What I'm Looking Forward To in '08

With the Best of 2007 awards taken care of last week, I wanted to take some time to discuss some of the things I'm looking forward to in 2008 in the comic book world. Check out all the mindless speculation and pretty pictures after the break.

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST

Now that the Sinestro Corps War is over, Conquest has my undivided attention. With issue #3 coming out later this week, I foresee this series being the object of my affection for the months to come. If you haven't been picking this series up, use some of that extra Christmas money your grandmother gave you and grab the first two issues of this book. You may as well call the comic shop shortly after because you'll need to add the rest of this series to your pull list once you get a taste of the cosmic goodness. Possibly the best "event" of 2008? Probably a safe bet, if you ask me.


SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

Yes, despite the fact One More Day ended up worse than anyone could have ever imagined, I am still excited about seeing my boys, Dan Slott and Steve McNiven, taking a crack at Spider-Man without all that spider totem nonsense of the past 5+ years. Just reading some of the interviews when the creative teams were announced had me pumped for this. The creators all seem to have a genuine love of the character and intense desire to produce some of the best Spidey stories ever. However, I hope I can look past the million or so problems I have with OMD and give these new teams a chance. The opening arc will either make or break Spidey for me, so these guys have some insanely high hurdles to jump if they want to keep me on board past the first month.


YEAR OF THE MUTANT

Messiah Complex started with a dull roar and is firing on all cylinders now. With a huge status quo shake up in progress, new titles planned and lots of surprises still left in store, as well as the final chapters of Messiah Complex on the horizon, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone saying the X-books aren't rocking the house heading into 2008.

On top of finishing up Messiah Complex and dealing with the aftermath of that story, Joss Whedon and John Cassady will be finishing up their tenure on Astonishing X-Men early next year with Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi waiting in the wings to launch their long awaited run on that book.

All things considered, 2008 could be the return to prominence for the X-franchise and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. Just don't cancel New X-Men. Then I'll have to hate you.


BRUBAKER'S CAPTAIN AMERICA

It was my pick for Best Ongoing Series this year and, unless something tragic happens to Brubaker, I can't imagine it not being next year's pick for Best Ongoing either. Bucky appears to have accepted the burden of being the next Captain America and will be wearing the abnormally shiny Alex Ross redesign featured above in the new year. On top of the debut of a new Captain America, the Red Skull has set his master plan in motion, cranking the momentum up another notch on this book. Believe the hype and buy this book.


GREEN LANTERN

Unanimously declared the best storyline / event of 2007 with the Sinestro Corps War, Green Lantern is probably coming off its best year since it relaunched with Rebirth a couple years back. With the seeds planted for the Blackest Night, coming in 2009, Johns will have me anxiously awaiting every morsel of new information regarding this series for the next year. The road to Blackest Night starts with this Alpha Lanterns arc and, after that, we can look forward to the debut of the Red Lanterns. And that's just what they've told us. I'm sure there will be all kinds of surprises and twists and turns from Johns throughout the year.

And we mustn't forget the Green Lantern Corps title. There are huge plans for Mongul over there and it looks as if he will be collecting all of the different colour rings, as previews show him with a green, purple and yellow power ring, with the promise of more to come. Also, I'm sure we will see more of Sodam Yat, the current Ion, in the GLC title, which is something I'm personally looking forward to. All in all, it's a great time to be a Green Lantern fan and 2008 looks like it could equal or surpass 2007's incredible offering.


OTHER BOOKS WORTH MENTIONING

While the above are the major events or series I am most looking forward to finding out more about, there are still dozens of books I will be picking up each month that don't fall under the banner of an 'event'.


BLUE BEETLE

I consider this one of the best titles on the market and, after its best year to date, I expect major things from Blue Beetle in 2008. The most recent issue gave us a lot of information pertaining to The Reach and sparks should fly between them and Blue Beetle all year long. Couple that with his appearances in Teen Titans and it could be a break out year for young Jaime Reyes.


THE WALKING DEAD

Another Must Read book for me every month, this series is in the middle of its "No One Is Safe" storyline which sees a huge shake up in the status quo, with deaths, characters leaving the group to strike out on their own and a war with the neighbouring town. As good as Invincible is, I believe this is Kirkman's best work to date and it looks like it will only get better in 2008.


IRON MAN

Iron Man? Yes, Iron Man. The Mandarin story has been a slow burn for the better part of this year and it should build to a raging fire in 2008. This book has hovered just below the Must Read threshold all year. It's been good, but never great. However, based on the last couple issues, it looks like this could be a major break out year for the Iron Man title. Add in the fact he has a movie, which looks incredible, set to debut next year and I expect Marvel to be pimping their Iron clad hero out all year long.


WHATEVER MARK BAGLEY DOES AT DC

I don't know what it is, but I want it. Rumours are that it might be a trinity-like book by Kurt Busiek, featuring Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman in a weekly comic book to take the place of Countdown. Supposedly, Bagley would pencil the entire series himself with the huge lead time he's had since his signing. To help him along, he would handle like 14 pages or so and others would handle the backup story. I don't particularly like to believe rumours, but if there is a god, this, or something like it, will come true. Like I said, whatever he ends up doing at DC, I'll be in line to buy it.


I'd love to keep going, but I fear I'd end up listing every book imaginable. Of note, I have no interest in anything Skrull related and I fully expect that to be next year's One More Day. No good can come from replacing everyone with Skrulls and it's just going to mess up the actually good books, like Captain America, Thunderbolts, Avengers: Initiative and so on.

What's everyone else looking forward to? I couldn't really remember every announced 'event' or major storyline and, despite trying to scan previews and comicon announcments, I'm pretty sure I missed something important, especially on the DC side of things, where I could only think of Countdown and Final Crisis. Honestly though, I think 2008 will be a better year than 2007 for comics in general.

Either way, it will be fun reading to find out. Happy New Year and I look forward to hearing from you all year round!

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