though.

“We’ll finally see the first of those new Neil Gaiman Miracleman stories we were supposed to get (then didn’t) so long ago.”

A popular prediction! Alas, not yet…hopefully through the sheer combined force of will of my readers, we can make it happen!

“Disney loses patience with Marvel Comics’s underperformance and kicks out the guys who came up in Marvel to replace them with Disney people.”

Surprisingly, no, but you gotta wonder about Disney on one hand, consolidating their streaming efforts under their own brand, while letting Marvel comics get licensed out to other publsihers.

“Brian Bendis’s first DC comic is a Batman comic and sells very well, but six months later the sales are about where they were pre-Bendis.”

He is writing a Batman story for those aforementioned Walmart giants, but as we all know now, he’s the Superman guy. I will note that Bendis Superman sales, after an initial high peak, are beginning to crawl back down to about where they were (at least for me).

“JH Williams returns to comics with either a Vertigo or Young Animal miniseries.”

Looks like he has a big project coming from Image called Echolands, but it’s not on the schedule just yet. He’s also worked on a couple of other things this year, such as contributing to the benefit book for victims of the Las Vegas shooting, and this illustrated Dracula book for Kindle readers.

“Still no new issues of Miracleman.

Well, that’s one way to get a hit on a Miracleman prediction around these here parts.

“‘The Winds of Winter’ will finally be published. GRRM remains a critical darling, but the overall GoT cultural impact continues to collapse.”

Doesn’t seem like it…I don’t really keep up on Game of Thrones stuff, but I presume if it had come out, then my Amazon search for it would have basically blown a trumpet in my face declaring “HERE IT IS, BUY IT, BUY IT.” But the cultural influence seems to still be there…seems like I keep seeing it referenced and discussed all over the place. Oh, you kids and your dragons and your thrones and all that.

“Progressive Ruin continues to be THE stalwart site of funny books blogging! 3 cheers for Mike in 2018.”

Sadly, I ended the blog in early 2018. Sorry, everyone.

“The Disney-Fox deal will result in the return of the priginal Fantastic Four to the comic as they gear up for a new movie.”

I’m sure it didn’t hurt. But hey, at least FF is back on the shelves, it’s actually pretty good, and hey, it’s still selling for me (even with the occasional stupidly-high price points).

“Squirrel Girl continues to be the most delightful book on the shelves.”

I’m going to say “yes, this is correct.”

“Marvel will announce either a Great Lakes Avengers or Damage Control movie or tv show.”

A Damage Control TV show was announced as “in development” in 2015, but it doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere. However, a version of Damage Control is kinda/sorta in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, so I guess that’ll have to do.

Now, the Great Lakes Avengers…much as I’d love to see Flatman in live action, I don’t think we’ve got any movies or TV shows a’comin’. That’s just leaving money on the table, Marvel.

Your 2018 Predictions, Part One: Saga of a Star World.

§ January 14th, 2019 § Filed under predictions § 3 Comments

Hello, Chloe, whaddaya knowie? Well, it’s time once again for the hottest segment in comics blogging, Snack Situation that bit where I look at your predictions from the previous year and see how close some of you got. There’s a lot of them, so everyone hang in there as I get through them all over the next, oh, seven or eight months or so. And don’t forget, if you want to get in on the 2019 predictions fun, here’s where you go to do so!

Okay…knuckles: cracked, deep breath: taken, loins: girded — so let’s get down to business!

Adam Farrar sees far with

“The still unnamed DC streaming service will not only include their tv shows/movies but also old comics as DC’s answer to Marvel Unlimited.”

Indeed the now-named DC Universe does! It’s not a huge selection, and sometimes they rotate things in and out…no idea what Marvel’s selection is like, but there seems to be plenty to read on DC’s service. But there’s weird stuff like only having one issue of DC Comics Presents, which kind of disappointed me. And I keep hoping they’ll add the old Metal Men comics. I’ve been having fun reading the early Silver Age Green Lantern!

“Neil Gaiman & Mark Buckingham’s Miracleman comics start coming out again. (I’ll keep predicting this and some year it’s bound to come true… right?)”

Keep on predictin’, Adam…maybe someday!

“Legion season 2 will reveal that the character that captured David at the end of the first season is Nanny (the egg-shaped one, not Magneto’s robot). Six months later the character will return to comics in an attempt to capitalize on the show.”

I watched, like, part of the premiere episode way back when, but that’s about it. So, I had to do some deep, deep research (i.e. Googling) to discover, alas, no Nanny egg in the series, which would have had me catching up right quick. The Legion character does appear to have returned to the X-books however, so you get part credit!

Rich Handley apes my style with

“A fourth Watchmen miniseries will be announced, this time involving the actual Charlton characters on which they were based.”

Sadly, no such animal was announced, though maybe once DC starts Rorschach Team-Up after the conclusion of Doomsday Clock, maybe they can appear there.

“A Swamp Thing movie will be announced, and John Constantine will be in it.”

No movie, but a TV show for DC’s streaming service…and I don’t know if Constantine will be in it, but Blue Devil surely will!

“Scarlett Johansson will finally admit her love for me, and my wife will be fully in favor of the pairing”

I ain’t touchin’ this one.

Signal Watch chimes in with

“Marvel (Comics) will try a lot of things, but not quite get their act together in 2018. Maybe solicits for early 2019 will show promise.”

Well…I mean, this is a matter of opinion, I guess. A step forward for every step back, as it were. A lot of nice work and some good books, and then some questionable decisions (too many $5.99 and $7.99 comics for my taste).

“Someone, somewhere, in writing about comics will write legitimate criticism about the actual content in a comic in a reasoned, rational manner, and not at all about the industry and their personal grinding axe. Ha ha ha. Just kidding.”

Why start now? …Okay, okay, I know there’s some good comics criticism out there, some even not by me, so it’s out there if you look, amongst the listicles and the comic news about movies that have nothing to do with comics.

“Red shorts at 1000”

Detective #1000 hasn’t come out yet, so I have no idea if Batman will get red trunks or not.

Jeff R. rites

“A character from the Watchmen universe gets an ongoing title spinning out of Doomsday Clock.”

Not just yet, but I’m betting this will happen too. (Dare I type “Rorschach Team-Up” again?)

“Agents of SHIELD cancelled, replaced with a network TV Miles Morales:Spider-Man show.”

Surprisingly, not cancelled! And we got Miles in a movie, so I guess that’ll do. Bet there’s a cartoon show eventually, though.

“Something will go horribly wrong with the Vertigo 25th Anniversary hardcover, requiring pulped books and digital version airbrushing if not outright cancellation.”

When I read this a year ago, I was thinking “What could go wrong? They accidentally print the ‘Swamp Thing meets Jesus’ story?” Well, something went wrong, because it’s currently marked “CANCELLED” in its listing in the Diamond retailer site, with no resolicitation in the system. …A surprisingly good call!

• • •
Jerry Smith rigs the following

“Marvel will veer slightly away from political controversy in their comics under the new EIC, but sales will not drastically improve. They will not return to legacy characters.”

Hmm…the thing with Marvel is, despite what some too-online folks try to argue, Marvel tends to have at least a thin veneer of politics ingrained into its DNA. I mean, sure, some of it was “hey, the kids are into ‘the protesting,’ let’s put some protesters on our covers,” but there was a lot of heartfelt political expression going on as well, especially in Marvel’s ’70s books.

So…honestly, I don’t think there’s been much of a change so far, except maybe being a little less exploitative of current events. But as far as “controversy” goes…for some people out there, even just having a superhero comic starring a woman is “politically controversial,” so there’s always going to be some dudes out there with a vein throbbing in their forehead mashing at their keyboards.

But yes, some legacy characters have returned. The original Thor’s back, and Tony Stark is kicking around again, but that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

“DC will become more political and offer more controversial storylines. Neither company will appeal to long-term fans.”

Hadn’t really noticed too much of a change, at least with overt political themes. I mean, sure, there’s the inherently political idea of “man with power exerting influence over his inferiors” which, um, maybe you don’t want to really think about when trying to enjoy superhero comics. But mainly, the controversies at DC seem more to arise from things like Doomsday Clock, which is more from “is this trip really necessary?” versus the semi-political content it attempts to contain.

Both companies, however, do still struggle with readership issues, but I’d argue that’s a result the vagaries of their ‘NEW FIRST ISSUE!”/reboots/relaunches ahoy publishing strategies than anything else.

“The Black Panther movie will be awesome.”

You, my friend, are 110% correct.

“Citing the popularity of its CW-themed shows, DC Entertainment will spin off at least one (ARROW) into its own theatrical release”

DC could do worse than trying this, but it hasn’t happened yet. I expect if this will ever happen, it’ll be after the show in question leaves the air. Arrow is a solid contender for this sort of thing, however!

“Marvel may ‘pull back’ with its movie efforts after INFINITY WAR, citing potential fatigue as well as internal turmoil”

I don’t think so…I feel like there’s still plenty comin’ down the pike. That money ain’t slowing down!

Speaking of the CW, we will see another SWAMP THING series in our lifetime. However, Swamp Thing will have a team of associates who help him fight the Parliament of Trees on a weekly basis.

As noted above, we are getting a Swamp Thing TV show, but on DC’s own streaming service, not the CW. And yes, like I said, Blue Devil will be there helping Swampy fight swamp crime!

“The X-Men comics will explicitly abandon the idea that mutants represent real-world opressed minorities. They’l become just superheroes with a common origin.”

Okay, to be honest, I haven’t read X-Men books in a while (is Beak still on the team?) but I don’t think this happened. I invite corrections…on this, nothing else, I’m right about everything else!

“To control the cast size, the 2018 crossover between the CW DC superhero shows will involve only female characters.”

While that’s a pretty great idea, not this year, alas! I think it’d be a hoot! But it’d probably be called, like, “LADIES NIGHT” and that Kool and the Gang song would play through it the whole ti–wait, hold on, I just made the idea more awesome.

“In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos will cure Bruce Banner, rendering him incapable of transforming into the Hulk.”

Something happened, to be sure, and it may have been caused by his interaction with Thanos, but probably not a “cure” per se. HALF POINT TO GARETHDOR

“Still no new Showcase Presents volumes, and most importantly, no Showcase Presents Sugar and Spike.”

Don’t tell me you missed all 24 new volumes of Showcase Presents this year? Showcase Presents Scribbly, and Showcase Presents Spanner’s Galaxy, and Showcase Presents Claw the Unconquered, and Showcase Presents Inferior 5, and Showcase Presents Congo Bill and all those? But yeah, you’re right, still no Sugar and Spike.

“A Shazam ongoing late in the year”

You, friend, are The Correct.

“half of the books spinning out of metal won’t last pass issues 10”

Most of them made it past #10, though a few are going away soon. Just so long as they don’t take away my Terrifics!

“over 5 books that I love will be cancelled too soon.”

If you loved New Super-Man, Gwenpool, Trinity, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, X-Men Gold and The Simpsons, I have bad news for you.

“The Fantastic Four will come back to Marvel, but not before the very end of the year.”

They did come back, but it was more middle-ish of the year, kinda. Still, a good prediction!

“Valiant will still put out the best superhero comics not based on characters created to entertain children, but no new people will take notice.”

“The best,” of course, is a matter of opinion…if someone thinks they’re the best, then more power to ’em and we can call it a hit for you! But yeah, they’re not, shall we say, strong sellers, at least for me. They do have a loyal audience, though, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

“One of the long-running CW superhero shows will call it quits. I’m thinking ‘Arrow.’”

None of them are canned yet, I think, but I would suspect one of them isn’t long for this world.