Every year, we ask the three big shared universes – DC, Marvel, and Valiant – to listen to our harebrained ideas for how to improve their lines. While sometimes we step backwards into being correct, the point of these is more to express our ideas, frustrations, and hopes for comics that we absolutely love.
That said, we want to know if we were right. Keep reading to see how far our influence traveled this year!
Ken Godberson III:
A Fitting End for Harada
2019 saw the Joshua Dysart put the final coda to his work that served as the critical backbone of Valiant ever since it’s return in 2012. Seven years, from “Harbinger” to “Harbinger Wars” to “Imperium” finally reached a head with “The Life and Death of Toyo Harada.” Putting his most intriguing character at the forefront was the wise decision and I am glad to say, Dysart and the massive cohort of artists managed to pay it off quite well. The “end” for Harada in this mini-series felt quite earned without ever diminishing its central protagonist and the myriad of strengths and flaws he had. As Brian discussed in our 2019 Wishlist, Dysart has been such a massive asset and Valiant would be wise to try and keep him on, even If I personally would be fine with it being on something outside of the “Harbinger” side of the universe.
Stability
Well, this one is a bit awkward.
As we discussed, 2018 was a bit of an odd time for Valiant and I’m afraid to say that 2019 hasn’t really improved on that. The universe feels more disjointed and incohesive than it ever has been. While keeping a long reign could make for some bold and interesting storytelling, there really haven’t been that many books this year that feel like that. Combine that with the eroding of the universal cohesion that made the early years of this reboot fun, it still feels like Valiant is desperately trying to fill holes left by those who have left the company.
Is the Valiant Cinematic Universe Still Going to be a Thing?
….Well I mean… we have a trailer now so that is, admittedly, something we had more than we did last time. I won’t lie, the trailer feels like it reveals too much and that it was released at like three o’clock in the morning U.S. time and it’s coming out in February, not the greatest month for movies. I won’t lie, my confidence in a full on VCU has not exactly risen.
But yeah, we can confirm that Bloodshot will be a movie. The never-ending march of progress, eh?
Elias Rosner:
A couple less minis please
While I may not have loved them all, Valiant managed to keep their line lean and the number of minis small. Actually, they had a bunch of minis but they never felt overwhelming and were more runs on characters than large events. We got more Dysart and a Doctor Mirage mini, while Vita has been killing it on Livewire. I don’t think there’s much more that could’ve made me happy.
Dr. Mirage and Ivar, Timewalker crossover
I may not have gotten my crossover but we got another “Doctor Mirage” series and it’s being drawn by the indomindable Nick Robles. It’s gorgeous and interesting and I really hope we get more of this series from the same creative team. There’s a wildness to it that the Valiant Universe has been missing for a bit.
Michael Mazzacane:
As that Rolling Stones song goes “You don’t always get what you want” and these wishes never work out 100%, I’ve basically given up on them diversifying things in a meaningful way. There is a view of my hopes from last year where none of that happened and another where it kind of did.
Let Properties Sleep for Awhile
I guess this depends on what you take “awhile” to mean. They certainly didn’t wait for “Bloodshot,” rebooting it twice since the end of Lemire’s run on the book. It is a move I’m honestly not that put off by, that initial run after Lemire was just poor. But the current Tim Seely written run isn’t grabbing me either. It looks like more of the same with a different art team.
Continued belowThey have technically taken “X-O Manowar” off the board, issue #26 came out in April capping Matt Kindt’s run on the character and leaving Aric in a good place. They also announced the relaunch of the book with Dennis Hopeless and Emilo Laiso mere pages after the conclusion of Kindt’s work. Original advertisements placed this new book as coming out in November 2019, it has yet to be released.
“Harbinger” is still on the back burner after “Harbinger Wars 2” which was back in 2018. That whole corner of the Valiant U seems to be experienced only by Vitya Ayala and company in “Livewire,” an excellent book.
There are hints of a new Ninjak series, but nothing as explicit as “X-O Manowar.”
This is a mixed bag and it isn’t like Valiant can suddenly not publish the well-known stuff. I just keep circling back to a sameness or lack of new interesting directions, if there isn’t going to be anything meaningfully different why bother renumbering in the first place (besides the obvious short-term benefits.)
Make Entrees into the Book Market/Experiment
This is a similar eye of the beholder situation. They aren’t super experimental but some of the miniseries they’ve been putting out there feel like runs that are aimed at building a back catalog more than a monthly reader. There was a recent interview with Dan Didio on Behind the Panel where he talked about how Black Label is putting out their stuff in single issues but the real expectation is there performance in the book market. “Dr. Mirage” feels like a book that is better suited for the book market than single issues.
I’m surprised they still haven’t struck some sort of output deal with Comixology Originals, their catalog is still heavily featured on that service anyways.
One of the recurring phrases I keep seeing in regards to Valiant is a lack of direction or interest, and that isn’t wrong. They seem to have stabilized editorially, brought on interesting new staffers, and put out some quality books, but it doesn’t have my attention the way other publishers do anymore. Doing something more experimental would get me to pay attention.
Jake Hill:
Write Daniel Kibblesmith a Blank Check
Last year, I was riding high on the excellent and hilarious “Valiant High.” I demanded that Valiant give Daniel Kibblesmith anything he wanted. They… did not. Kibblesmith started doing work for Marvel (good work!), though his series have yet to gain traction. Still over the last year, more and more people are realizing that Kibblesmith is a big talent. He hasn’t quite popped off yet, but it’s clear he’s on track to. What Valiant needs is to figure out how to keep their best creators on the team!
Unity 40 AD
I wanted to see a series that brought Anotonius Axia, the Roman Detectioner, into the greater Valiant story. Not only did this not happen, we didn’t even get another self-contained “Britannia” series in 2019. Anotonius Axia appeared in zero issues. What was Valiant even doing this year?
More Time Travel
Valiant has had a unique take on time travel, that allows characters to create all sorts of paradoxes without ever contradicting the universe’s internal continuity. I thought it would be fun to see a big time travel story, one that played up their “what happened happened” approach. We didn’t really get that. We did see a fair bit of the far off future era of 4001 AD, but alas, Rai and Ivar are not a plucky duo.
Christopher Chiu-Tabet:
Riot was a bad choice
Last year, I wrote Marvel’s partnership with Riot Games was a poor choice because of the company’s toxic reputation as a sexist workplace, and that they ought to reconsider. Since then, Riot has suspended its COO for poor behavior and promised to improve its working environment, updating its company values and hiring a diversity officer in response to the criticism, but also allegedly refused to cooperate with California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s investigation, and prompted employee walkouts after attempting to dismiss several lawsuits.
So basically, not great. Fact is, I’ve become jaded about Marvel doing the right thing and backing out of the agreement, because Ike Perlmutter’s presence at the company proves it is a fundamentally conservative organization. This year saw the removal of Art Spiegelman’s introduction to Marvel: The Golden Age 1939–1949 for its anti-Trump joke about the Orange Skull, and Mark Waid having to remove his criticism of America from his contribution to “Marvel Comics” #1000. I’m not surprised, and neither should you.
Continued belowNo Avengers 4 Cash-In please
On a much more positive note, Marvel avoided doing an Avengers: Endgame cash-in, with this year’s major crossovers ‘War of the Realms’ and ‘Absolute Carnage’ thankfully avoiding Thanos or the Infinity Stones in favor of emphasizing organically developed story arcs from the current “Thor” and “Venom” runs. So well done there.
Matt Lune:
Have more faith in your legacy characters
This time last year, I was on my knees begging for Marvel to treat their legacy character with more respect and gravitas. Well, 2019 has been a good and bad year for that. On the one hand, the mantles of characters like Thor, Wolverine, and Iron Man returned to their white, male owners, leaving their diverse legacy characters to find their own roles (Valkyrie, X-23 and Ironheart, respectively), but on the other, arguably the greatest superhero movie ever made – Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse – showcased Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy in a major way, and handled directly the idea of legacy.
I’d still love to see characters like Miles, Kamala and Riri take the lead on some capital-E-Events, as well as start to build their own compelling and iconic rogues galleries (a vital component of every successful superhero), but with a sequel to Spiderverse on the way, and shows like Titans (not Marvel I know) and Watchmen (also not) exploring what life is like for the next generation, here’s hoping that Marvel Comics take the hint and hand the baton more fully to legacy characters.
Jake Hill:
Stop With All the Renumberings
So on the one hand, Marvel definitely did NOT stop canceling and relaunching books. But stuff doesn’t feel as out of control as it did last year. Legacy numbering has helped with that a bit. We also saw the end of some tremendous runs, like Jason Aaron’s “Thor” and the beginnings of new ones, like everything happening with the “X-Men.” It also feels like Marvel is giving series some time to breathe. If a book gets canceled, it’s not immediately restarted with a #1. The restraint is good; it helps make the relaunches feel like they mean something.
Not everything is peachy on this front, but my feelings have brightened. Instead of out of control panic, it finally seems like Marvel is trying to figure out what works, and what a comics publisher should look like in 2019. I hope they continue to refine their publication strategy, and to set an example for the rest of the industry.
Not Every Character Needs an Ongoing Series
Again, things seem somewhat improved on this front, even if they could be a little bit more transparent. Take the recent “Gwenpool Strikes Back” miniseries from Leah Williams. It is explicitly a mini! And indeed, Gwenpool breaks the fourth wall and is trying to score herself an ongoing. That’s great! Gwenpool is exactly the kind of character who should be headlining short miniseries every year. But then we’ve got “Amazing Mary Jane,” also written by Leah Williams. Nowhere in the solicits do they call that a miniseries (they say “one lucky lady just hit the jackpot with her own series”) but the most recent solicit talks about how this is MJ’s “last chance” and asks “will filming ever wrap?” Yes! That sounds like the solicit to the last issue of a miniseries! Call it a miniseries!
As with the numbering, it feels like Marvel has gotten a handle on things in the last year. There’s not a new #1 every single week. But we’re rapidly approaching the point where most things Marvel publishes is miniseries (or 12 issues or less), and the comic industry is going to have to start redefining this old terminology to keep up with the changing times!
Nick Palmieri:
Don’t let a back-to-basics approach sap your creators’ creativity.
I’m a little mixed here. On one hand, Marvel is still having success with all the creator-driven mainline books in the last year. On the other hand, pretty much all of those books started prior to 2019 (Immortal Hulk, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Venom). The one big exception I can think of is the X-Men books, which Marvel has really been focusing on the last few months. It’s hard to say whether this is an improvement or not, so let’s say “they kept doing what they started,” which is something to celebrate all on its own.
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Elias Rosner:
Stop Cancelling Series Because of the Internet Trolls
On the whole, well done on crossing this abysmally low bar Marvel. There weren’t any high profile sudden cancellations of series that had yet to come out. That said, Marvel didn’t seem to be all that light on sudden and unexpected cancellations so. . .
Keep the Dark Horse Numbering
Another success! Man, my hopes were on a roll for 2019. The Legacy dual-numbering on the covers continues providing that nice balance between long-term continuity and new series numbering. Let’s hope they don’t quietly remove this. I don’t think they will, it’s no skin off their nose to keep it as is, but you never know with Marvel.
Publish Fewer Titles
Welp. I think we got this? The X-line expanded, bloated, and then contracted rather violently. The Spider side continues to grow, now with 70-billions [sic] Carnage tie-ins. Marvel cosmic is on the rise while marvel magic is. . .here. Basically what I’m trying to say is, there was an ebb and flow to the year that still felt like way too many books but at least many of those books were billed as limited or event specific — though I have my gripes there. All in all, I still think they’re doing way too much in the direct market and need to diversify their holdings but, you know, at least very few titles feel redundant.
Keep Bringing Back Obscure Characters
Yeaaahhhhhh, this didn’t happen — excluding the X-line but that is a WHOLE different beast. We got a couple moments in the sun for some characters — Death’s Head, the many Ghost Riders, the Journey into Mystery crew, uh. . .Death’s Head — but on the whole, this was a year of traditionally led books. No Darkhawk title. No Sleepwalker. Not even a Moon Knight book.
The places where we saw the obscure characters really come back were in books like “West Coast Avengers” (#justiceforjeff) and other team books, like the aforementioned “Journey Into Mystery” or “Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda.” “Marvel Team Up” would have been the perfect place to do this but nope! That poofed into the ether before we got anything more than the passing of the torch from Spidey to Ms. Marvel. Maybe next year will be the year of obscure characters coming to the fore but I don’t hold out much hope.
Except in, perhaps, Dawn of X.
Vince Ostrowski:
Legion and JSA when?
Huzzah! I can happily say that DC Comics finally made good on this one, as I read and enjoyed a new comic with the title “Legion of Super-Heroes #1” just last month and the Justice Society of America has played a prominent role in Scott Snyder’s “Justice League” run. Not only do we have a new Legion comic, but it also happens to be really, really good. Brian Michael Bendis seems revitalized by moving from Marvel to DC, lending his refreshing voice to a cast of characters that have been sometimes ill-served in the past by stuffy scripts and a lack of flavor. There’s no lack of flavor here, thanks to Bendis, but perhaps even more credit should go to the artist who got to redesign everything: Ryan Sook. Sook and DC did a slow drip of his designwork for the Legion refresh, and each new image had me salivating more and more. The Legion of Super-Heroes feels young, fresh, and modern – full of diverse species of members and racial backgrounds that demonstrate far more variety than the property has been able to claim in iterations past. As for the JSA? Well, they don’t have their own title yet, but rumor has it that it’s coming at some point. Still, seeing them again in a Justice League trip to the past has been a suitable teaser of things to come. To see these characters revisited again for the first time in a while, rendered beautifully in their lumpy, homespun cloth-heavy costumes by Jorge Jimenez was like eating a warm bowl of chicken soup.
Bigger books for talent workshop folks
I don’t think I can give DC the point on this one, but they didn’t entirely fail in this regard. In 2018, I said that I wanted to see more youthful, diverse takes on characters like Raven and Cyborg, who have mostly been stuck with the same creators who have been writing them for decades. I was hoping that DC would start pulling more from their talent workshop rolodex to do some books featuring these characters that don’t feel like the same story spinning its wheels again. Phillip Kennedy Johnson developed his own new property “The Last God” through DC’s Black Label publishing line, Michael Moreci and Magdalene Visaggio were given a couple of slots in DC’s various anthology one-shots, and of course Joëlle Jones has been deftly writing and drawing the “Catwoman” title, but apart from these names, there hasn’t been much work done at DC by talent workshop veterans, especially in 2019. It was never the explicitly-stated intention of the writer’s workshop to immediately springboard these creators into jobs on DC books, but I remain surprised that more of these creatives haven’t gotten opportunities, especially when the initiative was advertised so publicly by the publisher. That said, it doesn’t appear that there was a 2019 iteration of the workshop, so perhaps this will remain more or less a curious aspect of DC’s modern history.
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Matt Lune:
Unlock DC Universe for Europe/UK, Rival Marvel Unlimited with comics content
This has still not happened.
What gives?!
What’s worse: Disney+ is now out and that’s not available in the UK either?!
Disney, Warner. Sort this out PRONTO.
Nick Palmieri:
Don’t let your imprints atrophy
Yes! DC did a fantastic job here. This year saw most imprints close down (Young Animal, Wildstorm, New Age of Heroes, Vertigo, Ink, Zoom), and get replaced by a new demographic-based system: DC Kids, DC YA, DC, and DC Black Label. The idea of imprints is still good — and imprints can exist within this new system, as Hill House has proven — but as a whole, DC’s entire line is much more approachable with the new organization.
Get that book market!!
We won’t really know the result of this until we see the sales numbers next year. That said, DC went right along with their plans and, as I said in the previous note, really streamlined their line in a way that I think the book market will respond well to. I think we can preemptively call this one a win.
Don’t downplay your artists in the book market
This one is also difficult to comment on. DC’s social media seems to be crediting both writer and artist, yet the book covers still prominently display writer names and confine artist names to a corner. I also haven’t seen any artists at special DC Kids/YA events, though I could have missed those posts. Still, the star of someone like Gabriel Picolo is undeniably rising due to his work on the “Raven” book, so maybe things have improved a bit.
Elias Rosner:
Keep your Frick-Frackin Artists On Your Fucking Books
The artist churn is real and DC has done a little bit to fix it. . .mostly by cancelling every book except “The Terrifics” from their New Age of Heroes line. Where I think they’ve succeeded, however, is by building in the artist changes to the arcs. It’s not ideal but I see artist shifts happen at inflection points in books, or built into the fabric of them ala “Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds.” Really, it’s just hard to tell. All the twice monthly shipping means books like “Justice League”, “The Flash,” “Wonder Woman,” and “Batman” have to build in artist shifts. Much as I malign the book, King’s got a great pool of artists for “Batman” (but no women, which I set at DCs feet just as much) and, for the most part, knows how to play to their strengths.
“Justice League” has a who’s who of artists on the book as well — Cheung, Manapul, Jimenez. . . no women, once again — who rotate through and bring a different life to the tale being told. It’s a choice, rather than a discarding and I hope this means we’ll get more consistency in the future.
Do More of What Bendis is Doing
As Bendis becomes more and more integral to the current DCU, with his Wonder Comics imprint and “Event Leviathan,” you’d think the rest of the universe would take note but alas, unlike “HoXPoX,” we ain’t getting much more of his approach to superheroics in the main universe. Cities are still lifeless as shit (sorry Williamson, you’re doing a great job but Central City’s been a bit forgotten.) That said, “Justice League” remains a damn strong title and Year of the Villain, has made the events of the universe connect in a way we haven’t had in a good while. I wish it was expressed in a low level connection instead but, hey, what’re you gonna do?
Make Detective Comics a Detective Comic Again
Well we didn’t get that at ALL. In fact, it felt like a slip back to the early New-52 “Detective Comics.” It’s about as traditional a Bat book as you can get, which isn’t bad but not what I was hoping for. “New Gotham,” this is not and that experimental nature not being present really is a shame.
Brian Salvatore:
Sensation Comics
OK, DC didn’t do this in 2019, but for real, with Wonder Woman ’84 due out in 2020, there has never been a better time to unleash a second Wonder Woman title. There’s just no reason not to, so get on this, folks.
Continued belowBring back back-ups
Technically, the ‘Hill House’ books have a backup, but I was asking for more than just one book featuring them. Let’s call this partial credit.
Embrace longer runs
While Priest’s “Deathstroke” run ended at 50 issues, we are seeing a fair amount of creators still going strong on their titles, without too many random changes. We’re seeing more fill ins in 2019 than we did in 2016-2018, but it seems like DC is sticking to keeping most of its books, more or less, consistent. With Tom King wrapping up “Batman” next month, that leaves just “The Flash,” “Batman Beyond,” and “Red Hood: Outlaw” as the three titles that have kept their writer since the start of ‘Rebirth.’
Still more work to do, but it is nice to see DC attempting to embrace more longterm storytelling.
Take more risks
If the 5G rumor is true, 2020 might be the year of risks. 2019 wasn’t really that at all, and it shows. While some of the bigger books, like “Justice League” or “Batman” may have done things that grabbed headlines, few, if any, of those are going to stick around past the current writer’s time. In fact, I would venture that Alfred’s death in the pages of “Batman” is the sole ‘big’ change that is still happening in 2022. Maybe the public still knows Superman is Clark Kent. Maaaaaybe.
But more than storyline risks, I want DC to take risk in their hires. While we’ve seen some new blood popping up here and there (Sina Grace, David Marquez), let’s work on getting the overall talent base younger and more diverse. This is no longer a progressive idea; it is just smart business.
