Your 2021 Predictions, Part Four: Transplant.
Again, another short blogging window for today, so I’ll get through what I can of your predictions. (I promise to finish these sometime in January!) (Of 2022!) (Maybe!) Installments one, two and three can be found at…well, the pages I just linked to. And awaaaaaay we go!
Matthew crows about the following
“1. Marvel/DC do some series that go from digital serialization straight to collected version. No printed single issues.”
I know DC did…for example, there was this Harley Quinn: Black White and Red digital series that went straight to a print collection this year:
…And I could’ve sworn DC put out a book of all the Mark Russell-scripted Swamp Thing New Roots digital series, but I can only find a print volume that contains a couple of issues. Presumably the rest are on the way (or already out in a book that this aged brain can’t recall).
“2. Another publisher goes the A Wave Blue World route of only printing first issues and then releasing a collection. (Digital single issues still available.)”
I…am going to have to call “I don’t know” on this one. I’m having a devil of a time trying to research it, and may have to throw myself upon the mercy of my readers to set me straight. Problem is, I order so many comics for the shelf, and there are so many number ones, I can’t keep track of which ones just failed immediately and never put out a second issue, or used the print issue as a lead-in to their digital offerings. I checked a couple of publishers who were likely to do this, and no dice.
If anyone out there has info, let me know and I’ll updated this response.
EDIT: Glen to the rescue!
“Scout has an imprint called Nonstop that publishes a first issue and then a full ‘collection.'”
As we saw back in part two, we did have some in-person conventions, mostly later in the year as everyone figured the pandemic wouldn’t be that much of a problem by then. (SPOILER: they figured incorrectly.) One of them was the San Diego Comic Con at Thanksgiving-time, which I assume would fit the criterea of “major convention!”
Jason Sandberg overcomes his placebo addiction to bring us
“1: DC will launch a ‘Bat-Man and the New Gods’ title with Space Cabbie as the chauffeur of a hybrid Batmbobile/Whiz Wagon.”
I presume by hyphenating “Bat-Man,” you mean the red-suited, domino-masked Bat-Man Kane initially conceived prior to people with talent coming along and making something of the character. If that’s the case, I’m all for this comic idea, with Dumb Batman klutzing around and annoying Orion and Big Barda and the bunch. Alas, did not happen.
“2: We will get a Morisson/Mora KLAUS one-shot, with a sub-plot explaining why KLAUS didn’t appear in 2020 when we needed him the most! Seriously, what gives? C’mon, dudes.”
Make that TWO years without a Klaus! It’s been a blue Christmas without them, assuredly.
“3: DC will publish a ‘Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch Omnibus’ that will include the unpublished issue 88. This leads to a younger generation experiencing a Veitchaissance.”
Not yet, but I’m hoping something like that will happen someday! And I’m all for a Veitchaissance…I’ve loved his work for decades, and fully support it being discovered by new readers…y’know, so long as they, um, kinda look the other way if they come across this.
demoncat_4 raises a little hell with
“disney marvel will find out they own the rights to omega the unknown and annouce it as a tv series with steve gerber’s blessing and use his never told original ending”
Well, um, the trick with that would’ve been the “Gerber’s blessing” part, given that he, you know, came down with a touch of the “passed away” a few years back. But I do wonder how far deep into the library Disney will go before they adapt Omega into live-action? (And, I’m sad to say, probably not in a form that Gerber would’ve enjoyed.)
“disney will finaly let kevin smith have another crack at howard the duck as a live action tv show.”
Again, didn’t happen…greenlighting a Howard the Duck anything still feels like career suicide for studio execs who have lifespans of mayflies anyway. That said…I wouldn’t mind seeing Smith’s take on ol’ Howard. Yeah, yeah, I know, groaaaaan, but I generally like Smith’s work and think he might have at least have some understanding of the character (unlike the people responsible for that HtD movie, who didn’t at all).
“the cw will announce they have given the short lived swamp thing tv series a two season full order with recurring character ragman back in the dc live action fold at last”
I feel like the brief window of someone saving the show and reassembling the cast is long gone on this. I still hold out hope for some kind of new Swamp Thing TV show or movie, at least!
LondonKdS mashes up the following bangers
“1. As I predicted last year, DC gives up on traditional serial comics publication in favour of some other format.”
Not yet, though DC seems to be experimenting with other, pricier formats, so there’s that!
“2. Both Marvel and DC do plots in which a long-established big-name character comes out as LGBT. One of them is created by people who know what they’re doing and is praised by all except bigots, the other isn’t and becomes a notorious disaster.”
I don’t think anything’s been a straight-up disaster along these lines, at least from this particular cisgendered fella’s possibly ignorant perspective. But DC had two major stories featuring Tim “Robin” Drake and Jon “Superman” Kent each coming out, and yes, those were mostly well-received with the predictable “b-b-but they should make up NEW characters to be gay instead of changing old ones,” and um hello, Jon Kent.
So those made some headlines for DC, but I can’t recall anything similar for Marvel last year. I mean, I’m sure characters have been revealed to be LGBT (like, I saw Black Cat on a list…did that happen last year, because I missed that somehow, but then I don’t tend to read a lot of Black Cat comics) but nothing news-grabbing like DC. I mean, how do you beat “SUPERMAN’S GAY” as a headline, that’s amazing.
“3. One of the proposed Lumberjanes comics after the end of the main series is a Lumberjanes/Swamp Thing crossover. It ends up unexpectedly controversial, as the team-up involves the Lumberjanes making a major breakthrough in their understanding of the occult stuff going on around them by cooking Swampie’s tubers in the ashes of their campfire and tripping balls.”
why must you tempt me with comics that will never be
Robcat feverly scratches out these
“1- All DC’s new hire star writers for the monthlies, from outside of comics, will be gone, gone, gone by 2021, but one book will finish in 2022, limping along until it is put out of its misery.”
I was trying to think of something along these lines…maybe Joe Hill? The “Hill House” imprint mostly wrapped up in 2020, but it’s popped back up in 2021 with Refrigerator Full of Heads, the sequel to Hill’s Basketful of Heads, but the latter series is not written by him. Is that kind of what you’re thinking about?
“2- Geoff John’s Legion reboot/original Legionnaires will be back somehow, someway, somewhere. (Honestly, this should be a 2022 prediction. I’m pre-predicting.)”
We’re still technically dealing with the Brian Michael Bendis Legion at the moment, which peaced out with Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes in 2021. That version of the Legion just came back this year with a Justice League crossover mini-series. Who knows what will happen after that…the old Legionnaires coming back makes as much sense as anything else they’re doing with this franchise.
“3- I was gonna say DC abandons the monthly single story comic, but that’s been a regular prediction for a while, so I’m gonna go wild with this: DC brings back Batman Family as a $9.99 monthly comic in a test to see if they could eliminate the monthly single story comic. The cover is great, pin-ups look good, and one story has a star writer/artist team. The other stories are kinda… meh. By issue 4 people have lost interest.”
Like I said to LondonKdS, DC seems to be trying out new formats, and Batman: Urban Legends, a higher end monthly anthology actually is pretty close to your idea of a “Batman Family” comic. Sales seem relatively strong, considering, but being a Batman book helps sell the format. Given that DC is slowly turning into “Batman Comics, Inc.,” that’s probably good news for them.
“I wanted to predict Marvel announces a Fantastic Four movie with John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic, Jenna Fischer as The Invisible Woman, Rainn Wilson as The Thing, and B.J. Novak as The Human Torch but didn’t want to burn a prediction on that piece of nonsense. Man, I’d pay good money to see that, though. Creed as Willy Lumpkin would be pure comedy gold!”
Ah, the old “sneaking in a fourth prediction by pretending it’s not a prediction” trick. Very clever indeed, Anyway, no casting news on FF yet, and I’m betting when they come I’ll recognize just as many names as I did with your list, which is “one.”
“Here’s hoping 2021 was a better year for your eyes.”
So far so good!
Okay, here’s hoping I can get through more next time! Thanks for reading, folks, and don’t forget to leave predictions for 2022!
At this point, I’m not sure what would save the Legion. Just bringing back one version or another of them for an ongoing series — or making up a new version of them for an ongoing series — doesn’t seem to be doing the trick.
Maybe a Black Label mini-series by some high-profile creators? Something to drum up interest without a ton of commitment. I hear Jonathan Hickman has worked up a Legion proposal, and you know Tom King would love to get a crack at them. (Welcome back, nine-panel grid!)
But I think it has to be an “event” of some sort to bring in more than just us hard-core Legion fans. We’re obviously not enough anymore.
Thom – at this point it’s just going to take starting from scratch, using them as supporting characters and building interest. Just leaping in with a new series out of nowhere, as you say, no longer works.
Scout has an imprint called Nonstop that publishes a first issue and then a full “collection”.
I feel that prediction about an Omega the Unknown TV series has been sitting around for years and you just stumbled on it.
Maybe someone discovered time travel in 2007 and decided to visit the year 2021 in order to make a prediction for this site.
If so, were they in for a few huge surprises.
“Donald Trump became president? There’s a neverending pandemic? What in the world happened between then and now? Did America finally ‘win’ that war in Afghanistan? Surely it ended by 2008, right? What? How do I get back to 2007?”
Easy to see how they missed that one of the greatest comic creators died in 2008.
Yeah, I’m afraid you’re right, Mike. I’m not sure Superman has room for more supporting characters at the moment, but maybe someday.
In the meantime, if Tom King wanted to tell a story with them, a la the JLI in Human Target, I would 100% be down with that.
Oh man, Mike, I was happier about Veitch before I knew that book existed. Having read up on it now it makes me reconsider him entirely — like was he only ever an attention-seeking troll? Was that the motivation behind his Swamp Thing? Cripes.
Oh, man, that Rick Veitch 9/11 conspiracy book. Ugh.
But, in an effort & hope that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, I googled up a review of it. And while I soon discovered I didn’t actually care enough to read the whole review, its final lines are BRUTAL. Not to Veitch, but… well, you’ll see:
“Just as few things can be more tragic than looking back ten years and realizing the short-sighted, national nightmare your country’s been put through.
Here’s hoping we’re doing better, as a nation and a world, when the sequel comes out, on September 11, 2021.”
Two out of three! And I’m fairly happy to have not been correct on the last one : D
The Big Lie has the germ of an interesting sci-fi story in there (person comes back from the future to warn of 9/11, and of course nobody believes here) but it’s too much in service of long-debunked conspiracies. I just try to look at it as “it was a needed paycheck” and turn a blind eye to it.