Your 2016 Predictions, Part Five: The Spy in the Green Hat.

§ January 18th, 2017 § Filed under predictions § 4 Comments

We’re in the home stretch of looking at your 2016 predictions…parts one, two, three, and four are still right where I left ’em. And please, give me your 2017 predictions if you so desire.

• • •

Longtime customer Rob marches in with

“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.”

It seemed like they were cranking out a whole lot of ’em for a while there, didn’t it? They seem to have scaled back some now, while still searching for the new Vertigo “killer app” to put the imprint back on its feet.

Hwy, maybe if they did an actual weekly Vertigo comic…an anthology series featuring short chapters of old favorites and new concepts, just to see what people respond to. That sounds neat to me, if only because I’m not the person who’d be handling the logistics of it.

• • •

vester invests in the following:

“1. DC Comics will recruit an artist or writer who has worked in recent years in Marvel”

Darn it, I’m always terrible at this sort of thing because I never can keep track of or remember who’s going where and doing what to whom. I checked some of DC’s recent “exclusive creator” hires (for example), but it’s usually someone who’s worked for Marvel and DC among others. But I can’t think of anyone on par with, like, John Romita Jr., a longtime mostly Marvel dude, coming over to work on Superman, like he did a couple of years back. Maybe someone out there with a brain that isn’t old and decaying like mind can clue me in.

“2. The Iron Fist actor for the Netflix series will probably be a white person.”

Yeah, that certainly turned into a thing.

“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.”

Welllll…I thought it was okay, and I thought it was better than promised in the trailers, but I hear tell I may be in the minority opinion on this. I do believe most people thought Affleck made a good Batman, and are looking forward to his turn in a solo Batman film…however, there is only one Best Batman in the movies, and I think we all know who I’m talkin’ about.

• • •

Mike Loughlin laughs it up with

“Marvel sales will take a sizable hit, mostly due to 1) audience indifference and 2) Marvel Unlimited.”

On a case-by-case basis, certain new Marvel series launches haven’t…done entirely well, far as I can tell. But overall, their market percentage, per Diamond’s stats, seem to have hovered around the same levels throughout the year. Now, maybe per-unit sales have dropped across the board for everybody, and, say, 40% of the market at the beginning of the year represents a lot more than 40% at the end of the year, but relatively speaking Marvel’s in about the same position it was.

• • •

Mick slips me the following:

“1. Dynamite hires Jim Shooter to provide a satisfying conclusion to the Dark Horse Gold Key revival. This leads to”

I’d actually forgotten Dynamite had the Gold Key characters. No Shooter on the project, it appears, alas.

“2. Dynamite and Valiant work 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”

I’d like to read a completed Unity 2000. Again, sadly, did not come to pass.

“3. Jim Shooter updates his blog.”

He did! A few times!

• • •

Dan mocks my pain with

“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.”

Would buy the hell out of all these. Well, okay, I’d have to think about Angel Love for a minute. But I own all the ‘Mazing Man and Boris the Bears and would love to have nice, permanent editions of them. …I don’t know if there’s a market that would support this sort of thing, but it’s nice to think about.

• • •

Kid Kyoto has got no time for The Man’s rules with

“1-A second tier publisher (Valiant maybe, or even Dark Horse) will go digital only. Publishing is so much easier when you dont have to futz with those pesky atoms.”

Haven’t made that jump yet!

“2-The Legion of Super-Heroes will return in a new reboot. (Early 2017 prediction, the LSH will be cancelled)”

Close, but wrong year! Also, OUCH.

“3-Batman and Superman return to normal, for a bit anyway.”

Well, yes, kind of…Superman is back to “normal” in the most abnormal way, but we’re still seeing how that plays out.

“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.”

Boy, lots of people predict Image passing DC pretty much every year. If Image had more than one Walking Dead, that might happen.

“5-Big Vertigo push at DC, since nothing else seems to be working.”

Vertigo seemed to slow down a bit, in favor of other big pushes at DC!

“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?”

“Rebirth” is kinda/sorta a return of multiversal storytelling, in a way, considering what’s going on, so you’re not too far off!

“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.”

They’re still hanging in there!

“Sorry didn’t notice the 3 prediction limit…”

WHY, KID KYOTO, WHYYYY

• • •

Harvey Jerkwater nicely suggests

“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.”

I don’t know if BvS specifically encouraged more superhero movies, shared universe or otherwise, since everyone still seems to be pretty gung-ho about them right now regardless. I mean, Universal is still gonna do their Universal Monsters shared-universe movie thing, right? That would sound like a boondoggle, unless it gives us more Creature from the Black Lagoon, which would be great. Also, this movie would suddenly be official canon.

“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.”

Correct, and also correct. …I’m actually sort of getting anxious for a new Fantastic Four series. Hope it’s good.

“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.”

Had to look up this episode and what the hell is even going on over there. One can only hope the live-action Cyborg in the forthcoming Justice League movie follows this characterization.

• • •

DavidG whizzes

“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.”

SS didn’t quite match BvS’s take, but Civil War did beat them both in the box office. It wasn’t Marvel’s top-grossing film, but whether it’s the high-water mark of Marvel films quality-wise depends on you, the viewer at home!

“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.”

They’re still trying withe the Inhumans, while also doing a new X-Men launch this year. Having their Inhumans and their muties, too, it appears.

“DC’s Rebirth will just make everything worse, hard as that is to believe.”

I think by and large people like “Rebirth,” to be honest, and it appears to have done a good job correcting some of the missteps from the New 52.

• • •

Bruce Baugh breaks the following

“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.”

I don’t think they’ve been providing digital sales figures aside from generalities, as you’ve noted, but apparently Mad‘s recent statement of publication includes digital sales. Since Mad is published by DC, I’ll call that a hit! Now to see if we get specific sales figures on more titles in the future…not that I can recall a statement of publication appearing in an actual comic book lately.

• • •

Tec15 predicts

“1) Suicide Squad will comfortably out gross Captain America: Avengers 2.5, despite all the Hot Topic, Edgelord Joker jabs the internet makes.”

As discussed above, Civil War beat it out by quite a bit, though SS’s take was nothing to be ashamed of.

“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.”

Not a big mobile gaming fan, but there was a DC game app that seemed to have a bit of money put into it. And there seems to be no shortage of Marvel mobile games, judging by the number of screenshots I see on my Twitter feed.

“3) DC will announce a new digital first Lego Batman title.”

Not yet, far as I can tell, and if they don’t, it can only be because DC Comics hates money.

• • •

Crowded House pushes me out of the room with

“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.”

They certainly seem to be not leaving us any time soon. As I’ve said here and elsewhere, it looks like a bad superhero movie is now generally seen as a bad movie, and not necessarily an example of why superhero movies are going to die Any Second Now. That shores up the sustainability a bit.

“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.”

I, the living embodiment of Frank Miller’s The Spirit, finds this a tad farfetched.

“3. Disappointingly, none of post-end credits reveals at the end of any Marvel or DC movie will feature Herbie Popnecker.”

Our country’s second-greatest shame.

• • •

And that was that! Thanks for participating, everyone, and remember to leave me your 2017 predictions! Probably one more post following up on your comments to these posts from the last couple of weeks, so I’ll see you Friday for the exciting epilogue to our journey!

4 Responses to “Your 2016 Predictions, Part Five: The Spy in the Green Hat.”

  • Turan, Emissary of the Fly World says:

    Without clicking on the link, I am confident that, by “Best Batman in the movies,” you mean Joey de Leon.

  • philfromgermany says:

    Instead of getting on Vertigo’s nuts, people might wanna read some of the titles they put out, like _Sheriff of Babylon, Fables ever after, Unfollow or Astro City…
    Is this still good natured ribbing or should some people just look for a new hobby if comics makes them so bitter?

  • Mike Loughlin says:

    I haven’t tried all the recent Vertigo series, but I buy Astro City, Unfollow, and Clean Room in singles and Sheriff of Babylon in trades. I like that they put the Young Animal series in their own imprint as I think Vertigo should be creator-owned (or at least co-owned) comics vs. DC properties. Incidentally, would love to see what the Young Animal creators would do with Tim Hunter or Black Orchid.

    I wonder, however, if it wouldn’t be better to have the creator-owned series come out from another company, as I don’t know how profitable Vertigo contracts are vs. Image/indie publisher contracts. I don’t know if the Vertigo label increases visibility or sales these days.

    – Mike Loughlin

  • Bully says:

    Hey, I’d buy an Angel Love hardcover treasury! that is, if I had enough money left over after buying my

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