Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinAlone, unmourned, and unloved since 1969

Your 2017 Predictions, Epilogue: I’ve Run Out of Bring It On Sequel Titles to Use.

§ January 29th, 2018 § Filed under predictions § 4 Comments

As promised, though slightly delayed: I’ll be going back and responding to your responses to my posts covering your 2017 predictions (as seen in parts 2017 predictions (parts one two three four five and six). Thanks for your patience, everyone, and we’re almost done, I promise!

First, I should note I already did direct responses edited into the original text of that part one I just linked above, so go back and check those out if you haven’t already.

Now, to part two:

In response to the whole “next big comics death” thing, David Alexander McDonald noted:

“Black Widow bought the farm in Secret Empire, didn’t she? Also, Rick Jones, not that we care.”

Well, yeah, but there wasn’t any kind of overwhelming, or even halfhearted, media reaction…there was barely any ripple even in the usual comics news sources. Man, I didn’t even know about the whole Rick Jones thing. It appears either the “kill ’em off for sales and attention” thing is itself killed off, or the characters didn’t warrant the attention. Even when they “killed” Bruce Banner, general response was, like, “…eh.”

JD says, regarding Marvel moving titles to biweekly:

“Marvel did make several of its titles biweekly without much fanfare: X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue, Guardians of the Galaxy (the last of which has already been cancelled for a retooling)”

Okay, fair enough, but in my defense Marvel’s release schedule of many of their titles has been relatively wacky since the Bill Jemas era. You know, the “soon as they’re ready, get ’em on the shelves” strategy which may not have been their intention, but that’s pretty much how it worked out. For a while there on the site I was regularly complaining about supposedly monthly titles cranking out three issues in four weeks. I probably didn’t register any of Marvel’s current titles as being on a consistent biweekly schedule so much as them being on the “whenever” release pattern.

Paul suggests, per my comments about “mainstream” comic releases:

“Regarding ‘a mainstream comic mag may launch,’ not sure if you’d conside these 2 items relevant.”

I think may answer was more in regards to “mainstream” as in “regularly read by large audiences,” rather than specifically to content. I mean, the two items you link to would be good general interest comics publications, but they’re probably going to still require people going to comic shops versus grabbing off the rack at the local supermarket. But, y’know, can’t succeed unless you try, and I hope they succeed.

• • •
From Part the Third:

Turan provides a correction to the credits for “Seasons in the Sun” which I’ll just link to here. …You never know where these prediction posts will go!

Rob London rebuts my assertion about not calling Marvel’s Star Wars character Jaxxon a rabbit with

“You *can* call Jaxxon a rabbit – rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents.”

Well, he still probably wouldn’t like that…and I was all ready to blame Roy Thomas, but looking back at the full page I pulled that panel from, he was responding to someone who did call him a “rodent,” so let’s all blame that guy for doing so!

Michael tells a tale out of school in relation to my wondering why the preexisting Marvel villain called “Trump” hasn’t popped up recently:

“Mike, it so happens I was advising a Marvel author who needed a villain for their story and suggested Trump would fit their purpose. They loved the character’s gimmicks, but the idea was shot down because of his name – which I hadn’t even considered when I promoted him.

“Whatever happened to the good ol’ days when everybody wanted Gerald Ford to be their super-villain?”

Jack POOONGs

“For my money, ‘Then…KOREA’ is the best running gag this site has. POOONG!”

Jack, I will have to agree with you. I love that amazing panel. I’ll see if I can’t find a way to bring it back more often than, say, once every four or five years.

• • •
Part four, ahoy!

Papa Lazarou wondered, regarding my reference to a negative review of the Yoe Books reprint projects:

“Where can I find this?”

Already answered in the comments there, but thought I’d do a direct link here. (As I write this, images aren’t showing up there, but maybe it’s a temporary thing.) Now personally, I enjoy the Yoe Books comics, though I can certainly understand the reviewer’s issues with them.

• • •
Fit the fifth:

Gareth Wilson follows up on his own prediction (about a new rural white character who specifically isn’t a stereotypical racist etc. jerk) with

“I realised after posting about the rural character that he’s just Cannonball.”

Not new by any means, but, yeah, he probably fits the criteria. That Sam Guthry’s not a bad fella.

• • •
And now, Six:

It’s Turan again, explaining why “Thing ring, do your thing!” will likely not turn up again (and yes, Turan knows he’s responding to a joke with a very serious answer, which I of course encourage):

“Given that the ‘Thing Ring’ cartoon was a Hanna-Barbera production (as indicated by the show’s actual title, ‘Fred and Barney Meet the Thing’), and given that often the rights to a character or idea introduced in an adaptation remain with the company that produced the adaptation rather than with the owners of the original property, or at least are shared by the parties (this, to give an example that will probably mean nothing to most of your readers, is why Nikki Porter was not a character in the 1970s Ellery Queen TV series)–given that, I suspect that a ‘Thing Ring’ TV series would require the collaboration not only of Disney/Marvel and Fox, but also of Time Warner (which owns Hanna Barbera now).

Of course, Time Warner also owns DC Comics. I don’t know, but I suspect that if the people who own Marvel and the people who own DC ever do get together to make a comics-based TV series or movie, ‘Benjy Grimm and His Thing Ring’ will probably be low on the list of ideas considered.”

Yes, I reposted the entire explanation, because it’s amazing. Thanks Turan!

And that’s pretty much all I had to add this time around (except going back to part six got me to fix a stupid typo that blew one of my jokes…”INVINCIBLE,” not “INVISIBLE,” dummy!)

Thanks to all of you for your participation, and I’ll see you all back here next year when it’s time to look at your 2018 predictions!

And, um, hopefully I’ll see you later this week when the website resumes normal broadcasting!