Your 2013 Predictions, Part Four: Hellseeker.
Okay, so let me get this straight: first I ask you for predictions for 2013 way back when, you folks leave me a whole lot of ’em, and then I go spend not one, not two, not three, but four days responding to them? Who do I think I am, anyway?
Oh, and there’s going to be a fifth day. You’re welcome. Also, don’t forget I want predictions for 2014, because that’s just the kind of low-down dirty chump that I am.
And away we go…!
Adam Farrar dishes out a big ol’ helping of predictions, beginning with:
“The glut of Marvel titles being double shipped will only get worse and will speed up the standard attrition. Marvel’s solution will be more double shipping. Some artists will announce their departure for creator owned books with a more realistic schedule.”
It seems like it’s slowed down a bit, if only because the holidays put a crimp in their every-week-or-two schedule for Superior Spider-Man. But the double-shipping continues on several Marvel titles, sometimes every three weeks, sometimes full-on biweekly (or, in the case of that recent Amazing Spider-Man mini, more than weekly). I haven’t noticed any kind of serious exodus from Marvel to indie publications, but creators such as Matt Fraction and Rick Remender have certainly had some success with new books at Image over the past year.
“Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s Image series ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ will start in April as announced but only 4 of the planned 12 issues will come out in 2013.”
We got three! Along with a couple of reprints and that sketchbook thingie.
“Some company will hire Karen Berger and give her money to run her own imprint. Creators will flock to pitch her ideas.”
Not yet, but hopefully sometime soon. Right now, though, I hope she’s taking a well-deserved break!
“Dark Horse will launch more titles to compensate for the Disney taking away the Star Wars license.”
They’re certainly putting out a number of books, but I’m not seeing anything as a real contender for filling the eventual Star Wars gap. Terminator seems like a non-starter, and it’s hard to say how Tomb Raider will do. As the year progresses and we get closer to the end of DH’s SW contract, we’ll see what they start doing.
“There will be more creators leaving DC in headlines complaining of a difficult work environment.”
A lot of creators did bail on DC this last year, such as the high-profile departure of the Batwoman creative team as a result of differences with editorial over the book’s direction. As an aside, my favorite Tweet in relation to that event:
Anyway, a Googling will pull up several interviews with creators who left DC explaining why they did so, and to be fair there are a couple explaining why they left Marvel, so…yeah. There’s been some attrition.
“The story in Avengers Arena will turn out to be a computer simulation or a dream or something.”
I don’t think that was the case, but, as discussed yesterday, a couple of the deaths did turn out to be fake-outs.
“DC will continue to publish Batman, Inc. after Grant Morrison leaves the title despite its lack of direction and plummeting sales.”
They did the right thing and ended the series, though there was a one-shot non-Morrison special that wrapped up the whole thing, and it sold okay far as I know.
“The ‘Justice League’s Vibe’ will be the lowest selling Geoff Johns comic in recent memory, which will still be pretty good for a modern DC comic.”
The first issue sold…not terribly, certainly better than a Vibe comic would have seemed to be able to sell in The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Thirteen. Johns was on for the first two issues as cowriter, and compared to some of his other recent jobs, no, it didn’t sell anywhere in the same range. But that it did as well as it did, at least for a while, is kind of amazing…being racked with the other Justice League titles didn’t hurt, too.
“Brian Bendis’ Guardians of the Galaxy will spin off a second cosmic team book also written by Bendis.”
Not yet…maybe where the movie’s closer.
“Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and The Wolverine will have marginally larger (domestic) box offices than their last individual movies. Man of Steel will do better financially and critically than Green Lantern but less than than the Nolan Batman movies.”
The Wolverine ($400 mil) did a little better than Origins (about $375 million), Thor 2, at about 6 and a half billion, outsold its predecessor by about 200 million dollars, and Iron Man 3‘s take of 1.2 billion dollars is about twice as much as Iron Man 2 did.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, that universal arbitrator of taste, Man of Steel‘s rating of 55% is over twice that of GL’s poor showing at 26%. MoS’s 600-something million dollars certainly outstripped GL’s take of just over 200 mil.
Bringing in the Nolan Bat-flicks, the first one made about $375 million, Dark Knight cracked a billion, and Dark Knight Rises made just a little more than the second film. So there are all the numbers (taken from Box Office Mojo) and you can see what fits where in relation to whom and all this money flyin’ around is giving me a headache, so let that be enough of that.
“Tragically the ‘Young Justice’ cartoon won’t be renewed for a third season.”
Doesn’t look like it. Too bad, I’d rented all the DVDs (well, all available thus far) from Netflix and have enjoyed the series quite a bit.
Jerry Smith forged the following predictions:
“DC will continue cancelling books no one wants to read and replacing them with other books no one wants to read.”
Oh, come now, it’s not as bad as all that, is it? But DC is dropping titles, and seemingly replacing them with variations on Batman, Superman, Justice League, and Green Lantern titles. Some of these new books aren’t half-bad, I think, and they mostly still seem to be doing well.
“Marvel will experiment with new Avengers and X-Men titles at $4.99 an issue. Fans desert in droves.”
Seems like DC was hitting us with the high-priced issues of regular series this last year more than Marvel. I mean, Marvel seems more committed to the $3.99 price point, but DC wasn’t shy about giving us $4.99 and $6.99 issues of Batman, that $4.99 Superman Unchained, Green Lantern #20 at $7.99, and so on. All of those sold pretty well for DC, though, sort of surprisingly. The upcoming Miracleman series with that $5.99 debut issue is going to be a real test, though.
“Iron Man 3 will start the franchise rot by being nothing like the comics or the first two movies. It will suffer from overblown Hollywood-itis, make a lot of money, and not be good.”
I don’t know if it matters that it’s not like the comic, since nobody’s reading the comic anyway. As mentioned before, it did enormously well, and seemed to be generally received, so the demise of the superhero movie hasn’t quite begun yet. …It may be that the time will come, when there’s that one film that sours the genre for everyone, but most of the producers of these films have been playing it relatively smart so far.
“Image will have another break-out hit and lots of other critically acclaimed new books.”
Oh, yeah, that’s for certain. East of West, Black Science, Sex Criminals, others I’m probably forgetting but you get the idea. None of these are huge sellers on par with Walking Dead, but they’re not doing too badly.
“Karen Berger will become head of development at either a movie studio or independent comics publisher.”
As mentioned above, if there is any Berger-at-a-new-job news over the last year, I’m not finding it. But here’s what appears to be her new Twitter account, so maybe we’ll get some news there!
NeverAsk asks:
“Archie comics will continue to be awesome.”
They put out Afterlife with Archie, which is the most amazing thing, so yes, they are awesome!
Rob S. announces:
“DC will launch a Vertigo book in the digital-first style.”
I suppose that’s only a matter of time, but I don’t think it’s happened yet.
“In Archie crossovers, Sabrina will meet My Little Pony.”
Well, if this could happen, so can that. Don’t give up hope!
“One or two more of the established New 52 books move to $3.99 and get backups; Green Lantern and Earth 2 are good candidates.”
New titles popped up at the $3.99 price point, some with back-ups, but preexisting titles seem to have been staying in their regular price points/formats. Exception: Justice League Dark, which moved to $3.99 with this whole Trinity War thing and has stayed there.
Nate foresees:
“Katie Power finally joins the Avengers”
One of the Power Pack kids was in FF, but I don’t think we’ve seen much of the others this year. Seems like now would be the time to bring back Power Pack, which seems ready-made to be made into a Marvel/Disney film.
“‘Man of Steel’ uses the words ‘woman of Kleenex’ on screen”
No, but it did use “dicksplash,” which is arguably better.
“Robert Kirkman sets up an actual money bin and swims in it ala Scrooge McDuck.”
All documented, all true.
De declares:
“Making yet another mistake of the past, one of the Big Two will roll out hologram covers again in an attempt to ‘cash in on nostalgia.'”
DC gave us the “3D” lenticular covers, which is close. And there was the chromium cover on Age of Ultron #1. I’d almost be relieved to see a plain ol’ hologram cover again.
“With their Star Wars gravy train derailed, Dark Horse merges with another publisher. My guess would be Image.”
Probably more of a 2016 prediction. Let’s wait and see what happens after a Star Wars-less 2015 at DH.
“After years of rolling her eyes at comics, my teenaged daughter will finally ask to visit a comic shop. (I can hold out hope anyway.)”
If I answered this assuredly, you’d probably be worried. Since I don’t know, I’ll have to ask you if this event came to pass!
Gareth Wilson opined
“Particularly large numbers of American comic stores will close in 2013.”
Not that I’ve noticed…if anything, more shops seem to have opened. Look for the closings this year.
“Marvel will cancel most of the Avengers comics.”
Quite the opposite; they seem to be multiplying. Okay, we lost Arena, so one down, about a thousand to go.
“A mutant will run for public office in the Marvel Universe.”
Well, I went looking via Google, since I’m not regularly reading the X-books (aside from Amazing, at least for the time being), and I didn’t notice anything. If this happened, someone let me know!
The SHIELD TV show will be successful, but will generally be considered to have nothing to do with SHIELD from the comics. Whedonites won’t consider it a ‘real’ Joss Whedon show.
Seems like every story I read about this show is regarding how it’s not performing to expectations. I mean, it seems successful enough, but not the blockbuster folks were expecting. Whedonites do seem to be the primary defenders of the show, however. I don’t know that there was any danger of anyone thinking this would have any relation to the comics, as it was clearly part of the Marvel movie-verse and related to the comics as much as any of the movies have.
Kid Kyoto begins properly with:
“Good topic!”
Thank you!
“Dark Horse will lose Star Wars to Marvel but will try to fill the void with comics about Battlestar Galactica, Flash Gordon (the Queen version) and Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard version).”
Sadly, all those properties are tied up elsewhere, though I’d love new stories in the Queen Universe of Flash Gordon. “GORDON’S ALIVE!?”
“Disney will buy Hasbro, IDW will lose Transformers and GI Joe to Marvel.”
Didn’t happen, but you’re the second person to predict that. Is this kind of a…meme, I guess, among fans of those properties?
“A fired DC staffer will do a tell-all article about the New 52 and various back-stabbings and shenanigans. the internet will break in 1/6ths but DC sales won’t be affected.”
Everyone keeps waiting for the DC version of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, but it may be a while yet. I definitely want to read about what’s going on at DC right now. There has been an interview here and there complaining about conditions at DC, but no comprehensive tell-all just yet.
“Seeing the proliferation of V for Vendetta Masks at protests, DC will launch an After V series of miniseries.”
I would have loved this, but I think after Before Watchmen, DC fears Alan Moore transforming into a giant bearded Gorgo-esque monster and rampaging through their office buildings.
“Peter Parker back in 616 by the end of the year.”
Not yet, but breaking news, everyone!
“the Legion will be rebooted. Again.”
I’m kind of glad that didn’t happen. I like the Legion, but had to give up on it after too many restarts/reboots/reworkings/revarnishings. I want it to rest for a while. Let us miss it before bringing it back.
Mike Walker dares to invoke:
“Then… KOREA”
Okay, I didn’t do it all year, so let me lay it on you for the beginning of 2014:
Some context, for you newcomers.
Just one more day of this gang! I’ll see you tomorrow…and if you have corrections or additional info, please drop it all in the comments!
In Battle of the Atom, the future mutants came from a world where President Allison Blaire got assassinated. It’s just one scene, but close enough for me.
“They’re certainly putting out a number of books”
yup- I just picked up the DARK TIMES reprint book the other week. Recommended, BTW. They might as well make some money off of SW while they still can. They DID do a good job with the property, after all.
“Terminator seems like a non-starter, and it’s hard to say how Tomb Raider will do”
each will sell five copies at every store.
“Vibe comic”
I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY PUBLISHED A VIBE COMIC!!! Who’s next, Gypsy?
” DC wasn’t shy about giving us $4.99 and $6.99 issues of Batman, that $4.99 Superman Unchained, Green Lantern #20 at $7.99″
GEEZ!!! Marvel has a lot of 3.99 comics coming up, though. I’M BUYING NONE OF THEM.
“DC gave us the “3D” lenticular covers”
I hate those things SO MUCH.
To be fair, Arena wasn’t canceled. It was always planned for 18 issues.
What a lame ending, though.
Thanks for plowing through my pile of predictions Mike! I felt a little guilty writing them and felt a lot guilty reading them now. Thanks for doing all the legwork and math. The one I got right that I’m saddest about is that Young Justice got cancelled. I was really enjoying that show. And I never imagined I would be overly optimistic about the release schedule of Jupiter’s Legacy. I just wish the comic was worthwhile.
Now to post my 2014 predictions! How many did you say we could do? Three…ty? Thirty? I won’t need that many.
Snark Shark – Gypsy is a supporting character in VIBE.
” …but I think after Before Watchmen, DC fears Alan Moore transforming into a giant bearded Gorgo-esque monster and rampaging through their office buildings.”
And yet, they are moving to the Pacific Rim…
Thanks for the mention. Pity I couldn’t think of any predictions for 2014.
“Gypsy is a supporting character in VIBE.”
GAH!
I wonder if someone at DC made a bet about the LEAST saleable comic they could manage to actually get published?