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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!
This post will wrap up our look at your 2024 comic book predictions (and here are parts one, two, three, and four)…thanks as always for participating, and we’ll have one more post wrapping all this up with corrections an’ such.
• • •
Jeff R. trails in
with
“1. Franklin Richards will be a mutant again by the end of the year.”
Okay, I didn’t really follow any of the X-stuff so I don’t know that I heard that Franklin lost his mutant status for complicated reasons I just read up on and will not try to repeat here. Far as I can tell, the non-mutant status holds, unless I missed something!
“2. There will be a new Legion of Superheroes book, written by one of the Toms (Taylor or King)”
No new Legion book yet…I don’t know if all these predictions for the return of Legion of Super-Heroes is out of actual demand for a new book, or a semi-cynical assumption that DC’s gonna keep trying to push that franchise regardless of demand.
“3. None of the DC or Marvel movies released in 2024 will perform as well as the lesser (lets say second worst for each) ones from 2023.”
We had Deadpool/Wolverine made all the money, so there was at least one unqualified success!
Okay, leaving that one outlier aside, let’s take a look at the other flicks.
The second worst performing Marvel movie for 2023 (well, the middle-performing movie, there were only three for the year) was Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This film had just over a $476 million worldwide box office.
The best performing Marvel movie of 2024, behind that Deadpool thing, was Venom: The Last Dance at $479 million. (For comparison, Kraven and Madame Web, also released in 2024, made about $160 million combined.)
Now for DC, the second worst performing film for 2023 was Shazam: Fury of the Gods at $134 million worldwide…just barely above its production budget, in fact.
The only theatrical release for DC in 2024 was Joker: Folie à Deux, which may have been a carwreck but make $207.5 million. More than that Shazam! sequel!
The real trick is seeing how the Marvel and DC movies do in 2025.
• • •
Dave Carter cracks open the following
nuts
“1) Deadpool 3 will be the highest grossing R-rated film of the year.”
Indeed it was! (The top grossing movie overall was Inside Out 2.)
“2) By the end of the year, $4.99 will be the standard cover price of comics from Marvel & DC”
Not just yet, but feel like it’s only a matter of time (particularly if tariff-induced price increases affect the business).
“3) A writer normally associated with Marvel will be announced as the writer of either Batman or Detective Comics.”
We got Tom Taylor on Detective and Jeph Loeb coming to >Batman, and they’ve worked for both companies, so…well, it’s not “JONATHAN HICKMAN TAKING OVER BATMAN” yet but give it some time.
• • •
Michael Grabowski latches on
to
“1. A writer at Marvel or DC will get caught using AI-generated scripts from the writer’s own plots to write a serial comic with established characters, without having let the editors or readers know about it first. Whatever the publisher does to the writer and series as a consequence, fans will be outraged that it wasn’t the opposite kind of consequence.”
“2. A writer at Image will subsequently use AI-generated scripts on purpose and promote that fact about his or her new series. Reader reaction will be ‘Meh.'”
I’m just gonna answer ’em both at once with “not that I’ve heard.” There was a cover artist who was accused of seemingly using A.I. to create the images last year, and Jim Starlin announced he was going to use A.I. art tools to help him produce future comics.
Feels like art is where these A.I. shenanigans will be more easily noticed. A writer using A.I. to “assist” in the production of his material would be harder to spot, especially if said writer is careful about how he uses the output. Could be writers using it now, for all I know.
Now, those of us aware of the pitfalls of A.I. know that its usage is a net negative. However, the general public likely doesn’t, and reaction to A.I. produced content may be largely, as you say, “meh.” Some people will care a lot, but I’m afraid most will pay no attention at all.
• • •
And Aaron takes up home with the last of this batch of predictions
“DC finally pre-solicits (rumors or Amazon pre-orders) that final TPB to polish off the “end of LSH vol 2,” aka the original stories making up the first year of Tales of the LSH.”
Hoo boy, this took some doin’. Here’s where we stand on Legion reprints. We had 13 volumes of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives, reprinting all the Legion stories from the very beginning in Adventure #247 (1958) to Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233 (1977).
This was followed by a two volume series entitled Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, which reprinted Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #234 through #258, plus a handful of other Legion-related comics.
And then there was the two volume set of Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness, which covers Legion of Super-Heroes #259 (having dropped the “Superboy and” part) to #283. And, again, some other Legion-related material was included.
Next up is the “Deluxe” Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga hardcover, containing issues #284 through #296, plus Annual #1.
And now, finally, we get to Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse hardcover coming this year, reprinting issues #297 through #313, and annuals 2 and 3.
Which is a very long way of saying “they don’t have book with the end of this Legion run announced yet,” presenting the last year of continuity published under the title Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes (#314 – #325). But I’m pretty sure we’ll get it eventually.
“I get overly excited about getting a second physical copy of those issues I already own.”
Same here…I have all of the above books (excluding the not-yet-released ones, natch) and they’ve lapped the comics I already have in individual magazine publication form. Ah well, it’s nice to have ’em on good paper in more or less permanent formats.
“DC cancels it in favor of a new series of collections starting at Adventure Comics #247 again.”
Geez, I hope not…but there is a DC Finest trade of Legion material, reprinting comics from 1968 through 1975. Not quite supplanting the above books just yet. However, there are a couple of the oversized Omnibuses, and those reprint through the 1960s. Suppose one or two more could catch everyone up.
• • •
And that, as they say, is that! Like I noted before, we’ll be looking back and correcting errors and all that fun stuff on Friday. Thanks again for participating, and don’t forget, for the last time I’m reminding you, to
drop in your predictions for nex–er,
this year!
Still got a few more of your 2024 comic industry predictions to go (and here are parts one, two and three), so let’s get crackin’!
• • •
Bunny Clover luckily hops in
with
“1. marvel will have a big summer event
Indeed they did! Blood Hunt is what we got for 2024, along with the introduction of the polybagged “Red Band” editions with ex-tree blood ‘n’ guts pages not found in your standard bowdlerized Marvels. Happy Summer, Everyone!
“2. boom studios will have a lumberjanes kickstarter”
And yes, they sure did! Raised nearly $350,000, blowing way past their $25,000 goal. Geez louise, I should do a Kickstarter…I bet there’s an audience for a collected edition of my Frank Miller’s The Spirit fanfiction.
“3. dc will put out an omni of artemis of bana mighdall comics”
No, doesn’t look like it. I think the character is still popping up here and there, but I feel like during merchandise pushes for the Wonder Woman movies would have been prime time for one of these!
• • •
Scott Rowland comes ashore
with
“1. Dark Horse will restructure and try another line of super-hero books.”
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I think Hellboy is about as regular a superhero “universe” as they’ve got…oh, wait, there’s Black Hammer, too. But not anything really quite as overt as the 1990s’ “Comics’ Greatest World” line.
Speaking of which, I’m surprised there haven’t been more attempts to revive and re-utilize a lot of those old CGW properties. I mean, wither Motorhead?
“2. Based on the success of facsimiles of the Secret Wars and Spider-Man black costume series, Marvel will announce an on-going series of X-Men facsimiles, starting with a re-issue of Giant Size X-Men 1, then continuing with issue 94 on.”
Oddly, it looks like they’re doing small series of Uncanny reprints, but they started with issue #130. Go figure.
“3. DC will announce Steve Englehart will do another Batman series, with variant covers taken from old Marshall Roger artwork.”
Nuthin’ doin’, but too bad, I’d have liked to have seen that.
• • •
Joe Gualtieri tears in
with
“1. DC will, after yet another money-wasting snafu by the understaffed collections department, finally hire some more people for it again.”
Apparently the initial attempt at printing the Amalgam omnibus had to be destroyed due to errors, and I suspect that wasn’t a cheap mistake. Don’t know if that brought about more hires, but I’m going to presume the opposite.
“2. Post-Crisis Batman omnibus announced.”
Do you mean, like, a reprinting of stuff from the mid-to-late 1980s? Man, I’d read that. Alas, not yet. But when it does happen, this better be one of the covers:
“3. Diamond goes under.”
Ooh boy, try again next year.
• • •
Rob S. burgles the
following
“1) I always post a Legion prediction, so here’s one that feels like a shoe-in: Geoff Johns will reintroduce members and designs of the pre-Bendis/Sook Legion, making it a crapshoot as to which version of the Legion is the current one again. To complicate matters, the Bendis/Sook version will make a guest appearance elsewhere in the DCU.”
We had one or two appearances of the Legion last year (one of which is described here) and of course we got the Evil Legion in the DC All In special. They do appear to not be the Bendis/Sook versions, which I guess are just thrown on the big pile of Legion reboots over in the corner there.
“2) After largely publishing limited series for years, smaller publishers begin experimenting with ongoing series. (AHOY just announced its PROJECT: CRYPTID title is now an ongoing; I’m hoping other publishers follow their lead.”
I haven’t seen a huge move in this direction…I feel like for smaller publishers the marketplace is too fragile to assume any series they do will have persistent sales beyond a few issues. Especially right now, with Diamond teetering on the precipice and threatening to take a bunch of those publishers with it. I also suspect several series pop up with the intention of being ongoing monthlies, but initial sales demand otherwise. This is something I’ll have to pay attention to this year.
“3) We start seeing some books from Marvel in DC’s larger Black Label format.”
I mean, there’s a whole-ass publisher doing books exclusively in this format, and other companies occasionally try their hands at it too. Surprisingly, Marvel’s shied away from the format. I bet if they did, like, a short-run Garth Ennis Punisher mini like that, it’d sell like gangbusters. But then Marvel would put out a million more comics in that format right after seeing the first one make money, and, well, maybe we’d better leave enough alone.
“Happy new year!”
We’ll see!
• • •
demoncat_4 scratches
these out (and I did just a tiny bit of editing for clarification, I hope that’s okay, demoncat)
“1 after managing to make the dc film verse start catching up with marvel kevin feige and james gunn will annouce a jla avengers crossover in the works to not waste time.”
The new DC Multimedia Extravaganza hasn’t really started yet, beyond the Creature Commandos cartoon, so Feige is probably not sweating the competition yet. (He’s got enough to sweat about, I’m imagining.) But things would have to get pretty dire before the two studios find themselves in a position to start “teaming up,” as it were. (Same with the Star Wars/Star Trek crossovers folks keep hoping for.)
Now, I’ve heard JLA/Avengers film rumors before, but…man, sure, I’d love to see it, but that’s not happening in what’s left of my lifetime.
2 dc will announce at last they will finally after other failed attempts rerelease the legendary swamp thing 88 where swamp thing meets jesus and let rick veitch get to write a new swamp thing book again.
You know, I just talked about this recently, and, whaddaya know, it was in response to a question from demoncat! Short version of what I said then…either we get it in sequence in a reprinting of Rick Veitch’s run on Swamp Thing (which DC just started doing last year), or they just go wild and do a “facsimile” edition with that Swampy cross cover and everything, Veitch supplying the script over the late Michael Zulli’s art.
No announcement on any of this, regardless, but I’m hoping to see this someday.
“3 del toro will annouce he will not only work with james gunn on the swamp thing film. but also if swamp thing does get a tv series the episode where swamp thing meets constantine.”
Nothing along these lines, demoncat, but I like the cut of your jib!
• • •
Brian F finds
“1) Marc Spector (Moon Knight) will be brought back to life.”
I even forgot he was dead. But hey, it’s comics, nobody stays dead except Uncle Ben (but I think even he came back at least once).
“2) No new Machine Man series”
I can’t believe Marvel refuses to acknowledge the demands of the people on this. But I have no idea what’s going on with DC’s supposed claim to ownership of the character, and if that’s holding anything up.
“3) Deadman will come back to existence following his Night Terrors ‘death'”
Well, Deadman turned up in an issue of Brave and the Bold but I’m unsure of the continuity status of that story. “Unsure of the Continuity Status” is like DC’s motto.
• • •
William Burns fires me up
with
“1. Lots of ‘Donald Trump as superhero’ memes, about 50/50 serious and parodic.”
Well, you made me Google “Donald Trump as superhero” and I may never forgive you. I did find this story about an image Our Esteemed Leader put out there, and it’s the first time I’ve seen it, so if it went viral, it did so in the places where I’m not normally looking.
“2. The fading of the superhero movie moment with have negative effects on the sales of comic books.”
I mean, my sales are up, so it’s not really done anything to me. I think there’s enough superhero media out there that even the flops are getting seen plenty on streaming platforms and all the characters are still fresh in everyone’s minds. It’s the coming “ugh, superheroes aren’t cool anymore, that’s what Grandpa likes” pushback that’s gonna do the harm. You know, like what that did to Star Wars.
“3. Another Alan Moore comic book will be announced, from a company that has never published his work before.”
I’m gonna guess Moore would chew off his own beard before writing another comic book, but “never say never again,” as a Bond movie once told us.
• • •
Okay, I think I can finish wrapping up the predictions with Wednesday’s entry, and any final business I can do on Friday. Phew, I was afraid I was going to bleed over into February with this. Anyway, thanks for putting up with the delays in this series, and assuming an angry, elderly mob of Star Wars fans doesn’t chase me down, I should see you again in a couple of days!
And so it goes on, our look back at your predictions for The Comic Industry in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty and Four, with parts one and two at those links right there.
And yes, get in those predictions for 2025 before too much more 2025 goes by!
• • •
googum, as is his wont,
googums
“1. Marvel’s going to try to pivot from Kang, to Ravonna. As long as they don’t try to use the name ‘Terminatrix’ it’ll probably be fine.”
Kang is definitely out in the Marvel movies, given the troubles with the actor, and the simple fact Kang wasn’t getting the Big Villain traction Thanos did. Essentially replaced by Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, and that Avengers movie that would have been called “The Kang Dynasty” is now “Doomsday.” So there.
“2. They’ll also give up on the Guardians of the Galaxy; as a comic, at least the current batch. Maybe they’ll send Rocket to the 31st century for a bit and bring back the originals.”
Huh, could’ve sworn we had more of the Guardians over the last year, but it looks like the last Guardians comic was the annual in February. I’m sure I’m not remembering appearances of the Guardians (solo or together) in other comics, but it doesn’t look like there’s a new series for them in the near future, barring news I’ve not spotted. Oh, and as you read this a Doctor Doom and Rocket Raccoon one-shot should be on the stands at your better comic shops, or even mine.
“3. Some shoddy A.I. thing will be heralded as the savior of comics; maybe A.I. colors or letters or something. It’ll not only suck, it won’t even really be A.I, just super-outsourced.”
I’ve not seen anything from any legitimate publishers using A.I., far as I know. There was bit of a dust-up middle of last year regarding an artist possibly using A.I. for cover art. I feel like (or at least hope) anyone using A.I. to generate work would probably be shunned, shunned I say, so that’s a good incentive for someone in comics’ small pool to avoid it.
• • •
Bret comes this way
with
“1. With the moderate success of the Blue Beetle movie, DC will revamp the Booster Gold character to make him more movie-friendly for a Blue and Gold team-up movie.”
Unfortunately, the Blue Beetle film actually didn’t do well at all, making just barely over its production budget, which doesn’t even count its promotional budget and so on. But it seems like a Booster Gold TV show may be in the works for streaming on Max. It looks like whatever they’ve done so far has been returned for regrooving, so it may be a while yet before we get any idea what it’ll be like.
“2. The success of Mark Waid’s pocket silver age universe of titles will lead Marvel to start their own pocket universe of titles (with more of an 80’s vibe) lead by the likes of Roger Stern and…buh buh buh…John Byrne!”
Not…as such. Marvel would occasionally do one-offs with ’80s and ’90s creators, and that Silver Surfer Rebirth was basically that. But not a whole lot of that in 2024, aside from facsimile reprints. Am I forgetting something? Maybe X-Men ’97, though that’s more a nostalgic call back to the cartoon than the comics.
“3. SECRET WARS III (12-part mini-series) by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. Nuff said.”
Would I read the hell out of this? Abso-freakin’-lutely. C’mon, Marvel, let’s get this going.
• • •
Snark Shark sorta
predicted
“1) more Marvel movies will bomb.”
As noted previously, Madame Web and Kraven both died dogs’ deaths, as, like, everyone figured. Marvel Studios its own self only put out the one flick, and Deadpool/Wolverine made all the money.
“2) more DC movies will bomb.”
Also previously noted, Joker: Folie à Deux, DC’s only theatrical release for 2024 I believe, um, underperformed, shall we say.
“3) uh… i dunno.”
Me neither, Snark Shark. Me neither.
• • •
Thom H. hops on it
with
“1. Nice House on the Lake vol. 2 is published or at least announced.”
Nice House by the Sea did indeed start coming out in 2024!
“2. Miracleman: Dark Age is put on hold indefinitely because Silver Age performed so poorly.”
Um…it’s probably on hold for now, but not for reasons of underperformance, shall we say.
“3. Tom King finally gets to write a Legion of Super-Heroes story.”
Not yet! Hey, might as well give the boy a shot…can’t hurt.
• • •
DK returns
with
“It’s that time of year again….”
It just keeps comin’, DK.
“1) Kevin Feige gets fired or demoted.”
Nope, we still have Kevin Feige to kick around.
“2) There will be a big announcement of a major Justice Society project for the 85th Anniversary in 2025.”
Outside of a new ongoing series, I haven’t seen anything specifically for an anniversary celebration. I wouldn’t mind if they did a facsimile edition of this DC Special:
…but maybe throwing Hitler and a swastika on a cover right now may not be particularly wise. So maybe a facsimile of this digest (at normal comic book size, please) which reprints the story above, and more besides:
Anyhoo, I’d like to have all the digests reprinted in comic book size. DC Comics, you have your orders.
“3) Spider-Man sales drop noticeably.”
Sales actually went up a bit for me over the past year. Looking at Comichron sales appear to be relatively consistent overall, so it’s hanging in there!
• • •
Existentialman appears
with
“1) Despite their high-falutin’ Hollywood lifestyles, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick will return to either Marvel or DC to write one limited series each.”
I…don’t think so? I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Let me know in the comments and I’ll update this entry. (By the way, doing a Google search on a woman comics creator always turns up some awful results.)
“2) A Disney+ Viv Vision television series will be announced in 2024 to premiere in 2025.”
Not yet, but give ’em time.
“3) Even with his past vision challenges, Mike will draw a much better capybara in 2024.”
this is like the third time you’ve asked me about my capybara drawing, and friend, I may never top this one from when I was five:
But the one I did for this post comes close.
• • •
Okay, Enuff Z’Nuff for today, so let’s continue our foray into the future via a year past on Friday, which is also in the future. …I’ve lost track of where I’m at. Anyway, thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you then.
Back at it this week, checking to see just how you all did in regards to guessing how the past year in comics was going to go! Part one is here, and don’t forget to get in your predictions for 2025 while there’s still time!
So, awaaaaay we go:
Chris V visits us with
“1.)The X-Men revamp under Brevoort will be considered a major disappointment by most as Brevoort will choose very safe creative teams, no ‘critical darlings.’
Leading me to stop reading the X-Men comics for the first time since 1993, when I was in high school. I will not complain.”
I think, by and large, the Main Three X-titles (X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Exceptional X-Men are fairly well regarded by fans, particularly Uncanny as written by Gail Simone. In my opinion, launching three ongoing X-Men titles (not to mention, like, X-Factor and X-Force) all at once doesn’t really help or encourage readership (Exceptional is already slipping in sales for me, and X-Factor and X-Force are selling minimal numbers.)
It’s hard to say what would make a “safe” choice for an X-book…I mean, the aforementioned Simone is a fairly beloved writer, so in that way it’s “safe,” but I don’t think anyone expected her to be on an ongoing X-Men series, so that’s kind if a surprise, maybe. Unless you meant “people who normal write superhero comics” as being the safe choice, and, I don’t know, “Alan Moore returns to comics to write Uncanny” would be the “critical darling” choice. Not making fun or anything, just trying to define terms so we can determine how right you are with your prediction.
I think I’m going to say you were right i that these were safe choices, in that these were all people regularly writing comics and have proven track records. Not Huge Giants of Comics, like, say…ooh, there are a couple names I want to say here, but given the trouble they’ve been in of late, I don’t want to. You know who I’m talking about, people on that level. Or had been on that level, anyway.
As to whether you stopped reading X-books, Chris, I don’t know. I’m going to say…maybe you did? You’ll have to tell us!
“2.)All comics will be rising in price. Is this really a prediction in December 2023 though? Regular, monthly comics will be $4.99 (American), while ‘special issues’ will be $50 (OK, I might be exaggerating slightly on that last price).”
Some books are still holding the line at $3.99, but boy folks are getting really comfortable with slapping $4.99 and $5.99 and $6.99 price tags on things. And of course there’s the occasional $9.99 Special Issue! Oof. Anyway, I made my predictions for 2025 and didn’t realize I essentially duplicated this one. Urgh. It’s gonna happen eventually.
“3.)Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, and Jonathan Hickman will all leave Marvel during 2024. Hickman ends up at DC. Gillen and Ewing will not.
This will cause me to lose interest in Marvel even more, and will still not increase my interest in DC. I will not complain.”
I think Hickman is still solidly at Marvel, and so is Al Ewing, though Ewing did have his Metamorpho series come out at the end of the year for DC, and it was announced he’s writing Absolute Green Lantern this coming year. Gillen I believe is still primarily Marvel and Image (and other indies).
• • •
William Gatevackes swings open
with
“1. One comic company will get into the Taylor Swift business, most likely Marvel. It could be anything from creating a series featuring tales from her life to perhaps redesigning one of their characters to look like her, most likely Dazzler.”
I don’t know if any comic companies can afford Taylor Swift. And while I’m sure redesigning Dazzler to look like Taylor is tempting, I don’t think even Disney would want to tangle with her legal team.
There was a Little Golden Book about her, though!
“2. To the disdain of many of the unsavory elements of the comic fandom, a ‘woke’ comic will become a multimedia sensation, bring new readers into comics and get mainstream attention.”
Would the Absolute books count? The Superman one, especially. I think the greatest trick of them all is that said “unsavory types” probably read the book and don’t even realize it’s “woke” [complimentary]. “Wow, this comic where a family bucks the traditional class system, leading their son to fight for the little guy against the powers that be, is great! It’s so much better than one of those ‘woke’ comics!”
“3. Hollywood will wise up and finally make a biopic out of Jack Kirby’s life. It might not be released in 2024, but it will at least go into pre-production.”
Look, this has to be done while we still have Ray Wise in the acting business. Wise played Kirby for a TV show a while back, and HE IS THE MAN. I don’t think any biopic has been announced, but Hollywood is foolish if such a thing does not happen.
• • •
Sciencegiant is trying to kill me
with
“They’re evergreen AND they’re softballs. Which means really they’re just a chance for you to riff on whatever you want to bring up.”
Well, these are more “Question Time“-esque post prompts than predictions, I think, Obviously all these things happen (and will also happen in 2025, natch), but I can probably come up with an example for each.
“1) WOW! That highly anticipated adaptation of fantasy/science fiction IP certainly underperformed at the box office/streaming service. I predict this is the death knell of of that genre/franchise.”
I mean, the easy answers are Madame Web and Kraven, but I’m pretty sure literally everyone except whoever’s running Sony knew those were DOA. I think the big shock is that Joker sequel…the first film made a billion bucks and won all kinds of awards. I mean, I’m sure no one thought the second film would do as well, but they probably thought it would do, y’know, at least reasonably okay given the performance of the previous installment. Certainly not that it would crash and burn in such an epic manner.
Anyway, that probably doesn’t kill the idea of Batman related films, but it definitely put the kibosh on musicual superhero movies, I think.
“2) SOB! The industry lost a great one whose like we will not soon see again. Any stories you care to share, Mike?”
I don’t want to single out any particular creator as being The Big One, because that’s not really fair to everyone. A lot of talents passed this past year, some after a very long life, some way too traggically young.
However, I do have a special fondness for Don Perlin, who passed in 2024 at the age of 94. I have an issue of Defenders a friend gave me, one guest-starring Man-Thing, that was signed by him.
“3) Fandom seems pleased/outraged about this latest reimagining. Your thoughts?”
Everything turning up Absolute Comics! And Ultimate Comics from Marvel, too, I guess!
“4) Good grief! Lucy pulled the football away on Charlie Brown AGAIN?!”
Hey, that’s four predictions! You have broken ape law! Anyway, Lucy and Charlie Brown are long dead, no one’s pulling footballs from anybody now.
• • •
Andrew Davison teaches us all with
this
“Mike will try out my sartorial suggestions, a la Zatara, appearing in a short video blog to perform a variety of magic tricks.
“This video will become an Internet sensation, leading to a new career as a stage magician, headlining in Vegas by the end of the year.
“This will in turn trigger a multi-million dollar lawsuit from DC, and a movie offer from James Gunn.”
I…wait, what? Anyway, I don’t look good in a tophat. Besides, you all were lucky to get one video of my dumb face in a rumpled shirt here, I ain’t doin’ no magical tricks.
• • •
Dan Jack
sez
“1. The mainstream publishers will continue to promote Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in their hiring and staffing”
Not sure that I’ve heard anything specific about this, but if they do, I hope then continue to do so. Especially now.
“2. More and more readers will abandon the above publishers.”
I presume you’re trying to draw a connection between Prediction #1 and this one. Sales do seem to be up, particularly with the advent of (here they are again) the Absolute and Ultimate lines. I know at my store comic sales are up across the board. I think things are okay with the Big Two right now…I’m more worried about the little guys and how the Diamond bankruptcy situation may affect them. Oh, and how tariffs may increase prices across the board. That’s more of a problem than supposed “diversity hires.”
“3. More crowdfunding/etc ventures will be successful, and remain un/under reported on by comics industry as a whole!”
In fairness I probably don’t mention these enough here, but I do occasionally go in for retailer bundles on some Kickstarters. I can’t do ’em all, but I try to pick the occasional one that sounds interesting. And it seems like I see them mentioned all the time, but maybe that’s mostly on social media. That’s where more people will see them anyway, I think, more than on my silly, ancient blog.
• • •
Cassandra Miller almost lives up to her name
with
“1. Although there are continued allusions/cameos, the Legion of Superheroes gets neither a new book, nor an actual explanation of exactly which Legion is the ‘current’ one. Lots of contradictory cameos, is what I’m saying.”
Yeah, they’ve popped up once or twice, even an evil Anti-Legion in the DC All-In special. But not a whole lot really giving us what the Legion’s deal currently is, post Bendis-reboot. I really, really, really keep hoping we just get a World’s Finest-style Legion series by Mark Waid, since anything in the current DC Universe seems doomed to failure.
“2. Diamond files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and (hopefully) emerges a little stronger.”
Well, you were off by a couple of weeks, but Diamond did in fact do just that. Whether they come out of it stronger is something I expect we’ll find out in a few months.
“3. (This one is more a hope than a prediction.) DC realizes they should just put out a ‘Superman Family’ book, and refocuses the main Superman book as, well, mainly a Superman book.”
The Superman books seem to have cut back a little on the “here’s 15 different Super-characters” business, though they did play a part in that weekly Waid storyline, and we had a Supergirl back-up during that run. But what I wouldn’t give for a 1970s/1980s style Superman Family book. Gimme my solo Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen adventures! And we could have “Mr. and Mrs. Superman” without it being the Earth-2 characters! Make Jon Kent the lead feature, with various back ups, and we’d be set!
• • •
Okay, that’s it for now…your pal Mike has a medical thing in the morning, so he needs his beauty sleep. Yes, yes, I know, I’m already too beautiful, but sleeptime awaits. Thanks for reading, and we’ll get to more of your predictions next time!
Okay, there’s been a couple of delays, but here we are, you’ve waited an for this very day, I’m certain, where we begin our look back at your comic industry predictions for 2024! Let’s see how we all did (and don’t forget to get in your predictions for 2025, which is already in progress).
And…this particular comments section had more than its fair share of excess discussion and jokey predictions and whatnot, that I’ll be skipping over this year. Sorry, just don’t have it in me this time. In the future 1) try to have some kind of specific prediction I can work with, and 2) try to keep it to just predictions in the comments sections to those posts, please.
First off is Customer Sean, with
“1. Both DC and Marvel will ramp up the number of facsimile editions being reprinted in 2024–bringing more classic Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age key stories to the readers at prices that won’t break the bank.”
Doing a search on Diamond for “facsimile” for 2023 versus 2024, there definitely were more results for the latter year than the former. (Diamond still has solicits for DC in its system, if you’re wondering.) Heavier on Silver and later, but some Golden Age did pop up as well. An interesting trend is doing facsimile editions of full series, as Marvel did with Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, Boom! did with a reprint of Marvel’s Labyrinth adaptation, and DC did with Crisis on Infinite Earths) and just started with the original Batman “Hush” storyline. Can’t tell you how many times a #1 facsimile came out and I was asked for a #2 reprint as well.
“2. Mark Millar will succeed in revamping the comics industry.”
No revamping that I’ve noticed!
“3. James Gunn will announce a Challengers of the Unknown film featuring Cillian Murphy as Prof., Ryan Gosling as Ace, Tom Hardy as Rocky, and Harry Styles as Red.”
No, but I wonder if the Challs just aren’t flashy enough for a big budget comic book movie. I mean, I like ’em…every time they bring the team back in comics, I read it…but maybe moviemakers just want something…bigger? Obviously a good movie can be made out this, and I’m sure folks got movie pitches, but the Supermans and the Batmans get first dibs.
• • •
Chris Gumprich cashes in
with
“1. Tom King will write a Black Label series that takes an obscure character, messes up their life, and ultimately kills the character.
2. Not specific enough? Okay fine, the character will be… Shade the Changing Man.”
King’s up to some shenanigans in Wonder Woman, but that’s not Black Label. Nothing quite on the scale as his Mister Miracle or his Adam Strange mini, at least. King is writing a mini with Black Canary, Best of the Best, but I don’t think it’s doing the same thing those other series did. And it feels like we’re due for a new Shade the Changing Man thing…the last was “Shade the Changing Girl/Woman” from the Young Animal imprint a few years back.
3. Archie will continue to milk the RIVERDALE dollars by doing a crossover comic with ‘Beverly Hills 90210.'”
(Hey look, I did a different Archie prediction this year!)”
Not really anything along the lines of its edgier TV cousin (unless you count the reprint of Betty and Me #16).
• • •
Pal Nat predicts
“1. DC will figure out how to push subscriptions for Christmas, and most but not all retailers will recognize this as seeding the comics market rather than stealing customers.”
Not that I saw. Do Marvel and DC even have subscription departments any more? I suppose they must. It would be a nightmare what with all the relaunches with new #1s.
“2. One of the big YA graphic novelists will drop an adult GN, the comics version of when Judy Blume released Wifey.”
I actually conferred with Nat on this one, and neither of us can think of any YA comickers making this specific transition. But, honestly, it’s just a matter of time, I’m sure.
“3. Comics will be said to be dying, still, as almost always.”
Ummmmmm, yeah…that’s always a thing, but it certainly got a boost of late.
• • •
Mike Loughlin drops
this in
“The new era of X-Men comics, shepherded by Tom Breevort, will sell well at first but quickly lose fan enthusiasm due to its retrograde nature. Peach Momoko’s Ultimate X-Men will be a hit, for as long as she’s on the title.”
I would say that’s two predictions in there, but let’s cover the first one first.
Now, just based on my sales, Uncanny and Adjectiveless have dipped a tiny bit but remained strong, the other X-titles, including Exceptional, have stabilized at lower numbers. Which makes sense, since X-Men and Uncanny X-Men are the established names. We’re still within the first year of the relaunches, so let’s see where everything’s at by the time Year Two rolls around.
As far the Ultimate X-Men goes, yes, it’s still selling well, if not as much as the leader of the pack, Ultimate Spider-Man. I suppose that makes it a hit, as the people who like it really like it, but I’ve come across some folks who turn their noses up at it for not being a more traditional superhero comic (as much as the Ultimate books can be). Ah well, that’s how it goes.
• • •
Thanks for your patience as it took me a little extra bit to get started on this series of posts! Next Monday I’ll dive back in and continue the ride…well, probably!
Whoops, almost forgot in the midst of all this Wolverine talk that it’s time to take your comic industry predictions for 2025!
Just leave ’em in the comments to this very post, but please adhere to these simple yet necessary rules:
1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own.
2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions.
3. Don’t predict any real person’s death.
4. Limit of three predictions per person! VERY VERY IMPORTANT! You can only do one or two if you’d like, but NO MORE THAN THREE PLEASE!
Starting sometime in January, I’ll start going over the predictions y’all made for 2024 last year and see how you did. No prizes awarded, just a fun way to see how the industry has played out vis-à-vis our expectations.
As always, thanks in advance for participating!
So in retrospect, for the “titles” I had for my 2023 prediction review posts, I should have gone with the chapter titles from Bored of the Rings instead of using them from The Hobbit. Ah well, maybe next time.
Speaking of which, here are all seven parts looking back at your guesses for the year – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 – and some of you had comments and questions, which I’m going to try to address today.
First, I was trying to think of a particular comic that featured A.I. artwork, and Michael Grabowski reminded me it was Abolition of Man, which did get mentioned in a later post. I did have this at the shop, but couldn’t tell you a thing about it. I’m sure the link there will give you all the deets you need. And I don’t use the term “deets” lightly.
Michael Wayne is the fella who reminded me that the newest iteration of the Legion of Super-Heroes made an appearance last year in Green Arrow. I’ve made mention of this a couple of times in this series of posts since, but he’s the reason why I remember now. I even specifically had a customer ask for those issues because of the Legion, I just…uh, forgot.
It was Joe Gualtieri who clued me in to the fact that the new Batman: Brave and the Bold series was an anthology, not a team-up book like its eponymous predecessors. I mean, to be fair, I knew it was an anthology, but for some reason I was under the impression that there were some team-up stories in it, which was my mistake. Thanks for the clarification.
Joe Littrell asks in response for my want of a Scribbly collection, featuring the semi-autobiographical comics of Sheldon Mayer:
“Would a Scribbly omnibus include the story from Sgt. Rock #408?”
I suppose it should, for completeness’s sake. But it’s a crazily dark story, so it’d be a huge shock to the system hitting that after a bunch of lighthearted teen gag comics. Look, it’s been a long time since I read that issue of Sgt. Rock, and when I did, new off the stands, I didn’t really know who or what the original “Scribbly” was. I couldn’t tell you if they dropped any clues in the Rock story implying this Scribbly was the same as Mayer’s character. At any rate, including that story with the rest would be a real “THEN…KOREA” moment:
Can you believe it’s been 12 years since my “THEN…KOREA” post? Geez louise.
Dave Carter steps up with some sales numbers on the latest Asterix album. Apparently a million copies in France in its first month, and a total of five million (so far!) across all its international editions. And without depending on variant covers, even!
Sean Mageean and Joe Gualtieri both make mention of some sort of tussle regarding ownership of the Marvel character Machine Man, reported here at a site I don’t normally link to but will since every other place talking about this links to it anyway. Long story short, DC’s parent company Warner Bros. owns, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Machine Man first appeared in Jack Kirby’s comic book series based on that film that was published by Marvel in the 1970s. That certainly sounds like bit of a mess, but maybe we can get DC to put out a nice facsimile edition of the 2001 treasury Kirby did.
JohnJ asks if I’d seen the Werewolf by Night special on Disney+ and its version of Man-Thing. Why yes, I have…not the more recent color version, but the original black and white. It’s not quite the Man-Thing of the comics, but a completely mindless creature may be a hardsell on TV, reality shows notwithstanding.
In response to my comments that Superman comic sales have been on bit of an upswing, both JD and Allan Hoffman point out the recent change in direction (and apparent sudden wrap-up of the previous storyline) in Action Comics. And…fair enough. I don’t know how Action had been doing over the past year overall, but at least in my store sales were slowly going up. But if it ain’t broke, it don’t get fixed, and Action got fixed with a rotating team of “Superman Superstars” creators. There might have been other reasons, but a big change like this does indeed likely mean a change was needed.
Daniel T wants to know why I had to yell at people in my shop. If I blow my stack at anyone, it’s because that person is (or people are) acting like dumbasses and causing problems. The most recent time was telling a bunch of baseball player kids, unsupervised, in my shop and running around and treating it like a playground. Trust me, I was far more patient than I needed to be. As pal Dorian has said, “if you get Mike mad, then you’ve really screwed up.”
• • •
Other topics came up as well, such as Thom H.
asking after Miracleman, and a whole lotta discussion about how to revive the Legion of Super-Heroes in a way that people will actually want to read, but those are all big posts on their own. I plan on addressing
Miracleman in short order, inspired by a post on Bluesky that got me thinking. As far as Legion goes…I’ve tackled that topic before, just check my
Legion of Super-Heroes category, and, honestly, I don’t know if anything can work at this point. There’s always a chance someone will
finally get the right formula and make the Legion Great Again, but I think we’re destined for occasional guest appearance for the near future.
So that’s that for the 2023 Comic Industry Predictions! Thanks again to everybody who participated, commented, and/or read all my typing. Any future discussion on this topic I’m just going to keep contained to this post’s comment section.
Here’s one last reminder to get in your 2024 predictions, and…that’s it! I’ll see you all on Monday!
Okay, first off a couple of recent comments you guys (Joe and Sean specifically) got caught in the hopper recently and didn’t get posted. Sorry about that, not sure why that happened, but I’ve approved the comments and they’re up now. If that happens again, to you or anyone else, where you write a response and it seems to disappear when you post it, I’ll catch ’em and make sure they get put up. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Anyhoo, let’s get on to the last batch of your 2023 predictions (previous parts:
(1 2 3 4 5 6). And put in your 2024 predictions if you haven’t yet.
• • •
Michael Grabowski grasps at the following
“1. Gabrielle Bell’s 2023 book will be about finally getting her own dog.”
You’d think it’d be easy to find a list of an author’s work in release order, but boy I had trouble finding one for her. Her personal site seems to have gone down late last year, according to archive.org. I did find a book from a few years ago about Gabrielle getting a dog for her mom, but I didn’t see any books about getting her own dog. If I missed something, let me know!
“2. A new round of Stray Bullets begins in the 1990s with an adult Ginny finding herself getting into Harry’s organization.”
David Lapham did return with a new crime series from Boom! called Underheist, but unrelated to Stray Bullets.
“3. Gaiman & Buckingham continue to complete new chapters of Miracleman on a regular routine schedule throughout 2023.”
Well…yes! Some time between new issues, but we got five across 2023! After 30 years of nuthin’, that’s fine with me!
• • •
Wayne Allen Sallee wrenches this in
“Mike will continue to be the nicest guy in the 805 area code, and we all can share our lives through his posts and our respective comments.”
Well, I did have to yell at a couple people in the shop this year (so if you’re playing the Mike’s Comic Shop Drinking Game, down the glass) but I’ve tried to be kind and mellow all year. EXCEPT WHEN I’M NOT
“Just an observation here: for the most part, we survived a plague!”
Everyone around me seems to be getting the COVID, but I’ve dodge it successfully so far, either via being careful or just simply having the luck of the devil.
• • •
John Maurer cuts these down
“1. This new DC event Dawn of DC or whatever does nothing to improve sales and the labeling will quietly and quickly fade away.”
It’s still hanging in there! And there has been a small bump in sales for, like, the Superman books, so that’s something!
“2. 2023 Will end without any new Legion of Super-Heroes content.”
As I was reminded in a previous post, and by you, John, asking for these issues…they popped up in Green Arrow of all places!
“3. As a result of #2, I spend more on LSH back issues and finally finish my Reboot Legion collection and maybe even finish acquiring the handful of Superboy v1 LSH appearances that I’m missing.”
I don’t know…did you? I think I sold you a couple.
• • •
Rob S. gets away with
“1) My obligatory Legion of Super-Heroes prediction: I think we’re going to get some this year — possibly officially designated a limited series — and it will modify the Bendis/Sook run, but with other creators. It’ll use some of Sook’s costume designs, and include a lot of the visual/ethnic heritage changes for characters, but will feel more like a conventional comic, and will pull back from trying to feature the whole team in each issue. Some of the new characters (such as Monster Boy) won’t be seen.”
Like I said previously, it looks like Green Arrow was are only real Legion content this past year in comics. I’ve been told it follows on the Bendis/Sook Legion relaunch, but the character appearance seem to be mostly focused on the “classic” name characters (like Mon-El and Saturn Girl) and not the new fellas. I think you’re onto something, however, where a potential new Legion series would do well to stick with the Bendis version of the team, if maybe…scaled down a little? I feel like it tried to do too much too fast…but honestly, with the Legion, I have no idea what approach would work to give the team traction any more.
“2) DC will tweak its DC Universe Infinite Ultra plan as a result of sales drops to its midlist titles. Meanwhile, Marvel will work to match them, getting closer to the 1-month availability window with their own Marvel Unlimited.”
Haven’t noticed many changes on either side, far as I can tell. I do wish DC would add more 1970s/early 1980s Superman books to their service, however.
“3) DC publishes a new comic with Firestorm as a regular character, maybe as part of a team.”
No solo (as it were) series of his/their own, but Firestorm’ popped up with small appearancees here and there (like in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest and Tales from Dark Crisis and Black Adam, with a ten page story just for his own self in Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn! So there’s always hope for more in the future!
• • •
Chris G gives this up
“The latest Superman relaunch/rethink quickly sees its sales revert to about where they were beforehand; by the end of the year there are clear signs that yet another relaunch is on the horizon. Somewhere, Dan Jurgens starts sharpening his Super-pencils.”
While Dan Jurgens is never far from Super-books, I think sales are okay and I don’t think we’re approaching relaunch territory just yet. Like I noted above, the Superman titles are doing fine, and the Bat-books have seen an increase in numbers for me, even over the already good sales I was getting from them. Not to say a relaunch won’t happen eventually (this is DC, after all!) but I think we’re safe for now.
• • •
Scott Rowland rows the boat ashore with
“1. The price of a standard comic will jump up another dollar.”
The $3.99 price point ain’t extinct yet, but more and more books are coming out at $4.99 a pop, if not more.
“2. DC will once again try to push a higher-priced thicker book size to compensate, while Marvel will cut story pages to try to keep costs down.”
I haven’t seen any story page cutting, but it sure does look like they’re trying out higher and higher price points on thicker comics. I just about plotzed when I saw G.O.D.S. #1 at ten bucks. I really do think we’ll be seeing more experimenting with formats as publishers try to find a happy medium with cost vs. page count for their regular titles (“here’s a 48 page book for $5.99,” that sort of thing.
“3. The old Night-Man show will be a minor hit on an ad-based streaming service, leading to Marvel tentatively reviving some of the Ultraverse characters in an event. The revised versions will have little in common with the original heroes other than the names.”
Was kinda pulling for this one, though I think Ultraverse is forever in the Marvel oubliette as, if I understand correctly, using those characters would mean “paying royalties to creators” and surely Marvel wouldn’t want that. That aside, I would love to see more of the short-run “comics are hot now, let’s do TV shows!” programming of the early 1990s on Tubi or Pluto TV. That would be fun if occasionally cringeworthy.
• • •
OKAY THAT’S IT WE’RE DONE, IT’S SAFE TO RETURN TO YOUR HOMES
Friday’s post will be the corrections/addendums post for this batch of predictions, so maybe I’m not totally done, but we’re in the home stretch at least. As always, thanks for reading and participating!
Just rambling along, continuing with your 2023 comic industry predictions and seeing how you — and I!?!? — did! Don’t forget to put in your 2024 predictions, too!
And here are the previous five parts: 1 2 3 4 5.)
• • •
Patrick Gaffney hits me with the following hooks
“Marvel will hire Henry Cavill, Gal Godot, and Michael Keaton to play Hyperion, Power Princess, and Nighthawk in one of their Multiverse movies.”
While the Squadron Supreme remains unconverted to filmic form, your idea would be the biggest nose-thumbing to DC by Marvel in either companies’ histories.
“DC will start a collected edition line to compete with Marvel’s EPIC and MASTERWORKS. Oh, wait, you wanted predictions that will come true. In that case DC will continue to ignore their rich history of publishing except for a omnibus every 3-6 months, and they will cancel 1/2 of those.”
I sense a little irritation at DC here! I think the focus was in reprinting newer material versus vintage (’30s – ’60s) work, though I did track down on a Silver Age Green Lantern omnibus that came out late last year, far as I can tell. DC’s announcement of their compact paperback reprints have focused on newer stuff (as in Watchmen are forward) but maybe if they do well we can get more old material. Like, one of these days I’d like to have a nice color collection of all the Metal Men comics. I mean C’MON
• • •
Hal Shipman sends along
“1) DC will NOT publish the missing Levitz LSH stories for another year.”
I think the last of the Legion of Super-Heroes reprint books (continuing on from the DC Archives editions) was late 2021. I haven’t given up hope yet on more volumes, since there was quite a gap between those Archives and the reprint books that followed. Given DC’s reticence toward reprinting lots of old material (outside their big ol’ “80th Anniversary” or whatever books) it may be a while, but I’m pretty sure we’ll get one eventually.
“2) DC will let the LSH series languish in its limbo/not cancelled state while Bendis finishes the cartoon and then forget about the property entirely again.”
The team’s been on hold all year (save for a brief appearance in Green Arrow, of all places) so I don’t know if we’ll get The Return of Bendis (unlikely) or just an extended absence awaiting another retooling and relaunch.
• • •
Here are some predictions from someone named…
Mike Sterling? Huh, sounds like a handsome and intelligent guy
“1. Penguin Random House will end free shipping on comic orders to retailers.”
Hasn’t happened…yet. Sooner or later they gotta realize shipping out one comic at a time can’t be viable.
“2. A new live action adaptation of Swamp Thing (either TV or movie) will be announced.”
Late in January 2023, a new Swamp Thing movie was announced as part of the James Gunn and that other guy’s new media plans for DC Comics. Given how superhero movies have been doing lately, I’m not holding my breath that this new initiative will last long enough to get to that film.
“3. There will be another revamping, if not outright relaunching, of the X-Men line.”
Well, looks like this would’ve made a good prediction for 2024 instead.
• • •
William Gatevackes opens up with
“1. There will be a comic book adaptation of ‘Misfits of Science.’ Alex Ross will do the covers.”
I feel like there’d be an audience for that. To be completely honest, I was entirely surprised no revival of Misfits of Science showed up at all in any medium.
“2. James Gunn’s new job as DC film guru will last well less than his 10 year plan. His first film under his watch, be it good or bad, will be slammed for no good reason, giving Warners execs cold feet.”
Was it ten years? Hoo boy. When that Superman movie doesn’t make back its budget, that plan is going to be tossed in favor of something else that won’t work.
Maybe I’m being cynical.
“3. There will be a DC and Marvel crossover of some sort, either official or unofficial.”
I don’t think either company is quite at the level of desperation to want to start doing these again, as they were back in the crossover heyday of the 1990s.
Unofficially…I’m sure someone somewhere in one of the books pulled something like the Impossible Man and Mr. Mxyzptlk being the same entity, or Superman appearing in What If #1, or like that. I can’t recall seeing any, but if someone spotted one in the last year, maybe they can let me know!
• • •
Brian F does my bidding by predicting
“1) Man-Thing gets more comics.”
Not his own series, but he popped up in the new Incredible Hulk comics, at least. Also, he got a swanky lunchbox!
“2) Deadman gets more comics.”
Again, didn’t get his own solo series, but was featured in DC’s event series in 2023, Knight Terrors!
“3) Machine Man gets more comics.”
Can’t seem to find any info on Machine Man appearances in recent months. He didn’t have his own title, but I’m sure he guest-starred in something. Again, if you’ve got details, let me know!
• • •
joecab pulls up to the curb with
“1) WB will make at least one ‘WTF?? Why them’ DC movie announcement. My money is on ‘Mazing Man!”
While ‘Mazing Man would be, well…’mazing, I think maybe the wildest announcement would be The Authority. Again, I don’t actually expect it to happen, but if it does, I don’t imagine much of its tone will translate into film. Expect punching but with more swearing. Unless they decide to really play up the “gay Superman/Batman analogue couple” which would be interesting but I keep picturing it as becoming borderline exploitative. But again, perhaps I am not in the mindset to be discussing superhero movies right now.
“2) In an effort to save money, Marvel Studios will introduce longtime character Elf With a Gun to appear in every Phase 5 MCEU movie to thin out the cast (and therefore those salaries).”
Marvel’s really missing a bet here. What, are they afraid of making a film that won’t make money?
“3) Announcement of a Tales of the Beanworld animated special … because I demanded it!”
I think Tales of the Beanworld would translate very nicely into a cartoon. I can picture it as being quite charming, and just weird enough to grab attention and get people hooked with its ongoing storyline. C’mon somebody, get on it!
• • •
Okay, probably only one more post of actual predictions to go, then the follow-up, so it’ll all be done this week! Thanks for reading, everyone, and I’ll see you on Wednesday!
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