By Various — Earlier this week, we posted our Most Anticipated Comics of 2019. While there are quite a few great comics on there, the reality is that any Most Anticipated list published at this time of year is primarily a Most Anticipated Between Now and April list. This is due to the deadline-driven nature of monthly comics limiting publishers from announcing plans that extend past the next three or four months. Nobody wants to announce an exciting new title before having it get cancelled or delayed.

With that in mind, today we’d like to share a 2019 Comics Wish List. This is the piece in which we dream big, listing hopes and ideas we’d like to see become a reality between now and December. These range from specific—broader availability of digital comics content—to the more general, things like publishers embracing legacy (an evergreen wish), altering marketing tactics, or striking line-wide tones that rely more on hope than aggravation and denial.

Enough! Let’s get to the good stuff, our top comics wishes and dreams for 2019…

Comics Wish List 2019

Big Big Big High-Profile Work for the Following Rising Creators…
Artists:
Joshua Cassara
Laura Braga
Marley Zarcone
Nick Robles
Ramon Villalobos

Writers:
David F. Walker
Leah Williams
Tini Howard
Tom Taylor
Vita Ayala

Black Label Projects from Greg Rucka
Greg Rucka has been very quiet lately, and I hope that changes in 2019. In fact, we haven’t heard much about either his creator-owned work or his projects for DC’s mature reader line, Black Label. When the imprint was announced, a book titled Wonder Woman: Diana’s Daughter was to be written by Rucka...but no artist was announced. A few months later, rumors started swirling of him doing a book starring Lois Lane for the imprint. The latter seems to have been semi-confirmed by Rucka’s good friend Brian Michael Bendis in a teaser in Action Comics 1006. Here’s hoping Rucka can get a Batwoman or Renee Montoya Question book in 2019 as well. -Taylor Pechter

Dakota North
Marvel released a collection of her mini-series and most of her appearances in Dakota North Investigations: Design for Dying last year, which suggests that I'm not the only fan of this character, but I'd love to see her reappear somewhere in the Marvel Universe. Sure, she's basically Modesty Blaise and Black Widow, but her stories were always fun. -d. emerson eddy

Daughters of the Dragon and/or Heroes for Hire
A Daughters of the Dragon Digital Original continuation would be wonderful. Marvel's street-level titles are looking a little sparse (though I expect to see some announcements soon, ahem) and all of Marvel’s Digital Originals besides Jessica Jones seem doomed to single seasons. Jed MacKay and Travel Foreman’s Daughters, which kicked off as a Digital Original in November, has been an absolute delight, so my pipe-dream is that we get a season two of that. If it does have to end, though, just give me a series where Misty Knight and Colleen Wing retain the spotlight (a la a new Heroes for Hire, ahem). And hell, put MacKay back on it too! -Allison Senecal

DC Pop-Up Imprints
I loved the concept of Young Animal and what DC has been doing in regards to The Sandman Universe and Wonder Comics. I'd love to see that kind of curated mini-line from other creators, editors, and properties. Like a renewed focus on The Fourth World, Steve Orlando spearheading some exploration of Kamandi, or Gail Simone drawing up plans for a new Birds of Prey initiative. DC has shown that these small, tightly-focused initiatives have led to some highly-interesting stories and creative drives. I'd like to see more experimentation. -d. emerson eddy

Embrace Digital Formats with Classic Material
One joy of comics is experiencing older runs. Much older material has been reprinted in recent years, allowing newer fans to experience it and older fans to return to see how stories have evolved. Still, many older stories need to be made available, including runs from the Golden Age never reprinted by Marvel or DC. And I’m not sure print is the answer, not entirely. What I’d like from the Big Two in 2019 is more reprinting of older materials with increased digital availability to coincide. Marvel is ahead digitally with Marvel Unlimited, but both companies could do so much more. It’s past time for the comics industry to really embrace the digital age, giving customers more options to buy, experience, and support product. -Jack Sharpe

Earth One News from DC Comics
DC Comics’ Earth One line of graphic novels has had a pretty rough history when it comes to release schedules. There have also been many rumored projects that seem to either have not gotten off the ground or are just forever going through development trouble. Hopefully, this year we get good news, ideally on Francis Manapul’s Aquaman Earth One and Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s third volume of Batman. -Taylor Pechter

Jeff Lemire’s Teased Projects
During 2018, Jeff Lemire (aka Mr. Insanely Prolific) teased a few really interesting projects that are yet to be formally announced. And you know what? I’d like them all. They are:

• A 12-issue Black Hammer series written and drawn by Jeff Lemire

• An Inferior Five comic for DC written by Lemire and drawn by Keith Giffen

• A DC Comics/Black Hammer crossover, which was a BC rumor that Lemire RT-ed, presumably so lost in creating an absurd amount of comics that he didn’t realize it hadn’t yet been formally announced. -Zack Quaintance

The Justice Society of America’s Return
The Justice Society of America is my favorite team at DC Comics. The main universe version of the team, however, hasn’t been seen since before 2011’s Flashpoint. Hopefully, with events happening in the ongoing Doomsday Clock maxi-series (especially if the covers of issue #10 are any indication), it seems we might get some answers about them in 2019. My best guess is that a relaunched JSA book will be a part of Geoff Johns’ Killing Zone imprint. My dream creative team is either James Robinson or Peter Tomasi writing and Rags Morales on art. -Taylor Pechter

Legion of Superheroes
I’ll see Taylor’s Justice of Society comic and raise him Legion of Superheroes. Based on current Superman scribe Brian Michael Bendis’ social media, I think it’s pretty to safe to say the Legion is on its way back. So, yeah, can’t wait. If I had anything to add, it’d be to find the write creators. Hmm, isn’t there a big rumored Brian Bendis and Ryan Sook project on the way? Hmm….-Zack Quaintance

Marvel Stays the Course
What I’d like to see from Marvel in 2019 is basically nothing. By that, I mean I hope they stay the course, avoiding the renumbering gimickery, unnecessary line wide initiatives, and creative team switches that have disrupted the publisher’s coherency and upended runs with great potential (ahem, Power Man and Iron Fist) constantly in recent years. I wrote about this in 2018, but last year Marvel did a great job extracting some prestige and rewarding titles from its usual cash-grabbery. I know linewide crossovers are a reality of the business now, but I hope Marvel doesn’t suddenly renumber everything and move around its artists and writers for quick sales bumps this year after War of the Realms. Stay the course, you all, you’re doing just fine. -Zack Quaintance

New Hellboy Anthology Series
We've got the finale to the major Hellboy narrative arc running right now in BPRD: The Devil You Know and a new film coming out in March, so it's another big year for Mike Mignola and his baby. While we know that the Hellboy and the BPRD stories will be continuing to fill in the gaps in time, I'd love to see different creators today put their own spin on HB. Although I wouldn't mind it taking the same format as Weird Tales, I think it could be interesting to see what they could do with longer form arcs. -d. emerson eddy

Saga Returns
This one is pretty straight forward. Last year Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples sci-fi family drama Saga went on an extended hiatus (following super traumatic Saga #54). The creators estimated it’d be gone for a year, while leaving the door open to it being gone more. In the meantime, we’re doing a weekly Saga re-read. That said, I’d still like to see my favorite comic back in 2019. -Zack Quaintance

Wild Storm Spin-Offs...More Please
The Wild Storm is one of the best books on the shelves right now. With Bryan Hill’s Michael Cray mini-series ending last year, 2019 would be a great time to launch more WildStorm spin-offs. Writer Warren Ellis, the mastermind of the new book and the best WildStorm comics historically, has been on record saying he’s been trying to spin out both WildCATs and Zealot, but it just hasn’t happened. With The Wild Storm scheduled to end in June, hopefully those books can get rolling so the new Rebirth of the line doesn’t die on the vine. -Taylor Pechter

...You’ve Got to Be Kind (God Damn It)
What if instead of heroes constantly being in crisis, murdered, traumatized, raped...you name it, comic book stories in 2019 pivoted on how difficult it is to be a good person doing good things in an increasingly chaotic world? It’s a messy narrative thread (and a little quixotic of me to assume it can be applied to these stories in one year), but it’s also a (semi) new idea in a world increasingly struggling to avoid re-treads. So yeah, I know, dream on...but just think how motivational superheroes could be for these times if their central ethos moved closer to doing what’s right because it’s right, rather than constantly looking for atonement and revenge. That’s a big dream of mine. -Zack Quaintance

Read about our Most Anticipated (Announced) Comics of 2019!

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