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I readily admit that some of my wishes for 2009 might be unrealistic. I accept that I might be asking a bit much from a mere 365 days. I don't offer any realistic goals or steps to see these wishes fulfilled. This is nothing but an unabashed list of what I hope to see happen in 2009.

The Watchmen movie. I'm not 100% convinced this is going to be a great film. I'm sure it's going to look pretty, and it's going to, at least visually, be very representative of the comic itself. There's been some recent legal rigamarole between Warner Brothers and Fox over the film, and in all honesty, I don't really care how it works itself out; I just want to see the movie. In addition to hoping to be entertained, I'm also hoping that a movie like this will make the general public aware that there can be a superhero movie without Spider-Man or Batman as the lead character. Make it good or not. Let the critics love or hate it. Just let it make a nice non-Superman-shield-shaped dent in the public's movie awareness.

I've been known to support comic-book-based movies in the past, and I still remember what the theater ticket taker said to me when I went to a matinee-priced showing of . . . ahem . . . Spawn . . . I asked her if the movie was any good, and she shrugged back at me and said, "It's a comic book movie."

Did the fact that . . . ahem . . . Spawn . . . was based on a comic book somehow preclude it from any sort of actual rating or ranking? Was there no opinion other than, "Eh. It's based on a comic," and that's it? That's incredibly sad, and I'm holding out that Watchmen might shake or break that up a little bit, even moreso than any sort of Oscar Heath Ledger might posthumusly win.

Boneyard #28. I'm a huge fan of Boneyard, and have been for a few years now. I am currently reading creator Richard Moore's Fire and Brimstone, and I wish the man the best of luck on all his future projects, but Boneyard is my favorite of his creations, and twice now, I've had my orders for Boneyard #28 cancelled by my comic book retailer because NBM keeps pulling back the order and, I assume, pushing back the release of the final (only for now, hopefully!) issue of this title. Boneyard #27 ended on a sort of cliffhanger, and the story remains unresolved. I'm eager to see how Michael, Abby, Nessie and company get out of their current predicament.

Boneyard is one of the few titles of which I'll buy the individual single issues and then turn around and buy the trade as well . . . and keep the single issues, even though when I do this with other titles, I typically sell the single issues and keep the trade on my bookshelf.

I'd like to see the title come to a natural end sooner rather than later.

Another quirky horror comic. With Boneyard coming to an end/already come to a premature end, the artistic turn the Little Gloomy comics took not being to my liking (and it hasn't been published regularly for awhile now anyway), and Highway 13 hasn't been published in years, I'd like to find another regular horror title like these to fill the empty hole in my comics-reading horror-heart left by these books. I do have the trade paperback collection of Motor City from Rebel Sidekick Studios on pre-order, and I have high hopes that this might hold me over until I find something else.

Witch Doctor. And perhaps Witch Doctor could be that title. When I first found this indy title, I posted a review of it here within just a few hours after having read it. I've been following writer Brandon Seifert and artist Lukas Ketner online since, and it sounds like there is some progress being made in terms of bringing more Witch Doctor to print, which would do no less than thrill me as I love the concept of the book, and the characters, in just a few pages, have me completely hooked. (You can read the same issue of Witch Doctor that I read, and learn more about the comic and the creators are at http://www.witchdoctorcomic.com/.)

More Jack of Hearts. You have your Wolverine, your Daredevil, your Spider-Man, your Captain America. I've got my Jack of Hearts. Jack of Hearts is my favorite Marvel hero, and I would love to read more Jack of Hearts stories in 2009. The biggest problem is that the character is currently dead, was brought back briefly and then killed again by Brian Michael Bendis (after having been given a new costume that just doesn't rock NEARLY as hard as his classic get-up), so I realize this isn't overly realistic, but I'd still love to read more adventures about my boy Jack Hart. There was a Bowen Designs mini-bust solicited in the December Previews, but this isn't any sort of indication of future plans for the character . . . is it?

More binding. This is a strictly personal project. I want to bind more of my comics in 2009 (including all my books featuring Jack of Hearts as well as all of Marvel's "Midnight Sons" books from the 90s).

A re-entry point into Marvel. I've written about this before here at Paperback Reader - I find Marvel to be fairly impenetrable these days. Event after event after event leaves me feeling like I'd be lost if I tried to dive back into the Marvel books I once knew and loved.

A friendlier DC. Again, I've written about this before. I'm not referring to not killing off characters or introducing happier, younger characters or anything like that. Rather, I feel as if DC got so wrapped up in its Final Crisis linewide event, as well as some of the smaller events, like "Batman R.I.P.", that I have to read the few books I enjoy now from DC (Booster Gold - and please keep this going monthly through 2009) in a dark corner, afraid that DC might try to shake up what I'm enjoying for the sake of another weekly book that won't match the quality or success of 52 or restructuring ala cancelling Robin, Birds of Prey and Nightwing to make way for the new status quo of the Batman books.

(I promise to keep buying the Manhunter trades, though, whether the character crosses over into any events or not!)

A strong editorial hand on Justice Society of America. I like Justice Society of America, and I'll stick with the book once Geoff Johns has turned in his last script and the writing reigns are taken over by Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges. I was a huge fan of Shadowpact as written by Willingham, and when Sturges came onboard as a cowriter, I still dug the book - not as much as when Willingham was flying solo on the title, though. When Sturges took over sole writing chores on Shadowpact? I wasn't exactly thrilled. The overall ideas were still strong, but the execution felt a bit remedial, and I would hate to see this happen to Justice Society of America.

Keep the book strong. Keep the editorial hand just as strong.

More independent superhero stories. Whether they're in novel- or short-story-form, or by a company other than Marvel, DC or Image, I want to read more superhero stories that exist as their own entity, apart and aside from some overall comic book universe. IDW Publishing's Heretic is sitting on my To-Read pile right now, and I really enjoyed the trade paperback collection of Bill Willingham's Pantheon; I would like to read more like this (but not George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards material - I unfortunately couldn't get into this franchise even though I'm a huge fan of his "A Song of Fire and Ice" series).

So, someone just needs to get their hands on the Reality Gem to make this all happen for me, okay?