Your 2024 Predictions, Epilogue: The Night of Screams.
Before I get started, I wanted to note the passing of Chad Beckner, a quietly sardonic oddball in the best possible way, and who left us too soon. His brother, my old friend Corey, has a few words about him as well as a pic here.
So long, Chad.
So after looking at and responding to your 2024 comic industry predictions in parts one, two, three, four, and five, all titled (in case you were wondering) with names of episodes from the late ’80s Alien Nation TV show, the need for some responses, clarifications, and corrections became apparent. Thus, I’ll try to get to them all here and finally put this prediction business behind us…at least until I get to your 2025 predictions in January 2026! I mean, assuming we make it.
Starting with Part Two (didn’t really had much to say to responses in Part One), Joe Gualtieri responds to the lack of any Jack Kirby biographical film by noting there’s a stage play!
Chris V picks up my slack in my response to his question about whatever Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Jonathan Hickman would be doing in 2025. I forgot to mention Gillen! Chris V usefully notes that Gillen is doing more work outside of Marvel and DC.
From Part Four, in response to my desire for Omnibus reprints of post-Crisis Batman stories, Randall reminds me that the DC Finest thing exists, including reprints of those very stories in this book:
Allan Hoffman informs me that the DC/Marvel Amalgam Omnibus delay was a printer error, and thus neither company got stuck with the bill on replacing them.
Joe Gualtieri (that guy again!) notes that despite my saying there was no new comic book announcement with Alan Moore, the Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic by him, Steve Moore, and Many Artistic Hands, did come out from IDW.
Joe, that does indeed count for something. Not strictly a comic book, but I’ll take it.
Patrick Gaffney lets me know that despite my assertions, the Bendis version of the Legion of the Super-Heroes did appear in an issue of Green Arrow. Whoops, totally forgot about that.
And…that’s about it, I think, for just general corrections. There were a lot of responses in my comments in regards to the Legion of Super-Heroes and potential paths for revival…so much so, that may have to be its own post separate from the whole predictions thing. So I’m not ignoring you, I promise! I’ve written on the topic of Legion and its rise and fall and possible rise again before, back in 2016, and thus it’s probably time for an update. WATCH THIS SPACE, as they say.
Thanks again for reading the site and participating in the predictions, pals! I’ll see you next week with more stuff!
Yeah, while LOEG: The Tempest was the last comic Moore wrote, the last comics he published were in the Bumper Book. And the last pages we’ll ever see from Kevin O’Neill, too.
As far as I can tell, Moore’s first professional comic publication, excluding underground newspapers and music weeklies, was an issue of Marvel UK’s Doctor Who Weekly. Contributors to that issue included David Lloyd and Dave Gibbons, who Moore went on to do other work with which a few comics readers may have heard of, Paul Neary, Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse. Those latter two Steves were both involved in the Bumper Book, the first as co-writer and the second drawing the opening chapter. A nice bookend.
“Alien Nation TV show”
That was a good show!