Valiant Universe - Any Fans Here?

bralinator

I used to pick up Solar, Harbinger, Bloodshot, X-O Manowar, and Turok back in the 90's but I drifted away after the disaster that was the Deathmate crossover with Image, and I have hesitated from jumping on board with this new incarnation of Valiant after getting back into a comics collecting a couple of years ago. When I saw the talent on the new Dynamite versions of these classic Gold Key characters, I ordered the new Magnus, Solar, and Turok (still waiting on my DCBS order to arrive) and am looking forward to seeing how they handle those properties.

Someone referred me to this link to a RAI #1 promotional video. Seems Valiant has been doing some very cool video promotions for many of their titles and this is no exception. I'm not sure I'm going to add anything else to my pull list right now, but if you are a fan, please tell me what are you reading from Valiant, and if you are not a fan, why not?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch1Ted_712o
RAI #1 from Valiant

Jersen

I was a big Valiant fan back toward the end of my original stint collecting comics as a kid up through about Jr. High in the mid-'90s. When I got back into buying comics about 6 or 7 years ago, I spent alot of time and money scouring eBay to buy all the stuff my 12 year old self couldn't afford or get to the LCS often enough to pick up and filling out my Valiant collection (very affordably, I might add!).

The Valiant relaunch was about 4 or 5 months in by the time I had to put a hold on buy monthly comic purchases through DCBS due to some personal circumstances, but things have settled down now, and, quite honestly, now that I'm able to get back into regular monthly DCBS purchases, the bulk of my orders are now Valiant and the Dynamite Gold Key titles!

fredzilla

ComiXology has had several Valient sales recently and based on @JamieD‌'s recommendation I picked up a bunch when they were on sale. It seemed for a while that Valiant books were going on sale a lot so if you're in to digital and can be patient you may eventually be able to grab something.

I think of all of the books Archer and Armstrong is my favorite. I've only read up to issue 12, but it is a very fun series. A good balance of humor and action. I also really enjoyed Harbinger and have read that up to issue 12. I recently got X-O Manowar vol. 1 (issues 1-4) which had a very intriguing first arc. I'll definitely grab some more when they go on sale.

The only thing I didn't really like was Quantum & Woody. It started off fun and then went really flat. The jokes got old and tired and I just lost interest. The art seemed to suffer a lot after that first arc.

There's my two cents.

bralinator

Did you watch the promo video? Does it make you interested in picking up the new RAI?

Jersen

I've already pre-ordered Rai on my DCBS order, I'm all in on this Valiant relaunch, now that I'm able to get back into buying monthly again! In fact, my main comic book quest right now is filling in the past year-or-so that I wasn't able to keep up with the Valiant books.

bralinator

@JamieD continues to promote that excellent Valiant bundle from DCBS, and I may be ready to hop on board myself.

hauberk

I was a classic Valiant fan and have been picking up the new books since the launch. They are top of the pile books every month. Every title is quality and all offer something different. Not entirely fond of the new direction on Shadowman but only one issue in so far.

nweathington

I really enjoyed the first year-and-a-half or so of the original Valiant comics. But after that they took a big dip in terms of quality, and I dropped them all. Not long after I dropped them, I sold the entire batch for a pretty good price—paid for my comics for four or five months, and I was getting a lot of comics—just a few months before the bottom fell out of their over-inflated value.

fredzilla said:

The only thing I didn't really like was Quantum & Woody. It started off fun and then went really flat. The jokes got old and tired and I just lost interest. The art seemed to suffer a lot after that first arc.

Yep. I picked it up for the Tom Fowler art, and the first story was pretty decent. Nothing against Ming Doyle (it was more because of the writing), but the second story arc just wasn't doing it for me, and I dropped it midway through.

hauberk

nweathington said:

I really enjoyed the first year-and-a-half or so of the original Valiant comics. But after that they took a big dip in terms of quality, and I dropped them all. Not long after I dropped them, I sold the entire batch for a pretty good price—paid for my comics for four or five months, and I was getting a lot of comics—just a few months before the bottom fell out of their over-inflated value.

fredzilla said:

The only thing I didn't really like was Quantum & Woody. It started off fun and then went really flat. The jokes got old and tired and I just lost interest. The art seemed to suffer a lot after that first arc.

Yep. I picked it up for the Tom Fowler art, and the first story was pretty decent. Nothing against Ming Doyle (it was more because of the writing), but the second story arc just wasn't doing it for me, and I dropped it midway through.

You do raise a good point Q&W is the outlier for me but I think that the Ming Doyle art IS a huge problem. However, the book still doesn't hit on the same tone as the rest of the Valiant books. If it weren't for the DCBS bundle, it would definitely be off my list.