Your 2023 Predictions, Part Five: Riddles in the Dark.
Hold onto your shorts, we’re flying right into part five of looking back at your comic industry predictions for 2023! (And here are the previous four parts: 1 2 3 4.)
But don’t forget to make your predictions for 2024!
Adam Farrar gets up close and personal with
“1. After years and years of predicting that we’d get Miracleman back, I’m not going to get greedy. So, Miracleman The Dark Age will not be published in 2023. There’s a tiny chance it gets solicited but I don’t think we’ll see an issue in print.”
As I promised Thom H. in the previous comments section, I’ve got more Miracleman talk in me, but it’s gonna have to wait until I finish this prediction stuff first. But you’re right, Miracleman’s “Dark Age” chapter hasn’t made an appearance yet, aside from a blurb in the most recent issue released this month. Presumably “Dark Age” will come later in the year, but I gotta tell ya, they’re missing a bet if they don’t eventually do “The Marvel Age” given, y’know, being at Marvel an’ all.
“2. The Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 will blend Rocket Racoon and Halfworld with the High Evolutionary’s New Men and Counter-Earth. It might also make the second movie’s Sovereign people the High Evolutionary’s creation as well making Adam Warlock his too by extension. But the prediction is that one of these two things will be followed up on in the comics.”
Maybe it’s because it’s late as I write this, or it’s because I’m old, or “why not both,” but it took me a couple of times to parse this. I think this kinda/sorta happened in the film, right? I mean, maybe not so much “Halfworld” but Rocket and all his genetically manipulated animal friends were ol’ High E.’s doing, so there’s that. As far as any of this being followed up on in the comics…I don’t think so, but again, I don’t read everything, so if I missed something let me know.
“3. Al Ewing will be the new writer of the Avengers.”
Well, he wrote Avengers Inc. anyway.
Rodrigo Baeza throws the following
“1. Boba Fett and Snake Eyes join the Savage Avengers.”
Well, no, but wouldn’t it be funny if Marvel really committed to creating a mainline superhero series they could never reprint due to all the licensed characters. Just pile ’em in there. Nova from Planet of the Apes. ROM. The Mirconauts they don’t own. A Gonk droid. JUST THROW ‘EM IN THERE
“2. ‘Frank Miller Presents’ will publish a new Corto Maltese series, written by Dan DiDio.”
Huh. I can actually see that, but no. For those interested, IDW did reissue a bunch of Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese books in recent years.
“3. A comics publisher will announce an AI-drawn comic. The AI, however, will quit in mid-project once it realizes the scripter is Warren Ellis.”
Well, a while back we had Abolition of Man, a comic entirely drawn with “A.I.” (Thanks to Michael Grabowski for reminding me of this title!) I did carry it, back in the days when A.I. was seen as a peculiar novelty before we realized it was the end of us all.
I can’t recall any major publishers announcing the use of A.I., though given comics’ usual lag time in jumping on fads long after they’re done, give it a few months. But I imagine there are folks using A.I. on professionally published books to help automate some of the process rather than using it to generate the art. And a Googling reveals some online sources using A.I. to make full comics, or advertising just how to make a comic with A.I. We’re probably going to see more of it before we see the end of it.
Dave Carter carts in for these
“1) At least two other mid-size comics publishers will follow Afterschock’s lead and file for bankruptcy and/or go out of business altogether.”
I’m sure there are really, really small publishers out there that put all their money into a single release, then dried up after that and disappeared. But I don’t believe anything on the level of Aftershock’s collapse happened. Even trying to Google search “comics publisher banktuptcy 2023” just brings up the 2022 stories about Aftershock. Oh, and at least one archived news item about “Chaos! Comics” filing Chapter 7. It’s a hard bsuiness, print.
“2) The new Asterix graphic album will come out in Fall and be a world-wide bestseller, even though the domestic comics world will pay it little heed.”
Asterix and the White Iris came out in 2023, which did well in France, natch, but I can’t seem to find how it did in the U.S. I feel like the Asterix books are more of a niche market here…I’ve carried them over the years both at my own shop and at my previous place of employment, and they have their fans, but they hardly burned up the shelves. Maybe someone can let me know how it did.
“3) The CW will cancel Superman & Lois after its third season.”
It does have a fourth season coming in 2024, but apparently that’ll be the end of it. Making way for the new Superman film, it’s presumed.
And that’s all I can manage tonight. I’ll finish it up next week. Thanks for reading, pals!
Actually, a Micronauts/Planet of the Apes crossover could be fun, but a Micronauts/Star Wars/Battlestar Galactica (the original series) crossover would be epic. I nominate Walt Simonson to do it as a “What If…?” for Marvel and Dynamite.
Although the whole A.I. art thing is controversial, I still think it could be interesting to see a comic generated using interesting prompts….like an OMAC comic generated using Jack Kirby and Pablo Picasso prompts, or a Plasticman comic generated using Jack Cole and Salvador Dali prompts. Or maybe a Steamboat Willie riff generated using Ub Iwirks and Art Spiegelman prompts, or something Biblical generated using R. Crumb and Albrecht Durer prompts. Lots of possibilities.
Thinking of timely use and recognition of AI in comics, I can’t wait for the Archie issue that comes out in 2037!
“I did carry it, back in the days when A.I. was seen as a peculiar novelty before we realized it was the end of us all”
Did people learn NOTHING from the Terminator movies?? (Beyond “Only make two”).
“It’s a hard business, print.”
Sports Illustrated agrees!
My French is very poor, but it appears that according to this report at https://www.sudouest.fr/culture/nouvel-album-d-asterix-l-iris-blanc-deja-vendu-a-plus-d-un-million-d-exemplaires-en-france-17562454.php The French edition of the new Asterix sold over 1 Million copies in its first month of release, and has a print run of 5 million across 17 different language editions.
“Asterix”
I wonder if there’s an Asterix book titled “Asterix: Utter Gaul”.