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The 16th Rumour Awards – Scoop Of The Year 2016

It's a long long time since the very first one of these. I was 28 when I decided that an annual look back at the rumours and scoops of the year would be a good thing. 16 years later, that's still to be determined. But here we go again with a self congratulatory pat on the back. Mostly.

But feel free to catch up with previous years by clicking on all these many links. And a time to look back on the scoops of 2016.

First of all, it's good to check last year's Rumour Of The Year 2015 and Wrong Of The Year 2015 lists – too see how many of what was still a rumour then, have now become scoops.

Such as a wrong of the year form 2015 came true in 2016, that ComiXology were to announce an all-you-can-eat subscription at a major comic convention. Eventually, it happened as ComiXology Unlimited.

We also announced the rumour that Marvel Studios had internally cancelled their Inhumans movie as a result of it being an initiative from the other side of Marvel. That story was contradicted by the same kind of people who contradicted us over the Death Of Quicksilver story, but my own sources only hardened up with tales of memos being sent around Marvel that weekend telling people that an Inhumans movie was to be "deprioritised" at the company.And guess what – the Inhumans was indefinitely delayed and the Marvel TV stepped up to make their own Inhumans TV show – the first two episodes to air in the cinema, a two fingers up at Kevin Feige from the rest of Marvel.

There were the firings at DC Comics of Carol Roeder, Derek Maddalena and other moves at DC that followed.

We worked out from reading the runes that Marvel was about to ban the use of the 616 designation for the Marvel Universe and were letting every creator get it out of their system.

There was the news that Gerard Way was to curate a series of comics at DC Comics – though it was Young Animal rather than Vertigo that we thought at the time – but that it would include Doom Patrol.

We had a scoop on the storyboards for Doctor Who: The Day of The Doctor when Christopher Eccleston was still going to be in it. But we got a takedown notice… that' okay, we were still able to announce the casting of Graham MacTavish as the Saint Of Killers in Preacher.

We scooped the news of slabbing exclusive appearances for CGC at C2E2 and ECCC. And that Simon Bisley was drawing an issue of Doom Patrol – and rather a lot of Harley Quinn. That Frank Cho and Milo Manara were teaming up. Lobo was leading the Justice League Of America. And Larry Hama joining Christopher Priest on Deathstroke.

It wasn't our specific scoop. But we could see that it was something worth reading. The plot of Civil War II #0 leaked in script form to a poster on the Neogaf forums. And everything except the name of Homer came true – he became Ulysses. Oh and She-Hulk got better… while Reddit was the choice for the advance scans of DC Rebirth that exposed the Watchmen characters, as one of the journalists that DC embargoed copies with leaked it out….

And when we learned about artist Katie Jones writing about a sexual assault from a DC Comics art director, Bleeding Cool was able to bring it the attention of senior staff to help resolve the situation. And while there was no resolution for an Australian artist, who reported assault by Eric Basaldua, there was support from an unexpected direction. While a Brazilian studio cancelled their contract with an artist who worked for DC Comics through them as a result of his own comments on a gang rape.

We gave you your first reports on upcoming TV shows Riverdale and Powerless – by reading the scripts. That's pretty hard evidence. But some scoops were pure guesses, such as the death of Hulk at the hands of Hawkeye in Civil War II which was a complete guess from the promotional materials that Marvel had put out. Although Skottie Young had accidentally leaked it all months before. Also that Doctor Aphra would have an ongoing series – shot in the dark!

Bleeding Cool managed to get reports out of ComicsPRO and a number of Diamond Retailer Summits that scooped everyone, from the quote to the existence of Rick & Morty: L'il Poopy Superstar, Merry Men from Tumor from Oni Press, Deadpool Vs Gambit, Brickleberry, Hammer House Of Horror, Sherlock manga, Marvel's comics boxes, US Avengers getting a different cover for each state,  the existence of ResurrXion, the existence of Monsters Unleashed, the DC Quarterly magazine Direct Currents, Garth Ennis and Mauricet working on a Dastardly And Muttley comicTitan publishing Super Mansion, Dan Dare, Tekken7, The Mummy, Hook Jaw, and The Quarry, World War Tank Girl. Dark Horse's Briggs Land being sold to AMC, World Of Wakanda, Richard Rider as the New Nova, Shakespool, the existence of Star Trek: The Next Generation Vs Aliens From IDW And Dark Horse, the launch of Bullseye, Elektra and Iron Fist as part of a Daredevil mini-universe and as for the upcoming Secret Empire event for Captain America, we were exclusively reporting the teasers back in the spring of 2016.

Oh and no one else thought it was worth reporting a Secret Wars animated TV show until Bleeding Cool decided it was worth talking about, becoming *the* story of San Diego. There was also the news of a Lovecraft TV show from Legendary and that Kelly Sue DeConnick was writing for the newly launched Emerald City TV series.

There was the great trademark bettle between DC Comics and Whattaburger over the WW logo which is still ongoing, but saw headlines across the world.

We also had a ballsy big scoop with Justice League Vs Power Rangers, by being in the right place at the right time. We also got the scoop on the new Dave Sim series Cerebus In Hell. And that The Recidivist will be by Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky and Annie Wu.

Reading the listings also gave Bleeding Cool scoops on everything from Deadpool: Black In Black, Deadpool Vs Punisher and the still-to-be-properly-announced Guardians Of The Galaxy: Mother Entropy from Jim Starlin and Alan Davis, Stuart Immonen joining Amazing Spider-Man for a Norman Osborn fight. And a new Jessica Jones comic coming. That DC were to publish the missing two issues of Kamandi.

Oh and we worked out that the new Superwoman was Lois Lane thanks to a DC Comics filename….

For Loot Crate, we were up on scoops regarding certain items promoted as exclusives being sold independently by their manufacturers. And the Iron Mitt fiasco…

And it was very handy to be able to grab that Wonder Woman 1918 photo from Batman Vs Superman. And that Neal Adams was redrawing Superman Vs Mohammad Ali for Harley Quinn – in the same year as Ali died.

There was certainly the New New Marvel Now relaunch, the details of which Bleeding Cool ran one day before Newsarama and two days before Comic Book Resources, as is traditional. Renew Your Vow as the most popular….

We also scooped the reasons that DC Comics cancelled Legend Of Wonder Woman by Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon, denied by them at first, but later confirmed by DC to the Guardian.

We were first with the news that DC Comics was launching DC Rebirth titles for free through Hoopla.

We may have been beaten to the news that Image was moving to Portland. But we were first with the news that IDW was setting up shop there.

There were big scoops over Wizard World's financial woes and the Shamusgate legal fight between Stephen Shamus and Wizard World, and the financial implications and fallout this led to.

But overall, the scoop of the year began at the end of 2015, as Bleeding Cool published rumours about DC Comics creators being told to abandon their Batgirling and go back to meat and potatoes proving true via that launch of DC Rebirth, a story we broke in several sections including most books being relaunched and a bunch of them to go bi-weekly as well after their 52nd issues.  A DC Rebirth special to launch the relaunch. That was a pretty decent scoop. But we were just getting started.

rebirth checklist

We said there would be relaunches for Trinity, Titans, Hal Jordan & The Green Lanterns, Nightwing, Birds Of Prey and The Super Man (later changed to New Superman) while Batman/Superman, Superman/Wonder Woman, Grayson, Starfire, Black Canary, Midnighter and Doctor Fate would be cancelled outright.

We also said Tom King was writing bi-monthly BatmanGreg Rucka was writing Wonder WomanPete Tomasi was writing SupermanDan Jurgens was writing Action Comics, Jim Lee was on a regular Suicide Squad comic – and Rob Williams, James Tynion IV was on a Batbook and Scott Snyder has an ongoing deluxe extended Batman series, 28 page stories each issue, with an A-list guest artist list for the comic, as the comic runs through Batman's rogue gallery, starting with a Two-Face who knows all about your own monster inside. That Alfred would have his hand back. That Green Lantern would star the current Power Ring, that Batgirl had a Brazilian creator, that Nightwing would be the the leader of the Titans, that Damian Wayne will lead the Teen Titans as was DC taking the cast of Teen Titans and launching a new Titans series instead. and that DC would get its own Rebirth catalogue from Diamond. Also the two year arc – although we didn't know it was Watchmen-related at the time. And we would then add that Aqualad would be the sixth member of the Teen Titans…

A mixture of anonymous sources, professional sources and even a couple of bar-related discussions all added to the mix on that one!


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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