Your 2015 Predictions, Part Five: Suffragette City.

§ January 27th, 2016 § Filed under predictions § 5 Comments

Huzzah! It’s part five of going over your 2015 comics industry predictions, and if you missed the previous installments, here are parts one and two, three, and four. You’re welcome!

Plus, give me your predictions for 2016…THIS I COMMAND.

Before I get started…be sure to check out my contribution to the latest Question of the Week over at Trouble with Comics, this time covering the favorite debut appearance of a character or super-team.

And new this week at your local funnybook store is the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Comic Book Archives, reprinting the Evan Dorkin comics from a couple o’decades back. If you look closely at the first couple of pages in the book, you’ll see a special thanks to yours truly and my former boss Ralph in there. We helped editor pal Ian obtain some necessary material for this collection, and he was kind enough to give us credit! Almost makes me feel bad for all the terrible things I’ve said about Ian in the past. …Almost.

Enough of that…now let us attend to the last batch of predictions!

• • •

Jeff R. rites

“Of these three, one will see an issue at least for sale in 2015, one will be solicited before the end of the year, and one will have no sign seen: Mage III, Frank Miller’s Xerxes comic, and a brand-new Miracleman comic from Gaiman. (which is to say not counting the one that’s already written and drawn but never published.)”

Just a tad early…this week the Previews comes out containing the solicits for the first new (or rather unpublished) Gaiman and Buckingham Miracleman story, with brand new installments to come!

“Of the 19 remaining First Wave New 52 titles, less that half will make it to the end of 2015 without a cancellation or relaunch and thus be on track to actually reach #52 sometime in 2016.”

Trying to go over the titles gave me a headache, but I think most of the original 2011 launch titles that made it to 2015 made it into 2016, though, again, you may have been a bit early, depending on whatever this alleged “REBIRTH” thing is DC is leading up to.

“For late in the year, well after the movie, Marvel will solicit an event that looks like the return of the Fantastic Four. When it comes out it will actually not just not bring them back but salt the earth, rendering the characters as toxic and unusable as they can possibly manage.”

Maaaaybe another thing that happened in 2016, depending on what you think of the ending of Secret Wars. I don’t believe anything’s been made unusable yet, but we’ll see what goes on in the future!

• • •

Michael Jones has a jones for the following

“The 8-page ‘Attack on Titans vs. Avengers’ storyline that debuted in Japan in Nov/2014 will be reprinted as a backup story in an Avengers comic. This will entice the original author to finish the story.”

Half a hit, since it popped up in the Free Comic Book Day giveaway from Marvel!

“Mike Sterling will franchise out his store to three new locations.”

…Followed shortly by my death.

“Ant-Man won’t do Guardians-sized box office but will bring in a surprising amount of cash for Marvel.”

As discussed previously…no one’s sneezing at Ant-Man half-billion dollar take.

• • •

Hollywood Hogan bars no holds with

“Avengers 2 is a box office disappointment (not a bomb, but does worse than the first one or GOTG) and Marvel proceeds to completely re-tool future movie plans.”

Age of Ultron did almost as well as the first, box office-wise, but hoo boy it wasn’t a good movie. Thankfully Ant-Man cleansed that palate.

“The Marvel comic universe will be rebooted ala the New 52. Major changes are the elimination of the Fantastic Four completely (they never existed in the new universe), Nick Fury having always been Samuel L. Jackson, and the X-Men being shuffled off to an alternate universe where they are the only superheroes. There will be no regular X-Men book published, but they will make cameos.”

That was the rumor, or at least one of them, and honestly I’m surprised they didn’t do this.

“DC’s September event will be a showcase for characters from cancelled titles and writers to go completely crazy. Expect things like Swamp Thing with an H-Dial, Hawk and Dove joining the Blackhawks, and Larfleeze stealing a Mother Box.”

Almost wish they had done this…what would they have to lose, right? But DC kinda/sorta did some different stuff with some new titles, though sadly some of it died off right quite. I mean, who was expecting both a Bat-Mite and a Bizarro series?

• • •

Jay the Ray has his say

“The multiverse will be introduced in an episode of The Flash, when Barry accidentally is trapped on Earth-2 with Jay Garrick. The twist will be that another Earth out there is the cinematic universe – leaving the door open for future crossovers.”

We did get the multiverse, but they haven’t done much with it aside from Earth One and Earth Two interaction. Getting some vague hints and rumors here and there (like with Supergirl), but nothing with the movie universe just yet. Boy, funny the DC went through all the trouble to get rid of the multiverse in their comics way back when, and here we are with the media adaptations bringing it all back.

“Agents of Shield will be cancelled, Agent Carter will be cancelled, ABC/Disney/Marvel will move Daredevil from Netflix to primetime TV to fill the gap, where it will also flop.”

Nope nope nope and nope. Thank goodness!

“Convergence will lead to the September DC event where ‘anything goes.’ Similar to what the All-Star line was supposed to be, it’ll be iconic versions of characters in their own universes, written by top talent.”

If only they did, Jay the Ray…if only they did.

• • •

Travis gets a little randy with

“To capitalize on interest in the upcoming movie, DC Comics will launch a mini-series entitled ‘Batman v Superman’ depicting the two heroes in a legal battle for custody of Gleek.”

Of course the big problem with this is the idea anyone would want Gleek.

“The trend towards ‘realism’ in adaptations of superhero properties will reach its nadir when a realistic take on ‘The Doom Patrol’ is announced, in which none of the characters will have superpowers/be a robot, there will be no villains, and all of the weirdness will be excised.”

Agreed, that would be terrible. Thankfully the trend seems to be toward embracing all the goofy stuff in comics. If there’s ever a Doom Patrol movie/TV show, there’s going to be a freakin’ Robotman in it, I guarantee!

“People will continue to love ‘The Walking Dead’ for some damn reason.”

Well, they got folks invested in the characters, and it’s probably the one continuing property left where you can have zombies and everyone doesn’t go “(sigh) zombies again?” The spin-off they attempted this year didn’t seem to get quite the same positive reaction, so maybe the main Walking Dead series has some special formula that allows it to continue where other zombie shows just sort of shamble along or crumble into nothingness.

• • •

Hey, who let this Augie De Blieck character in here?

“Valiant will start showing cracks from growing too big, too fast without the sales levels to justify it or the movie deals to float them.

“In other words, Valiant will be the new CrossGen. Marvel will get flooded with resumes by December, because DC isn’t in NYC anymore.”

So far, Valiant has shown some restraint…the occasional mini-series here and there, and that “limited variant chase comic” with a story that only appeared in that comic was a little annoying, but otherwise they haven’t gone too overboard. As for the résumé thing…I mean, I think I’ve heard stories about folks trying to switch over to Marvel just so can stay in the same industry and remain in the New York area, but I suspect Marvel’s overrun with résumés anyway, and any “loss of DC” bump would hardly be noticed. I’ll bet you the big résumé jump came when Disney bought ’em.

“Marvel WILL reboot its universe, but mostly for the sake of diversity. The characters who are seen now as ‘place holders’ will be the official new POC characters in the new Marvel Universe. More will be added in. (I’m guessing an Asian Henry Pym and a Latina Wasp.) The Avengers will be the United Nations of the Marvel U.”

As noted, we didn’t get the full reboot, just a bunch of new #1s. There is a little more diversity in the line-up, but not much more than was already there before the wave of relaunches, and in the cases of the Big Characters (like Spider-Man and Captain America) it’s pretty clear that the new versions of the characters will be there alongside the originals, rather than replacing them. All-New All-Different Avengers did turn out to be a team of a lot of the new characters, which seems to be doing okay so far!

“Ant-Man will do very well at the theaters, but since it won’t set any records, the press will declare it a bomb.”

It did do well…did about 500 million dollars more than I expected an Ant-Man film to do. And we’re not at the point where anyone’s declaring any Marvel movie a bomb yet…folks tend to save that kind of talk for DC movies.

• • •

Bret Sector parts out the predictions as follows

“ALL books published by Marvel and DC will tie-in to a larger over-arching group of titles: Avengers, Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Defenders, Batman, Superman, JLA, Green Lantern, and New Gods.”

Not quite yet…we’ll see where DC’s “Rebirth” thing (which supposedly is going to focus on retooling the line to jibe more with the media adaptations) is going.

“Vertigo will cease to exist.”

Hoo boy, if anything, it’s the opposite, to the point where my Vertigo customers are all “man, enough already.”

“Valiant will re-acquire their Gold Key characters.”

I know you can’t go home again, but it’d be nice to see Doctor Solar and X-O Manowar teaming up once more, right?

• • •

Jay Potts pans me with

Prediction: In advance of his introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel will announce a new Black Panther ongoing series. It will be written by David Walker, current writer of SHAFT from Dynamite Comics.

There is a new Black Panther series coming, but it’s by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze. And, you know, that ain’t bad.

• • •

Old pal Dan Latta slugs me with

“The Marvel reboot won’t be as rebooty as everyone thinks.”

Correct!

“Star Wars VII will be better than the prequels, but not as good as Guardians of the Galaxy was”

I…uh…you know, I can’t really argue that.

“Pictures from Mike’s sordid past as the trumpet player for Saticoy-based 2Tone Ska band will emerge.”

I’ll have you know that our band Ska-mp Thing will hit it big someday!

• • •

And finally, Pogressiveruin.com‘s biggest fan Crowded House predicts

“Mike Sterling will look to sell something else at his comic shop to attract more customers. It will almost definitely be pogs.”

This will almost certain never happen maybe.

“Around the same time, Ventura County will bear witness to a series of incidents involving a mysterious masked crimefighter who leaves tiny circles of holofoil and cardboard at crime scenes to announce his victories over evil.”

Nobody can prove anything. What are you implying?

“Months after his initial appearance, the masked man appears on TV to reveal himself as…The Night Slammer! California’s first and greatest pog-based superhero, whose exploits are chronicled in his own monthly comic that can only be purchased at Sterling Silver Comics! Business booms, and all the while no one notices how the Night Slammer and Mike Sterling have never been seen together in the same place at the same time.”

okay, maybe

• • •

AND THAT’S THAT. Thanks for participating, everyone…and don’t forget to give me your comic book predictions for 2016! Plus, like I said before, I’ll still respond to some of your comments, and post some corrections, and so on. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon!

5 Responses to “Your 2015 Predictions, Part Five: Suffragette City.”

  • not to start any arguments, but i *just* *can’t* see how AoU was a bad flick.

  • I like Age of Ultron a lot better now than I did when I saw it in the theater; it definitely grew on me after a few re-watches. I’d put it below Avengers and Winter Soldier, but ahead of GOTG or Ant-Man, but a lot of that is my love for seeing these characters (and the actors portraying them) assembled (!) together on-screen.

  • Rob S. says:

    Mike, thanks for doing this! This Kreskin-style roundup is always a blast!

  • Daniel says:

    I thought Age of Ultron was no better or worse than any of the other Marvel films. That said, I’m just not a huge fan of the Marvel films. The glib tone, repetitive plots, lack of seriousness of purpose, and goofy shtick began wearing thin for me a long time ago. Maybe I’m biased because I’m in the camp that much prefers the darker, more serious, more melancholy tone of the DC films. The Marvel films, to me, are entertaining in the moment and then immediately forgettable once they’re over. Age of Ultron was no different.

  • Dan Latta says:

    …Ska-mp Thing? SKA-MP THING?

    I DEMAND THAT YOU START THAT BAND THIS INSTANT!