Your 2018 Predictions, Part Four: The Long Patrol.
Welcome to part four of this ragtag fugitive series of posts looking back at your 2018 comic industry predictions! Here are parts one, two, and three…and if you want in on next time, put your 2019 predictions right here!
First, somehow I skipped over longtime reader Wayne Allen Sallee‘s contribution, as I’m supposedly doing all the predictions in order. All that scrolling up ‘n’ down and copying ‘n’ pasting must have confused me, being in my advanced dotage an’ all. Sorry Wayne!
“After Dan DiDio writes a Batcow series that flops, Brian Michael Bendis will take over at whatever the hell DiDio’s title was in the first place. DiDio starts a MySpace page.”
Alas, no Batcow series of any kind, much to the chagrin of a certain little stuffed bull, I’m sure. And do any of the big comic companies still maintain a Myspace presence? I mean, Dark Horse was all about the Myspace for a while. Hmm…lemme look:
[TEMPUS FUGIT]
Okay, I found a few company pages for, like, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse…which seem devoid on content, or at least have very old content, but I’m not 100% sure everything’s loading properly on my computotron. Your mileage may vary.
“Most people will have thought Doomsday Clock to have been well-written while at the same time hating The Oz Effect.”
Well, I’ve seen critics give Doomsday Clock a pretty solid drubbing as far as the story goes…pretty much everyone agrees the art is generally well-done. I will say that customers are responding to it well, so there’s that. As to whether a percentage of them hated Oz Effect…I don’t know, honestly. Most of the folks around these parts seemed okay with it.
“Brainiac will continue to be ignored, both in comics and in film, and Mike Sterling will discover he is going to be the father of quadruplets.”
Brainiac did pop up in one of those Justice League series, so he had his Rebirth-era time to shine! Not sure how that connects to the absolutely true fact that I fathered quadruplets, which I named, of course, Huey, Louie, Dewey, and Phooey.
King of the Moon proclaims
“Brian Michael Bendis takes over a Justice League book. There will be alot of talking and all he action happens off panel.”
Not on the book itself, but Bendis did write them into an issue of Superman where Batman nearly pooped his pants. …Comics!
“Chris Evan’s beard sparks movie theater riots ala Beatlemania”
No, because we’re a country that doesn’t appreciate a fine beard. THIS IS A CRIME.
“Marvel will get Power Pack book out and it will be a hit. I will no longer have to explain my Friday tattoo.”
Well, there was an issue of Power Pack, so I guess you got your wish. Still gonna need an explanation for that tattoo.
Ryan Hawkins swoops in with
“Under new leadership Marvel will boost comic book sales by 17%”
Looksl ike the entire industry (as per Diamond Comics) dropped a bit. Now as for sales increases across the board, not just Diamond, I’m not sure, but likely they’re on par. If someone has more data, throw it my may!
“WB will announce plans for a David Mazouz Batman movie based on Batman Year One.”
That would be fairly amusing, but if we didn’t get a spinoff Superman movie after Smallville, we ain’t gettin’ this!
“Marvel will be cheeky and mention characters acquired in the Fox acquisition in movies releasing 2018, even though they wrapped up filming prior to the acquisition…hmmm?”
No explicit mentions that I saw. Not even Tony saying about himself, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Star-Lord “we four are fantastic!”
Andrew ventures ahead with
There will be NO official announcements regarding the future of the X-Men or Fantastic Four movie franchises. Endless speculation, however.
What, a bunch of speculation about some stuff we barely know about? NOT IN MY COMICS INDUSTRY
“Someone will try to revamp a long-defunct comic line, to mixed critical success and market failure.”
It’s funny how my brain always blank out at questions like this, where I try to think “what comics were announced/publshed last year?” and I all get is a dial tone in my head. I don’t think there was any major push to revive an old line of comics…nobody was all like “AT LAST, THE RETURN OF GREATER MERCURY WITH GRIPS 2020,” which I would pay money to see (and literally would have to, owning a comic shop an’ all).
Anyway, that’s a better answer than my initial super-snarky response, which was going to be “well, they tried to bring back Marvel, and look what happened.”
“Part of Ben and Johnny finding Reed, Sue, and the kids involves helping Peter remember and undo his deal with Mephisto.”
No, but what is going on with that whole Mephisto thing, J. Michael Straczynski’s lasting legacy to the Spider-Verse. There was some kind of thing in that last issue where Mary Jane whisphered something to Mephisto before he undid the marriage and wiped everyone’s memories and all that…a little plot point dropped in for the distant future for someone to use to undo everything, I’ve assumed. Is there anything going on in the Spider-books that even makes the vaguest reference to that literal deal with the devil?
Hooper Triplett is one short with
“Towards the end of 2018, there will be valid rumors of a Marvel/DC publishing merger.”
It’s funny, but I was just joking about that very thing on the Twitters yesterday in regards to getting the criminally out-of-print JLA/Avengers back on the stands. But I suspect, though fans have been spreading rumors about “Marvel Buys DC” and the like for decades and it’s never come to pass, it’s probably just a matter of time before Disney buys Warner Bros., merges all their comics together…then licenses the characters to IDW.
“This is also the year Marvel, DC, Image, or Dark Horse will shift from monthly releases to European-like albums for original content. I’m guessing Squirrel Girl, Batgirl, Lazarus, and Hellboy respectively.”
Nobody’s quite made the full jump yet, but there were plenty of OGNs from all four companies (both collections of digital releases, and otherwise).
Tim B. naturally says
“Gorillas will be big again.”
THEY WERE NEVER SMALL, BABY
“At one of the major cons (San Diego or New York) DC will officially launch their digital platform, most of the TBA DCEU films will be quietly converted to exclusive content for it, with a Netflix style limited cinematic release schedule for award qualification.”
There was a big thing at San Diego about the DC Universe streaming service, that’s for sure! Though they haven’t made the animated films exclusive as such, the new Superman animated feature is debuting on the service at the same time as the DVD/Blu-ray release which seems like a big deal. (Still two weeks after the digital release, however…which seems to tell me they make the real money with digital, and the physical formats are a minor afterthought for old fuddy-duddies like me to buy. But I have no real idea.)
“Stiltman is the surprise villain of Daredevil Season 3”
Well, maybe for season fo–OH WAIT
Rob Staeger stages the following
“Happy new year!”
Well, we’ll see how the next eye surgery goes!
“I’m going to keep predicting a Legion comic until DC gives me one. Like last year, I’m still going to predict it being kicked off in high style with Tom King at the helm…probably around the same time as the second Mister Miracle trade hits the stores.”
“Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina each get a co-writer, in the interest of putting out more than one issue apiece in 2018.”
Say, I vaguely remember those titles. #11 and #12 of AwA were solicited in 2016 but cancelled. Sabrina #9 was solicited in 2017 but also cancelled. Ah well, nice while it lasted.
“Cheeks the Toy Wonder makes an appearance in the background of a panel in Doomsday Clock.”
He’s the little graphic covering up Dr. Manhattan’s shame in each issue.
,
DK returns with
“The trend for 2018 will be legacy characters becming parents.”
To be frank, I’m still surprised they’ve let Batman and Superman’s kids stick around this long The Flash (in old continuity tradition) has kids eventually, though I don’t know if we’ll see it in new comics any time soon. …Hal’s probably got kids all over the place.
“At least one Watchmen character will migrate to the DCU full-time as a villain. Probably Ozymandias, but could also be Rorschach.”
Will always ride for Rorschach Team-Up. DO IT, DC, you know it’s what you want.
“A big Marvel-Star Wars crossover property will be announced. It won’t be a comic.”
Also surprised this hasn’t happened. I mean, is there any merchandise with, I don’t know, Deadpool in Jedi robes? They did it with Mickey Mouse and such, dressing them up in SW stuff. Though I’m expecting “Star Wars variant covers” on mainline Marvel titles any time now.
MrJM wraps things up for today with
“1) Some things will get worse, and
2) Some things will get better, and
3) People will disagree about which things got worse and which things got better.”
Nope, not one of these thing happened. Ooh, sorry, better luck next time, MrJM!
Okay, that’s it for today…tune in on Wednesday for the senses-shattering part five of the 2018 prediction saga! Thanks for reading, everyone!
I mean…is this the only Power Pack tattoo out there?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6ctpjmff6eupzk/IMG_20171101_165229.jpg?dl=0
I guess I can see why people were excited about JLA/Avengers, but I think a great opportunity was missed. This should have been JLA/Squadron Supreme.
“Gorillas ARE big. It’s the COMICS that got small.”
As a condolence prize for Rorschach Team-Up, would you settle for Rorschach as the narrator of one of those old EC-style pre-Vertigo anthology books, telling tales of folks getting their karmic dues in the manner of his journal?
“As a condolence prize for Rorschach Team-Up, would you settle for Rorschach as the narrator of one of those old EC-style pre-Vertigo anthology books, telling tales of folks getting their karmic dues in the manner of his journal?”
I can’t speak for Mike, but I would “settle” for this in a big way.
Ouch, I’ve been Vadered! Well, better luck this year.