Is anybody here well versed in Valiant Comics?

[Pyro Man]

Hi all, with the recent news that Valiant Comics is returning this summer with four of their titles which all piqued my interest to varying degrees and the discovery of a wealth of back issues from the company at my local store I was thinking about maybe checking some of their series out. I'm definitely planning on checking out old issues of X-O Manowar because the concept sounds interesting but other than that I'm a bit unsure and was wondering if anybody had recommendations about what characters/series/runs are worth checking out.

 

[RockSP]

Yeah I was a big fan of Valiant, especially the early years. I'd say check out Harbinger, Archer & Armstrong, Eternal Warrior. I remember Secret Weapons being good at the beginning as well. I'm sure there are more but it's been a long time since I read them...gonna have to dig them out.

 

[Pyro Man]

Yeah I was considering getting the hardcover of Harbinger since it contains the early issues which are apparently really hard to find since they came before the big "Unity" crossover or whatever.

I've been digging around and I was wondering if Ninjack and Shadowman were any good? My shop had like about 30 issues worth of both those titles.

 

[Lord]

Is the new Valiant relaunch going to be a complete reboot or is it going to continue the original comics?

 

[Pyro Man]

From what I understand its going to be a complete reboot but keep a lot of the core concepts of the original characters. I think the reason they went with a complete reboot was A) Its been so long since the original Valiant comics and B) they no longer hold the rights to characters like Solar Man of the Atom, Magnus and Turok which were evidently (especially Solar) very core characters in the original universe. At least thats what I've gathered from what I've read + my limited knowledge of Valiant.

 

[RockSP]

From what I understand its going to be a complete reboot but keep a lot of the core concepts of the original characters.

Pretty much.

I'd honestly be less interested if it was a continuation. Those original stories are still there to be read, but a new spin is what has me putting these new Valiant books on my pull list.

 

[Lord]

I'm glad it's a reboot, i'm new to the valiant universe, and i hope they are successful, can this be the 3rd big Superhero company? Image ocupies that position but because the creators oun their characters that universe seems to be allways changing, not to mention that crossovers are very tricky, and it didn't reach DC or Marvel's success since it's begining in the 90s.

 

[Pyro Man]

Pretty much.

I'd honestly be less interested if it was a continuation. Those original stories are still there to be read, but a new spin is what has me putting these new Valiant books on my pull list.

I think a reboot is the best decision from both a creative and business standpoint. Creatively it would be restricting to get a bunch of writers and say "Great, you can help us get our new company off the ground but you have to make sure your series is a continuation of these stories that ended over a decade ago. Toodles!"

Businesswise its suicide to try and draw in a bunch of new readers with a new company but be continuing stories that have been over for over a decade and futhermore, (mostly) aren't in print and some of which (from what I've read mainly the pre-Unity crossover issues) are extraordinarily hard to find in back issues.

What book are you most excited about? For me its Archer and Armstrong because the art on teaser looked the most interesting of the four. The recent interview I read with Bloodshot's writer has me excited about that too though. Ultimately I'm planning on giving all of them a try though. I'm mostly a DC fan (I used to love Marvel but now I can only afford to get a few titles because of overpricing and doubleshipping)and that makes up most of my pull list right now so it'll be nice to have a little bit of variety.

 

[Pyro Man]

I'm glad it's a reboot, i'm new to the valiant universe, and i hope they are successful, can this be the 3rd big Superhero company? Image ocupies that position but because the creators oun their characters that universe seems to be allways changing, not to mention that crossovers are very tricky, and it didn't reach DC or Marvel's success since it's begining in the 90s.

That's all true. Also, Image has started moving away from superhero titles. They're still around but now they're becoming more known as a haven for creator owned books.

 

[Lord]

I'm quite exited for all of them as they all look great and i hope the comics have a reasonable price.

 

[RockSP]

I've been digging around and I was wondering if Ninjack and Shadowman were any good? My shop had like about 30 issues worth of both those titles.

Hmm...I know I bought the first few issues of Shadowman and at least the first issue of Ninjak. I think Acclaim's version of Shadowman was more interesting than Valiant's original. I don't really remember anything about Ninjak.

What book are you most excited about? For me its Archer and Armstrong because the art on teaser looked the most interesting of the four.

Yeah Van Lente usually writes stuff I like so A&A is definitely on the pull list. I only bought the first 2 or 3 issues of the original Bloodshot, so that is the one I'm least interested in (though I am interested).

 

[E-Man]

I came across the old Shadowman a few years back by luck. My only knowledge of Shadowman was from the Acclaim video games at the time. I knew the games were based on a comic, but I never actually saw the comic. One day I was in Half Price Books and I saw a trade for Valiant's Shadowman. The major difference in look threw me off, but I bought it since it was cheap and I liked it. It was a solid comic that I hope gets revisited in the new relaunch. I would love it if they took the Acclaim approach to Shadowman and mixed it up a bit with Valiant's. Valiant's series had better execution while the better concept belonged to Acclaim.