Prediction commentary, part one.
I thought I’d collect predictions for another day before discussing them, but, nah, I’m going to go ahead and talk about a few of them now. If you have more, go ahead and keep adding to the list…maybe we can all meet back here next year and see how we did.
I never did get around to posting my own predictions, so let me lay a couple on you now and see how I match up with the folks who left comments. No, I didn’t read any of the comments yet. I will after I post these:
1. DC will further experiment with higher price points/expanded page count anthology-esque titles like Countdown to Mystery. I don’t think we’re going to say goodbye to the $2.99 format this year, but I think its end is likely near…$3.25 or $3.50 is imminent.
2. The Spider-Man “One More Day” boondoggle won’t be reversed, at least certainly not within its first year…that would be tantamount to Marvel admitting it made a mistake, and we know how they don’t like that. (Look how long it took for them to finally start doing 2nd printings again, after years of crippled sales on start-up books.) However, I think, at least from the creative end, the problems involved in this reboot will become increasingly evident (from “continuity patches” to the undermining of reader confidence in Marvel’s storytelling).
3. Final Crisis will be a straightforward and clever mini-series, as these events go, which will be decried as “weird” and “hard to understand” by the usual suspects because Grant Morrison is writing.
4. Sales on the next Stephen King’s Dark Tower series will be nowhere near the sales on the previous mini. It’ll be ordered high, certainly, and the first issue might sell well, but the drop-off will occur even more quickly than it did on the initial series, as the hardcore King fans will just wait for the next collection.
5. On a related note…some comic from Marvel or DC will be hailed as the “breakout comic” that finally gets the general non-comic-reading audience to start buying funnybooks on a regular basis, while ignoring the fact that said general audience is only buying that “breakout” comic and nothing else.
6. And finally, comic fans will finally catch up to me and realize the inherent beauty, humor, and satire of All Star Batman and Robin. I will be hailed as a genius of incredible foresight for being the internet’s primary proponent of ASB so early on in that book’s history. Money and awards will be showered upon me, women (and 10% of the men) will throw themselves at me, and I will go down in history as the comic internet’s wisest, and most stunningly handsome, observer.
Okay, lemme look at what you folks had to say.
(tempus fugit)
Whoo boy. Well, let me get started, and I may continue this over a day or two, if that’s okay with you folks. Like I said above, go ahead and keep adding your predictions if you’d like.
- There are a few comments about Marvel and DC’s online initiatives and their likely failures, and sad to say I’m inclined to agree. I don’t think either are going to go away this year, but I suspect we’ll see some rethinking about how they’re handled. In particular, Marvel will likely begin (or at least think about beginning) to offer their entire libraries for online reading, and a lot shorter delay between a book being on the shelves and being available online. Yes, that’ll annoy retailers, but historically Marvel doesn’t tend to let retailer concerns guide their business decisions.
I agree with P-TOR in that I don’t think Marvel will permit downloadable comics, preferring instead to “stream” the books online and maintain control over their properties, which is the exact opposite of what end users want. In the meantime, like Harvey says, Marvel (and DC) will continue to make futile efforts in stopping illegal scanning ‘n’ downloading of their books.
- I honestly don’t think Joe Quesada (or Dan Didio, for that matter) are going to get fired. They’ve both increased sales across the board on their comics. That ain’t a firin’ offense. For all the crap Countdown is getting online, it sure is being ordered by retailers like it’s selling in their stores. And I don’t think the Spidey reboot Quesada forced down everyone’s throat is going to adversely affect sales, at least not right away. I think it would take something a lot more catastrophic for a forced career change to occur, and I don’t think either Marvel or DC are doing to risk doing anything that would result in a catastrophe of sufficient proportions.
- A few folks bring up the idea that the new, semi-weekly Amazing Spider-Man book won’t be nearly as successful as Marvel’s hoping, which I think is a given. I don’t think it’ll be a bomb, but I think the new schedule will be reconsidered by the end of the year, like both Harvey and Jeff R. note. I don’t think we’ll see a total roll-back, but I think we might see enough scheduling difficulties that the three per month schedule will be knocked back to biweekly.
- The Iron Man movie surprisingly gets a couple knocks, even though it seems to me that it’s quite highly anticipated, even among the people who are usually cranky and cynical about this sort of thing. By which I mean “me,” since even I’m kinda looking forward to it. Whether it’ll do well enough to be a film-franchise launcher, I don’t know, but I think it’ll be reasonably successful.
- Jon thinks it’ll come out, pal Dorian says nay, and I know you folks want to know where I stand on the matter.
Well, Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine #3, on the cusp of being two years late…will it come out this year?
I want to say that it’ll go the way of that one Kevin Smith Daredevil series, which ended up being so late that they cancelled the book outright. But I don’t know that even Marvel would want to screw the retailers with another vaporware book.
I’m going to say…we’ll hear some talk about it “being worked on” and “almost ready to come out,” and we may even get another reprinting of the first two issues. And if we see any issues, it’ll feature a “co-writer” or an entirely new writer that can actually finish the book. A book, that features Wolverine. Fighting the Hulk. What is the difficulty, exactly?
- Tony mentions something that I’ve touched on before on the site…that the zombie fad will finally peter out this year, but not before Marvel Zombies 3. That seems to be supported by our sales on the book…it’s not selling badly, by any means, but it’s not the “Marvel’s printing money!” of the previous series. A third series will likely be enough…unless, of course, we get a company-wide Marvel Zombies crossover, with the zombies invading the mainstream Marvel Universe and superhero vs. zombie hijinks ensue. That should kill the trend once and for all.
Walking Dead seems to be a solid enough book to outlast the zombie fad crash, but I think any other zombie-heavy books may see their end. Good Lord, the things I find myself writing.
- From “Aqualad,” who predicts:
“DC will find a way to start up a new weekly, this one focusing on Zatanna, Ambush Bug, a time-thrown Matter-Eater Lad, Metamorpho, CM3 and a newly restored Aztek finding their rightful places in the multiverse. Buttons will be made.”
I wholeheartedly support this idea. But, please sir, “Captain Marvel, Jr.” I never cottoned to that “CM3” business.
I’ll probably cover more of the predictions tomorrow, so please feel free to add more to the original list.
If you have commentary on the predictions themselves, please try to keep it to the comments section for today’s post, just for simplicity’s sake.
Thanks for participating, internet pals. I really do appreciate it and enjoy reading everything you have to say.
