My look back at your 2019 predictions for the comic industry continues! (See Monday’s entry for the initial installment.) Getting kind of a late start on these tonight, so let’s jump right in:
Chris Gumprich affords these forecasts
“1. An otherwise forgotten 1960s-era hero will be brought back for the new millennium (do we still call it that?), make a big splash, and be cancelled by the end of the year.”
I suppose that Peter Cannon Thunderbolt series from Dynamite sorta matches what you’re talking about. Mostly forgotten (despite a handful of revivals over the last few years), and made, if not a big splash, at least somewhat of a ripple in that it seemed to attract attention for being a metatextual Watchmen riff. And it wasn’t canceled…it ended, coming to a conclusion. So I don’t know if that’s close enough for this particular game of horseshoes, but, heck, why not.
“2. An otherwise forgotten 1980s series (if there is such a thing) will be reprinted in an omnibus edition, to my amazement.”
Just did a search at my distributor to see what omnibus editions came out all last year…just mainly searched Marvel and DC releases, and I didn’t see anything that stood out as too unusual. I mean, DC did a He-Man omnibus that included DC Comics Presents #47, that was kind of unexpected. But otherwise, nothing like, say, this:
“3. eBay will finally crack down on those idiots listing their CGC copies of Image Comics under the ‘Platinum Age (pre-1938)’ section.”
No, they’ll be too busy cracking down on me because I listed the Fantagraphics mag Honk! in the general area and not in the restricted “adult” section. …Okay, that was a long time ago, but it still really cheeses my crackers.
• • •
Jeff R. rites
“1. DC will have to tread water for three months across the entire line with flashbacks, fill-ins, and out-of-continuity nonsense waiting on the last set of Doomsday Clock delays. Some of the books will be quite good, though.”
There wasn’t quite the direct impact on the DC Universe I think we were all expecting, or meant to expect, from Doomsday Clock, so it didn’t affect any other title’s publishing plans much, far as I can tell. The two big things, though, is that the Big Returns of two classic teams into DC continuity that Doomsday Clock was leading to…was beaten to the punch in the regular monthlies/biweeklies.
“2. Mage: The Hero Denied #15 will end on a cliffhanger, with Matt Wagner and Image promising a much shorter timeframe between it and the launch of Mage: The Hero Delivered, the actual conclusion of the full saga.”
Nope, no waiting another 12 to 20 years for The Hero Disco-Dances: Mage appears to be good ‘n’ over.
“3. Marvel will announce an Ironheart movie as the big summer 2020 next phase starting film”
That would be a nice way to continue the Iron Man section of the Marvel franchise. Even Robert Downey Jr. is into it. Apparently there’s a rumor or a script is floating around or something, but no official announcement that I’ve seen.
• • •
Gareth Wilson sayeth
“1. A major comics company will remove all advertising from its monthly comics.”
Not yet…if ever, since whatever advertising revenue they can still get is probably helping keep those cover prices down at least a little. They’d have to be selling a lot more to justify dropping ads…but if they sold that much more then they could make a lot more money selling ad space, so I think we’re stuck with ads for now. Even if it’s just ads for more comics from the same publisher.
“2. The next Marvel streaming series: Lockjaw and the Punisher.”
Would watch. Especially if Lockjaw gets one of those doggie-shirts/sweaters emblazoned with the Punisher skull logo.
“3. Dreamworks announces Phase Two of the Undergarments Cinematic Universe.”
Finally, once again it will be time for these guys to shine:
• • •
Brian is a very naughty boy with
“1. One of the few DC movies that actually gets released amidst various delays and rewrites drops a mention of the Multiverse and the 52 Earths (as if to explain how the post-DCEU films tie together. Fans and reviewers simply note how 5he Arrowverse did it more clearly and elegantly.”
If this is going to happen in any movie, it’ll be in the forever-forthcoming Flash film Flashpoint, which would likely deal with multiple timelines and universes and all that hoohar, assuming that Flash movie is still coming out and it’s still going to be based on the “Flashpoint” comics stuff.
“2. The Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths — a storyline winding across parts of the fall storylines of each of the shows (including Black Lightning) and culminating in a two-week crossover, follows the pattern of ‘Earth-90’ this year, using serial-numbers-filed-off versions of previous DC television adaptations (with the Smallville characters in particular appearing, roughly filling the niches of COIE’s Earth-2 Kal-L and Luthor). However, due to the expansion of DC Universe’s shows (e.g. Swamp Thing and Stargirl), a number of other side characters to populate multiversal crowd scenes won’t be available.”
Well, I’ve seen only three of the five parts so far of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” thingie, and so far they’re just straight up referencing/using previous and/or concurrent versions of the DC Universe characters. Good on them. I don’t know how many previously-established media-adapted characters were off-limits, but it feels like they wouldn’t be particularly missed given how many folks they did squeeze in.
“3. The new Ms. Marvel series will take the character out of Jersey City and away from her supporting cast to increasingly interact with the wider Marvel Universe and broader issues (beyond those related to the character) — and its subsequent failure will rather lead to heated internet arguments ranging from the male writer to politics.”
I don’t know that we know enough about the Disney+ show yet to know how they’ll be handling the character. Marvel Studios has been relatively careful about how it handles its characters, more or less, so I suspect Ms. Marvel will do fine. I mean, we’ll see, right?
• • •
demoncat_4 torments me with
“1 dc streaming service will announce not only will their new swamp thing tv show make constantine a regular character but also a back door pilot for a new constantine tv show.”
aaaaaugh
Sadly DC Universe’s Swamp Thing didn’t last long enough to even approach anything like this, though it seems to me the Phantom Stranger kinda sorta filled the Constantine role in the series anyway. Besides, he’s busy on Legends of Tomorrow, which is bit of a weird place for him but at least he’s on TV now.
“prediction two is that marvel will announce that miracleman the silver age has a release date at last and later finally release the complete saga in a massive trade.”
Mentioned last time that while it’s been said that new Miracleman is being worked on, no release date has been set. But a big ol’ fat book of everything under one cover would be nice, wouldn’t it?
“3 dc streaming service will announce a tv series called trinity that will be about super man wonder woman and batman teaming up finally giving fans a tv version of batman at last.”
No, but we did at least get Bruce Wayne in Titans, and they did announce a Superman show for the CW. DC does seem very hesitant to duplicate live action media efforts for their Big Three, but I guess they’ve given up on Superman movies for the time being!
• • •
Kurt bounces in with
“The New Warriors TV show that was originally going to air on Freeform (formerly ABC Family), will finally see the light of day on Disney’s streaming service, and the whole world will finally see how great a hero Speedball is!”
While it appears a pilot was made, the show itself appears to be probably dead. It’d be nice if that pilot would show up on Disney+ so we can experience the live-action Squirrel Girl we all need in our lives, but sadly no sign of it yet. …But all this talk about Speedball being, ahem, “great?” What is this, crazytalk from Crazytown? Get outta here!
• • •
googum googummed
“1. The new Hellboy movie is going to be reasonably successful, so of course somebody’s going to learn the wrong lessons from it, and push another comic movie to a somewhat unneccessary R-rating. Turok, maybe. Or Vampirella.”
Whoops on the “reasonably successful” part. I did enjoy the new Hellboy a lot more than I thought I was going to, though I never really warmed to the new Hellboy make-up. But I feel like the push to R-rated super-movies may have been helped along more by Deadpool‘s enormous box office take than anything else. I mean, that film didn’t have to be R, but thank goodness it was because it was filthy and hilarious. But I see what you mean…like, if they pushed the new Batman up to an R, that would feel totally unnecessary. (“Stop, Joker!” “Fuck you, Batman!” …Y’know, like that.)
“2. Assuming the death of Border Town doesn’t outright sink Vertigo, going forward creators there are going to be vetted to within an inch of their lives. Too much so, so now anyone who maybe said something dumb five or more years ago is unemployable…”
Well…Border Town got axed for reasons more than “saying something dumb,” but I get your meaning. Especially in this day and age, he said oldly, where stupid stuff you did on Twitter in junior high school can turn up when you’re looking for a job now after getting out of college. Some of us have decades of online trails that we can’t escape…take it from me, The Guy Who’s in The Top Google Results for His Own Name.
I don’t know if vetting creators to any kind of extent is going to be much of a thing, to be honest, given that there are certain creators that are, frankly, human garbage who are still getting jobs because some publishers don’t give a shit. It’s going to take what it usually takes in this industry…people getting pissed off after the fact, and the publisher being forced into an apology and corrective measures.
Vertigo itself had been on shaky legs for a while, looking for a flagship title to hang its brand upon after Sandman, Preacher and Fables went away. It was the success of DC’s Black Label, the Imprint That A Penis Built, where swears were also okay, that killed Vertigo and took on projects that would’ve appeared there. I mean, when there’s room on the schedule for Black Label titles that aren’t Batman-related, of course.
“3. DC is going to give Doom Patrol yet another reboot, somewhat conservatively, to more resemble the TV show. Or maybe just to come out on time…”
Looks like they’re sticking with the Young Animal version for now, but I haven’t read any of the latest series yet so I don’t know if they fiddled with the line-up to reflect that critically-successful TV adaptation. I mean, just given the nature of the Doom Patrol, they can change it however they want without a reboot-ery explanation, you’d think.
• • •
Okay, that’s enough for this time. Sorry for the lateness of this installment, but I hope to be back on schedule, and working the room slightly less blue, next week, time and eyeballs permitting. Thanks for reading, pals, and see you Monday.
