Your 2018 Predictions, Part Six: The Magnificent Warriors.
We’ve finally made it! It’s the last batch of your 2018 comic industry predictions we’re covering in this particular sequence of posts. If you’ve missed any previous posts in the series — first, how dare you, and second, you can find ’em right here: onesie, twosie, threesie, foursie, and fivesie. And I keep telling y’all to put your 2019 predictions right here, so don’t get mad at me next year when I do this again and you’re all “oh woe is me, why did I not contribute? Why? WHYYYY!?!?”
Onward and upward!
Bruce Baugh breaks down the following
“Marvel will not die and crash the direct market in 2018. However, it will do something mind-boggingly stupid that nobody predicted except as a joke, and at the end of 2018, ‘Marvel, WTF?’ will be a dominant theme in reviews of the year.”
Hmm…maybe their price points? Those terrible, terrible $5.99 to $7.99 price points for first issues, or just plain ol’ issues during the series, or especially for installments of a kid-friendly Ms.Marvel/Squirrel Girl team-up series that eventually got collected into a $9.99 paperback, which is what it probably should have been from the get-go anyway? I vote for that.
“There will be a Legion of Super-Heroes revival. It will be grimdark, campy, or (most likely) both. It will not do well, but it will be brandished by Gamergate types accusing SJWs of destroying comics, even though it will have nothing to do with diversity, social justice, or anything of the sort.”
As discussed in a previous post, no Legion book just yet (I think everyone’s waiting for Doomsday Clock to wrap, since a Legion member is tangentially involved). But wouldn’t you say diversity and social justice is ingrained into the Legion? Well, okay, that whole business with Tyroc was a bit…rough, but they were trying!
“One particular event will dominate everyone’s year-end efforts to say ‘oh, right, well, of course, I saw that coming, I just didn’t add it to my prediction list.’ I have no idea what this event will be.”
Is it my endless series of eyeball surgeries? I bet it’s that.
Chris Gumprich costs us dearly with
“(Am I too late? Gosh I hope I’m not too late!)”
Not as late as the folks who have yet to give me their 2019 predictions!
“MAGE III will ship more often than not, but will gradually become later and later so that by the end of the year we’ll only be up to #10.”
Actually came out on a pretty regular basis! I think the last issue, #15, is taking a little longer because, well, more pages, surely, and there’ll probably be a fancy cover or a folkout or some production hoohar that will require more time. Which is fine!
“After years of teasing and hinting, Ma Hunkel will join the LEGENDS OF TOMORROW.”
I’m absolutely behind on all the CW shows, but I don’t think this happened, but Legends of Tomorrow is the one show were this absolutely could happen!
“I will spend more money at the comic store in 2018 than in 2017. Shouldn’t be too hard, as I spent a whole $20 (Canadian!) in 2017. And that was $20 more than I did in 2016. Or 2015.”
I can’t say for sure if you did or not, but you can always spend $20 (Canadian) at my store if you’d like!
Anthony hops in with
“Vampirella, unfortunately, will get another ‘ongoing’ that turns into a mini series.”
I think it was just mini-series an’ such this year. It would be nice to just have one ongoing Vampirella series with no relaunching/rebooting/etc. And I would also like a pony. A flying pony, made of gold.
“Avengers Infinity War will be the highest grossing Marvel movie to date.”
According to my go-to site for this sort of thing, Box Office Mojo has Black Panther as the highest grossing domestically, with Avengers: Infinity War right behind. Working in the foreign markets, it looks like Infinity War is indeed tops. Anyway, look at that page for all the data you can stand about this, including totals adjusted for inflation, etc. Speaking of which, turns out, after adjusting for inflation, Howard the Duck is the top-grossing Marvel movie! Who knew?
“CW’s Black Lightning will be received well and join the Arrowverse taking place on Supergirl’s earth 38.”
Like I said above, I’m behind on the CW, but I don’t think Black Lightning is part of the rest of the whole Arrowverse thing yet. (And how weird is it that it’s called “the Arrowverse?” Imagine being told years ago one of the most successfuly TV adaptations of superheroes would be Green Arrow-centric.) As I’ve also noted previously, I feel like the announced “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event next year is going to result in Supergirl being on the same Earth as the other shows…and maybe that’s when Lightning will be merged in, too. We’ll see!
I am Groot groots
“I am groot.”
No, turned out DC went for it showing Dr. Manhattan in the altogether in Doomsday Clock. And please, in the future, maybe use more delicate language in describing his, well, you know.
“I am groot.”
While it does feel like there was some constriction of the direct market in terms of sales and simple variety of product, one can easily fall into the trap of centering the entire health of the marketplace solely on “the Big Two,” or perhaps “The Big Five,” if you include IDW, Dark Horse, and Image. While there is the usual attrition with new publictions (for example, the number of Images launches that peter out quickly in sales, or simply are D.O.A.) there is at least some measure of commitment, particularly by the smaller publishers, to expand the market with a variety of new books and concepts creators. But, as the old retailer saying goes, “as goes Marvel, so goes the industry,” and a lackluster performance by Marvel can lead to lean times overall, as, like it or not, comic retail stores depend on Marvel and DC to drive regular business and cash flow. A reduction of customer interest in the standard offerings results in a reduction of foot traffic into stores which in turn results in a reduction of eyeballs on new material from alternative publishers. And then from that, creators begin to look for other forms of distributing their products, digitally or otherwise. But all that said, yes, the new Love and Rockets continues to sell just fine, despite your prediction.
“I am groot.”
Nope, still no new Miracleman comics. I’m disappointed too.
Adam had ’em with
“Long time reader. First time predicting events.”
I hope you’re still around!
“Towards the back half of Metal, Planetary will some how be introduced into the main DC universe in a more prominent fashion…aside from that one time Elijah, Jakita and the Drummer met all these different Batmen.”
Huh…I would have liked that, I mean, so long as your second prediction had come to pass:
“Warren Ellis was notified by DC that they would be using the characters and he gave them his blessing.”
I wonder what he would have said if DC tried this? I mean, yes, he’d likely get paid some kind of royalties for i…I’m really not sure. But on the other hand, he might not want Other Hands futzing about with this characters, which is also understandable. But I’m pretty sure DC owns the property outright, and I can picture them just doing whatever without asking anyone’s permission.
“Prices of Planetary back issues will go up in value. At which point I make a nice chunk of change.”
Ah hah! Blatant market manipulation via your predicting powers, eh, Adam? …Well, okay, I’m not sure how that would work, but still.
Jay V flies in with
“That Wilkin Boy becomes a breakout character on Riverdale.”
I don’t think so (since I don’t watch the show) but apparently there was a brief reference to him there in 2017!
“Someone finds another Kirby character drawn on a napkin or something and puts out an homage/cash grab.”
C’mon Heidi Hogan, Lady Lumberjack!
“An indie film company gets the rights to put out a movie based on one of the thousands of TMNT ripoffs from ye olden 80’s B&W days. Adolescent Black Belt Hamsters? Geriatric Gangrene Jujitsu Gerbils? There were so many…”
Not yet, but surely it’s only a matter of time before the the Marching Marvel Media Machine finds its way to Power Pachyderms.
Philippe Leblanc whites out the following
“The Avengers Infinity War movie brings in lots of customers to all comic shops looking for the ‘Infinity War’ comics. No retailers is able to convince excited fans to read the classic series ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ and people buy the sequel ‘Infinity War’ en masse and are utterly confused.”
In my case, I did get a lot of people looking for Infinity War comics, so I spent a lot of time telling them Ifinity Gauntlet was more the inspiration for the film. How they took Mephisto in that comic I have yet to hear. Sales of the Infinity War book were much less…but if they think that was confusing, wait ’til they tackle Infinity Crusade.
“The excitement over the appearance of Swamp Thing in the 2017 video game ‘Injustice 2’ and the critical failure of the Justice League movie makes Warner Bros. scramble to reboot their existing movie properties. They reboot Swamp Thing is a big live-action movie. A new DC Comic series is launched, but is quickly cancelled due to overwhelming demand for a series about Swamp Thing’s sidekick that was introduced in the movie, Baby-Swampy.”
Lots of predictions for Live-Action Swamp Thing, but I don’t know if most of us expected it to be as a streaming show on DC’s proprietary service. I don’t think we’re getting Baby Swampy, but have I yet mentioned that Blue Devil will be on the show?
“Image Comics accidentally publish comics without art. Instead, their comics are replaced for one month with simple white sheet with an elevator pitch for a high-concept movie.”
But enough subtweeting about Mark Millar!
That’s it! We’re done for the year! Well, there’s still an epilogue with additions and addendums and of course the cast of the show finally making it to Earth, so come back Monday, everyone, and we’ll get this all wrapped up! Thanks for reading, and of course thanks to everyone who participated! And don’t forget, Blue Devil is appearing in Swamp Thing!
“I will spend more money at the comic store in 2018 than in 2017. Shouldn’t be too hard, as I spent a whole $20 (Canadian!) in 2017. And that was $20 more than I did in 2016. Or 2015.”
I can’t say for sure if you did or not, but you can always spend $20 (Canadian) at my store if you’d like!”
Not only did I spend more than $20 at the comic store last year, but I spent more than that at Sterling Silver Comics, thanks to a well-timed group of 80s comic ad posters showing up on the eBays!
So my predictions went one-for-three.