Your 2021 Predictions, Part Two: Guess Who’s Coming to the Wedding?
Continuing my look back at your 2021 comic industry predictions (part one here). And as yet another reminder, get in your 2022 predictions before much more of 2022 passes us by!
Mike Baehr bares all with
“1. Some of the conventions that run in the second half of the year will try to return at a reduced size”
Well, I’m not 100% certain how to easily verify or debunk this, but this list of 2021 conventions certainly shows a lot of cancellations and postponements earlier in the year. Those taper off as the year goes on, but it should be noted the San Diego Comic Con did run in November for only three days and a smaller turnout.
It looks like a lot of the later cons just ran as scheduled, in those days where we thought all the vaccines and boosters would have make things go back to relative normal. But I’m wondering how things will look for the early part of this year with COVID infections spiking drastically.
“2. Marvel/Disney will finally start cracking down on unauthorized use of the Punisher skull by cops and other right wing yahoos (this one is wishful thinking)”
I didn’t see any major stories about Disney (or Marvel) doing anything about that, aside from creators speaking out against the logo’s unofficial usage. CBR did run this article in 2020 about Marvel’s apparently limited options in regards to this. (I did find this article about removing the Punisher skull image as it was “view[ed] as a rebuke to the racial justice movement.”
Marvel/Disney’s solution for now is just changing that character’s logo into this terrible thing:
…which won’t get any traction and the old skull logo will continue to be associated with both the character and certain distasteful elements in real-world society, but perhaps I should save that for my own 2022 predictions. Anyway, can you picture Frank sitting down and designing that as his image to strike fear into criminals?
“3. Despite hopes to the contrary, there will continue to be be no posthumous revelations about Steve Ditko”
Sorry, no surprise previously-unpublished photo layouts for Playgirl. Maybe next year.
Jeff R. rites
“1. HBO is going to announce a ton of DC property streaming TV shows, including 3 of these properties: Wonder Woman, Amethyst, Transmetropolitan, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Animal Man.”
Well, it wasn’t any of those (Transmet seems unlikely for Reasons, but remember when Patrick Stewart was interested in the property?), but there was at least that Gotham Police series that ties into that forthcoming Batman movie. And I presume the new Peacemaker series was noted sometime in 2021. Plus, there was that backdoor pilot for the Dead Boy Detectives in Doom Patrol. Plus, I think this supposed Green Lantern series was been floating around prior to that, right? EDIT: Being told in the comments that latest Legion writer Brian Michael Bendis mentioned doing some preliminary work for a Legion of Super-Heroes animated cartoon for HBO, so there you go!
“2. In 2021 the number of major marvel characters who are literally immortal will outnumber those who are not.”
I get what you mean, but technically, all the characters are immortal, so long as they keep selling. Even Uncle Ben pops up from time to time.
“3. Someone, maybe HBO again greenlight’s Elf*Quest as a prestige tv project.”
Someday Elfquest will get that big-budget adaptation! But just not yet, I suppose. In looking this up, I did find this Wiki entry for something that was attempted in 1992:
“In the early 1990s, an ad for a multi-volume animated adaptation of Elfquest appeared in the comic. A few issues later, the Pinis told readers they’d withdrawn from the deal, and that readers should ask for refunds. Those who didn’t eventually received a 50-minute VHS tape from Abby Lou Entertainment, copyright 1992. Covering the first volume of the book, it consists of color still images taken straight from the comic, some minor animation, and spoken dialogue.”
Oh good gravy, that sounds like it must have been very disappointing. I couldn’t find video of it (granted, I didn’t search long) but it sounds almost like those early Marvel cartoons.
Chris Gumprich pays up with
“1. With the recent explosion of 70s reprints, someone will repackage and reprint the complete run of the legendary Atlas/Seaboard line.”
Media rights for Atlas/Seaboard were snapped up a few years back, surprisingly. I suspect once the movies and TV shows start up, if ever, that’s probably when we’ll start seeing those reprints. Or maybe they’ll simply retool the properties while keeping some of the…semi-baked premises of the comics out of the public eye by suppressing any reissuing.
“2. Archie Comics will present a line of new Archie stories set in the 1950s, with the same light-hearted approach as the originals.”
Not that I’ve seen, unless they slipped a short story in one of their million digests past me!
“3. DC will announce a new line of specialty comics aimed at a traditionally-ignored demographic. It will fail to immediately catch on and be cancelled in eight months.”
At this point a “traditionally-ignored demographic” at DC would be “people who don’t want to read Batman comics,” but I get what you mean. Nothing’s really coming to mind…I mean, they’re still doing young adult graphic novels (neither new nor for an ignored audience). Well, they started doing reprints of their Death Metal series packaged with records, so “record-collecting comic book fans” are having their time in the sun right now.
“And a special, bonus, cheating prediction that I already know is coming true:
4. I will complete my collection of Atlas/Seaboard comics when I finally track down a reasonably-priced copy of VICKI #4.”
HOW VERY DARE YOU. Just for that, I’m not going to sell you my copy of Vicki #4 that I’m using as a coaster for my drink here.
Hal Shipman sails forth with
“1. DC will continue to awkwardly fumble around while trying to ‘patch’ their storytelling, both in print and in film. The mishmash of post-Future State will almost immediately slide back to an even more awkward form of status quo.”
I guess Infinite Frontier counts, though it’s more of a follow-up exploring the multiversal/rebootery/retconnathon of Death Metal and such, rather than yet another patch applied to paste over those cracks caused by Crisis on Infinite Earths. It seems like it may be a little awkward as I’m still not entirely sure how “every story counts” and characters remembering all their various histories will be properly implemented as such.
“2. Marvel will basically do that with print. But the MCU will evolve more naturally because actors age. Ironically, THIS will be the first time that a comics-based continuity will generally follow a more real world timeline.”
Marvel just keeps on keeping on, with relatively few multiversal shenanigans going on, though Timeless (released just under the end-of-the-year wire) seems to promise at least a little of that. As far as their movies…well, yeah, sure, they’re not going to have 70-year-old Scarlett Johanssen runnin’ around being Black Widow. …Or maybe they should, that would be kind of awesome.
But as far as being the first comics-based continuity to function in real-world time: BEHOLD.
“3. Rather than just putting ‘Heroes in Crisis’ out of continuity and saying, ‘Yeah, we fucked that up,’ DC will make a third (fourth?) attempts to try to paper over Wally West having murdered a lot of people and “rehabilitiating” him, because it almost worked with Hal Jordan. (Attempts #1 & 2 being that Lobdell mini and the Reverse Flash basically being Parallax).”
Pretty much was 2021’s Flash Annual was about…”redeeming” the character and putting the events of Heroes in Crisis behind him. Frankly, I”m surprised it took this long.
Former employee Nathan dares to darken my doorstep with
“1. In the latest of his escalating series of gimmicks, Robert Kirkman will stealth-cancel Walking Dead Deluxe after issue #12, and the world will learn this when retailers open their shipments of Walking Dead Deluxe #13 to find… Solid Blood #1.”
Oooh, that whole “end of Walking Dead thing was so aggravating. At least he hasn’t pulled anything like that with the delxue edition (though I could use a few fewer variant covers per issue, even as I realize that extra covers is probably what’s bringing the money in).
“2. To everyone’s great surprise, confirmation of Pete Davidson being cast as Adam Neramani in Guardians of The Galaxy 3 causes X-Force Annual #2 to explode in value.”
This just gives me a headache. Anyway, your terrible prediction has not yet come to pass.
“3. There will be at least one lawsuit involving Crossover.”
Nope, everyone seems to be playing nicely! There, I’ve addressed your contribution, Nathan, now getoudda here.
William Burns fires me up with
“1. Marvel and DC both do a ‘superheroes get vaccinated’ campaign.”
I did find this article from late last year in which DC Comics teamed up with the White House to provide DC-related bandages, coloring books, etc. in support of children’s vaccinations. And Marvel published a special Avengers comic to promote gettin’ your shots.
A quick Googling also shows several folks in superhero costumes to help kids along during their jabs, and a number of promotions extolling parents who get their kids vaccinated as generic no-need-to-license superheroes. So yes, superheroics are doing their part to keep kids healthy and safe.
“2. At some point, Kamala Khan meets Kamala Harris.”
Far be it for Marvel to pass up this opportunity, but if they did it, I can’t find it. Also, I’m kinda circling around a joke relating this to the whole Superman/Batman “Martha” thing but I haven’t quite landed the plane yet.
“3. Lots of local comic shops don’t recover from the virus downturn and close permanently.”
Sadly, I have heard of a few shutdowns, which is too bad. I managed to ride out the period where I literally wasn’t allowed to open, mostly because I was the only employee and I busted my butt doing mail order that whole time, but other shops weren’t so lucky. I don’t know if it was “lots,” but anyone losing their livelihood to this pandemic is too many.
Nat Gertler is all about the following
“Marvel will launch a COVID-masked hero which will ship the very month that COVID is declared not-a-problem and everyone will go back to everything.”
Not yet, but it really is just a matter of not “if” but “when.” “In the great tradiion of the Disco Dazzler, here comes….”
“Scholastic will start a non-parody kids superhero GN line.”
I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite along those lines…I presume you mean, like, “straight” superheroes in the style of Marvel and DC, just “scaled down” for schoolchildren. As opposed to all the super-type characters on this list. I suspect it’s just a matter of time.
“The Obama’s media company will start dipping a toe into comics.”
Again, not that I can find, unless they’re the secret money behind all these Trump comics. Those sneaky, sneaky guys.
Brian doesn’t make it easy for me to come up with a joke intro for his name with
“1. As theater openings and scheduling remain more fluid, the core metaplot of the MCU will become more centered in the Disney+ miniseries, with the films being used for big stories with big effects (think of one-shots versus serial storylines), drawing the cinematic universe oddly more towards its parent in style.”
Well, yeah, to an extent, I think. It was Loki and What If that pushed the whole “multiverse” concept that we saw later in the new Spider-Man movie and in next year’s Dr. Strange sequel. Plus Falcon and the Winter Soldier gave us our new Captain America for the time being. So I don’t know if that all counts as “backbone” but it’s certainly teeing up future shots.
“2. With Disney+ and HBO Max getting attention for their superhero and genre properties, we’ll see a new round of ‘studio shops around to create/curate a cinematic universe from another set of comics properties,’ just on a streaming service instead of in theaters.”
The last big example of this I could think of was the Seaboard/Atlas thing I mentioned earlier, picked up by Paramout in 2019. It doesn’t say it’s for streaming, but after Disney’s and Warner’s examples, I’d be surprised if we didn’t at least get simultaneous debuts in theaters and on Paramount+. If there were other major pushes to getting other “comic book universes” I didn’t see ’em. Or I willfully forgot them. Someone wake me when Tubi gets the rights to do T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
“3. As we all get used to the new media status quo, then…Korea!”
Why, I’m not going to fall for your cheap ploy to get me to put up that—
…BRIAN, YOU SON OF A B–
Okay, that’s enough fun for today. Tune in next time, same Spirit-time, same Spirit-channel, for more 2021 prediction talk!
For the record, yes I did complete my Atlas/Seaboard collection (a week after the prediction).
And for some reason I made another Archie-based prediction for 2022. Maybe I need to expand my horizons a bit.
“Marvel/Disney will finally start cracking down on unauthorized use of the Punisher skull by cops and other right wing yahoos (this one is wishful thinking)””
Is this even legally possible? The Punisher’s costume is a black t-shirt with a skull on it. If they didn’t want people ripping it off all the time, they should have given him a real costume.
To be honest with you, I’ve been hearing the POOONG! sound effect for two years now, so I think we’re still IN the “THEN…KOREA!” portion of the show.
Just under the wire in December, Bendis and HBO *did* confirm a Legion of Superheroes show is in development. So another prediction is correct!
With respect to Jeff R’s prediction that HBO would announce certain series, including possibly Legion of Super-Heroes…
I believe Bendis announced that he was in the early stages of developing an animated Legion of Super-Heroes series for HBO…. Which is not a series announcement by HBO, but, y’know… a bit closer of a hit for this prediction.
Sorry, i guess the universe demanded that it be said twice.
In relation to the heroes in crisis wally west situation, really good interview with tom and josh from ifanboy talking about it. He basically has realised he ‘miscast’ the lead and compared it to a film with Robert Redford as a flawed character that the audience would never accept as doing something cowardly or distasteful and it killed the story.
“…first time that a comics-based continuity will generally follow a more real world timeline.”
Judge Dredd has been running in real time since 1977.
Savage Dragon also runs in real time.
Obviously it’s not as old as Gasoline Alley (then again what is?) or Mega-City One’s favorite Judge, but let’s not forget about The New Universe!
Those who cannot remember Kickers Inc. are condemned to repeat it.
Is that an Asian Punisher?
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