Last year, we had some ideas about how Valiant, DC, and Marvel could improve their comics. Were we listened to? Were we ignored? We asked last year’s contributors to assess the situation by looking back at what they suggested and following up with us. Let’s go!
Valiant:
Brian:
Let Faith Reign: On one hand, this year we got “Faith and the Future Force,” but on the other, we saw the end of the “Faith” ongoing. I know tat Valiant rotates its characters in and out of the spotlight, but with Faith they have something that the other big companies just don’t have: a plus sized female hero. That can be a transformative property for the company, and she still sort of feels like an afterthought. That has to change.
More books like “Britannia” and “Savage:” While we had a “Britannia” sequel, the line didn’t expand in the way that I hoped it would after bringing in these new books. Maybe next year.
Ken:
Stop Using Marvel’s Bad Ideas: Basically, I had asked Valiant to avoid some of the pitfalls that Marvel had been making such as going overzealous with cross-media synergy or over-expanding a story at the cost of what made it good. The example I was keeping an eye on back then was the “Divinity III: Stalinverse” storyline that had its own set of tie-ins. With it behind us, I’m afraid to say it had the same problems that “4001 A.D.” did in 2016. It didn’t need these tie-ins, especially considering they were expanding on a world that wasn’t sticking around and -unlike “4K1″‘s War Mother- none of them really did much to warrant an impact. But I’ll give them this: in regards to PR, they’ve had a better year than Marvel, that being a massive low bar.
Expand the Creative Pool: Well, being that my colleague Michael Mazzacane has the same wish for 2018 that I had for 2017, this one may not have hit the mark. Don’t get me wrong: getting Eric Heisserer on board with your universe and creating one of your best books this year (“Secret Weapons”) was good, but as I said, I want Valiant to go beyond the typical white dude perspective. We still have Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt at the forefront (the latter co-writing Valiant’s next big event), the creative landscape feels more stagnant, which might have been why Valiant became more distant for me in 2017.
DC:
Zach
Give us Legion of Super-Heroes by an all-star creative team / Make Green Lantern feel special: Outside of a teased avocado fueled brunch date between Jim Lee and Jonathan Hickman, no love on the Legion of Super-Heroes side of things this year. And the less said about the state of the Green Lantern books the better. Bring on Bendis!
Robbie:
Mix up the Justice League: They really didn’t for the main team. The only thing close to a change is Mera is taking Aquaman’s place until he can deal with everything going on in Atlantis, but that’s pretty minor.
At least we have the Justice League of America now, which has a much more varied cast: Lobo, Vixen, Black Canary, The Atom, The Ray, and even a reforming Killer Frost – a good mix of characters, plus Batman. That opens up a lot more in the way of stories and ways for the characters to mesh and act off one another, and as a result, I’ve been much more invested in the JLA stories than the regular Justice League.
Bring back Booster Gold: I wish… closest we’ve got is him appearing in “Injustice 2” every now and then. Maybe if we ever get that “Booster Gold” movie that keeps getting rumors we’ll see him again.
Ken:
Young Just Us: Have they brought this generation back to prominence? No. However, it does seem to be a point that will be having more effect in the near future rather than the far. With Tim Drake being reminded of a “Conner” over in “Detective Comics” and Joshua Williamson not exactly being subtle about his desire to bring Bart Allen back, plus those work reprints now including releases of the old “Superboy” series, plus not even DC being stupid enough to not capitalize on the returning season 3 of the show, we may be getting closer and closer to having this generation back.
Continued belowLegion of Super-Heroes: The Force Awakens: While I doubt DC would use the idea I had proposed last year, not unlike “Young Justice,” we seem to be getting closer and closer to this team making its return.
Brian
Magic in 2017: While we still don’t have a Shazam title, nor my proposed “Shadowpact” title led by Zatanna and Shazam (I still think this is a dynamite idea), this year did see a lot more of the magical elements of the DCU take hold, from “Mystik U” finally launching to “Trinity” bringing in Zatanna, Constantine, and Deadman, to Zatanna co-starring in a “Detective Comics” arc. I still want more though – and seriously, I’ll write that “Shadowpact” book for free.
Keep Superman in focus: While “Superman” has fallen off a bit, and “Action” continues to be up and down, it does feel like Superman is more at the center of the DCU than he was for all of the New 52. I’ll call this a win.
Mend more bridges: From last year: “Bring back Mark Waid and James Robinson.” They got halfway there. Go the full distance next year!
Vince:
More curated lines” Here’s a line from my entry in last year’s wishlist:
“The long-rumored, long-teased Milestone line of books that’s supposed to be released as “Earth M” in the near future? Well, what if it were Reginald Hudlin acting in the Gerard Way/Warren Ellis role?”
Here’s a line from our NYCC ’17 news story about DC Comics’ Earth-M announcement: “Original Milestone collaborators Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle, and Reggie Hudlin were on the panel along with other creators Kyle Baker, Ken Lashley, Greg Pak, Alice Randall and DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee.”
I think DC pretty much knocked this one out of the park, short of resurrecting Dwayne McDuffie (or at least compensating his estate properly).
Marvel:
Ken
Enough: Marvel recently let go of their former Editor-in-Chief and now their new one once had an over-elaborate Japanese persona in order to write “manga-esque” comics for Marvel. What else do I really need to say except: there isn’t enough facepalming in the world.
Brian
Limit the line: Last year, I complained of not knowing what Marvel was putting out when, with lots of books seemingly disappearing out of nowhere, while a ton of new books were seemingly announced each month, too. This has gotten slightly better with ‘Legacy,’ but with books being renamed and renumbered, it still is a little hard to follow a story without a cheat sheet. It doesn’t need to be this hard.
Ignore the films and their rights holders: This year, Marvel at least attempted to put their X-house in order, and did hint towards a Fantastic Four story coming out at some point in the “Marvel Legacy” one-shot. And, hopefully, with the (looking imminent) sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney, it looks like the issues with the Richards clan and the Mutants might be behind us for good. I just want a good Fantastic Four comic, you guys.
Robbie:
Give it a rest with the “hero vs hero” events: Secret. Goddamn. Empire. Did I make this wish on a monkey’s paw? Did a malevolent genie hear my wish and say “Poof! These heroes are villains now! So they’re still fighting each other, but it’s not hero vs hero!”
Make up your mind with the X-Men: They actually did! And now we’re getting multiple X-titles a month, with a Gold and Blue team, a Red team on the way, an Astonishing X-Men team, and Generation X, not to mention solo titles. They’re no longer waffling between keeping the X-Men around or punting them off into space, so hey, props for that.
Let the younger heroes do their thing: I have been admittedly unimpressed with “Champions,” but at least we’re getting something. Not to mention the return of “Runaways” means we now get to see these once-teenage heroes as young adults, so we’re getting some of that growth and development I was asking for. All in all, I’d give their response to this wish a B+.
Zach
Give the X-Men a chance: Lol, right? At least “X-Men Red” sounds kind of promising?
Continued belowVince:
Rebirth Yourself” Last year, I asked Marvel Comics to use the DC Rebirth template to relaunch their comics, but improve upon the relatively few areas DC went wrong. Along came “Marvel Legacy”, an initiative promising readers that they can come back to classic stories, classic characters, told in the merry Marvel manner. They even pulled a “DC Universe Rebirth” #1 by having their strongest writer pen a jam-packed initiation issue in Jason Aaron’s “Marvel Legacy” #1.
But in practice, it actually feels mostly like a half-measure. Talent is pouring out of Marvel like crazy, multimedia concerns continue to hamper certain titles and book lines, and books are reverting back to old numbering with no rhyme or reason with regards to creative relaunches or fresh starts. As it stands, while there will always be a handful of Marvel titles worth checking out at any given time, Marvel Legacy hasn’t proven to be a great reason to jump onto many of them. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s “Captain America” is a great example of a book that appears to relaunch itself with Marvel Legacy in mind. A classic Cap style story, with a very timely modern subject matter. 2018 promises more Marvel Legacy jumping-on points like this, but for now, we’ll just stick to reading “Black Panther”, “Daredevil”, “Black Bolt” etc…the small handful of books that have actually been great.
I’ll give half-credit to Marvel here. If nothing else, the hiring of C.B. Cebulski as new Editor-in-Chief may prove to be the biggest “rebirthing” of all.
