“Thank God we can’t tell the future. We’d never get out of bed” – Tracy Letts
And away we go again, for that most anticipated event in what’s left of the comics blogosphere, the Progressive Ruin Foretell-the-Future Hootenanny! Please leave your comic industry predictions for what may happen in the far-flung future of 2016 (“aren’t we already in 2016?” “SHHHHH”) in the comments section for this post while hopefully not completely ignoring these simple rules:
1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own.
2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions.
3. Don’t predict any real person’s death.
4. Limit of three predictions per person, please! (Seriously, just keep it to three…and if you have only one, that’s fine. Really. ONE’S GOOD.)
I’ll start looking at your predictions last year for 2015 in the next week or so, and we’ll see how everyone did. Or at least see how much attention I’ve been paying to industry events as I fumble to properly respond to everything.
Anyway, you guys ‘n’ gals always put in a great effort with your prediction submissions, and I really appreciate it. I look forward to your submissions for this year, so go ahead and dump ’em, or gently place them, in this comments section. As usual, thank you so much for your participation!
1. DC will reboot yet again
2. A big event comic will be heavily delayed
3. Stan Lee will refuse to die
This is the year we will see the Harry and the Hendersons gritty reboot.
Super Hula: Tropical Multiverse
(1) Another year will go by whereupon I shall read very few comics yet continue to be amused by the antics of Progressive Ruin.
(2) Batman v. Superman will result in a lawsuit, “Batman v. Superman.
(3) My request from last year for an “Attack on Titans vs. Avengers” sequel will yet again go unabated.
1. Animated version of Jessica Jones announced, no comic.
2. DC makes sure Ron Rege Jr signed to a Wonder Woman miniseries.
3. Walking dead comic series ends.
1. DC and Marvel will destroy the audience for their quirky/diverse-protagonist titles by tying them, to a degree that makes them unreadable, into wider-universe events centred around characters that those titles’ fans either don’t have any interest in or actively dislike. Narrow-minded old fanboys will claim that this proves that those titles never had a real audience.
2. At least one live-action-TV or film project derived from a free-to-read webcomic will be released.
3. A live-action-TV or film project derived from a well-known Image title will crash and burn because the things that made that title popular don’t translate outside the comic medium.
4. “Fruits Basket” repackaging leads to increased Anglophone promotion of modern shoujo manga titles, leading to that genre returning to the level of cultural prominence that it had in the 2000s.
DC/Warner Bros, heady from the success of Batman v Superman, will decide that their future movies will be darker still, so their next superhero movie will be 2 hours of a completely black screen. With very dramatic music.
Only one: after another series of initiatives fails to raise sales levels of DC comics, leadership at that company is changed. (i.e., no more Didio/Johns/Lee).
1. Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther will be lavishly praised by people who share Coates’s politics, and equally lavishly condemned by people who oppose his politics, without regard to its actual merits as a comic book.
2. The recent wave of transgender inclusion in comics will finally extend to transmasculine folks.
3. Moves will be made to put in place the first Marvel Universe/Star Wars crossover.
1. DC’s Wein/Jones Swamp Thing mini-series will be successful, inspiring talks for an ongoing series
2. A film based on DC’s Justice League Dark will start production. There will be rumors that Batman will make an appearance.
3. More lenticular/hologram covers will make their way into stores, blowing our minds
1. DC Editorial will finally accept that the Superman armor is clunky, ugly, and hard to draw, and will relent to get rid of it. It will be replaced by the Henry Cavill movie costume in the name of cross-platform synergy.
2. Despite the obvious love that fans showed for traditional Shazam stories in the wake of Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures and Convergence: Shazam, any attempt at new series will be just as wrongheaded as the last few.
3. Marvel will announce that the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel will make some sort of live-action media appearance… not sure if it will be a movie, guest shot on Agents of SHIELD, less-violent Netflix series, or whatever, but she’ll show up somewhere.
1) Marvel announces next slate of movies for 2020-21, includes Howard the Duck, She-Hulk, and Defenders.
2) Image passes DC in sales, becomes second-largest comic company. Unfortunately, this is due largely to DC sales dropping and only slightly to modest rise in Image sales.
1) Although BATMAN V SUPERMAN will do well at the box office, DC will shift their efforts towards their television output, developing a stronger partnership with the CW. ARROW will announce that 2016 – 17 will be its final season, and SUPERGIRL, after being removed from CBS’ schedule, will find a new home on the CW.
2) Companies like Image, Dark Horse, Dynamite, and IDW will form part of a “second tier” of major companies (like DC and Marvel), with many smaller companies vying for increased consumer dollar.
3) SWAMP THING will get its own CW show. Yes, I’m calling it here and now.
1) I will send you an e-mail asking about the status of my pull list.
2) Tomorrow I will have porridge for breakfast.
3) At lunch time tomorrow I will eat a sandwich.
4) At least one person will send you more than 3 predictions.
The much rumored, long delayed live-action Booster Gold project will finally see the light of day. (And we will rejoice!)
1) There will be a Legion of Super-Heroes book by the end of the year.
2) Unfortunately, by the end of the year the entire DC Universe will either be or be on an announced path towards being either rebooted or retrobooted, and this will, as these things generally do, make the Legion’s continuity unworkable.
3) Meanwhile at Marvel, no regular series called ‘Fantastic Four’ will be published or solicited in 2016.
1. Inexplicably, the DC publishing wing PTB will remain in place, and everyone comes into the office silently for a full year, not making eye contact
2. Old-age Steve Rogers will get a book where he spends his days wondering if he should get some of that life insurance that only costs pennies a day and there’s no physical required. Also, Sharon has to keep showing him how to use his phone.
3. I dunno. Probably some cross-over thing at DC where, afterward, some B-lister swaps identities with one of the major characters.
1 cw will announce as part of their flash and arrow crossover oliver and barry will team up with swamp thing . 2 dc will at last figure its time for ragman to get his due and annouce a ragman limited series . 3 marvel studios will reveal at last they have the fantastic four rights back but will have them just guest star in an avengers film. plus also have the rights issues for namor and hulk okayed and films are part of wave four. marvel will announce a she hulk film along with omega the unknown film.
Sterling Silver Comics deservedly wins the Eisner Retailer of the Year award!
Alf makes a big comeback.
— MrJM
1a. DC will try publishing a Batman title semi-weekly in 2016. Two issues of the same title in sequence each week, released on Wednesdays and Saturdays for a full month for an 8 issue arc.
1b. Due to a mix-up in the production sequence, two issues will appear out of order, spoilng whatever events were intended to be a dramatic surprise.
2. Tony Isabella will be named editor for Best American Comics 2017.
1. The last $2.99 comic will be published by the Big 2
2. Tom King will be the next talented writer that DC fails to keep (I’d love to see him on Detective or even Batman if Snyder is wrapping up his run)
3. Mike Sterling will appreciate that I only made 2 predictions, while also pointing out that this is technically my 3rd prediction
1. When Marvel’s ream of new titles aren’t all immediate million-sellers, a lot of them get cancelled. But the criteria for what gets cancelled and when is going to seem completely arbitrary. One critical darling gets cut, while another with worse sales goes on; and so forth. Feelings are hurt.
2. After doubling-down on Batman doesn’t immediately yield huge profits, DC is forced to go further down its list of properties to reboot. House of Mystery, Kamandi, and Sgt. Rock are all brought back; with varying levels of success.
3. Batman v. Superman might do well in theaters, but not as well in the action figure aisles. With a glut of “Batfleck,” it lingers on shelves and causes future superhero figure lines to be cut back.
Man, I’ve been making these predictions for years, and I don’t think I’m batting .300! Carnac I’m not.
1. Flash/Arrow universe will NOT crossover with Gotham or Supergirl
2. Marvel glosses over Miles Morales being in the 616
3. Godzilla Resurgence doesn’t get released in America
The Dazzling Dystopian Disney/Marvel Mighty Marching Merchandising Machine for the Benedict Cumberbatch Doctor Strange movie will CRUSH me under its brobdingnagian weight, and I’ll be selling off internal organs in a basin attempt to keep up.
Because, YES, I need that children’s “Wand of Watoomb” electric toothbrush.
Don’t you judge me.
Vain attempt.
Stupid autocorrect.
Alright, Mikester, you asked for it, and you will, once again, get it, in the usual throwback DC 100 Page Super Special and Giant-Size Man-Thing, er, Marvel editions, plus whatever the third bit ends up being.
As with last year, I will be hilariously wrong in parts, and surprisingly right in others, and, as always, I have 12% of a plan.
1) DC. Dan DiDio remains in place. Geoff Johns, surprisingly, doesn’t get sucked into Hollywood yet again. On the comics front, nobody can make up their mind what they’re doing any more because everything seems to be falling down and failing, even The Dark Knight III, which collapses under its own weight of hubris as it bangs on. Grant Morrison’s Wonder Woman Earth-One becomes the focus of increasing amounts of hate, until DC pulls the book and issues an apology for daring to take the character back to her roots. The DC Multiverse ends up confusing everybody because one faction wants to run with “anything goes!” while another faction is terrified by the financial hits DC took in 2015 and wants to contract the whole damn thing back to core books.
The dregs of the New 52 finally stagger to issue #52 and DC reconfigures all over again, without actually bothering to reboot. Due to the stress of all of this, in October Dan DiDio grows hair.
Batman v Superman comes out, staggers, and dies, continuing Warner Bros’ disastrous streak, but Suicide Squad makes it. Heads roll at Warner Bros, and rumours of strange things being done to the Wonder Woman film emerge from the darkest corners of gossipville.
The TV front continues to cook along. The end of Flash season 2 kills Harrison Wells off again (nobly), redeems Jay Garrick, and makes it clear that there’s more than two universes to play in, enabling a possible Supergirl crossover (that everyone will deny can ever happen, until it does.) Legends Of Tomorrow will sneak Booster Gold in. Now on a mad streak, the Berlantiverse will bring back John Constantine once again, on the way to launching him into a fourth DCCW series, this time DC’S HOUSE OF SECRETS.
2) Giant-Size Man-Thing. Er, Marvel. Marvel’s All New, All Different not-a-reboot (honest) will run into major issues because of the Perlmutter decision to screw with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and promote the Inhumans. Editorial will try to push more graphic novels out, and more omnibuses. There will be mass confusion.
On the film front, Deadpool will do okay, X-Men: Apocalypse will not. Captain America: Civil War will fall a bit short of expectation financially, but this again won’t be superhero fatigue but ongoing cinema trends. Doctor Strange will do okay, if not gangbusters, although production will be fraught due to a very tight time frame.
Marvel TV…will see Jessica Jones given a second season, Luke Cage being a huge hit, Daredevil officially getting season 3, and all of the shadows around Iron Fist being blown away as though punched by a fist that’s become like unto iron! Um, anyway. Agents Of SHIELD will get a fourth season, and inexplicably have a story that gives us Man-Thing in time for the Doctor Strange movie. Agent Carter will get a third season as well, this time with twelve episodes. Other mooted Marvel TV shows will fade quietly away again, both MCU and otherwise. There will be a big foofawraw as Fox, in desperation, attempts a Fantastic Four TV show, having drowned the FF sequel in the bathtub.
3) At some point during the year I will contact the Mikester and buy something from him. Why will this happen? Because. Mike’s one of the good guys, has been generous with his time and words, and deserves our support. SO SAY WE ALL (c’mon, you poozers, SPEAK UP!)
Geez – predictions. Um…
1) The big events this year will revolve around movies. Batman v. Superman, Captain America, and Doctor Strange will all do well. Audiences will respond to Suicide Squad with a baffled WTF, though it will probably do well financially. None of these movies will do much for comics except that we might have a shot at finally getting all of the original run of Suicide Squad into print.
2) On the TV front – Legends of Tomorrow on the CW will do reasonably well, but not better than the Flash. Supergirl will probably get picked up for a second season, but if it doesn’t it’ll move to CW. It’s a coin toss as to whether Agents of SHIELD gets a fourth season or not, but I’ll go ahead and say that it gets the axe but ABC puts together a different Marvel show to fill the timeslot. DC will fumble the ball with the Legends of Tommorrow comic book to the surprise of no comics fans, but to the bafflement of fans of the TV show looking for tie-ins.
3) On the comics front – no big events this year and the great jumping off point for old readers that both of the Big Two gave to readers last year means that there will be lots of handwringing and gloom-n-doom analysis and we’ll get dozens of articles all year about the decline of the Direct Market.
1. With the reprinting of Master of Kung FU in Omnibus editions becoming a big hit for Marvel, a new ongoing series will once again be tried. That’ll be the good news. The bad news? Kaare Andrews will write and draw it.
2. With the success of Dark Knight III, and with DC looking for anything that will sell, another series will be announced, Dark Knight IV: Dark City. In this one, a beaten down Bruce Wayne travels to Russia to box a heavyweight contender with spiky blond hair. Along the way, Bruce also tracks down a serial killer with a taste for hookers. He even takes one bowling to try to lure the killer out. Great family fun for all!
3. The new Miracleman material will finally come out in 2016 and it won’t seem like such a big deal. Miracleman will be subverted into the 616 with little fanfare and become buddies with the Sentry.
Keep up the good work Mike!
1. There will continue to be a Kamandi shaped hole in DC’s line up. (I know I predicted this last year but If I keep on predicting eventually I’ll be proved wrong)
2. The Defenders Omnibus/digital release to coincide with the Netflix series.
3. Have a Good Year (no I don’t mean the tyre…)
1. There will continue to be a Kamandi shaped hole in DC’s line up. (I know I predicted this last year but If I keep on predicting eventually I’ll be proved wrong)
2. The Defenders Omnibus/digital release to coincide with the Netflix series.
3. Have a Good Year (no I don’t mean the tyre…)
1) Deadpool will make a brief cameo in a Marvel movie or TV show. Yes, Deadpool, and yes, mainstream Marvel.
2) Superman will be killed off on the Supergirl TV show.
3) In the comics, the Fantastic Four and several prominent X-Men will be stranded in another universe.
1) Fox and Marvel will finally come to an agreement that brings the FF under the Marvel Studios banner.
2) Superman vs. Batman will not do as well as originally predicted, leading to a glut of “Is the Superhero Movie boom finally over?” articles followed immediately by Civil War breaking previous superhero movie records, allowing us to mock incessantly the previously-mentioned articles.
3) Speedball will show up in the Damage Control TV series, leading to him finally getting an ongoing series again. (Of all my Speedball-related predictions over the years, I think this one has the best chance of actually coming true…)
1) DC will at least attempt to celebrate Wonder Woman’s 75th anniversary with as much fan fare as they’ll devote to Green Arrow’s 75th and Barry Allen’s 60th anniversaries. It might not be as big a deal as they did for Superman or Batman so it will still be underwhelming but it might not look as bad. Meanwhile, DC and Marvel will not celebrate the 45th anniversaries of Swamp Thing and Man-Thing to heighten the anticipation for their 50th anniversaries in 2021.
2) Marvel will launch a new on-going “Fantastic Four” comic that reunites the core cast. This will most likely come out of a crossover.
1) DC Comics and Marvel comics will stop publishing comics altogether declaring the whole thing “a pointless exercise”. They’ll both experiment with a model where they release Excel spreadsheet with adjustment to their respective communities bound and stapled with various full page drawings of Batman (for DC) and Wolverine & Punisher (for Marvel). Marvel will keep Ms. Marvel going as it’s last comic title while DC will keep a Black Canary as it’s last title.
2) Comics shops will sell less Marvel and DC comics to an alarming degree. Comic shop owner begin largely diversifying their offering in a mad attempt to save their shops. A resurgence of creator-driven, indie comics will save the market. Diamond collapse.
3) Copra will become the best-selling comic of 2016
People will start reading Tarzan comics again, having finally realized how awesome Tarzan is.
1. Dark Horse will announce a deal and/or ongoing talks to develop one of their company-owned properties as a live-action streaming series. Early reaction is ecstatic as most commentators forget that most of the publisher’s best and highest profile output is creator-owned.
2. Deadpool will fail to meet expectations at the box office. Not to Fantastic Four levels, but enough that studio executives should realize that R-rated superhero movies are a tough sell. They won’t, but they should.
3. IDW will somehow manage to hang onto their Disney licence. The books will, however continue translating European stories and sell at a price point beyond the reach of most kids’ pocket money.
1. Your standard Marvel comic will clock in at $4.99.
2. iPad Pro will come in a giant-sized treasury edition for optimal reading of digital giant-sized, bronze age treasury editions.
3. Omnibus omnibi (i.e., 10,000+ page omnibus collections of omnibus collections with stainless steel reinforced spines and their own mahogany pallets) will be all the rage, in particular Deadpool OO.
1. DC will continue to put out mini-series throughout 2016, rather than introducing ongoing titles.
2. Someone, somehow, will find out what Jim Lee actually does on a daily basis. I hope that someone is you, Mike Sterling. Please keep a journal.
3. PAPER GIRLS will be developed into a film. Set in 1988, it does well enough that other films will be made that take place in the fairly recent past, much as we saw a lot of films set in the 50s a few decades ago.
1. There’ll be a new Legion comic announced by the end of the year. A big-name writer poached from Marvel will write it.
2. Afterlife with Archie will ship a dazzling two (2!) issues in 2016.
3. DC will continue teasing connections to old timelines, but keep the general context of the New 52 universe.
I’ve only got one, but from the last 6 months, it appears that DC Vertigo has a new strategy. So I predict that DC Vertigo will launch a new (ongoing or mini-series) title every week for the entire calendar year, in an effort to make me not care about Vertigo comics anymore.
I have been a longtime Vertigo supporter, and simply can’t keep up with (or track of) the flood of new titles. I may finally be forced to stop buying every book (at least to start), if only to maintain my tenuous grasp on my sanity.
1. DC Comics will recruit an artist or writer who has worked in recent years in Marvel
2. The Iron Fist actor for the Netflix series will probably be a white person.
3. Batman v Superman will be ok, but not AS GOOD as it looked like in the trailers and Ben Affleck will be named the best Batman in DC Comics movie history.
Marvel sales will take a sizable hit, mostly due to 1) audience indifference and 2) Marvel Unlimited.
1. Dynamite hires Jim Shooter to provide a satisfying conclusion to the Dark Horse Gold Key revival. This leads to
2. Dynamite and Valiant worki together to get Unity 2000 finished and published as a trade, along with most of the old Valiant/Acclaim stuff in all of its awkardly-licensed glory. This, strangely enough, leads to
3. Jim Shooter updates his blog.
DC will publish Absolute Editions of “‘Mazing Man” and “Angel Love.” Dark Horse will celebrate their 30th anniversary by releasing an Omnibus edition of “Boris the Bear” including all the post-DH issues.
OK, here we go…
I think I missed last year.
1-A second tier publisher (Valient maybe, or even Dark Horse) will go digital only. Publishing is so much easier when you dont have to futz with those pesky atoms.
2-The Legion of Super-Heroes will return in a new reboot. (Early 2017 prediction, the LSH will be cancelled)
3-Batman and Superman return to normal, for a bit anyway.
4-Image passes DC to become the #2 publisher, at least for a few months of the year. Maybe just one. But still the writing is on the wall.
5-Big Vertigo push as DC, since nothing else seems to be working.
6-Which brings me to the big one… DC. Wow things are dire sales wise. I took the New 52 thing 5 (!!) years ago as a jumping off point and I think many others did too. So… what might work? Maybe move to the multiverse? Each title is a self-contained universe, not linked to the others. That would be neat huh?
7-Which brings me to the bigger one… DC management. At this point Didio and Lee’s record has to be making for some awkward questions in Warner. I would expect new management soon.
Sorry didn’t notice the 3 prediction limit…
1. “Batman V. Superman” will be pretty good and do very large business, further encouraging other studios to push for (a) more superhero/comic book movies and (b) more shared universe movie series. This will lead to some horrible boondoggles. But not in 2016.
2. Sam Wilson will continue to share the role of “Captain America” with Steve Rogers through the year. The Fantastic Four will not return to the stands in 2016.
3. The “meatball party” episode of “Teen Titans GO!” will inspire a crossover led by Cyborg and involving meat products fired at high velocity. It will be awesome. I CAN DREAM.
The Suicide Squad movie will out gross Superman/Batman. Captain America will outgross both of them, but will prove to be the high water mark of Marvel movies.
Someone at Marvel will notice that the Inhumans are not and never will be the X-Men, and that there is a reason they have never sustained a title for more than a couple of years (hint: it’s because they are very very dull). So the X-Men will feel the love again, despite the minis use marketing push they give to the movies.
DC’s Rebirth will just make everything worse, hard as that is to believe.
Either Marvel or DC will start providing digital sales figures. Because of Amazon’s longstanding disinterest in doing things like that, the figures will be aggregated so that it’s impossible to distinguish sales via Comixology and anywhere else. The data and its limits will set off horribly ugly, horribly dull arguments.
1) Suicide Squad will comfortably out gross Captain America: Avengers 2.5, despite all the Hot Topic, Edgelord Joker jabs the internet makes.
2) Warner Bros will announce a number of AAA games based on DC characters. In response Disney will announce a mobile tie in for Marvel.
3) DC will announce a new digital first Lego Batman title.
1. Superhero movies will continue to be massively profitable and will dominate the entertainment industry for at least a while longer, though the cracks in the facade of sustainability will begin to show.
2. In response to these cracks, both Marvel and DC launch their newest plans to continue their dominance at the box office-a sentient virus that turns their viewers of superhero movies and TV shows into members of that movie/TV show. Now they can never end, because everyone you know will be touched by the virus, and you have to know what happens to them. And then you’ll be caught, and you’ll be part of them now. Yes. You are one with them, they are one with you. The superheroes never have to stop. Never. They will always be with you, in you, within you. Feel them in you. They come for you. But don’t worry, it’s all for the best.
3. Disappointingly, none of post-end credits reveals at the end of any Marvel or DC movie will feature Herbie Popnecker.