predictions

…on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, like I said. Turned out I had a little more free time to write this post than I was expecting. …Well, this is more like Part 1 1/2 because I’m gonna do a short one today, covering just a few more of your 2012 predictions from last year. And remember, I’m still looking for your comic industry predictions for 2013!

Googum googumed

“I don’t think Marvel will cave and do a 52-style relaunch, nor do I think DC’s Vertigo relaunch will take off. (I’d like to be proved wrong on the latter.)”

As noted already yesterday, and as I’m sure some of you have noticed, Marvel did follow DC’s lead in restarting a bunch of their books, only 1) not doing them all at once, and 2) not being a complete reboot, as it was in some cases with the DC titles. …As for Vertigo, if anything, it’s kinda/sorta barely hanging in there, and with the loss of several of its ongoing titles, it’s now pretty much a Fables imprint. Well, okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but c’mon.

“A smaller publisher–IDW, perhaps–will decide to go big on digital, with huge discounts even on day-and-date. There will be a lot of hurt feelings and name-calling, but it’ll probably be successful. The majors will use digital as a try-out for new talent (the way they used to be given annuals or fill-ins) to generate cheap content.”

I don’t know if any indie print publishers went the cheaper-on-day-and-date route (though Stewart has a few things to say about digital discounts, particularly compared to international exchange rates, here)…but I know a lot of publishers are doing plenty of digital-first releases. A handful of DC’s titles are basically just reprints of previously-available digital comics. And just to show you how much I generally pay attention to that sort of thing, I hadn’t realized DC even had that many digital-only comics.

“Whether it’s done for penny-pinching reasons, or to find a scapegoat; Marvel will do some housecleaning this year. Some big names will be politely but firmly shown the door; but their replacements will all be conservative choices.”

Not yet, I don’t think. There certainly are a few names I don’t recognize on some of the bigger titles, but, like, Bendis and Hickman and Waid and Fraction as others are all still doing major work for Marvel.

• • •
Chris K had the following beautiful vision:

“In light of Marvel’s cost-cutting measures and their related unwillingness to keep a strong backlist in print, they will outsource their collected editions department. Due to their strong track record with classy archival editions and, more recently, with Disney properties, Fantagraphics gets the gig. Reality implodes.”

Oh, damn, imagine a Fantagraphics Complete Millie the Model series. Fully recolored. Nice glossy paper. …A tear comes to one’s eye.

• • •
Frowny frowned

“1) Multiversity will fail to appear, and at some point Grant Morrison will get sick of getting jerked around by corporate. (If I remember the pitch correctly, it’s been made impossible by the Crises having never happened anyway.)”

Multiversity still hasn’t popped up, no, but I suspect DC will still publish it anyway, regardless of it not matching up to current New 52 continuity. That would probably be a feature, not a bug.

“2) Alan Moore will say something (possibly sensible, possibly off the deep end, depending on whether or not someone asks about Watchmen) that pisses many people off. The usual suspects will go through the ‘Man, what happened to you, Alan Moore? You used to be cool.’ schtick. Alan Moore will continue to not care.”

I’m not even going to check; I’ll just give you a “hit” on that and move on.

“3) I will hate myself while buying the conclusion to his Supreme as drawn by (ack!) Erik Larsen.”

Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself! I’ve plugged Supreme on this site a couple of times…I think it’s a hoot!

• • •
Philip begat

“The ‘big two’ will start to cross the $4 barrier on regular monthly titles.”

Well, there’s a bit of a slow creep, so it’s happening…Batman jumped to $3.99, for example.

“8 of DC’s ‘New 52’ titles will be cancelled.”

Close! I think it was more like 10: Men of War Mister Terrific, O.M.A.C., Hawk and Dove, Blackhawks, Static Shock, Voodoo, Captain Atom, Resurrection Man, and Justice League International. And a few more were announced but still have an issue or two left, I think (Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. and Blue Beetle). I’m sure I’m forgetting some.

“Somebody will finally get to the bottom of digital comics sales and we will learn that they are just so-so. The novelty will wear off for most people and the numbers of regular/repeat digital comics buyers (for new comics) will be minimal.”

I haven’t seen much talk about actual numbers, but then I haven’t been following the digital comics news, as you might imagine. I am curious about the amount of overlap between print buyers and digital readers.

“Superman gets his old costume back.”

Hold on…we’ll clearly have to wait for the near-universal negative reaction to the shortsless costume in the new Man of Steel movie before this will happen.

• • •
Former Employee Aaron cruises for some bruises with

“1.Snapper Carr will be the main villain in the next big DC event comic book.”

I assume he’s the power behind the evil throne in any major DC event, snapping behind the scenes.

“2.Cable will come back in some big way. Maybe some secret Michael Turner cover will be revealed.”

Cable came back, but it remains to be see how big a way. Cable and the X-Force sales have not impressed yet so far.

“3.Hellboy will rock your socks!”

Hellboy has not rocked my socks, but he certainly jazzed my cravat.

“4.That Magnet you found at that gas station with the 2012
warning hurriedly scrawled with sharpie? Totally accurate! ;)”

I thought I’d posted a scan of that magnet here, but I guess not. So, I have pulled it off my fridge, where it’s been for the last three years or so, tossed it on the scanner, and here you go…DON’T LOOK DIRECTLY AT IT:

This represents exactly what happened at my house last December 21st, by the way.

• • •
Gordon beheld

“Rumors will begin to swell mid-summer of a DC crossover between the ‘new 52’ universe and the pre-reboot universe, claiming that when Flash ‘combined the timelines’, that spun off a completely separate earth.”

I don’t know if any such rumors spread, but I would have been surprised if any such crossover would have happened this quickly, while they’re still trying to get the New 52 thing off the ground. …I think unless the New 52 starts flopping horribly (and despite what folks might think, it hasn’t reached that point yet) I don’t think DC will start trying to call back alienated fans that desperately. And if they do, I think we can consider that the death knell of DC, given the “this is our last chance” vibe the whole New 52 initiative gives off.

“In addition, DC will focus on the next great franchise: Swamp Thing, choosing to focus on developing movies, toys, and other media. They claim, ‘We should have listened to Mike Sterling sooner – our bad'”

So many people have realized they should have listened to me before it was too late. So many.

• • •
Okay, that’s enough of that. More prediction commentary in the next day or so. Yes, I know you can’t believe how lucky you are.

So for those of you waiting to tune out my website when I started looking at everyone’s predictions from last year, now’s the time, because I’m about to spend a week doing just that. Also, don’t forget that I’m still looking for your 2013 predictions so that next year you all can stop reading my site for a week in January 2014.

Anyway, just hang in there, and it’ll all be over shortly:

Roger Green predicted

“Despite mediocre reviews, the Avengers movie will win its opening weekend box office. But it won’t have legs. I’ll be bored all summer reading about how the movie makers screwed up.”

It certainly won its opening weekend, but it did hang in there and keep on making money like a thing that makes a lot of money, so there you go. However, I didn’t see a whole lot of people going out of their way to criticize the film…I mean, they were out there, of course, but I didn’t get the impression that there were waves upon waves of people itching to tell everyone how terrible the Avengers movie was, unlike, say, Prometheus. (Probably because, after seeing how some fans reacted to someone’s extremely mild critique, nobody wanted to engage with those lunatics.)

I should note that after running my commentary on the film with its deliberately baiting title, I started seeing lots of search engine referrals in my site logs for people looking for “avengers sucked” or “why did captain america suck in the avengers” and that sort of thing, so clearly there’s some kind of stealth Avengers-hating movement out there.

• • •
ExistentialMan foresaw

“1. Marvel will not relaunch its entire line in 2012.”

Well, yeah, technically the whole line didn’t relaunch. But, you know, not for lack of trying. I’m pretty sure Daredevil is keeping its current numbering.

“2. Watchmen 2 will top the sales charts but have little staying power over the long-term beyond the initial trade sales.”

I think the very first issues were ordered in high numbers, but at least for us, they’ve settled down to solid mid-rangers. I am curious to see how trade (or, let’s face it, hardcover) sales will do, though I’m reasonably certain the answer is “not a patch on actual Watchmen sales.”

“3. Mike Sterling’s hair will get even better.”

The pompadour is coming along quite nicely, thank you.

“4. Comics in general (from all publishers) will continue to be awesome all year long.”

I’d certainly like to think so! There’s a lot of good stuff out there. I mean, we’ve got two ongoing Popeye comics! That’s more beauty than we deserve.

• • •
Jay V doth sayeth

“DC’s big event will be a 12 issue mini series called ’12 Funerals and a wedding’. Every issue will feature a different character suffering a grisly fate, and a previously deceased character will be brought back with a new costume. At the end, Wonder Woman and Power Girl get married.”

Marvel’s recent Death of Spider-Man (or…is it?) hijinks did inspire in me the following Tweeterings, which I suppose in retrospect may owe something to this prediction:

I actually like Jay V’s idea more, as it combines the whole death/return thing into one epic series. I suppose it’s only a matter of time.

• • •
Alex worries

“Paolo Rivera drops off of the ongoing Dardevil title; a new artist comes in, and my interest in the title plummets. Mark Waid still writes it solid, but it no longer remains Marvel’s flagship book.”

Rivera’s still on as cover artist, but we’ve had Chris Samnee most of, if not all, of 2012, and he’s not too shabby. Still a good-looking book. Don’t know if it ever really achieved “flagship” status, but it, like Hawkeye, are critically acclaimed, if not top-sellers.

• • •
Michael-Sensei sensed

“I predict that I won’t read any new comics in 2012 but I will still continue to be enthralled and amused by Progressive Ruin.”

I don’t know if he did read any new comics, but surely Progressive Ruin enthralled him, as it enthralls everyone, young and old!

• • •
William Gatevackes soothsays

1. Marvel will retake the market share and Diamond Top 10 from DC.

A quick glance at the last few months’ worth of data from Diamond shows things pretty much neck and neck, with Marvel and DC alternating at the top. There aren’t any year-end numbers yet, nor numbers for December, but I’ll try to make a note of them when Diamond finally releases them.

2. DC will cancel low performing titles and replace them with concepts that didn’t come in the first wave and but people were asking for (Captain Marvel, JSA) and some they might not have (Challengers of the Unknown, Adam Strange)

DC certainly did cancel some of their New 52 relaunches, and one of them replacements was Earth Two, essentially a Justice Society title.

3. Bob Harras will hire more creators from his tenure at Marvel. Most outlandish prediction? Peter David being hired at some point to write Supergirl. Expect J.M. DeMatteis to get work as well.

DeMatteis did work at DC for a while there recently, on Booster Gold around 2009/2010 or so. I don’t think either he or David did anything in 2012 at DC, though I could be wrong. Whether Harras hired anyone else from his Marvel days, I’m not sure…maybe Scott Lobdell?

4. The Dark Knight Rises will earn less money and be less well received critically than The Dark Knight. It will still do great business and be a great movie, but since it didn’t surpass The Dark Knight in grosses and praise, it will be deemed a failure and experience media and Internet backlash.

Domestically, Rises didn’t do well as its predecessor, but overall, including international receipts, it did surpass the second film in ticket sales. At least, according to Box Office Mojo, and they’ve never lied to me before.

And, according to Rotten Tomatoes, Dark Knight is sitting pretty at 94% Fresh, while Rises is at a slightly less pretty 87%. I don’t think anyone considered the third film an outright failure, but it did feel like people were a little more quick to mock elements of this film (like, oh, say, Bane’s voice) than anything from the second film.

5. That being said, Warners will want to lock in plans for the post-Nolan future of the franchise, and will announce a reboot while DKR is still in theaters. A name director such as Sam Raimi or Guy Ritchie will be given the task of rebooting the franchise.

Haven’t heard anything yet, but I would absolutely bet they’re cooking something up behind the scenes right now. We probably won’t hear about it ’til the current sales cycle on the Nolan trilogy is a little closer to being done.

6. It will be announced that the two Marvel films Disney has scheduled for 2014 will not be Guardians of the Galaxy and Inhumans as is rumored. There is a chance neither film will get a spot. The two spots most likely will be taken up by some combination of these three films: A sequel to the Avengers, a sequel to the Incredible Hulk, and/or another reboot of the Punisher franchise.

I hadn’t heard about Inhumans, but if it includes Lockjaw, I’m all for it. It does seem like Guardians is a go, though, so it seems unlikely anything’s going to bounce it at this point.

I suspect a new Hulk film is probably in the offing even though it’s probably best just to save him for another Avengers movie, though again, I haven’t heard anything. I also think we’re pretty much done with Punisher movies for the time being. Why there isn’t a Punisher series on AMC or something, I have no idea.

7. Warners will push another long in the works DC property in to active development. Either Flash, Captain Marvel or Swamp Thing.

Word is going around again that Guillermo Del Toro still wants to do something with DC’s creepy characters, including our pal Swamp Thing. And I thought they were toying with the idea of a Captain Marvel movie…I thought one of the reasons for the name change to “Shazam” was to improve marketing/licensing issues and avoid conflict with Marvel Comics. …I’m not sure I’d want to see a Captain Marvel movie where he isn’t called “Captain Marvel” anyway. Yeah, I’m a reactionary fanboy like that.

8. Every article written about digital comics will mention somewhere that the death of paper comics is imminent. But paper comics will survive the year. There will be more of a focus on digital-only content that is vital to continuity, however, to try and convince more readers to migrate there.

Paper comics: still here! I haven’t seen any attempt to force readers into the digital realm, though Marvel is still doing that “Augmented Reality” stuff and I have no idea who that’s doing.

9. The film world will have a quieter presence at SDCC this year, a sign of an inevitable shift of focus from Hollywood back to comics.

Going by my extremely vague and imprecise recollections, it did seem like there was less talk about the general media presence at Comic Con than before, though I don’t know if it was only slightly less, or if I just didn’t pay attention to SDCC news this year. I barely even noticed that it happened, frankly.

10. NYCC, however, will experience an upswing of movie companies peddling their wares, especially studios with big holiday releases.

Someone who was at that con will have to tell me what their perception was, I think. A quick Googling reveals plenty of comics content, and even the panels on TV shows that show up were those based on comics (aside from the Firefly thing). But my general impression is that there wasn’t too much out-of-place studio content there. …If you’re laughing out loud at that assumption, please correct me!

• • •
Steve adumbrated the following

“1) More than 90% of the comics released each week will be released the same day in digital and print.”

I don’t think we’re at the 90% mark yet, since a lot of the indies aren’t doing simultaneous digital releases, but the Big Two and a couple of the Not-So-Big larger indies are. So, I guess that day is coming.

“2) Marvel will not copy the New 52 in terms of either rebooting their continuity or relaunching their whole line.”

Well, Marvel kinda/sorta followed DC’s lead here, in restarting purt’near everything, but the old continuity, such as it is, is still in place.

“3) Marvel and/or DC will launch an ongoing book based in the continuity of one or more of their movies.”

There was a mini-series or two Marvel cranked out that took place in their movie continuity, but nothing really ongoing, as such. The first issue of Avengers Assemble, at least, did feature all the characters from the Avengers film, though still in the regular Marvel Universe, I think.

There are the usual comics based on the TV shows, however, like Smallville and Arrow and Ultimate Spider-Man and whatever that one is called based on the Avengers cartoon.

“4) A front-of-Previews publisher will experiment with digital prices lower than print. (I mean, aside from those cases where print is $3.50 and digital is $2.99 because iTunes only likes prices ending in 99 cents.)”

Doesn’t seem like it yet, from my brief research, but it could be I missed something. I know there are regular deep discount sales on digital comics from time to time, but that seems to be mostly older material, not the brand new releases. …Again, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

“5) A group of higher-profile Big Two writers and artists will publish creator-owned work through a new imprint at an existing publisher.”

It seems like a lot of high-profile talent is simply doing their own thing. If you meant, like, an Image-style exodus from the Big Two…not that I’ve seen, but it certainly feels like it could happen at any moment.

• • •
Birdman cawed

“A lot of the independent titles that have been making strong inroads into the market will be wooed by the Big 2.
D.C. will use those titles to launch another ‘Vertigo’ line to keep up the ‘New 52’ charade, but develop other titles not in continuity to keep fan base happy.”

I haven’t seen DC or Marvel going after specific indie titles, though it seems like they’re always keeping an eye out for any creators that may grab their interest. Also, I don’t think DC is in a position to launch another imprint, as Vertigo itself may be on the ropes. I do notice DC publishing several out-of-DCU-continuity books, licensed material or stuff like Lot 13, which simply have the DC logo on them and aren’t part of their own line.

• • •
Mike Nielsen prophesied:

“1) We still will not have a collection of the Miracleman stories that everybody wants.”

Nope, of course not. I haven’t heard any news on Marvel’s Marvelman front in, like, forever. Let’s get those hardcovers out, already.

“2) Showcase Presents Tomahawk will be announced.”

Not yet, those jerks.

“3) There will be a crackdown on internet piracy from Marvel and/or DC. And it won’t really change anything.”

Seeing as how scans of Amazing Spider-Man #700 were up on the filesharing sites a week ahead of its release (when stores got the issues shipped early due to the holidays, and were asked to hold them for the following week’s on-sale day), if there is a crackdown on Internet piracy going on, it’s not cracking hard enough.

• • •
Okay, come back…oh, probably Thursday for more of my enthralling responses. I’LL BE DONE SOON, I PROMISE.

Okay, let’s just jump right and wrap it up…part the third of our look back at your 2011 predictions. Again, if I give an incorrect answer to any of these because there’s something I missed, please jump in and correct me in the comments.

• Hulk Finn (fantastic user name by the way…HULK FINN SMASH PUNY RAFT) predicts
  

  Someone’s gonna die by the end of Fear Itself. I say Cyclops. He seems to be a prominent figure in the whole She bang.

  A major character apparently did “die,” but not Cyclops. Look for that character to come back in the next big crossover event or, you know, whatever.

• Jeff R sez
  

  Secret Six won’t last through more than half of 2011. However, we’ll get a new Suicide Squad monthly immediately after the cancellation.

  Well…yeah, that pretty much did happen, didn’t it?

  Hellblazer will get it’s final regular writer in 2011, starting a 15-20 issue arc that leads into the final issue, #300 in ’12. There will be a few more Constantine miniseries during the two years, moved out of the main book because there aren’t any numbers available for them.

  We are getting some Constantine stories outside of Hellblazer right now, mostly because of New 52-type stuff. I hope DC doesn’t cancel the series with #300, but I can see the current creative team on the book through that issue, wrapping up current plots and other hoohar.

  Miracleman will be republished, and, in the case of book 2, completely redrawn from Moore’s original scripts. Marvel and Gaiman will try to get Rick Veitch to do that art job, but probably won’t manage to talk him into it.

  Alas, Miracleman still remains unreprinted. I can understand the impulse to want Chuck Austen’s (aka Beckum) art contributions redrawn to more closely fit the artwork throughout the rest of the series…but I kind of like Austen’s contribution.

  Wednesday Comics II will start in the summer.

  I’m sort of surprised we haven’t seen a new Wednesday Comics-type project yet, but I suppose DC was busy with the relaunch and couldn’t devote resources to this.

• MaxGRobinson believes
  

  *Marvel’s going to bring back Doctor Strange in a big way. Whether it’s a new ongoing or a big role in something like Fear Itself I dunno.

  Well, he’s back in The Defenders. Does that count?

  *The last of DC’s Red Circle titles comes to an end. (unless that’s happened already?)

  Yeah, that’s pretty much done.

  New Aquaman on-going spins out of Brightest Day.

  There is a new Aquaman series…I don’t know that it would count as having “spun off” from Brightest Day, but, you know, close enough.

  New Power Man and Iron Fist mini sparks a new ongoing (wishful thinking on my part)

  Not in 2011, but Marvel never seems to let go of the idea. Maybe someday!

• Andrew Leal notes that his local Toys ‘R’ Us was racking some comics, and predicted that some department stores like Target might do the same. …I haven’t noticed anything like that yet, but I don’t get to Target or similar stores too often. I haven’t even checked our local Toys ‘R’ Us to see if they have any comics, so I am underinformed about this particular topic. …Anyone been seeing comics for sale in odd (i.e. more mass market-y) places lately?
• Joe Schwind declares
  

  50,000 year-old Religious Extremist/Free Expressionist Conflict doesn’t end.

  Nope, totally ended. Did you miss it?

  Collisions between aging comic book artists and economic reality continue.

  Sadly, will likely always be true.

  Comic fans acknowledge the environmental impact of books outsourced to China, publishers remain oblivious.

  Publishers tend to remain oblivious to comic fans for the most part anyway…just out of self-preservation, because those fans are crazy.

• Ray says
  

  The Tin-tin movie will not be a commercial hit. The Tin-tin movie videogame, however, will be great.

  It didn’t do so hot in the States (about $68 million) but worldwide it did about $350 million, so I think nobody’s disappointed.

  I had to check to see if there was a video game based on the movie, and sure enough there is…the reviews range from “middling” to, quoting from a quote at the link, “a frontrunner for Worst Game of 2011.” So, um, yeah.

• Mister Bile coughs up
  

  Michael J. Strazinski is hired to “redefine” yet another main comics character. (Although the results won’t become clear until a year later, everyone agrees that the results “Aren’t all that bad, all things considered.”)

  That’s “J. Michael Straczynski,” and…I don’t think he’s popped up in comics too much aside from that Superman Earth Onethis project is still in development at DC.

  The Speed Force is revealed to be the true mastermind behind an industry-wide crossover event.

  Well…the Flash was central to the Flashpoint series, which led into the New 52 relaunch, which shook up the comics industry…I suppose that’s close enough for horseshoes.

  A lot of ex-Vertigo people end up at Marvel’s Icon line, looking dazed and confused.

  Nah, they just normally look like that. Icon has pretty much remained “dudes already at Marvel,” however.

  Hawkman is rebooted.

  Yeah, they tried it again.

  The next Spider-Man game will disappoint.

  Superhero video games always disappoint somebody. I think Edge of Time was the most recent, and it got average reviews, it seems.

• MichaelFromJamaicaNY says, mon
  

  I predict this Halloween will be extra freaky deaky, what with all the Thor family, and the grown women dressed as the 14 year old from True Grit, and the latex clad Trons, and the Black Swans, and the Tron Swans.
  Freaky. Deaky.

  I didn’t get out this Halloween, sadly, so I have no idea how nutty the costumes got this year. Though I would have paid One American Dollar to see a Tron Swan costume.

• Steven E. McDonald has some silly predictions, but then made a few I wanted to comment upon
  

  Marvel finally caves in to the falling sales and ongoing hate and retcons the Spider-Marriage retcon

  I really think that we’re stuck with the “no married Spidey” thing as long as Joe Quesada has a say in the matter. As soon as Disney gives the current editorial staff, um, “large severance packages,” we may see some movement toward restoring the wedded status quo. In a big event, of course. With lots of tie-ins. Reprinted in multiple hardcovers.

  Swamp Thing will make his long-awaited return to the DCU. Shortly thereafter, whatever book he arrived in will be canceled.

  Well, technically speaking, Brightest Day ended, it wasn’t cancelled!

  We’ll see more original graphic novels, often set up like European albums. While DC will lead this trend in the Big Two, smaller publishers will expand upon the offerings they already have, with the result that Top Shelf will improve market share very nicely.

  DC hasn’t followed up on their success with Earth One with any similar projects, though Marvel is. Various companies did put out original GNs, but it didn’t feel like it was that much of an increase over previous years.

• Darius Smith dares
  

  All periodical comic books will cease publishing in 2011!

  Totally happened. I SEEN IT

• londonKdS says
  

  Prediction I’ve been privately making for several years now: there will be a major controversy over some female Marvel/DC creator being caught doing erotic fanfic/fanart as a private commission or under a secret fan identity. Sexist fanboys will leap on this as what they wrongly think is a demonstration of the hypocrisy of feminist fangirls who attack oversexualisation in official canon, while the publisher involved will initially take harsh action against the person until people critique their hypocrisy given the tolerance of well-known male creators quietly doing erotic commissioned art of corporate-owned characters.

  Didn’t happen, as far as I know, but I’ll just reprint what I said the last time I discussed this prediction:

  I’m not sure what to say about that, except “erotic” commissions from superhero comic book artists are never not hilarious. But I can probably see the potential of a controversy of this sort breaking out, though ideally a publisher, if it takes a stand on this issue, should be even-handed about its policy regardless of the gender of the artist in question. (If a controversy does occur re: erotic commissioned art, it’ll be panicked dudes who are okay with drawings of Wonder Woman and Black Canary making out, but will freak if it’s Aquaman and the Flash making out.) (I am totally not Googling any of this, by the way.)

• John Parker predicts
  

  Johnny Storm will die and sometime in the future will become either the original Human Torch or Dormammu due to some time warping bedevilment.

  Well, he died, sort of, but just plain came back as Johnny Storm. Ah well.

  If Johnny Storm has a girlfriend or is married (sorry,I don’t follow the book) then there’s a baby on the way !

  For some reason, I’m picturing Frankie Raye as Galactus’s herald Nova, flying around all preggers. (I don’t think there’s a flaming bun in the oven at this point…one melodramatic plotline at a time for this poor fella!)

  Mike will post Swamp Thing pages in Portuguese.

  Didn’t happen, but not for lack of wanting.

  Doctor Who will be great, stetson or no, and everyone will say Gaiman’s episode is the best of the series even if it isn’t.

  I posted on Twitter about the time that episode aired to the effect of how it must have been able to heal the sick and restore sight to the blind, the way people were talking it up. …It was a good episode, though.

• Bill says
  

  After a falling out between Alan Moore and Top Shelf, Moore will announce that all his future comics projects will appear with Archie Comics.

  “Hot Dog…you can talk?” “Oh yes, Forsythe, I can talk…and I can do so much more. LET ME SHOW YOU” “Oh GOD AAAKLGSJKLD”

  Sad to say, this didn’t happen.

  Another issue of All Star Batman and Robin will appear. Batman punches God.

  Also didn’t happen. Pretty much the only place it can go at this point.

  A new creator will take over Wonder Woman with great fanfare, and take the character in a new direction that will last for five issues, then be forgotten and never referred to again.

  A new creative team did take over Wonder Woman and, despite my misgivings about it, people do seem to really like it. …I think we’re good for at least six issues, though.

  A J. H. Williams drawn issue of Batwoman will appear late.

  Not so far! Though he did get a bit of a head start.

• Jerry Smith forges ahead with
  

  DC will actually hold to a mostly $2.99 price point, as they have vowed to do.

  Yeah, pretty much. They just announced a couple more titles going to the $3.99 price point, but so far, so good.

  Marvel will not.

  Marvel does have quite a bit more $3.99 titles, but sometimes they surprise me with a comic that seems like it’d have $3.99 written all over it, but it’s still $2.99.

  The Green Lantern movie will be a huge hit.

  Well, a “crash” is kind of a hit.

  Thor will not (but it will make its money back).

  500 million on a $150 million budget…it’s not Titanic money, but, you know, I’d take it.

  Marvel will just go for it and announce that all of their characters, supporting characters and the Pet Avengers are gay.

  Not all. Just Ego the Living Planet. …And I’m not even quite sure how that works, exactly.

  The Legion of Super-Heroes will be cancelled and relaunched with a new #1.

  A safe bet in any year, though it certainly happened this year in a big way.

  A new comics reading app will be created that will become the perfect way to read comics on a mobile device. It will soon fail and whatever Microsoft hacks out will replace it.

  Haven’t heard anything about it, but as we’ve found out recently, I’m not the go-to guy about this sort of thing. My reading app is “my hands and eyes,” and my mobile device is “my feet.” (Typing that officially makes me The Oldest Person Ever.)

• Ragnell says
  

  Steve Rogers back as Captain America, Bucky Barnes back in Winter Soldier gear before the movie comes out. That’s really the only thing I’m sure will happen.

  Like I said in a previous entry, I’m pretty sure Cap was back in his action suit by the time the movie rolled around…or close enough, anyway. And Bucky will be back as Winter Soldier in a new series Any Day Now.

  Well, that and there will be another incredibly sexist statement by an industry professional that will get a backlash.

  And DC will do another stupid thing that minimizes their female and/or minority characters, and Sattler will be trotted out to say something stupid as a defense again.

  Probably the same answer for these two, most recently involving the portrayal of female characters in some of the New 52 titles. I don’t know what Sattler had to say, but there was certainly some back and forth between the creative teams of said books and the fans.

• Oh, hey, Hulk Finn is back with
  

  Racists will be in even more of an uproar when they learn that “Random Background Norse # 7″ will be played by an Asian.

  Wow, I’d totally forgotten people were bent out of shape about Heimdall being played by a Black man in the Thor movie. Given that Heimdall was one of the better things about that film, seems even sillier in retrospect. …Wouldn’t surprise me if those folks did get upset about other aspects of the film. They usually can find things to complain about.

Okay, for better or worse, finally done. Thanks for putting up with this, folks, and let’s move on to new, non-prediction, stuff tomorrow. And I’m still taking predictions for 2012, but I’m going to hold off on commenting ’til next year. Just, you know, to avoid villagers with rakes and torches waiting outside my castle.

Okay, I didn’t see any easy way through this except by just going through all the predictions, so…well, that’s what I’m a’gonna do. Let’s see if I can get through last year’s predictions in just a couple of posts so I don’t drive everyone crazy.

And I’m still taking predictions for 2012…make your pal Mike work for his blogging dollar next January!

Let’s start with my predictions, because it’s my site, so there:

I think DC will hold the $2.99 price through the year, because not doing so would certainly look bad for them, wouldn’t it?

Well, yeah, they did, but this was probably a “gimme” given the promotional push they gave to the whole “holding the line at $2.99” thing. A couple of books went to the $3.99 price point following the New 52 relaunch, but by and large, most of DC’s books are still at the lower price. And this year a couple more titles are going to the $3.99 format, but still, DC’s holding on to that $2.99 cover price across the majority of the line.

Sales will continue to suffer on redundant books (i.e. the thirteen or so Thor mini-series, for example) but no one will learn any lessons from this.

This was more me griping than really making a prediction, though I will say DC’s multiple Batman and Green Lantern titles seem to be doing okay. For now.

Someone will put out a complete edition of William Overgard’s Rudy. (Hey, let a boy dream.)

DENIED.

A new Swamp Thing series will be announced by the end of the year, firmly planted (heh) in the DC Universe. And it will turn out to be awesome.

Well, well, well…whaddaya know. I’m not sure I’m going to throw the word “awesome” at it quite yet, but we’ll see once we start getting some actually Big Green Swamp Machine action goin’ on in there.

The rerelease of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Flex Mentallo in a new collected edition will be met with confusion and fear from the usual suspects.

Um, well, this would require the book having come out. …Maybe this year!

And I think Wizard will end its print edition and move solely online…if it continues to exist at all.

Ayup. …Actually, I have no idea if the online version is still happening.

And now, on to what you guys had to say:

• Mike says:
  

  not a prediction- but I would love a year where a powerful character or entity isn’t easily bamboozled and ‘taken over’– skrulls, black lanterns, chaos and other things become tiresome!

  where’s me plots based on sexy mayors!?

  Pretty sure we didn’t get a year without a character getting “taken over,” as that’s Standard Superhero Plot #17. Can’t think of any specific examples, but considering I just read a new comic this very week with that plot device, I’m pretty sure it must have happened at some point last year.

  And we’ll probably have to wait on the Dark Knight Rises film before we get any “sexy mayor” plots with Nestor Carbonell as Gotham’s Mayor Garcia.

• The Sniffer – whom I think I somehow annoyed and drove away from the site…er, sorry! – predicted
  

  Joe Quesada will end his reign as Editor in Chief at Marvel. He will be given another job within the Disney Company, higher up. He will be replaced by a Disney insider, not currently someone working for Marvel.

  Half a hit, with Quesada definitely being replaced as Editor-in-Chief, but by another Marvel dude.

• Kurt says
  

  Marvel and DC will be forced to merge, due to low sales, creating a new company called Marcy. The best-selling book will be their team up book, Brave & The Two-in-One.

  Oh, you. …Actually, I wonder if there will ever be a circumstance where the two companies would merge? Maybe if Warner Bros. sells DC to Disney, and Disney shooshes ’em all together into a big ol’ comics goulash. “WALT DISNEY AND STAN LEE PRESENT BATMAN AND THE JUSTICE AVENGERS IN ‘IF THIS BE THE KRYPTONIAN ETERNALS!'”

• Fellow Swamp Thing fan Rich suggested
  

  Swamp Thing will return, but in the mainstream universe. His story will become far less cerebral as he regularly interacts with folks in Spandex.

  A HIT, A VERY PALPABLE HIT. That Search for Swamp Thing mini certainly wasn’t very cerebral…in fact, it was pretty dumb…but the current series isn’t that bad, I think. Swampy was also certainly interacting with the superhero crowd in all that Brightest Day brouhaha and that Search mini…and there were a handful of cameos in the first New 52 issue, with Alec Holland talking directly to terribly-costumed Superman.

• TomO says
  

  DC will lose patience waiting for everyone to flock to their titles now that they are all $2.99, and we’ll see a line-wide increase to $3.99 announced by October 2011.

  A miss, thankfully, primarily because of the success of New 52 relaunch which I don’t think any of us really expected. (The relaunch, not the success, though I suppose it applies to both.)

  There will be a lot of flailing about with the industry finding a digital platform and model embraced by the readership at large. Nothing major happens in 2011, as I still think we have another year before an iTunes model pops up that dominates industry wide.

  I’m still not 100% “up” on the digital thing, as I have my hands full selling physical products, though I think DC and Marvel directly marketing comics with digital download codes through comic shops counts as pretty major.

  Pogs come back in a big way!

  Oh thank God this didn’t happen.

• Steve predicted
  

  At least one independent publisher will go completely day-and-date with digital releases.

  Dark Horse did, I believe, and I’m pretty sure Archie had already.

  Marvel and DC won’t go fully day-and-date, but one of them will try it with an *ongoing* series (priced the same as the print version).

  A hit, I think, with the previously-mentioned comics with prepacked download codes.

  The Thor and Captain America movies will make a ton of money, but not quite as much as was hoped for, leading some to question whether the superhero movie is dead and whether Marvel’s strategy in that arena is sound, even though they make a ton of money.

  Well, according to Box Office Mojo, Captain America made about $370,000,000 ($140,000,000 budget) and Thor took in $450,000,000 ($150,000,000 budget), so they turned a profit, I suppose, depending on what other promotional expenses and whatnot is involved there. So while some folks in comics fandom will continue to predict the superhero film genre is kaput, I think it’s still got some life in it.

  Fear Itself will make a relative ton of money, but not quite as much as hoped for, leading some to question whether the event comic is dead and whether Marvel’s strategy in that arena is sound, even though it makes a relative ton of money.

  I will note that the sales on the most recent Fear Itself series Fearless ain’t a patch on its parent series. I think the strategy of keeping certain events going on way past the initial rush of interest and excitement is the lesson to be learned here.

  DC will launch another new ongoing Superman book.

  Technically, I guess they did, even if they were just relaunches of previously existing titles. But I expect we’ll have to wait for the whole New 52 thing to shake out before any new ongoing Superman titles pop up. (Frankly, though, I hope they don’t…two is plenty.)

  Dynamite and BOOM! move to the “front” of the Previews catalog.

  Not yet! But they’re at the beginning of the alphabet, so they’re not too far away!

• aj had a numbered list, like so
  

  1) Grant Morrison will be revealed for the acid tripping megalomaniac he truly is.

  I know some people weren’t happy with some comments he make in his Supergods book, but I don’t know that was the result of megalomania.

  2) corollary to the above, Morrison books will drop in value and regard when he flashes crowds at ComiCon panels, convinced that like Batman, he needs “world-wide exposure”

  Don’t think any of that happened, but I’m reasonably certain that would have driven up sales on Morrison books!

  3) Xmen comics will become a convoluted, confusing, self referencing mess that…well. um. nix that that one. thanks.

  I think I’ll be nice and refrain from commenting on that one!

  4) Although the ramp up to digital has begun, most companies still won’t be able to see past the iPad, and the expense of that device will prevent any meaningful adoption of digital/mobile comics distribution. In a misguided conception that the willingness to pay iPad prices extends to everything else, publishers will assume they can set any price they want. (relates only to digital distribution)

  Gah, I really don’t know enough about this stuff, as my eyes just kind of glaze over whenever people start talking about “digital platforms” and such and hey, those little furry things running around my feet don’t have anything to do with me so I’ll just ignore them, said the dinosaur. I do know that nobody ever seems to like the price points of any digital releases from the big companies, so I suppose that last part of the prediction seems to ring true.

  5) Price wars between publishers will calm down, settle at 2.99 and 3.99, and everyone will still complain about it. (justly so)

  Prices still at about those levels! And nobody likes that $3.99 price point (unless it’s for a thicker comic…which most of the time it isn’t).

  6) JLA will be cancelled, lacking editorial directives that can make a cohesive book.

  Again, technically true. I’ll let you decide if the current Justice League book is cohesive or not.

  7) BOOM Studios will have their reach exceed their grasp, licensing things that they can’t really support in the market. (this will be disappointing to me)

  They seem to be doing okay so far. Hellraiser, Planet of the Apes, Elric all have modest but loyal followings, and Peanuts seems to be off to an okay start. Nothing earth-shaking or blockbusting, but they sell.

  8) Walking Dead will have season two, and rabid fans will boycott it.

  I haven’t heard any boycotts yet, but just from what I’ve gleaned from online reaction, people are reacting less well to the second season than the first one. Heck, people started disliking the series with episode two, as anything was bound to suffer in comparison to the premiere.

  9) Robert Kirkman finally goes bat-sh#$ loco, buys out all the other Image partners, renames it Kirkman’s Image Comics, and ban any creator from working on any book anyone else has ever done before.

  As amusing as this would have been, alas, it did not happen.

  10) http://www.themeangeek.com will gain precisely 1 listener, raising comics awareness to three whole people.

  I hope I helped at least at little in you achieving this goal!

• Thwacko noted
  

  1)At least one major publisher (though not necessarilly one of the “big two”) will start digital only releases on some (or maybe all) titles.
  2)One of the second or third tier publishers will go out of business or be bought out by a bigger publisher.
  3)The return of licensed character titles to the big two.

  Haven’t heard of any digital only releases, aside from maybe some back catalog material on previously-released print items. Maybe I missed something? And there are so many comic publishers I’m sure someone went out of business, though I haven’t heard of any acquisitions. But then, I wasn’t keeping track. …Some follow-up on your predictions this is turned out to be, huh?

  As far as licensed properties go at Marvel and DC…when I discussed this last time, I mentioned all the Stephen King and Anita Blake and such that Marvel had, but I forgot about DC’s various video-game tie-in comics. I suppose those count. But DC pretty much gave up on The Spirit and Doc Savage, I guess.

• Thelonius Nick had this to say:
  

  1) DC’s new pricing policy (and Marvel’s unwillingness to really match it) will put it within spitting distance of #1 company by volume.

  Pretty sure they passed Marvel briefly, didn’t they? At any rate, they’re neck ‘n’ neck last time I checked.

  2) Marvel’s Fear Itself event will generate interest at first but fizzle out when it doesn’t offer anything new and all tie-ins are $3.99 or $4.99.

  The main Fear Itself series did okay, but the multiple minis were a bit too much, and didn’t do nearly as well. A lot of the tie-ins were $2.99, though, which was nice.

  3) The Cap and Green Lantern movies will do well at the box office without translating into any significant sales bump for their respective comic franchises. Thor’s Asgardian setting won’t translate well to the big screen and will be critically shunned and poorly attended.

  Swap “Green Lantern” for “Thor” and that’s pretty much what happened. Green Lantern‘s sales have remained strong, though not due to any movie bump. I didn’t notice any movie bump on any of these titles, actually.

  4) Marvel will continue to dick around with Dr. Strange in the pages of the Avengers and fail for yet another year to give him his own ongoing title. Pissed off Strangefans will hex Marvel by the powers of the Vishanti and the company will end the year in flames, literally.

  I don’t know if you would call Defenders his own ongoing title, but hey, it’s monthly and he’s in it. Fans are having some words about it, however.

• Buzz says
  

  Sudden & dramatic collapse of brick & mortar stores, both mainstream & speciality shops (such as comic book shops). Existing stores that survive will do so by either offering services to readers (such as B&N allowing one to browse through any e-book they offer while in their store, thus encouraging people to buy a Nook & regularly visit the B&N coffee shop; or in the case of comic book/pop culture stores to offer gaming, etc.).

  Stores are still hanging on so far, thankfully! Our store has offering gaming stuff for years, so a little diversification never hurt anyone. …Let’s see how things go this year, though. This is definitely an economic climate that is not friendly to small business.

• Ian @TRO says
  

  More Omnibi.

  Yeah, there were plenty of these. Even with the economy the way it is, we’re still getting plenty of high-end reprint projects from both Marvel and DC. Of course, no one’s buying these monsters at the suggested retail price (anywhere from $75 to $125), but still, these are some pricy items for this marketplace.

  More Vertigo characters in DCU.

  Thanks to the New 52 and Brightest Day, we’ve got…Shade the Changing Man, John Constantine, and that big green plant fella. At least.

  Hopefully more than one Milestone character gets an ongoing (IE, in addition to Xombi mini)

  Again, thanks to the New 52…just Static so far.

  Marvel will have some events.

  There was also some unrest in the Middle East, I understand.

• De delights in saying
  

  I have a sneaky suspicion that Dark Horse, of all companies, will revolutionize the digital comics arena. The comiXology model will remain the same for DC, Marvel, Image, and the rest for now.

  Dark Horse certainly stirred up some hoohar with their digital announcements, at any rate.

  The summer superhero movies will perform well enough but not fantastically, causing studios to mine more past properties in hopes of making a quick buck (get ready for the Strawberry Shortcake movie in 2012!).

  Most superhero movies did reasonably well, but studios mining past properties is probably just business as usual rather than a reaction to how the films did. More of a “what did well before? What else can we do that’s just like that?” situation.

  Marvel and DC will stop producing direct-to-video films as the public grows tired of the superhero genre.

  Not quite yet…I suspect that the superhero genre will play out eventually, but so long as there are still superhero films coming out that are relatively well done and entertaining, the occasional clunker of a film is just seen as “a clunker of a film” and not a death-knell for an entire genre.

  The recently announced Carl Barks collections by Fantagraphics will receive public attention on the Today Show via Al Roker and become selections in Oprah’s Book Club. The widespread exposure of clever humor and commentary by 50-year old Donald Duck comics create a nationwide movement of crazy alternative-energy initiatives and treasure hunting.

  In a good and just world, this is what would have happened.

• Googum contributes:
  

  Honestly? I reckon 2011 is just going to trundle along, without any monumental success (a new direct market comic breaks a million in sales or downloads first week) or colossal failures (DM collapses, Marvel or DC cancel 75% of their line) and be mostly more of the same. The water isn’t quite hot enough to boil that frog, but he hasn’t hopped out, either.

  In a way, DC did cancel about 75% of its line…and then replaced them with even more titles! The New 52 relaunch was probably the most notable success of the year, and one that I sure didn’t see coming.

  Marvel will have a mild uptick in trade sales for Thor and Captain America; but they’d have to, after flooding the market. Green Lantern may have a harder climb for that: imagine a mythical ‘new reader’ bounding out of the GL movie and into, say, Blackest Night. No.

  Marvel might have had some increase in trade sales, like you said. I did see an upswing in GL sales, mostly in Sinestro War and, yes, Blackest Night trades. And in reprints of the current (well, then-current) GL series.

  And even though it’s become obvious Comic-Con applause doesn’t translate directly into box office numbers, no one changes their behavior in the slightest. Well, you don’t have to be Karnak for that one…

  Weren’t there stories about some movie and TV companies slightly scaling back their Comic Con participation? I seem to recall that. But I bet you’re right, and people will still presume success based on fan reaction at events such as these.

• That Andres guy I put up with every week at the shop says
  

  DC’s $2.99 price point won’t hold. People will start predicting digital comics are just a fad (this is after sales die down like they have been for digital magazines).

  Well, it’s holding so far, despite, as mentioned before, having a couple of titles bumping up to the $3.99 level. We’ll see how things go over the next year or so. …And I’m sure folks are calling digital comics a “fad”…hell, comic books themselves are a fad from early last century that are still hanging on, somehow.

• Tom A foresaw
  

  Jack of Hearts is brought back to life and takes his rightful place among Marvel’s heavy hitters (2 series by end of year) Now to push for Stingray in 2012.

  Well, yeah, kinda. Not so much with the “heavy hitter” part.

• Matt Jeske sez
  

  …The Green Lantern movie will be critically panned, but commercially successful.

  You were half-right!

  The Superman books will reintroduce elements from the new krypton storylines.

  Blame the New 52 for getting in the way of this one.

  The Beat blog will return to be as interesting to read as it used to be.

  I’ll let you decide if this one is a “hit.”

• Frowny frowns
  

  1) At some point Grant Morrison will be done with Batman and then there will be incredibly ham handed attempts to return the character to the status quo in time for the new film.

  Morrison doesn’t appear to be quite done with Batman, but I’d say cancelling everything and doing a huge relaunch sort of counts as “hamhanded.”

  2) For some stupid reason, Steve Rogers will be back in the Captain America costume in time for the new film.

  I didn’t read it, so I don’t know how stupid the reasons were. But he’s back in costume now…right? Was it in time for the movie? I lost track.

• Former Employee Aaron drops this into my lap
  

  Doom and gloom predictions! Right before Skynet is activated and we all die in a fiery jamboree the $2.99 price point will be eradicated and all comics will cost $3.99 and up. On the brighter side i foresee more original graphic novel releases this year! Also I’ve been wondering how many different Batmen will we have in the Dcu.

  1. WRONG. 2. A FEW. 3. ONE. UNLESS YOU COUNT BATWING, THEN TWO. UNLESS BATMAN INC. STILL “COUNTS,” THEN LOTS.

• Wayne Allen Sallee writes in with
  

  …I know next to nothing about digital comics, but my guess is that Dark Horse or possibly Dynamite will move to that arena. I also predict that, given the storyline of Superman: Earth-One, that specific world will be DC’s Earth-1990s. (Not being snarky, I honestly believe that each Earth-One GN will be terrible.)

  Dark Horse certainly did. And…yeah, Superman: Earth One sure sold well, but boy did it get some negative reviews.

• ~P~ wrote some silly predictions, and then added
  

  Mike Sterling will email me to tell me how much I owe him for the variant editions he obtained for me.

  Right Mikester?

  …Um, oops?

• My new best friend whom I totally met in person just a few weeks ago philip says
  

  The gap between print and digital will continue to shrink, making more new books available sooner in digital format.

  “Day and date” seems to get thrown around a lot, so I’m guessing it’s shrunk as much as it’s going to (until “day and date before” becomes the norm).

  We’ll see the end of “events” for a while and a return to good, long-form storytelling (okay, that’s really a “hope” more than a prediction and though it is unlikely, please just let me have this).

  Oh, silly philip. Even DC’s relaunced universe has got somethin’ in the works.

  There will be just enough new work from Los Bros Hernandez to make me wish there was more new work from them.

  This is never not true. I always want more work from the Bros.

  DC will still not know what to do with Wonder Woman.

  I made my opinion on the topic clear, but it’s selling and everyone likes it, so pay no attention to me.

• Ben predicted
  

  DC will guerrilla market a one-shot via leaked uncolored pages, wherein Swamp Thing returns to the main DCU, but he is wearing tights and is traveling across America with his perky goth girlfriend Death. The comics intarwebs will collapse upon itself in an orgasm of hate.

  Then it will turn out to written by Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis over a weekend trapped at an airport hotel. It will be the single most awesome thing all year, but will fail to cover the authors’ expenses on alcohol.

  Wishing this were all true doesn’t make it so, alas. Except for the “collapsing in hate” part…I totally would have loved and supported this comic.

• Dan Wars blasted us with
  

  By the end of 2011, the original Fantastic Four will be reunited. Duh!

  Duh, indeed!

• Greg Merritt suggested
  

  Gin Genie will make her long-awaited return to the Marvel Universe.
  And then team up with Iron Man.

  You are a cruel man. Iron Man did team up with some booze, though, so you’re close. But sadly, Gin Genie is still dead.

• Mr. A says
  

  Without Dirk Deppey’s daily links roundup, traffic to TCJ.com will crash by at least 90%.

  I’m sure that wasn’t the case, but I certainly miss Mr. Deppey’s Journalista, as do many online comic fans.

• Gordon unleashes
  

  Smaller, more independent press comics focusing on non-superhero fare will begin to become more prevalent and receive more press, since superhero comics will be seen more as “movies-in-the-making”.

  Haven’t really seen this happen yet, as superheroes are more flashy and get more attention and thus make for better “news” stories in the Real World (which I’m assuming you’re meaning by “press”). But indie graphic novels and comics still get some good critical assessment in places like the A.V. Club and such, so they’re not being ignored. You’re just not likely to see the Associated Press syndicate a story about, I don’t know, a new issue of Palookaville (and more’s the pity).

  The trend towards “graphic novels” made specifically to be turned into other media (30 Days of Night, anyone?) will increase, with a plethora of celebrity-driven “vanity projects” arising (one example – Ron Jeremy’s CAPTAIN HEDGEHOG)

  Gah. …Anyway, I haven’t seen too many celebrity-spawned projects some down the pike. There’s Heart but that’s hardly taking the world by storm at the moment.

  The repeated use of ironic quotation marks, “…, anyone” and “meh” will gradually fade, as more articulate comics/pop culture aficionados emerge online, thereby causing nerd critical sites (and Mike Sterling’s Empire 4.0 tumbler thingie) to disappear.

  Estate 4.1, thank you, and it didn’t disappear…it was, um…resting. And I wish “meh” would fade, because seriously, that makes me want to hit someone with my truck.

  Next franchise for DC to exploit: Joel Schumaker’s SWAMP THING. (Sorry, Mike)

  As I said before…A+ WOULD SEE AGAIN.

  Dan DiDio and Brian Bendis will both wrestle a bear at a convention…and lose.

  If this happened and nobody told me, I’m going to be pissed.

  Finally, Mike Sterling will still be seen as the greatest comics blogger in the multiverse.

  I probably had a chance at that, except for the fact that this look back at 2011 predictions is going on for another day, at least.

It’s a new year, a time for a new beginning…and time again for your predictions! Once more I am asking you, the Progressive Ruin reader, to make your comic book industry predictions for 2012. Please drop ’em in the comments, while keeping these three requests in mind:

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.

And that’s about it. I might do a post discussing some of these 2012 predictions later on, but considering how the last time I did this said discussion went on for days and drove everyone crazy…I’ll probably keep it brief this time. But at least it’ll give all of us an opportunity to talk about what predictions seem likely and which seem…well, not so likely.

So please, if you have a prediction or three, just plunk ’em down in the comments here and we’ll see how you did next year. Assuming, of course, Planet X doesn’t crash into Earth when the Mayan calendar ends in mid-December.

Tomorrow or the next day (depending on how my bloggin’ time is) I’ll start going over last year’s predictions and tally the hits and misses. (HINT: Just at a glance, we had a better average than most professional “psychics!”)
 

image from Nancy #159 (September 1958)

Okay, I know this is probably going over like a lead balloon, but here’s part three of my commentary on your predictions anyway. (And here’s part one and part two.)

• Bret tells us
  

  “There will be a public apology for the commercial failure of Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Whether it will be the public writing a letter to Edgar Wright, or Edgar Wright and Micheal Cera releasing one of those hostage videos at gunpoint apologizing to Universal for under-performing is unclear at this time.”

  I finally got around to seeing Scott Pilgrim, and it wasn’t a bad movie. It was cute and fun and got me to try reading the comic again…and it still didn’t grab me. Sorry folks.

  But I don’t know that anyone really needs to do any apologizing to anybody, really. Wright made a decent film, and it never found an audience outside of a small cult following. Not the first time it’s happened, and, of course, not the last. Just one of those things.

• Al Ewing relates
  

  “Quick predictions – Steel is NOT going to die, but John Stewart is. There’ll be a funeral issue where the other Green Lanterns agree that he was the most soldierly, like a true soldier, and his past as an architect – wimp of the professions – will be erased once and for all. Probably he’ll be back as a Red Lantern within the year, blowing away some dudes with a sniper rifle.”

  “Wimp of the professions” makes me laugh, I have to admit. I’d be surprised if they “killed” John Stewart, if only because he’s the most prominent GL thanks to the Justice League cartoons (at least until the live action movie comes out), but I can totally see this as a possible sales-boosting outline for the Red Lantern comic.

• demoncat calls forth
  

  “Marvel will have Mickey and co visit their universe. 2 Marvel will give the x-men a break with cross overs. right after they have jean grey come back from the dead as dark phoenix one more time and wreck havoc. marvel will finaly bring scarlet witch back in the avengers fold sane. dc not only will kick marvels butt sales wise digitaly but will have Oracle back walking around . the death of barbara a fake out to restore her walking. dc will also have swamp thing return in his own title and Mattel will give him his own dc classic wave. wave 25”

  What demoncat doesn’t tell you is that this all happens on the same day. Aiiieeee!

  But…I do wonder if there’ll be some kind of comic book crossover between the Marvel and Disney properties. (I mean, aside from the recent variant covers “Tronning-up” Marvel super heroes.) After all, if DC could have its Superman & Bugs Bunny mini-series, why not Iron Man & Uncle Scrooge McDuck? Depending of course on whether or not Disney sees Marvel as a storytelling arena and not just an exploitable-trademark farm.

  I keep thinking, sooner or later, Barbara will be out of that wheelchair. And I’m always good with more Swamp Thing toys.

• Decker knocks us out with
  

  “Joaquin Phoenix will be hired to write a high-profile book, while ten genre-breaking, critically-acclaimed books will be canceled.”

  I’m sensing some cynicism re: slumming celebrities writin’ funnybooks in this year’s predictions lists. Not that I blame anyone. And like I said yesterday, people hardly seem to care anymore about celeb-comics.

• Subzero coldly predicts
  

  “All the people who claimed none of the CrossGen books were any good after the company went bankrupt will be bitching that they aren´t as good now that Marvel does them. They will still buy them.”

  Oh, sure, almost certainly. I am wondering when the first Marvel crossover will involve the Crossgen properties, too.

• Bully the Little Stuffed Bull toots his horns with
  

  “A comic book starring a water-skiing, flame-thrower wielding cat will becomes a surprise cult hit.”

  THE FLAMEFOILING FELINE, coming this summer from the Action Age of Comics!

  “At least one comic book will be published on lunch meat. At least one.”

  Haven’t they done a thing with printing images on lunch meat for kids? Maybe you’ve got something here.

  “One major DC or Marvel superhero character will be changed into a woman. Not replaced by a female version. Changed into a woman.”

  Clearly X-23 was just Marvel testing the waters for Wolverine’s next big “event.”

  “The Captain America or Thor movie will provide an easter egg which suggests a Marvel heroic character not even hinted at previously in movies or casting news will be in ‘The Avengers.’ And that character will be Rocket Raccoon.”

  That would make The Avengers potentially watchable, yes. Though I shudder to think what the hints would be. “Thor, look — by the river! Someone’s been washing and eating fish there! Who could it have been?”

• Mikey Wayne sez
  

  “In the next big cosmic event for DC, the Spectre will be taken down first.”

  Well, I guess it’s sorta like the old Star Trek series, where the transporter would go out, and Kirk and the gang couldn’t just beam out of their problems. Taking the Spectre out of the picture certainly prevents an easy fix to whatever’s going on. I am sort of curious what spurred on this prediction, though. Care to elaborate?

• Jeff R. reveals
  

  “Secret Six won’t last through more than half of 2011. However, we’ll get a new Suicide Squad monthly immediately after the cancellation.”

  Secret Six’s sales have been solid enough, so this would kind of surprise me. But I totally expect another Suicide Squad series at some point.

  “Hellblazer will get its final regular writer in 2011, starting a 15-20 issue arc that leads into the final issue, #300 in ’12.”

  Wow, we are awfully close to #300, aren’t we? Hellblazer sales aren’t the strongest they’ve ever been, but it’s still Vertigo’s longest running and most-flagship-y of their series, so I imagine there’d be some resistance to retiring it.

  “Miracleman will be republished, and, in the case of book 2, completely redrawn from Moore’s original scripts. Marvel and Gaiman will try to get Rick Veitch to do that art job, but probably won’t manage to talk him into it.”

  I do hope it gets republished, since that’s what everyone is waiting for…and not reprints of the ’50s Marvelman. I’d hate to see Chuck Austen’s work redrawn, though (I’m assuming that’s the work you’re referring to)…it had a clean, quirky style that I really liked. Though I am always up for more Rick Veitch, regardless.

• MaxGRobinson declares
  

  “The last of DC’s Red Circle titles comes to an end. (unless that’s happened already?)”

  I think Mighty Crusaders appears to be the end of it, far as I remember. Ah, well.

  New Aquaman on-going spins out of Brightest Day. “

  DC keeps trying to make him work, so, yeah, I can see this happening. Which means we’ll never see a continuity-lite, kid-friendly version of the character ever again, which is a shame. “…In the comics,” I should add, because the Brave and the Bold cartoon version of Aquaman is awesome.

• Andrew Leal says…well, let me sum it up with “comics may come back to department stores are impulse buys,” citing their reappearances in Toys ‘R’ Us, and suggesting Target might next be an ideal place for this to happen. I certainly hope so…kids do love comics, but they have to be able to find them, first. I hope this prediction comes true.
  

  “Another long-running serial soap strip which most folks were only vaguely aware existed will die within the year (after Annie and Brenda Starr, my own money is on Judge Parker or Rex Morgan”

  Man, after Annie bit the dust, it seems like no one is safe, doesn’t it? Look out, Walt Wallet!

• Joe Schwind sez
  

  “Collisions between aging comic book artists and economic reality continue.”

  Sadly, this is almost certainly true. So folks, don’t forget The Hero Initiative, a charity for supporting comic creators in times of financial and medical distress.

• Ray reveals
  

  “The Tin-tin movie will not be a commercial hit. The Tin-tin movie videogame, however, will be great.”

  There’s a Tintin movie? (That probably answers the first prediction.)

• Mister Bile coughs up
  

  “[J. Michael Straczynski] is hired to ‘redefine’ yet another main comics character.”

  Well, that Earth One book wasn’t really all that good, but it sure sold well, and he wrote for television, you know, so I’m sure every company would be delighted to have him jump in and write, I don’t know, the Serious And Redefined for the Aughts Red Bee Comic Book.

  “Hawkman is rebooted.”

  Maybe he’ll get a new series out of Brightest Day, too. But good gravy, no more rebooting. I can barely make sense out of Hawkman as it is.

  “The next Spider-Man game will disappoint.”

  Does any superhero video game not disappoint? Every game gets people complaining about it.

• MichaelfromJamaicaNY foresees
  

  “I predict this Halloween will be extra freaky deaky, what with all the Thor family, and the grown women dressed as the 14 year old from True Grit, and the latex clad Trons, and the Black Swans, and the Tron Swans.
  Freaky. Deaky.”

  This will be on your head, MichaelfromJamaicaNY. YOUR HEAD.

• Steven E McDonald believes
  

  “Marvel finally caves in to the falling sales and ongoing hate and retcons the Spider-Marriage retcon, eliminating Carlie Cooper and fomenting the creation of the Carlie Cadre who boycott the revised book and spew venom at Marvel over this destruction of their Mary Sue.”

  I suspect that the re-retconning will happen sooner or later, which will, as you say, tick off somebody, because changing anything about a character at any time usually does.

  “We’ll see more original graphic novels, often set up like European albums. While DC will lead this trend in the Big Two, smaller publishers will expand upon the offerings they already have, with the result that Top Shelf will improve market share very nicely.”

  This sort of thing seems to happen a wee bit at a time…DC’s Earth One initiative is heading in this direction, but we have yet to see how a second in the series will do. But success with the smaller publishers will depend on how willing retailers will be, in this economy, to order original graphic novels that don’t feature familiar and marketable characters, which is about as shallow an insight as I can manage and still be considered sentient, I realize, but it’s likely true nonetheless. I mean, if a book is good and it catches on, it will sell, but it’s the “catching on” part that’s the real trick, and becoming increasingly difficult as the market consolidates.

  “Squirrel Girl will be the next big push. Not only will she get her own ongoing title and team membership in the Avengers, but a team-up book, and, in an attempt to broaden the market, a MAX romance book in which we’re treated to the erotic adventures of Squirrel Girl — just wait until you see what she can do with that tail!”

  You are a very bad person for even suggesting this. And yet, there’ll be a market for it.

  “During a DC panel at Comic-Con, during a convoluted explanation of his multiverse series, Grant Morrison begins to glow with an unearthly light, following this by ascending. Not dying. He simply becomes a Cosmic Consciousness on the spot. As can be imagined, this seriously complicates matters on a number of fronts.”

  The day is coming. Oh, yes.

  Speaking of which, the Internettings seems to have discovered this old post of mine with the Morrison promo poster again. Getting a lot of inbound links to this lately.

• Darius dares
  

  “All periodical comic books will cease publishing in 2011!”

  Well, that’s a dramatic prediction, at any rate! Hopefully that’s not one of those ironic predictions where, yes, monthly comics will end, but so will everything else, because a giant meteor will collide with the Earth, killing us all.

• londonKdS wraps up this batch of predictions with
  

  “Prediction I’ve been privately making for several years now: there will be a major controversy over some female Marvel/DC creator being caught doing erotic fanfic/fanart as a private commission or under a secret fan identity. Sexist fanboys will leap on this as what they wrongly think is a demonstration of the hypocrisy of feminist fangirls who attack oversexualisation in official canon, while the publisher involved will initially take harsh action against the person until people critique their hypocrisy given the tolerance of well-known male creators quietly doing erotic commissioned art of corporate-owned characters.”

I’m not sure what to say about that, except “erotic” commissions from superhero comic book artists are never not hilarious. But I can probably see the potential of a controversy of this sort breaking out, though ideally a publisher, if it takes a stand on this issue, should be even-handed about its policy regardless of the gender of the artist in question. (If a controversy does occur re: erotic commissioned art, it’ll be panicked dudes who are okay with drawings of Wonder Woman and Black Canary making out, but will freak if it’s Aquaman and the Flash making out.) (I am totally not Googling any of this, by the way.)

Okay, and that’s enough of that. Thanks for your patience, Ruinites, as I went through all these. And if I didn’t mention your prediction specifically, it’s because I hate you and everything you stand for. Especially you, Andres!

I notice that some of the repeated predictions generally involve DC’s $2.99 price point, and the whole digital download comics distribution thing, which tells me these are foremost on folks’ minds, so these will be the topics to watch over the coming year. Well, more the digital platform, where I expect a number of changes and refinements, whereas the $2.99 is more a matter of “how long can DC hold out without cutting more pages for finally just jumping back up to $3.99.”

Anyway, come back in a year and we’ll see how folks did. And if you feel like it, come back before then, because I might have some other posts on the site in the interim. And I promise, no more prediction posts ’til next year!

And then, suddenly: more predictions! (Part one of my commentary here). Again, not commenting on every single one, but I will return to them in a year to see how folks did!

• De declares
  

  “The summer superhero movies will perform well enough but not fantastically, causing studios to mine more past properties in hopes of making a quick buck (get ready for the Strawberry Shortcake movie in 2012!).”

  I think there’s probably some movement in that direct already, attempting to exploit the less-“name” properties to generate some real-world income outside the Superman/Spider-Man/Batman perennials. There’s talk of that TV show based on Teen Titans’ Raven, there may someday be an Ant Man movie, and so on. But too many second stringer comic book films like Punisher War Zone, The Spirit and Jonah Hex crashing and burning in the box office may be bit of a discouragement.

  “Marvel and DC will stop producing direct-to-video films as the public grows tired of the superhero genre.”

  Well, there will always be kids, and kids like superheroes (at least in animated form) so I think these may stick around for a while. There can be an oversaturation point, but I don’ t know that we’ve reached it yet. DC’s direct-to-DVD releases are about one every…four to six months, something like that. If they were monthly, that’d be a bit much.

  “The recently announced Carl Barks collections by Fantagraphics will receive public attention on the Today Show via Al Roker and become selections in Oprah’s Book Club. The widespread exposure of clever humor and commentary by 50-year old Donald Duck comics create a nationwide movement of crazy alternative-energy initiatives and treasure hunting.”

  De, I like the way you think. If more people read Donald Duck comics, the world would be a better place indeed.

• Googum gums
  

  “Green Lantern may have a harder climb for that: imagine a mythical ‘new reader’ bounding out of the GL movie and into, say, Blackest Night. No.”

  Yeah, that is a good point. None of the current Green Lantern titles are exactly inviting to the non-initiated, are they? I’ve already begun planning orders on the Green Lantern Showcase and Chronicles reprint volumes for anyone expressing interest in early GL material, though I hope I don’t have to explain the whole “Pieface” thing to anyone. The two Sinestro War volumes might be a good sampling of recent material.

• Matt remarks
  

  “My predictions for 2011, The Green Lantern movie will be critically panned, but commercially successful.”

  Yeah, probably. It looks cool, but will surely be your standard by-the-numbers, cliché-ahoy superhero flick.

  “The Superman books will reintroduce elements from the new krypton storylines.”

  Oh Lordy I hope not. After, what, two years of that hoohar? I’d be happy if they just reintroduced Superman to the Superman books. (Not a slam on the Luthor/Jimmy Action, which is a hoot.)

• Frowny frowns
  

  “At some point Grant Morrison will be done with Batman and then there will be incredibly ham handed attempts to return the character to the status quo in time for the new film.”

I think eventually that’s gonna happen, like I’ve noted at the end of this post, but Batman is kind of a special case. Batman’s one of those characters that doesn’t necessarily need to adhere to any particular interpretation, and in fact seems to invite reinterpretation…and, almost uniquely, this facet of the character is understood and accepted by most people encountering the character. I get the “this doesn’t look like Superman” or “what’s with Spider-Man’s costume” stuff all the time, but different versions of Batman seem to be taken in stride. (Though a very small percentage of people didn’t appreciate All Star Batman‘s genius, but we can safely ignore them.) Even the Batman and Robin “Dick is Batman, and there’s a different Robin” thing was pretty easily grasped by most people newly exposed to that title.

“For some stupid reason, Steve Rogers will be back in the Captain America costume in time for the new film.”

That’ll probably happen, if only because Marvel seems to be a little more self-conscious about that sort of thing.


• Wayne states
  

  “I honestly believe that each Earth-One GN will be terrible.”

  You’re right so far!

• Sanctum Sanctorum conjures
  

  “Marvel will go back to the MARVEL ZOMBIES pool one more time, this time utilizing Disney’s animatronic special effects wizardry for a live-action amusement park thrill ride (because ‘teh kidz’ just love rotting corpse versions of their favorite heroes).”

  I could totally see a remade Pirates of the Caribbean ride long these lines. Would probably traumatize every kid that went through it, though. (Or maybe delight every kid and traumatize every parent, more likely.)

  Seriously, I do expect a return to the Marvel Zombies thing in the comics at some point…maybe a full-on “Marvel Universe Vs. The Marvel Zombies” event, which seems like the only way for this oddball franchise to go at this point.

  “Mike Sterling will email me to tell me how much I owe him for the variant editions he obtained for me.”

  Nah, that Mike Sterling guy is a jerk. He’ll never do this.

• philip speaks up with
  

  “We’ll see the end of ‘events’ for a while and a return to good, long-form storytelling (okay, that’s really a “hope” more than a prediction and though it is unlikely, please just let me have this).”

  That would be nice, but don’t hold your breath.

  “There will be just enough new work from Los Bros Hernandez to make me wish there was more new work from them.”

  This is always true of every year.

  “DC will still not know what to do with Wonder Woman.”

  Sadly, also true of almost every year.

• Ben peeks into my dreams with
  

  “DC will guerrilla market a one-shot via leaked uncolored pages, wherein Swamp Thing returns to the main DCU, but he is wearing tights and is traveling across America with his perky goth girlfriend Death. The comics intarwebs will collapse upon itself in an orgasm of hate.”

  If only this would happen. If only.

• Dan Wars enters the battle with
  

  “By the end of 2011, the original Fantastic Four will be reunited. Duh!”

  And it will feel so good. But yeah, that’s pretty inevitable, I think. “Thanks for buying us for billions of dollars, Disney…don’t mind if we ‘permanently’ alter one of our properties, do you?”

• Greg Merritt merits a response with
  

  “Gin Genie will make her long-awaited return to the Marvel Universe.”

  I honestly had to look that up, because my brain immediately went to David Bowie’s “The Jean Genie,” and I couldn’t get that out of my head. But, yeah, any character whose Wiki entry reads “there was some indication that alcohol helped or increased her powers” probably needs to come back.

• Mr. A leaves no gray area by predicting
  

  “Without Dirk Deppey’s daily links roundup, traffic to TCJ.com will crash by at least 90%.”

  Well, I certainly hope not, as there’s still some quality material there, and the Fantagraphics blog is a fine place to start. But I think the internet will certainly miss Dirk Deppey’s fine linkblogging, if it hasn’t already.

• Gordon unleashes
  

  “Smaller, more independent press comics focusing on non-superhero fare will begin to become more prevalent and receive more press, since superhero comics will be seen more as ‘movies-in-the-making.'”

  That would be nice, but unfortunately, with the number of comics-friendly press outlets shrinking, and the competition for attention increasing, the press may focus on the big, loud and splashy versus the subtle and challenging. You know, unlike before.

  “The trend towards “graphic novels” made specifically to be turned into other media (30 Days of Night, anyone?) will increase, with a plethora of celebrity-driven “vanity projects” arising (one example – Ron Jeremy’s CAPTAIN HEDGEHOG)”

  First, that is the most horrible example you could have possibly made. Second…yeah, that’s a given, especially in this economy, where a nice fat TV or movie studio check would be quite welcome. And…I’m trying to think of some current celebrity comics, but am drawing a bit of a blank. …Is Turf by Jonathan Ross still happening? I don’t even remember. But I’m sure there will always be some marketplace presence of comic books with licensed celebrity names attached to them, even if, as of late, it doesn’t really seem to help sales that much. Oh, wait, I just remembered…one of those guys from Heroes had a comic book, too. Is that still going? I should probably check.

  “The repeated use of ironic quotation marks, ‘…,’ ‘anyone”’and ‘meh’ will gradually fade, as more articulate comics/pop culture aficionados emerge online, thereby causing nerd critical sites (and Mike Sterling’s Empire 4.0 tumbler thingie) to disappear.”

  That would be Estate 4.1, thank you, and alas, “meh” is a blight that will never fade.

  “Next franchise for DC to exploit: Joel Schumaker’s SWAMP THING. (Sorry, Mike)”

  Would still totally see it.

  “Dan DiDio and Brian Bendis will both wrestle a bear at a convention…and lose.”

  Better get my bear costume drycleaned.

  “Finally, Mike Sterling will still be seen as the greatest comics blogger in the multiverse.”

  Well, naturally.

And on that point, I’d better stop for the day. Yes, that means there will be a third part to this. I’m very sorry.