predictions

Okay, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment early tomorrow morning, so your pal Mike needs to turn in and get some beauty sleep…but before I do, let’s try to do a few more of your 2018 predictions. (Part One was Monday, in case you missed it.) Also, special note to Max T: reader Allan covered the extra two predictions I didn’t, because he’s a nice guy whilst I’m cruel and heartless.

Okay, off to the races:

Thom H. had this to say

“DC or Marvel will attempt a new floppy format that is more pages for a relatively inexpensive price point (with cheaper paper stock or something). It will fail almost immediately, even though I love it.”

Well, DC did those 100-pagers for Walmart at $5 a pop, I suppose that counts. I presume they’re still doing okay, though as far as I know they’re still not at any of the 38 local Walmarts here.

“Brian K. Vaughan will start writing a new series at Image that everyone will go crazy for. It’s been a while since the last one, right?”

I think he just has to be satisfied with the immensely-successful Saga and Paper Girls, unless there’s something I’m missing. Maybe there’s a secret Boof and the Bruise Crew revival he’s working on.

“DC will put Tom King on a Superman book. I will definitely buy it and feel happy.”

Tom King wrote a story in Action #1000! So, you know, half a point there!

• • •
jobcab pulls up to the curb with the following

“My predictions re lame, but then so am I …”

Hey, everyone who participates in my yearly prediction nonsense here is a champion…a champion, I say! Specifically, The Champion of the Universe.

“There will be the faintest wisp of a reference to the Fantastic Four made in the new Avengers movie.”

I wouldn’t have put it past Marvel, but…I don’t recall one. There’s this claim, but it appears to be bit of a..well, stretch.

“Doctor Aphra will actually be announced as a character in the next ‘off year’ Star Wars movie.”

That would be an interesting development, to be sure, for one of the characters developed for the comics making the jump to the screen. It’s happened before, with the Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Secura appearing in the prequel trilogy after being created for the Dark Horse Comics Expanded Universe stuff. In that case, that basically amounted to a cameo, versus a starring role, but still, interesting. Not sure how many more “off year” Star Wars movies we’re going ot get after Solo, though.

“We’ll finally see the first of those new Neil Gaiman Miracleman stories we were supposed to get (then didn’t) so long ago.”

A popular prediction! Alas, not yet…hopefully through the sheer combined force of will of my readers, we can make it happen!

• • •
William Burns comes in hot with

“Disney loses patience with Marvel Comics’s underperformance and kicks out the guys who came up in Marvel to replace them with Disney people.”

Surprisingly, no, but you gotta wonder about Disney on one hand, consolidating their streaming efforts under their own brand, while letting Marvel comics get licensed out to other publsihers.

“Brian Bendis’s first DC comic is a Batman comic and sells very well, but six months later the sales are about where they were pre-Bendis.”

He is writing a Batman story for those aforementioned Walmart giants, but as we all know now, he’s the Superman guy. I will note that Bendis Superman sales, after an initial high peak, are beginning to crawl back down to about where they were (at least for me).

“JH Williams returns to comics with either a Vertigo or Young Animal miniseries.”

Looks like he has a big project coming from Image called Echolands, but it’s not on the schedule just yet. He’s also worked on a couple of other things this year, such as contributing to the benefit book for victims of the Las Vegas shooting, and this illustrated Dracula book for Kindle readers.

• • •
ScienceGiant violates the square-cube law with

“Still no new issues of Miracleman.

Well, that’s one way to get a hit on a Miracleman prediction around these here parts.

“‘The Winds of Winter’ will finally be published. GRRM remains a critical darling, but the overall GoT cultural impact continues to collapse.”

Doesn’t seem like it…I don’t really keep up on Game of Thrones stuff, but I presume if it had come out, then my Amazon search for it would have basically blown a trumpet in my face declaring “HERE IT IS, BUY IT, BUY IT.” But the cultural influence seems to still be there…seems like I keep seeing it referenced and discussed all over the place. Oh, you kids and your dragons and your thrones and all that.

“Progressive Ruin continues to be THE stalwart site of funny books blogging! 3 cheers for Mike in 2018.”

Sadly, I ended the blog in early 2018. Sorry, everyone.

• • •
Hooray for Gooba celebrates the following

“The Disney-Fox deal will result in the return of the priginal Fantastic Four to the comic as they gear up for a new movie.”

I’m sure it didn’t hurt. But hey, at least FF is back on the shelves, it’s actually pretty good, and hey, it’s still selling for me (even with the occasional stupidly-high price points).

“Squirrel Girl continues to be the most delightful book on the shelves.”

I’m going to say “yes, this is correct.”

“Marvel will announce either a Great Lakes Avengers or Damage Control movie or tv show.”

A Damage Control TV show was announced as “in development” in 2015, but it doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere. However, a version of Damage Control is kinda/sorta in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, so I guess that’ll have to do.

Now, the Great Lakes Avengers…much as I’d love to see Flatman in live action, I don’t think we’ve got any movies or TV shows a’comin’. That’s just leaving money on the table, Marvel.

• • •
Okay, time for bed! For me, not you, unless it is bedtime for you when you’re reading this. Back Friday with more prediction coverage! And don’t forget to leave your 2019 predictions right here!

Hello, Chloe, whaddaya knowie? Well, it’s time once again for the hottest segment in comics blogging, Snack Situation that bit where I look at your predictions from the previous year and see how close some of you got. There’s a lot of them, so everyone hang in there as I get through them all over the next, oh, seven or eight months or so. And don’t forget, if you want to get in on the 2019 predictions fun, here’s where you go to do so!

Okay…knuckles: cracked, deep breath: taken, loins: girded — so let’s get down to business!

Adam Farrar sees far with

“The still unnamed DC streaming service will not only include their tv shows/movies but also old comics as DC’s answer to Marvel Unlimited.”

Indeed the now-named DC Universe does! It’s not a huge selection, and sometimes they rotate things in and out…no idea what Marvel’s selection is like, but there seems to be plenty to read on DC’s service. But there’s weird stuff like only having one issue of DC Comics Presents, which kind of disappointed me. And I keep hoping they’ll add the old Metal Men comics. I’ve been having fun reading the early Silver Age Green Lantern!

“Neil Gaiman & Mark Buckingham’s Miracleman comics start coming out again. (I’ll keep predicting this and some year it’s bound to come true… right?)”

Keep on predictin’, Adam…maybe someday!

“Legion season 2 will reveal that the character that captured David at the end of the first season is Nanny (the egg-shaped one, not Magneto’s robot). Six months later the character will return to comics in an attempt to capitalize on the show.”

I watched, like, part of the premiere episode way back when, but that’s about it. So, I had to do some deep, deep research (i.e. Googling) to discover, alas, no Nanny egg in the series, which would have had me catching up right quick. The Legion character does appear to have returned to the X-books however, so you get part credit!

• • •

Rich Handley apes my style with

“A fourth Watchmen miniseries will be announced, this time involving the actual Charlton characters on which they were based.”

Sadly, no such animal was announced, though maybe once DC starts Rorschach Team-Up after the conclusion of Doomsday Clock, maybe they can appear there.

“A Swamp Thing movie will be announced, and John Constantine will be in it.”

No movie, but a TV show for DC’s streaming service…and I don’t know if Constantine will be in it, but Blue Devil surely will!

“Scarlett Johansson will finally admit her love for me, and my wife will be fully in favor of the pairing”

I ain’t touchin’ this one.

• • •

Signal Watch chimes in with

“Marvel (Comics) will try a lot of things, but not quite get their act together in 2018. Maybe solicits for early 2019 will show promise.”

Well…I mean, this is a matter of opinion, I guess. A step forward for every step back, as it were. A lot of nice work and some good books, and then some questionable decisions (too many $5.99 and $7.99 comics for my taste).

“Someone, somewhere, in writing about comics will write legitimate criticism about the actual content in a comic in a reasoned, rational manner, and not at all about the industry and their personal grinding axe. Ha ha ha. Just kidding.”

Why start now? …Okay, okay, I know there’s some good comics criticism out there, some even not by me, so it’s out there if you look, amongst the listicles and the comic news about movies that have nothing to do with comics.

“Red shorts at 1000”

Detective #1000 hasn’t come out yet, so I have no idea if Batman will get red trunks or not.

• • •

Jeff R. rites

“A character from the Watchmen universe gets an ongoing title spinning out of Doomsday Clock.”

Not just yet, but I’m betting this will happen too. (Dare I type “Rorschach Team-Up” again?)

“Agents of SHIELD cancelled, replaced with a network TV Miles Morales:Spider-Man show.”

Surprisingly, not cancelled! And we got Miles in a movie, so I guess that’ll do. Bet there’s a cartoon show eventually, though.

“Something will go horribly wrong with the Vertigo 25th Anniversary hardcover, requiring pulped books and digital version airbrushing if not outright cancellation.”

When I read this a year ago, I was thinking “What could go wrong? They accidentally print the ‘Swamp Thing meets Jesus’ story?” Well, something went wrong, because it’s currently marked “CANCELLED” in its listing in the Diamond retailer site, with no resolicitation in the system. …A surprisingly good call!

• • •
Jerry Smith rigs the following

“Marvel will veer slightly away from political controversy in their comics under the new EIC, but sales will not drastically improve. They will not return to legacy characters.”

Hmm…the thing with Marvel is, despite what some too-online folks try to argue, Marvel tends to have at least a thin veneer of politics ingrained into its DNA. I mean, sure, some of it was “hey, the kids are into ‘the protesting,’ let’s put some protesters on our covers,” but there was a lot of heartfelt political expression going on as well, especially in Marvel’s ’70s books.

So…honestly, I don’t think there’s been much of a change so far, except maybe being a little less exploitative of current events. But as far as “controversy” goes…for some people out there, even just having a superhero comic starring a woman is “politically controversial,” so there’s always going to be some dudes out there with a vein throbbing in their forehead mashing at their keyboards.

But yes, some legacy characters have returned. The original Thor’s back, and Tony Stark is kicking around again, but that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

“DC will become more political and offer more controversial storylines. Neither company will appeal to long-term fans.”

Hadn’t really noticed too much of a change, at least with overt political themes. I mean, sure, there’s the inherently political idea of “man with power exerting influence over his inferiors” which, um, maybe you don’t want to really think about when trying to enjoy superhero comics. But mainly, the controversies at DC seem more to arise from things like Doomsday Clock, which is more from “is this trip really necessary?” versus the semi-political content it attempts to contain.

Both companies, however, do still struggle with readership issues, but I’d argue that’s a result the vagaries of their ‘NEW FIRST ISSUE!”/reboots/relaunches ahoy publishing strategies than anything else.

“The Black Panther movie will be awesome.”

You, my friend, are 110% correct.

• • •
Gordon pals around with

“Citing the popularity of its CW-themed shows, DC Entertainment will spin off at least one (ARROW) into its own theatrical release”

DC could do worse than trying this, but it hasn’t happened yet. I expect if this will ever happen, it’ll be after the show in question leaves the air. Arrow is a solid contender for this sort of thing, however!

“Marvel may ‘pull back’ with its movie efforts after INFINITY WAR, citing potential fatigue as well as internal turmoil”

I don’t think so…I feel like there’s still plenty comin’ down the pike. That money ain’t slowing down!

Speaking of the CW, we will see another SWAMP THING series in our lifetime. However, Swamp Thing will have a team of associates who help him fight the Parliament of Trees on a weekly basis.

As noted above, we are getting a Swamp Thing TV show, but on DC’s own streaming service, not the CW. And yes, like I said, Blue Devil will be there helping Swampy fight swamp crime!

• • •
Gareth Wilson menaces me with

“The X-Men comics will explicitly abandon the idea that mutants represent real-world opressed minorities. They’l become just superheroes with a common origin.”

Okay, to be honest, I haven’t read X-Men books in a while (is Beak still on the team?) but I don’t think this happened. I invite corrections…on this, nothing else, I’m right about everything else!

“To control the cast size, the 2018 crossover between the CW DC superhero shows will involve only female characters.”

While that’s a pretty great idea, not this year, alas! I think it’d be a hoot! But it’d probably be called, like, “LADIES NIGHT” and that Kool and the Gang song would play through it the whole ti–wait, hold on, I just made the idea more awesome.

“In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos will cure Bruce Banner, rendering him incapable of transforming into the Hulk.”

Something happened, to be sure, and it may have been caused by his interaction with Thanos, but probably not a “cure” per se. HALF POINT TO GARETHDOR

ª ª ª
Mike Neisen rates me with

“Still no new Showcase Presents volumes, and most importantly, no Showcase Presents Sugar and Spike.”

Don’t tell me you missed all 24 new volumes of Showcase Presents this year? Showcase Presents Scribbly, and Showcase Presents Spanner’s Galaxy, and Showcase Presents Claw the Unconquered, and Showcase Presents Inferior 5, and Showcase Presents Congo Bill and all those? But yeah, you’re right, still no Sugar and Spike.

• • •
Hassan Alamdari chops up the following

“A Shazam ongoing late in the year”

You, friend, are The Correct.

“half of the books spinning out of metal won’t last pass issues 10”

Most of them made it past #10, though a few are going away soon. Just so long as they don’t take away my Terrifics!

“over 5 books that I love will be cancelled too soon.”

If you loved New Super-Man, Gwenpool, Trinity, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, X-Men Gold and The Simpsons, I have bad news for you.

• • •
Max T has BROKEN APE LAW and gone over the 3-prediction limit! I will address three of them chosen completely at random, honest, no foolin’

“The Fantastic Four will come back to Marvel, but not before the very end of the year.”

They did come back, but it was more middle-ish of the year, kinda. Still, a good prediction!

“Valiant will still put out the best superhero comics not based on characters created to entertain children, but no new people will take notice.”

“The best,” of course, is a matter of opinion…if someone thinks they’re the best, then more power to ’em and we can call it a hit for you! But yeah, they’re not, shall we say, strong sellers, at least for me. They do have a loyal audience, though, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

“One of the long-running CW superhero shows will call it quits. I’m thinking ‘Arrow.’”

None of them are canned yet, I think, but I would suspect one of them isn’t long for this world.

• • •
Okay, that’s enough for now. Tune in next time, same Mike-time, same Mike-channel, for more of your 2018 predictions! And don’t forget to give me your 2019 predictions while there’s still some 2019 left!

As I predicted on this very website only about two posts ago, today is Gimme Yer Predictions Day, as I ask you, The Folks What Still Read The Comics Blogs, for your comic book industry predictions for this coming year of 2019 (possibly to go down in future history books as “The Burning Times,” but we’ll see).

If you’ve got any predictions, share ’em in the comments for this post, but remember, the rules are, as always:

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, please! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, ONLY THREE! My fingers are already tired just from looking at all the predictions I have to cover from last time. And don’t do, like, “here’s Part B of Question #3, which has two subsections” etc., or I’ll get you, and your little dog Toto, too.

After the first of the year, barring any lingering eyeball health issues, I’ll get crackin’ on that aforementioned last batch of predictions for 2018, so consider that your fair warning.

Thanks, pals…every year you folks come through for me on these posts and it’s greatly appreciated! Always remember that all of you are a big part of why this site is still around and still a lot of fun for me to do!
 
 

Web of Mystery #19 (July 1953) – art by Jim McLaughlin

As promised, though slightly delayed: I’ll be going back and responding to your responses to my posts covering your 2017 predictions (as seen in parts 2017 predictions (parts one two three four five and six). Thanks for your patience, everyone, and we’re almost done, I promise!

First, I should note I already did direct responses edited into the original text of that part one I just linked above, so go back and check those out if you haven’t already.

Now, to part two:

In response to the whole “next big comics death” thing, David Alexander McDonald noted:

“Black Widow bought the farm in Secret Empire, didn’t she? Also, Rick Jones, not that we care.”

Well, yeah, but there wasn’t any kind of overwhelming, or even halfhearted, media reaction…there was barely any ripple even in the usual comics news sources. Man, I didn’t even know about the whole Rick Jones thing. It appears either the “kill ’em off for sales and attention” thing is itself killed off, or the characters didn’t warrant the attention. Even when they “killed” Bruce Banner, general response was, like, “…eh.”

JD says, regarding Marvel moving titles to biweekly:

“Marvel did make several of its titles biweekly without much fanfare: X-Men Gold, X-Men Blue, Guardians of the Galaxy (the last of which has already been cancelled for a retooling)”

Okay, fair enough, but in my defense Marvel’s release schedule of many of their titles has been relatively wacky since the Bill Jemas era. You know, the “soon as they’re ready, get ’em on the shelves” strategy which may not have been their intention, but that’s pretty much how it worked out. For a while there on the site I was regularly complaining about supposedly monthly titles cranking out three issues in four weeks. I probably didn’t register any of Marvel’s current titles as being on a consistent biweekly schedule so much as them being on the “whenever” release pattern.

Paul suggests, per my comments about “mainstream” comic releases:

“Regarding ‘a mainstream comic mag may launch,’ not sure if you’d conside these 2 items relevant.”

I think may answer was more in regards to “mainstream” as in “regularly read by large audiences,” rather than specifically to content. I mean, the two items you link to would be good general interest comics publications, but they’re probably going to still require people going to comic shops versus grabbing off the rack at the local supermarket. But, y’know, can’t succeed unless you try, and I hope they succeed.

• • •
From Part the Third:

Turan provides a correction to the credits for “Seasons in the Sun” which I’ll just link to here. …You never know where these prediction posts will go!

Rob London rebuts my assertion about not calling Marvel’s Star Wars character Jaxxon a rabbit with

“You *can* call Jaxxon a rabbit – rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents.”

Well, he still probably wouldn’t like that…and I was all ready to blame Roy Thomas, but looking back at the full page I pulled that panel from, he was responding to someone who did call him a “rodent,” so let’s all blame that guy for doing so!

Michael tells a tale out of school in relation to my wondering why the preexisting Marvel villain called “Trump” hasn’t popped up recently:

“Mike, it so happens I was advising a Marvel author who needed a villain for their story and suggested Trump would fit their purpose. They loved the character’s gimmicks, but the idea was shot down because of his name – which I hadn’t even considered when I promoted him.

“Whatever happened to the good ol’ days when everybody wanted Gerald Ford to be their super-villain?”

Jack POOONGs

“For my money, ‘Then…KOREA’ is the best running gag this site has. POOONG!”

Jack, I will have to agree with you. I love that amazing panel. I’ll see if I can’t find a way to bring it back more often than, say, once every four or five years.

• • •
Part four, ahoy!

Papa Lazarou wondered, regarding my reference to a negative review of the Yoe Books reprint projects:

“Where can I find this?”

Already answered in the comments there, but thought I’d do a direct link here. (As I write this, images aren’t showing up there, but maybe it’s a temporary thing.) Now personally, I enjoy the Yoe Books comics, though I can certainly understand the reviewer’s issues with them.

• • •
Fit the fifth:

Gareth Wilson follows up on his own prediction (about a new rural white character who specifically isn’t a stereotypical racist etc. jerk) with

“I realised after posting about the rural character that he’s just Cannonball.”

Not new by any means, but, yeah, he probably fits the criteria. That Sam Guthry’s not a bad fella.

• • •
And now, Six:

It’s Turan again, explaining why “Thing ring, do your thing!” will likely not turn up again (and yes, Turan knows he’s responding to a joke with a very serious answer, which I of course encourage):

“Given that the ‘Thing Ring’ cartoon was a Hanna-Barbera production (as indicated by the show’s actual title, ‘Fred and Barney Meet the Thing’), and given that often the rights to a character or idea introduced in an adaptation remain with the company that produced the adaptation rather than with the owners of the original property, or at least are shared by the parties (this, to give an example that will probably mean nothing to most of your readers, is why Nikki Porter was not a character in the 1970s Ellery Queen TV series)–given that, I suspect that a ‘Thing Ring’ TV series would require the collaboration not only of Disney/Marvel and Fox, but also of Time Warner (which owns Hanna Barbera now).

Of course, Time Warner also owns DC Comics. I don’t know, but I suspect that if the people who own Marvel and the people who own DC ever do get together to make a comics-based TV series or movie, ‘Benjy Grimm and His Thing Ring’ will probably be low on the list of ideas considered.”

Yes, I reposted the entire explanation, because it’s amazing. Thanks Turan!

And that’s pretty much all I had to add this time around (except going back to part six got me to fix a stupid typo that blew one of my jokes…”INVINCIBLE,” not “INVISIBLE,” dummy!)

Thanks to all of you for your participation, and I’ll see you all back here next year when it’s time to look at your 2018 predictions!

And, um, hopefully I’ll see you later this week when the website resumes normal broadcasting!

Okay, here it is, the last installment of looking back at your 2017 predictions (parts one two three four five)! Well, there’s still one more part looking at your reactions to the last few posts, but the national nightmare is almost over! Thanks for sticking with me through this annual trek of mine.

Also, if you want to be part of the adventure next year, throw in your 2018 predictions here, even though we’re about 1/12th of the way through 2017 already.

LET’S GO PREDICTIN’ NOW:

Andrew sends me off on a true life adventure with

“Marvel reacquires at least some Fantastic Four rights, and revives Benjy Grimm of ‘Thing Ring, do your thing’ fame/infamy as a Netflix show.”

As you might have heard, Disney may be getting some of their properties back for film use via their Fox deal (barring any legal blocking of said deal), so we may actually see new FF or X-Men movies in the eventual future. …I’m going to guess that, sadly, the Thing Ring will not make a reappearance.

“Some sort of live-action Crisis or Convergence or Zero Hour happens to merge the CW shows because Berlanti finally figures out that Earth-1 should not be a world without a Superman. Swamp Thing will play a pivotal role.”

If they keep getting John Constantine cameos on the CW shows, maybe Swamp Thing will turn up someday. But for your main prediction…we actually did get a “Crisis” story on-screen, involving multiple Earths, which still seems impossible despite having watched it with my own eyes. No merging of parallel universes just yet, but if we recall our first season Flash episodes, there was that newspaper from the future that had an article about a “Crisis” event, red skies an’ all. So, yeah, I imagine sooner or later we’ll get all our characters living together on Earth-CW, but maybe not for a while.

“The Goldsman/Liefeld deal results in a Supreme movie heavily inspired by Alan Moore’s work. It will make all the money, and heads at Time Warner will roll. Fanboys will be confused when director Joss Whedon or Quentin Tarantino aim the camera so that Suprema’s feet are in every shot.”

Nothin’ yet, though I’d love to see how people react to an Alan Moore-inspired Supreme film. It would likely require replacing Silver Age Superman nostalgia as its building blocks for…I don’t know, Christopher Reeve nostalgia? Any way they do it, it’ll be weird. And your comment about the focus on feet…I’m going to read that as a comment about Liefeld’s apparent reticence for drawing feet, and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE.

• • •
Philippe Leblanc wires me the following

“Legion of Superheroes will become the latest DC/CW TV show. People walk in comic shops to buy the latest Legion comics only to find confusing reprints of former series instead.”

Close…we got a small intro of them just before the end of the year in Supergirl, but didn’t get a full-on appearance ’til this year. Haven’t seen much in-store interest in Legion stories, but yeah, aside from the occasional one-off appearance (like the Bugs Bunny or Scooby-Doo crossovers), just a handful of reprint books are available. Bad time to not have an ongoing Legion comic at least for the already-buying-comics folks who might have picked it up if they saw it on the shelf.

“Marvel’s dropping of digital codes drives regular audience away. In order to revitalize sales, Marvel begins releasing exclusive Pogs to drum up sales. It’s a major success leading to a huge Pogs revival.”

Dropping those codes did annoy a few customers…a lot of folks who still liked getting the physical editions enjoyed having the digital codes to put the books on their electronical doohickeys, and removing the codes did damage the perceived value of the books. Thankfully Marvel did reverse the decision before they had to initiate the Pog Directives.

“DC Comics launches a new comic called ‘Swamp Thing & friends.’ The first issue features Swampy investigating a comic stealing crime that leads him directly to Sterling comics. Mike Sterling makes a cameo in a Swamp Thing comic. Swampy’s catches the crook too late and the owner of Sterling comics is killed. Swampy, in an act of kindness take Sterling to becomes part of the green, makes him immortal. They hang out regularly during the course of the series, doing all sorts of fun activities like canoeing, camping, having fondue and talking about the thing Swamp Thing likes the most, himself!”

• • •
Jerry Smith rigs these up

“Marvel’s sales slide will increase, with fans rejecting their pushing of classic characters into the background for new PC versions. Marvel will ignore this and figure the problem is that they’re not replacing enough classic characters.”

If anything, Marvel seems to have decided the opposite, given some statements here and there. However, a good case has been made that the problems Marvel has been facing are more endemic to their ongoing business practices more than to their attempts at attracting new audiences.

“An Image comic will get a movie deal.”

Wasn’t sure, so I did a quick Googling, and this was the top result. So yes, an Image-published comic did indeed score a movie deal! A couple more of ’em are listed here, though I’m wondering what they’re going to call the Invincible movie since there was already a film by that name in 2006. “The Invincible Chronicles?” “Invincible Man?” “LET’S GET INVINCIBLE?”

“A Planet of the Apes/Sugar & Spike crossover will be announced.”

“Gbtlz spzts!”

“GASP! The human babies spoke…um, I think!”

• • •
David Alexander McDonald farmed up these

“DC will see another show canceled with POWERLESS flopping on the No Bugger Cares channel. It won’t matter; there’ll be another 12 new DC shows by the end of 2017. On the publishing front, the two-year Rebirth overarc will be looking pretty ridiculous by June as Geoff Johns and his team of trained gerbils try to explain it all. The DC Omnibus program will gain traction and do well. A fanatical group will rise up with Superman’s Red Trunks as its banner.”

Those are a lot of predictions squeezed into here, David, so let’s see: Powerless did die, which is too bad since it started to get pretty good; not 12 shows, but the numbers are slowly increasing; we’re getting the wrap-up to the 2-year arc now so we’ll see how it goes; Omnibus program still exists, so close enough for horseshoes; “fans,” for short. (For shorts! Ha, get it, because…okay, fine.)

“Marvel will continue to pump out omnibus volumes of *everything*. Ike Perlmutter will be eaten by Washington. Marvel’s books will continue to be schizophrenically split between the endless restarts that go thuddy thud thud and the cute, funny, clever books like Ms.Marvel and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Marvel’s movies continue to do well, and some do great, but the non-Netflix TV shows will continue to have issues (although LEGION will get a lot of positive attention) with INHUMANS going down to ignominious doom despite the IMAX opening.”

Yes; pretty much; ain’t that the truth; nailed the movie/TV thing.

“Dan Slott will move into a penthouse in Las Vegas, never again to be seen by most men. Reports will periodically come out that he’s lying naked on a bed, watching ICE STATION ZEBRA over and over.”

Now you got me here at the house, late at night, thinking about Naked D. Slott. ARE THERE NO END TO YOUR CRIMES, DAVID ALEXANDER MCDONALD.

(Nothing personal against Mr. Slott, who I am sure is a perfectly acceptable naked person…DAMMIT, DAVID, LOOK AT THESE THINGS YOU MAKE ME TYPE)

• • •
Dan (presumably not Mr. Slott) contributes

“The sleeper hit of the summer 2017 blockbuster season is a gritty live action reimagining of ‘WordGirl.’ Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy becomes Public Enemy Number One after killing Captain Huggyface with a meat slicer.
In 2018 it sweeps the Oscars, winning the Big Five.”

Okay, had to look all that up because for a second there I thought our friend Dan had some kind of seizure. I vaguely recalled Wordgirl, and sure enough, those other characters exist too. Frankly, I think we’re still too soon on the ironic dark reboot of the property…the kids who watched that in the 2000s probably still need a few more years to get into positions of power in the entertainment industry. I suspect the fanfiction may be way ahead of them, however.

• • •
Anthony puts all this to a merciful end with

“Marvel won’t do any crossovers with other companies.”

Well, maybe not in the way you mean it, but Marvel teamed up with Archie Comics to get some digests into supermarkets via Archie’s ancient distribution deal. And, well, this almost happened, but probably also not what you meant.

“Even though fans will want one, there will still not be a solo Swamp Thing animated movie. (REALLY hoping I’m wrong)”

Ol’ Swampy’s been turning up in various animated places, so we’re probably closer than ever to this actually happening soon!

“The rights for the comics of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street will continue to remain lost.”

Does seem weird that it’s been a while since either of these properties have turned up on the stands. At the very least, I’d like a reprint of Marvel’s black and white Nightmare on Elm Street magazine (written by Steve Gerber) since I sold my copies off like a dummy. Ah, well, if no one’s planning on comics based on these properties right this moment, I’m sure they will be again soon. Licenses like these come back from the dead fairly often, appropriately enough.

• • •
Well, looks like that was it! Thanks for reading and contributing, pals, and I’ll have one final post following up on some of your more recent comments reacting to these last few entries. See you all on Friday!

Previous installments: one two three four

Covering: your 2017 predictions

Enter: your 2018 predictions here

LET’S CONTINUE:

Gareth Wilson volleys

“A high-schooler teacher on a Marvel movie or TV show will irritably demand to know where Kamala Khan or Miles Morales is. Not necessarily the Spider-Man movie.”

Well, a little Googling and Wikipedia-ing reveals that, yes, there was a deleted scene from the Spider-Man: Homecoming film that references Miles Morales. Can’t seem to find anything similar for Ms. Khan, but both Ms. Marvel and the Miles Spider-Man have made direct appearances in cartoons, so, you know, there’s that.

“A new Marvel or DC character will be introduced who is white and from a working-class rural background. They will be firmly established as not racist, sexist, or homophobic.”

Can’t think of any specific examples, but sure, why not. I don’t know that they’d have been established as not having those traits, but, y’know, so long as they’re not explicitly shown as mocking Norwegians, chasing secretaries around desks, and hatin’ on gays, that’s at least something.

“Some kind of Green Lantern adaptation – comic, movie, or TV show – will emphasise the Lanterns as law enforcement officers, and implicitly criticise other superheroes as irresponsible vigilantes.”

Well, the Green Lanterns as space cops thing’s been in the comics for a while now, but I can’t recall any kind of in-story comparison/conflict/reading that pushes the GL Corps as being superior to superpowered vigilantes. It’s probably come up at some point, but don’t recall any major storylines of late where that was a plot point.

• • •
Michael Grabowski hands off

“Full frontal face-to-face interaction between Watchmen and DCU characters within the DCU continuity, but then the characters will be back to separate universes with new ongoing Watchmen-related comics.”

“Full frontal,” indeed…I see what you did there. The Doomsday Clock series is just barely underway, and the meetings of characters are only just beginning. Well, there was that Batman/Flash “The Button” story where Reverse-Flash seemingly meets Dr. Manhattan, but that was all off-panel. I think the real meat of this crossover has yet to be rev…er, maybe I should rephrase that.

I do expect follow-ups on Doomsday Clock with Watchmen characters, but totally in DCU continuity. C’mon, they’d have to be, for no other reason than to drive people crazy.

“President Trump, or presidential characters inspired by him, will play a significant role in the present-day continuties of both Marvel and DCU comics.”

Pretty much avoided ol’ Trumpy in their comics. Like I said in a previous installment of these Prediction posts, indie comics seem to have it covered.

“The 40th anniversary of Cerebus the Aardvark #1 will result in renewed interest in the character and the restored editions of the trade volumes in spite of Dave Sim’s ongoing awkward and amibivalent approach to promoting his work.”

There have been several Cerebus-related comics this year…all reprints of his webstrip Cerebus in Hell, featuring Our Favorite Aardvark in essentially clipart form, pasted over Gustave Doré illustrations from Dante’s Inferno. I don’t know if there’s been increased interest in Cerebus of late…I’ve only sold a few volumes since I’ve opened my store, period, though I’ve seen some chatter about it online here and there. At least it’s still being discussed, 15+ years after it wrapped up!

• • •
Dave Carter has Yet Another set of predictions

“DC’s summer event, which will feature the Watchmen characters (or some derivation thereof) interacting with the DCU. will meet with derision and general condemnation by fans online, yet still sell very well.”

The actual event, Doomsday Clock, didn’t start ’til almost the end of the year. but it is selling very well despite negative online reaction. In-store reaction has been mostly positive. The same goes for the earlier mini-event “The Button,” which was closer to spring than summer, but sort of had the same reaction.

“Ms. Marvel collections will continue to be one of Marvel’s best-selling items, with a huge portion of their sales (at least 50%) coming from outside comic shops.”

A couple of articles on Marvel’s slumping sales (early in the year, and later) both emphasize Ms. Marvel’s high trade sales…how much is from outside the direct market, I’m not sure, but it’s likely a not-insignificant amount.

“A third-tier comics publisher will attempt to jump on the Trump bandwagon by publishing comics designed to appeal to the so-called alt-right.”

There was some talk and fundraising along these lines, but it was pretty late in the year and so nothing’s out quite yet. You can read a little about it here.

• • •
Tim B. supplies

“Geoff Johns’s New Years Day tweet with the close up of Dr Manhattan actually relates to his 12 issue magnum opus entitled Northampton that involves an up & coming comic book writer going mad touring the Midlands and encountering a lot of characters from the works of Alan Moore in a biting criticism of mass market pop cultures as a distraction against the random chaos of the universe. Moore’s grumbling can be heard from the International Space Station…”

Alas, Geoff Johns’ LARGE DIGITS did not see the light of day.

“The DCEU films will continue to make mistakes that they rectify in the next film, only to produce new, different mistakes attaining an asymptotic relationship to the platonic ideal of super-hero films.”

Well, in my opinion, the Justice League film addressed the criticisms that previous DC films were too dark by giving us a fun adventure. But yes, it had its problems…nothing new, just the same old “villain is evil because he’s evil” motivation. Whether that problem can be fixed in the next film is more an issue with big-budget action movie production as a whole than just DC superhero movies. We’ll see.

“The Inhumans continue to not be a thing, for the 52nd year running…”

(sigh) Yeah….

• • •
Adam Farrar goes too far with

“DC doesn’t think to put out a comic to capitalize on The Lego Batman Movie. Maybe some cover variants, but no comics.”

No comics, or even variants…unless you count the variants from a couple of years ago that fooled some people into thinking they actually were Lego comics. There were a few kids books, at least.

“Neil Gaiman & Mark Buckingham’s Miracleman comics start coming out again.”

That would have been nice. Been waiting for a follow-up on that cliffhanger for decades.

“Kurt Busiek & John Paul Leon’s ‘Batman: Creature of the Night’ finally comes out.”

Indeed it did, just under the wire!

• • •
Jeff R. wraps up today’s installment with

“We get a Legion book back this year, finally. (Also, the Legion will have a huge role in the CW-verse(s) fall 2017)”

No Legion of Super-Heroes comic yet (though it appears to at least be a gleam in DC’s eye at the moment). The Legion did begin their involvement in the CW superhero shows in the episode or two of Supergirl“Still no Fantastic Four Book in 2017.”

As answered previously, there’s like half an FF book, with the Thing and the Human Torch in the Marvel Two-in-One series.

“We will get at least two things on this list: New Frank Miller Sin City, A Fourth Scott McCloud nonfiction book, all of Gaiman’s Miracleman: The Silver Age, Matt Wagner’s Mage III, and/or a trade paperback collection of Foglio’s Buck Godot: The Gallumaufry.”

You got one of those things (the Mage III comics) and you’ll like it, mister!

• • •
Okay, next time will be the end of the predictions, so hang on just a little bit longer, everyone!

Okay, let’s knock out a few more of your 2017 comic industry predictions (previous installments: one, two and three). Like I said before, I’ll have follow-ups and corrections to my earlier response in the final part of this series, which should only be three or four months away. And if you have any predictions for 2018, put ’em here, but don’t guess that Tom Strong and Promethea will return to comics, because we already know.

So, once more unto the breach:

Andrew Leal presents the following with zeal

“NetFlix will consider bolstering their Marvel shows (and that sort of but not quite RICHIE RICH thing) with HERBIE (Popnecker, not the Volkswagon or the robot).”

I know it was just a joke prediction, but I would gladly donate pal Ian‘s life savings for a Herbie Popnecker TV show of some kind. I’d prefer, like, a CGI Herbie in a real world setting, or if we had to have an actual actor as Herbie…I don’t know, Matt Lucas? Whatever…I can just picture a Herbie TV show giving kids weird memories they’d half-recall as adults, wondering if they’d just imagined it.

“The Lego BATMAN movie and related tie-ins will make money and bring joy and probably lead some to consider just making the next Batman/Superman movie in Lego.”

It make money, it brought joy, but I don’t think there’s a direct follow-up in the works. And they’re still making DC superhero movies in live action, so no, like, Lego Justice League movie, which perhaps might have done better than the JL movie they actually put out.

“Mike will have fewer GRAPE APE comics in his shop than the previous year.”

I believe this is true. ONE HIT FOR ANDREW.

• • •
Brian offers up

“Marvel’s constant rebooting of titles will finally lead to some new sort of system (vs. having the twelfth number one of a given title, perhaps two or three of them in the same year). Such a new system won’t be any clearer, however.”

The “Marvel Legacy” initiative this year sorta helped to clear things up a bit, though I did have some confusion from some customers (“wait, why is this comic suddenly #218!?”). It would be nice if Marvel just left it as-is, sticking to those higher issue numbers instead of launching into new restarts…but Marvel just ended Guardians of the Galaxy at #150, and you know when they relaunch it, it ain’t gonna be at #151. So this Marvel Legacy “no really look at how long all these series have ran, once you add ’em all together” thing could just be a temporary cosmetic fix, until the next wave of new #1s comes in (which is the rumor goin’ around, I hear).

“Given rising production costs and the maturation of the digital sales market, one of the independent publishers will switch to solely-digital production, allowing for different controls on how ‘books’ are done.”

I don’t think this happened…a lot of the publishers that have been on the stands have surely expanded their digital offerings, but I don’t think anyone’s entirely abandoned print. There could be some small publishing house that I’m not recalling, so feel free to remind me!

“DC will start running into trouble as creative teams on the Rebirth books come and go, making it more difficult to line up the conclusion of the promised two-year line-wide arc.”

I haven’t really noticed too much of a problem here so far…yeah, there have been some team switch-ups, but nothing that seems likely to endanger DC’s long-term plans. Plus, if I recall correctly, Doomsday Clock, the beginning of the end of DC’s two-year plan, takes place a year in the future of the DC Universe, so the rest of the line still has time to catch up. I think.

• • •
MrJM jams in here with

“At least one high-profile/high-stakes criminal prosecutions for the creation and/or sale of politically/socially/sexually radical comics. Creators, retailers & fans share a serious ‘waitwhatohshit’ moment.”

I don’t think any one big thing happened to make us all go “…uh oh,” but there’s always some shenanigans going on as seen on the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s main page.

“DC’s Young Animal imprint continues to make comics designed just for me!”

I’m going to say…”Yes. Yes they did. And are. And will likely continue to do so.”

“Alf makes a big comeback.”

Yeah, yeah, I know. But seriously, I’m sort of surprised there hasn’t been an effort to bring those Alf comics back into print. They were actually very popular at the time (as the story goes, even outselling X-Men comics on the newsstand), and had some pretty solid cartooning. Be a shame if they just vanished forever with no permanent edition to preserve them. …C’mon, ALF ARCHIVES…it’s gotta happen.

• • •
Chris Gumprich grumps

“A forgotten 1950s comic gets a new life when reprinted and becomes the darling of the Internet. The creators are unknown and probably too dead to reap any benefit.”

I’m sure 1950s comics were reprinted, but I don’t know that any of them got internet traction. Well, there was that pretty negative review of IDW’s reprints of weird old horror and romance comics which received a bit of attention, but that’s probably not what you meant. I mean, once I publish that complete collection of Spunky the Monkey, then we’ll be on the same page.

“Creators bring a modern take to a beloved 1970s cartoon, ignoring what made it popular in the first place. (My vote is for Hong Kong Phooey, but that was never popular.)”

The 1970s were a real wasteland when it came to cartoons anyone would want to revive…trust me, I grew up in the ’70s, most of those cartoons were terrible. I mean, sure, I watched ’em, but they were still awful. Well, there was Dastardly and Muttley, based on…well, technically a very late 1960s cartoon, but still really part of the 1970s. The comic based on that ignored a lot of the original cartoons…but in a good way!

We did get some ’70s characters in the Scooby Doo Team-up series, but those were all pretty true to their roots. Even Hong Kong Phooey! …Still willing to write that Mighty Man and Yukk revival, DC!

“A big-name creator says something stupid on Twitter, everyone gets upset, boycotts are called, and then promptly forgotten when another big-name creator says something stupid.”

I think we can just assume this happens every year!

• • •
Mike Loughlin laughingly adds

“Trump will show up in a Marvel comic. Readers will not be pleased.”

I think Savage Dragon beat ’em to it. And many people weren’t thrilled…particularly if they liked Trump!

“The Watchmen characters’ appearances in various DC books will derail the series’ plot lines and lead to declining sales.”

There have been tie-ins (more thematically than character appearances) but nothing that’s really completely derailed any of the books. Everything seems pretty well integrated, for once.

“Mosaic will be canceled; readers will be blamed for not pre-ordering/ trade-waiting/ Marvel Unlimited-waiting by someone who works for Marvel.”

There was a lot of talk about “readers not supporting the books” near the end of the year, regarding several announced cancellations. I don’t recall any such talk about Mosaic, which went from the character being a semi-big deal to “you know, I don’t recall seeing any solicitations for this comic for the last couple of months.” Well, okay, I exaggerate, I never noticed that it was gone. Just the latest title to fall by the wayside, without any real fanfare.

• • •
James proclaims

“Trump references E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.”

Mostly from indies, surprisingly not so much from Marvel.

“Harley Quinn will get a (much needed) new creative team.”

A new creative team was announced last year, and debuted this week!

“The Fantastic Four will remain M.I.A.”

Well, you’re half-right, I guess, depending on how you look at it…half the team returned in Marvel Two-in-One at the end of the year. Technically, the Fantastic Four is still gone, but we’ve got the Fantastic Two on the stands. That’s, y’know, close.

• • •
My old pal mojo_iv squishes these in

“Chuck Austen will return with a 48-page adaptation of the 1988 film Action Jackson.”

Sadly, no. And I totally would have read that.

“Leftover plot points from Secret Wars will be used to justify a crossover between the main Marvel Universe and the Star Wars universe. Galactus will threaten Coruscant and only the 3rd or 4th Death Star or something can be used to defeat him, but it’s powered by Terrigen-infected Ewoks or Hoojibs or something and instead Rey and Quicksilver have to time travel back to the Prequels and stop Anakin and Padme from getting married or something. Meanwhile Jean Grey will kill 80 billion Mon Calamari and be given a pass because Phoenix.”

Okay, the Mon Calamari joke gave me a mean chuckle. But honestly, I am so surprised at the lack of Marvel/Star Wars crossovers (even, like, a full month of themed variant covers) that I can only assume it’s prohibited by highers-up. Otherwise it’d be nothing but “Dr. Doom versus Darth Vader…TO THE DEATH.”

“Dwayne McDuffie will rise from the grave to destroy us all.”

And we’d probably deserve it.

• • •
Okay, time for my beauty sleep, so that I may become even more beautiful, so I’ll pick up on the predictions this coming Monday. Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you then!

Okay, I meant to go edit in some more corrections and addendums/addenda in the previous posts (part one and two), but I think I’ll wait ’til we’re done going through all the predictions and do a final wrap-up instead. In the meantime, let’s get through a few more of your guesses for the events of 2017…and don’t forget to give me your predictions for 2018!

Rob London bridges the gap with

“Marvel villain Trump (you know, this guy) makes a comeback.”

Not that I can tell (as you might imagine, that’s hard to look up right now…”Siri, find me ‘trump villain evil'”) but I can’t imagine how anyone at Marvel could have resisted.

“DC launches an equivalent to Marvel Unlimited.”

(and Bryan Boles also noted “I think this is the year DC finally has a digital equivalent to Marvel Unlimited”)

Not that I can tell, but this seems like something The People want, since I had more than one person predict it!

“Agents of SHIELD ends in May; its spot in the ABC schedule is taken by a Ghost Rider series.”

Beyond all expectation, it’s still hanging in there. Who knew?

• • •
Wayne Allen Sallee sallies forth with

“Dr. Oz is not Ozymandias. Clark Kent is really Nite Owl from the Watchmen-verse AND Dr. Oz.”

Well…you’re partly right!

“The letter Thomas Wayne wrote to his son Bruce were simply the lyrics to ‘Seasons in The Sun’ by Terry Jacks.”

Close…turned out it was the lyrics to “MacArthur Park.”

“The DC/Watchmen thing will never be resolved because Trump and Putin will fight over something trivial–perhaps the hidden meaning of ‘Seasons in The Sun’–and Russia and the US will bomb each other to bits.”

Oh, Wayne…you know those two crazy kids would never fight over anything!

• • •
Stephen Conway twitters

“Daredevil will be the latest Marvel character to be replaced with a PoC legacy character, but there won’t be any wholly new character that receives their own book.”

Seems like Matt Murdock and his twin brother Swingin’ Mike Murdock are in it for the long haul…though I suppose recent supporting character Blindspot is right there if they decide to do the ol’ switcheroo.

“Several second and third tier publishers collapse. NuValiant folds as their much needed influx of Hollywood money never arrives.”

No comics-aggedon just yet…maybe a couple have fallen off (or at least scaled back) in the last year, but there’s no alarming attrition thus far.

“Charles Soule catches a rather bad cold causing him miss his deadlines, resulting in Marvel having a week with no new comics.”

That man apparently had a very healthy year!

• • •
Rob Staeger stages the new few items

“I’m gonna predict a new Legion series until they give us one. I’m going to go out on a limb and say DC will use some of Tom King’s Batman cred to launch it; he’ll write the first year.”

Hard to believe we’re still waiting for a new Legion of Super-Heroes series…but better to let it rest than just crank out series after series with declining returns. I do like your idea of Tom King writing it, though…that would certainly make it feel different from every other attempt at relaunching the series.

“While I’m making a wish list, I’ll predict another thing I’d really like: DC will publish a collection reprinting some of the Comico Jonny Quest series.”

I’d like a collection of that series from pretty much any source, but it feels like the time to have done that was maybe when the Future Quest series had started way back when.

“Of the original wave of Rebirth books, the first one cancelled will be Blue Beetle. Jaime Reyes will become a regular in a team book soon afterward.”

It didn’t happen ’til this year, with Blue Beetle ending this February…but Superwoman is beating it by a month, ending, well, right now.

• • •
Bully, the Little Foreseeing Bull, stuffs in the following

“Jaxxon the Giant Green Star Wars Rabbit will get his own five-issue miniseries.”

I don’t think this fella’s turned up at Marvel aside from a couple of variant covers…but I’d be all for a Jaxxon series. Except don’t call him a rabbit because:

“Fleishman’s Margarine will become the newest member of either the X-Men or the Inhumans, or both.”

Well, the Inhumans could’ve used the help.

“The crossover event ‘War of the Spiders’ will never finish. Neither will the human race.”

I’m not even sure what “War of the Spiders” even was. Man, crossovers sure do come and go nowadays. I mean, maybe it is still going, who am I to judge? The human race, however, is still going, sort of despite itself.

• • •
Rich Handley palms off the following

“Star Trek comics will cross over with at least two other franchises. One of them will have the word ‘Star’ in the title.”

Alas, no Battlestar Galactica/Star Trek event, nor did Barbra Streisand meet the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise in A Star Trek Is Born.

“The Watchmen’s involvement in DC Rebirth will ultimately turn out to be neither as interesting nor as important as folks are hoping.”

Well, we’ve got 10 more issues to go before we find out, I don’t know, Rorschach is Jimmy Olsen’s father, or whatever. We’ll just have to see!

“Then… KOREA!”

Why, this is just a cheap ploy to get me to run this panel again:

It’ll never work.

• • •
More prediction talk to come in just a day or two! Thanks for reading, pals.

AND SO IT CONTINUES SOME MORE: more looking behinder to see aheader via your comic industry predictions for 2017 and checking who got it right, who got it wrong, and how good your pal Mike’s memory is. Part one of this series is right here, and if you want to participate in next year’s event, drop your 2018 comics predictions in the comments here.

Let’s jump right in!

Hulk It Up, Y’all! smashes through with

“Monsters Unleashed will be the first truly fun big ol’ Marvel crossover on a long time, which will be much needed after Civil War II”

Well, parts of it were fun, but the series as a whole didn’t seem to grab the same amount of eyeballs as the Civil War event. I suspect, however, it was a sufficient palate cleanser for those sampled it.

“Wonder Woman will be a big ol’ flop, thus further damaging movie studios’ faith in female led superhero movies :(. If that happens, I will not be happy.”

Never fear, Mr. and/or Mrs. Hulk It Up, Y’all! as the Wonder Woman movie was indeed a big ol’ hit.

“That FCBD Star Trek TNG Mirror Universe comic will be a big ol’ load of fun, and somehow less bleak than a certain movie that also has the word ‘Star’ in it that came out this year.”

I quite liked that Mirror Universe story…I don’t read too many modern ST comics, but I make the occasional exception and this was was pretty fun. It was, as you say, less bleak than that one “Star” movie.

• • •
Pelasgus’s Pal Jason Sandberg submits

“Marvel will move several flagship titles to a biweekly schedule. (The change might be implemented in the manner of Waid’s current ‘Avengers’ run with .1 issues).”

There wasn’t a deliberate and consistent effort to duplicate DC’s biweekly books at Marvel, aside from the occasional shipping shenanigans that resulted in consecutive issues being released close together. There were those .1 issues alternating with their parent titles, like you said, but that’s not quite the same as a single biweekly book. As it turns out, Avengers is weekly for a storyline in 2018, which is not something I would have predicted!

“DC will launch a ‘Bat-Man and the Justice League’ title.”

There is a new (biweekly!) Justice League of America title that is basically “Batman and the Justice League,” which was actually solicited in the same month you made your prediction, but my guess is that you may not have known about it. It’s not titled “Batman and the Justice League,” which…well, I kinda wonder how that would have improved sales?

“Boom! Studios will announce a December 2017 ‘Klaus’ one-shot from Grant Morrison & Dan Mora, this will become a beloved annual Christmas tradition.”

Indeedy-doodly. I hope, like you, they do this every year.

• • •

googum googumed:

“There were a lot of comics with Obama covers. Not expecting anywhere near as many Trump ones.”

There were quite a few Trump parody comics in the past year…I think he’s still behind in numbers versus the Obama comics, but hey, it’s only been a year, I’m sure Trump will catch up in the next seven years of his term. But anyway, like I said in this End of Civilization post a while back, there certainly is a different…tone to the Trump books, isn’t there?

“Even though the sales are better than most other books, Marvel still decides to shake up Star Wars; with a new number one and setting stories after Empire.”

I am surprised the main Star Wars book hasn’t been restarted with a new setting and/or focus yet. I bet they’ll do what you predicted here eventually.

“Next big comics death? I’m guessing Storm.”

Storm is still amongst the four-color living at the moment. In fact, did we have any big character deaths this last year? I mean big as in “anybody caring” or “it made the TV news because nothing else was going on that day.” I know a character or three died in Marvel’s event, but I’m pretty sure all that resulted was some shrugging and assuming the character(s) will be back in whatever the next event will be.

• • •
Harvey Jerkwater spills the following

“Marvel will continue its strategy of creating a second version of every hero as well as its strategy of making the original hero temporarily evil (e.g., Superior Spider-Man, Superior Iron Man, the Hydra-fied Captain America) and it will lead to at least one hilarious misfire that will prompt years of ‘can you believe they did that’ internet giggles.”

Honestly, I can’t think of anything that meets that criteria more than Hydra-Cap. And we’ll never be able to let that sink into the memory hole because I’m sure he’ll get dragged out as a nemesis for every other event series from now on.

“The temptation to create a Big Event where the original versions of the Marvel heroes fight the second versions will prove too strong for editorial to resist.”

Marvel did in fact do this with their “Generations” series of one-shots, with Wolvering Vs. All-New Wolverine, etc. It wasn’t so much an event as event-tangent, spinning off from Secret Empire.

“The Punisher will pick up a ‘Mr. Myxyzptlk/Bat-Mite’ style puckish magical imp called ‘Li’l Bang-Bang’ to bedevil him with fanboy questions and magical shenanigans during his relentless mission of vengeance.”

Will pray every day to any entity that will listen for this to someday take place.

• • •
Bob Stec goes this way with

“Trump will NOT appear on comics covers or interiors as President Obama did, instead, he will appear in stories as thinly veiled (but obvious) villains across the Marvel and DC lines.”

The ol’ Trumpeteer has been showing up in lots of indie comics, and he was, shall we say, prominently presented in an issue of Savage Dragon. He’s made a few appearances in recent DC books (noted here), and the Marvel wiki has a couple of not-very-flattering appearances listed here. Nothing quite on the level of Serpent Society Ronald Reagan yet.

“A Marvel Comics Bronze Age Christmas Story Omnibus will be published. Over-sized and re-colored for your yuletide pleasure.”

Again, I’m surprised they didn’t do anything like this. They’ve got enough reasonably good holiday stories to make for a solid omnibus edition.

“Batman ’66/Gilligan’s Island mini-series will be published. It will contain a scene where Sherwood Schwartz and Julius Schwartz meet ‘n’ greet. Written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Kevin Maguire! C’mon you know this would be awesome!”

I can picture this greatness in my head, and I hate you for making me want this thing that will never happen. Unless of course I start a GoFundMe campaign to collect enough cash to commission a story by these guys that only I can get to read.

• • •
Thelonious_Nick cuts in with

“As Marvel sales continue to drop, DC holds steady, and Image gains ground, we start talking of a ‘Big 3’ comic companies.”

As I noted in an edit to the last prediction post, market shares held relatively steady, even if actual monies made dipped. I don’t think anyone’s talking “Big 3” yet, but certainly nobody’s ignoring Image as a powerful player in the marketplace.

“Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Lego Batman movies earn ALL the money this year, Wonder Woman movie is too dark for parents to take their kids to see and fares poorly, Thor 3 seen as derivative and bombs at box office. Latest Spider-Man reboot and Logan stand-alone movie leave theaters after two weeks having barely made a ripple.”

GOTG2 did very well ($860 million), and Lego Batman had a good showing (about $312 million). But everything else you listed there did just fine, too! In fact, I think Logan was the second-highest grossing X-Men movie (behind Days of Future Past). Homecoming had a slightly higher box office than Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the other two movies you mentioned…well, you’ve probably heard how they’ve done!

“Following Life After and Exodus: Life After, the Life After will start its third series–Leviticus: Life After.”

Oh, you.

• • •
Simon says

“Retailers will start merging or collapsing.”

There were a lot of stories over the last few weeks about stores taking financial hits after a lackluster year…I’m sure we lost a few shops, but I haven’t heard of any specific shop mergers to, like, save businesses. Could start happening if problems continue…it’s an option that could be considered.

“Publishers will keep merging or collapsing.”

There’s certainly been some cooperation…Marvel teaming with Archie to get those Spider-Man and X-Men digests into grocery stores, for example, and IDW is still packaging high-end reprints and special collections for other companies. There was stuff like Netflix buying Millarworld’s stuff, but that’s not quite the same. I can’t think of any companies literally merging into one company in our industry, but I do have a bad memory for that sort of thing. Let me know what I missed and I’ll add it in here.

“A mainstream comic mag may launch.”

I get what you mean, but I can’t think of any U.S. publications that would match what you’re probably thinking of. There are plenty of mainstream graphic novels that are doing gangbuster business, like DC Super Hero Girls and anything by Raina Telgemeier, but there isn’t any regularly published comics mag that gets on all the newsstands and in the grocery stories that’s widely bought by folks who don’t normally buy comics…well, maybe Mad, but even that’s not what it was. Hey, maybe someday.

• • •
That’s the end for today…come back soon for part 3 of your 2017 predictions! And, of course, a big thanks to everyone who participated!

You dreaded its arrival, and now it’s here…part one of 82 of “Mike looks back at your 2017 predictions!” And if you want to be part of the fun next year, drop your 2018 predictions into the comments of this other post from just a couple of weeks ago.

Okay, and awaaaay we go:

William Burns gets the fire started with

“Comixology will stop providing its pull list service for local comic shops.”

This does appear to be the case, but you were only a few months off…seems to be happening first quarter 2018.

“The age of Trump and the Republicans will see the Big Two retreat from ‘diversity’ books in favor of straight white male superheroics. This will be pitched as ‘a return to our roots’ or ‘giving the fans what they want.'”

Yeah, that turned into a real big stink in the middle of the year (as seen in this article, where a Marvel VP’s comments about diversity hurting their sales was countered by an examination of the actual business practices that were more to blame). As it stands right now, there are a number of books with diverse casts on the stands, but the trend on Big Two titles is, as always, “back to the status quo.” However, there’s usually always someone attempting to widen the appeal of the Marvel/DC books sort of despite the companies’ efforts, so the cycle will come around again.

“Batman 66/Maxwell Smart. C’mon DC, you know you want to.”

Man, I know I wanted them to. However, far as I know there’s nothing new on the comics front for Batman ’66 comics (save a trade collection of the B’66/Wonder Woman ’77 team-up). Hopefully something else will turn up…at least a Batman ’66/Wonder Woman ’77/Superman ’78 story.

• • •
King of the Moon waxes and/or wanes upon the following:

“Still no Power Pack ongoing series in the main Marvel Universe.

“Despite having the IP of a family of kids who get superpowers from a magic alien horse and have their own sentient spaceship that successfully ran for 62 issues Marvel won’t print money.”

Well, we did get a Power Pack #63 as part of the whole Marvel Legacy “let’s give one more issue to some cancelled series” hoohar, though I suppose that’s not exactly what you mean. Like, at the very least you’d think there’d be a budget-conscious “Power Pack” TV series on, I don’t know, Amazon or Crackle or something, with an accompanying comic book.

• • •
Gordon R. Dymowski blogs this, pal:

“Marvel will reveal in its books that Inhumans and mutants are the same”

Um…I’m pretty sure they didn’t? I don’t read any Inhumans or X-books so it’s possible this could’ve slipped by me, but I expect if such a thing did happen, the caterwauling that would have ensued would have been hard to miss.

“As part of its REBIRTH Initiative, DC will reveal that Nite Owl is the Earth-Watchmen’s Batman”

Not yet, at any rate, since we’re only two issues into that Doomsday Clock series, now available at a comic shop near you!

“Although larger conventions (like San Diego ComicCon, WizardWorld, etc) will still predominate, more people will attend smaller, local shows due to affordability of larger, turnkey conventions as well as an ability to reach local retailers, creators, etc.”

I don’t know the attendance numbers, but it does seem like there are more attempts at doing smaller, non-SDCC/WW shows in more places. I’ll mark this one down as “I’m gonna need someone else to tell me.”

“No Swamp Thing predictions this time, sorry.”

HOW VERY DARE YOU

• • •
LondonKdS accentuates the following:

“Titan will announce miniseries for every Doctor they haven’t depicted yet, including the ‘Shalka’ and ‘Fatal Death’ Doctors. None of them will have more than two issues out by the end of the year.”

Not quite yet, but give ’em time! And I would absolutely plotz if there were any kind of series based on the “Curse of Fatal Death” story. Yes to any comic that would give me Rowan Atkinson/Hugh Grant/Joanna Lumley Doctors.

“Full-scale campaign for right-wing ‘representaion’at the Big Two. One of them will cave in and publish a series which will tank for being blatant and dull propaganda.”

Haven’t quite reached that state of affairs yet, though I understand there are independent attempts at this sort of thing.

EDIT 1/12: Whoops…Michael Grabowski reminds us of something that might fall within this description from the past year.

“Marvel sales continue to fall, DC bump from Rebirth finally ends.”

Looking at the Retail Market Share charts at Diamond…there doesn’t appear to be too much of a significant change from the beginning of the year to the end. There are some ups and downs but market shares appear to be relatively consistent. I would think that the “Rebirth” branding probably did outlive its usefulness, as it’s been removed from the covers…though that may have as much to do with the arrival of the “final” part of that publishing effort, Doomsday Clock, now available at a comic shop near you!

EDIT 1/12 AGAIN: Whoops Part 2, as relative share of the market doesn’t exactly equal relative size of the market, a thing I remembered once I was, y’know, awake. Reports seem to indicate direct market comics shrinkage, so let me look into this a little further.

• • •
Tim Stevens evens us out with:

DC Comics will finally give Aztek the Ultimate Man his due and give him a brand new series.

Not yet, but he did pop up in the Justice League of America comic in December, just under the wire, so that’s close enough for me!

People will continue to insist Marvel hates the X-Men even as the number of mutant related books rise and rise.

Admittedly, that talk seems to have died down a bit of late, with that Disney/Fox deal happening. Maybe it’s still going on in the message boards, but I ain’t lookin’ in there.

People will talk about Image again as a viable 3rd company again as they did circa 2013.

That seems to be the generally accepted Number Three of the Big Two, though the actual strength of that position seems to come and go. It’ll stick around as a major presence for some time to come, I’d imagine.

Marvel will finally recognize what a talent their MarvelCom freelancer Tim Stevens is and give him his one boutique style line within the Marvel Universe a la Gerard Way’s Young Animal.

Nope, sorry, that’s one prediction over the limit, can’t answer that.

• • •
Hooper Triplett doubles down on

“Paul Grist will start a well-received new series that he stop unannounced and never complete.”

OUCH. Anyway, didn’t happen this year. IT’S BECAUSE YOU SCARED HIM OFF, HOOPER.

• • •
Greg A Assumes

Marvel will continue to try to make the Inhumans into a Thing; however, will also continue to have poorly received results.

Nope, Ben Grimm did not become a…oh, wait, I misread that. Well, there are still Inhumans comics, so I guess that counts as still being a thing. Not exactly taking the world by storm, no.

Marvel’s upcoming Inhumans television series will air the exact same number of episodes as Viva Laughlin before being quietly cancelled.

From what I can tell, Inhumans had eight episodes, which is six more than Viva Laughlin aired (though it apparently had 5 unaired episodes). I don’t know if it’s officially cancelled, but word on the street ain’t good. Yeah, that’s right, I get my word from the streets.

DC Comics will launch a new LSH series. Thanks to its unexpected creative team, the new series will have better than expected sales–particularly in digital and book fair markets.

We’re all still waiting to see what’s happening with the Legion as far as a new comic book series goes, but in the meantime, here’s live-action Brainiac 5 from next week’s Supergirl to keep y’all happy:

• • •
demoncat_4 conjures up:

“marvel will manage to get the ff rights back and do a tv show and have doom show up in an avengers film.”

You’re half-right…well, it’s a pending half-right assuming the Disney/Fox deal is permitted.

“dc will decide its time for swamp thing to show up in live action again and have him pop up on both the flash and legends then spun off in his own movie and tv show.”

Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t turned up on the CW somewhere, though maybe they had high hopes for that live-action Justice League Dark movie.

“given him now being part of arrow ragman will get his own comic and at last his own action figure and will be hard to get.”

Again, half-right! There was a new Ragman mini-series that started in 2017. And there’s no official action figure yet, but a Google search turns up a lot of custom figures. I guess technically those are hard to get!

• • •
My old pal Skinslip slides in with:

“At least two more Doctor Who ongoings will happen.”

We did get two mini-series, at least…so you were close!

“The Hasbro universe will add at least one more 80s toyline to boost sales”

There was a Transformers/Visionaries crossover comic that started just this month…but it was solicited in 2017, so I’m counting that at least as a partial hit (since, um, I don’t know that it boosted sales all that much).

“Big Trouble in Little China/Escape From New York will get a second mini series or become an ongoing”

No second series yet, but we did get another Big Trouble mini (“Old Man Jack”) so who knows?

• • •
Eric L takes the L mostly on one of the following:

“The DC Rebirth books will gradually return to a 3.99 price point.”

Very gradually…a series or two got demoted to monthly from biweekly, with the attendant $1 jump in price. I expect the trend to continue.

“The Wonder Woman movie will be critically acclaimed, but underperform at the box office.”

It was critically acclaimed indeed, but did amazingly well at the box office, too! Good news all around!

“The entire Watchmen invading the DC Universe storyline will be ignored or dropped entirely.”

Nope, it’s still going strong, what with the currently-running Doomsday Clock, now available at a comic shop near you!

• • •
Okay, that’s it for now! Tune in same Watchmen-time, same Watchmen-channel, for the next exciting installment!