We are trying to shift gears towards 2016(still feels like the far future), and with the promotion machine the way it is in comics, we already have a lot to look forward to. Looking forward, a lot of new books are starting, a lot of companies have new priorities, and a lot of books are going to be hitting their stride. Now we have narrowed down some of the most exciting developments for the coming year to a list of our “top ten.”
What are you looking forward to most this year?
Suiciders, Vol. 2
The sequel volume to 2015’s Suiciders is coming to Vertigo, bringing us back to the dystopian world of crime and destruction in Los Angeles. Suiciders: Kings of HelL.A. brings us closer to the crash, so backwards in time from the first miniseries, and back into the world of thunderdome-style fighting in a city that was once great. The same creative team, including Lee Bermeho, with Alessandro Vitti joining on the art.
We only got one issue from this new reboot of Lucifer on Vertigo, meant to coincide with the new Lucifer television show on Fox. The book relaunches the previous Vertigo book that spun-off out of Sandman and was planted in the now-defunct Vertigo-verse. The new series still harkens back to that period, and is much better than its previous “police procedural” appearance made it appear. After a stellar first issue, it is exciting to see what happens in the current year.
This is also a continuation, but may be surprising since we have already gotten a few issues of this new book from Brian K Vaughan. The comic, looking at a group of 80s early teen paper girls during an alien invasion and battle, is classic Vaughan and is one of the most readable comics of 2015. The series will only really find its footing this year, and so we are looking forward to see how the series really develops.
2015 has been a landmark year for the publisher Archie Comics, but hey, so was 2014. Now that they have a huge line-up with the Archie horror titles like Afterlife with Archie, the interesting non-archie comics in Red Circle, and, now, the archie reboot titles with talent like Mark Waid and Chip Zdarsky. We are going to be getting a new reboot of Kevin Keller in 2016, but now we are also going to see how Archie Comics sustains their new qualities lines. This is a new day for Archie Comics, so we want to see what they make of it.
The Dark and Bloody
In February, Vertigo will be releasing an additional new title, The Dark and Bloody, a horror miniseries that is reminiscent of recent horror titles from Dark Horse like Death Head and Harrow County. Based around a dark evil deep in a woods and the liquor-runner who needs to defend his family, this is perfect Vertigo fair, and will only now add to the huge line-up that makes up the new Vertigo comics.
DC Mega-Issues #50
Many of DC’s superhero titles will be hitting #50 come March, 2016. This is prompting the eleven titles to do double-sized issues that will be a great starting off point for new readers, and harken back to the Annual format. For Batman and Superman titles, you will see the end of the over-long storylines that have been going on. This means that Superman gets his powers back and Bruce Wayne returns as Batman. Thank God.
Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 1
People have become beyond exciting for the new volume in the series of Original Graphic Novels from DC, all of which update the origins of your favorite heroes. We have seen the series working with three from Superman, two from Batman, and one from Teen Titans, all with name talent to make them work. Now it seems we have been waiting for the best as Grant Morrison brings us his take on the origin of Wonder Woman. Could be part Invisibles, could be part All-Star Superman, and either way we are stoked.
This is, again, a title that we already saw the start of, but we are completely unsure of where its going now. We started a few years back now with Thor: God of Thunder, which was broken up by Original Sin and then intervened by the new female Thor. This was an exciting development, though the comic that revealed her ran that storyline a little slower than it should. Now we see her engaging with the more mythological side of Asgard and the Norse background, which is a great turn that harkens back to God of Thunder. Now we are excited to see both how she continues while also finding a place for the traditional Thor. Aaron is perfectly equipped to bring us through with both a progressive inclusion of the multi-gendered Thor characters and the inclusion of the complete Yggdrassil.
Providence
We have gotten about half of this maxi-series from Alan Moore and Avatar Comics, but we still cannot tell you what it is really about. The series is one of Moore slowest, but is building with deep intensity(despite the sub-par art). What we are really looking forward here is to see how the series is going to conclude, what the heart of this story is, and how it comes together in the way that only Moore can.
Image Comics
How else can we say it? Image Comics has been our top publisher for years now, and each year we see incredible titles start and many more continue. This year our line-up of “to watch” titles include more than twenty Image books, and with their list of #1s coming up it seems like this streak will never quit. Both Vertigo and Boom Studios! are catching up, but Image Comics is going to continue to be the leader as we head into the new year.
Vertigology 
