Toasty

The Gnome and I were in Tennessee all week visiting family. It was predicted to be cold, but clear all week. Once we got up there, it snowed twice. I don’t like snow.

Now that the first comics of the new year have come out, we thought we’d run through what we predict will happen in comics and the comics industry in 2011. Next January, we’ll take a look and score how well we did.

Predictions for 2011

• Guy Gardner will become a Red Lantern permanently. As such, he’ll lead the Red Lantern book. Emerald Warriors will focus on Kilowog or become the “corps” book and Green Lantern Corps will become Kyle’s book.
• Wonder Woman will return to her old costume.
• DC will increase the number of books that are sold digitally day and date.
• Grant Morrison will not be writing any Batman books by the end of the year. If he’s writing anything for DC at all, it’ll just be Multiversity.
• To replace Oracle’s role, there will be a Superhero Support Network with each hero having their own techie-communication person who work together as a network. Batgirl already has Proxy and Power Girl already has Nico. Expect more to come.
• Barbara will be back on the street fighting crime. Not sure if this means she’ll be in a suped-up wheelchair or some sort of power suit. While Gail Simone is writing her, Barbara won’t regain the ability to walk because Simone won’t marginalize that.
• Barbara’s new superhero persona will be called either Nightwing or Flamebird.
• The main JSA book will end or change it’s focus. The “old school” characters like Alan Scott, Mr. Terrific, and Jay Garrick will retire or leave.
• We will never see any of the new International Batmen once they are chosen.
• Aquaman will get his own book coming out of Brightest Day.
• The Hawks will go somewhere, maybe to the revamped JSA book.
• If anyone is going to die out of the Brightest Day Twelve, it’ll be Deadman (he may return to being Deadman, but we don’t guarantee it).
• Books that will be cancelled this year (that haven’t been announced already): Gotham City Sirens, Outsiders, Zatanna, and Green Arrow.
• James Robinson will get taken off of JLA.
• Judd Winick will be given at least one new book once he finishes Generation Lost. Odds are it’ll be whatever he chooses.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

• Batman Beyond #1 -
• House of Mystery #33 -

Kris, what’s on your pull list?

• Adventure Comics #522 - A decent issue, and I’m excited for the next year of Legion, but this issue was plagued by the same problem all the Legion books have had, too many stories and characters.
• Azrael #16 - Ra’s al Ghul is a hard character to write and I don’t think David Hine quite gets it. This is an okay issue, I like where Azrael is going as a character, but with the series ending, I don’t know if this book will reach a real conclusion.
• Batman Beyond #1 - I love Warhawk. I just want that known. I’m curious how they will explain his origin, since he was created as son of Shiera Hall and John Stewart. Otherwise this is a pretty mediocre first issue, but the mini give me faith.
• Brightest Day #17 - This should have been 2-4 monthly miniseries rather than one semi-monthly. It too disjointed and short for you to get truly invested in the characters.
• Doom Patrol #18 -
• Freedom Fighters #5 - If you take one think away from this, it’s that Black Condor is a bad-ass and deserves your respect. Also, watching King Bullet beat up a racist and a bigot is good fun.
• Jonah Hex #63 -
• JSA All-Stars #14 - An issue dropping back into the swing of things. This is a great book that gets how to build team dynamics. I’m excited to see Arthur Pemberton return as the villain.
• Lady Death #1 -
• Rase the Dead II #2 -
• Starman/Congorilla #1 - Amazingly boring. Robinson felt the need to interject a lot of standing around into a fight between a group of gorilla commandoes and Starman, Congorilla, Rex the Wonder Dog, and Animal Man.
• Steel #1 - I don’t see the point of this issue or of bringing Doomsday back in general. Steel is a great character, and this adds nothing to him.
• Superboy #3 - Good issue, explaining the ups and downs of Superboy in Smallville.
• Weird Worlds #1 - A great start to an interesting mini. Every story is worth reading.