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Valiant Talk
hauberk
Posts: 1,511
Stemming from recent semi-on-topic from April Solicits with @luke52 and @bralinator :
Overall, I've been digging the new Valiant stuff, though there are weak parts.
Unfortunately, I feel like Archer and Armstrong, which was an early favorite, have been diminished since they teamed up with Quantum and Woody.
Ninjak, OTOH, has been pretty freaking solid all the way through, though I'm not terribly impressed with the design of the Shadow Seven and have been less than impressed with the coloring on the Swords of Master Darque arc.
Ultimately, I really like their slower growth - limited number of titles, more short arcs to flesh out parts of the universe and see what sticks. Good stuff.
Probably as much of a reflection of my taste (I seem to spend more time reading grimdark) as anything, but the only thing that really hurts the Valiant Universe for me is the more absurdist elements A+A and Q&W, I'm looking at you specifically.
Overall, I've been digging the new Valiant stuff, though there are weak parts.
Unfortunately, I feel like Archer and Armstrong, which was an early favorite, have been diminished since they teamed up with Quantum and Woody.
Ninjak, OTOH, has been pretty freaking solid all the way through, though I'm not terribly impressed with the design of the Shadow Seven and have been less than impressed with the coloring on the Swords of Master Darque arc.
Ultimately, I really like their slower growth - limited number of titles, more short arcs to flesh out parts of the universe and see what sticks. Good stuff.
Probably as much of a reflection of my taste (I seem to spend more time reading grimdark) as anything, but the only thing that really hurts the Valiant Universe for me is the more absurdist elements A+A and Q&W, I'm looking at you specifically.
Comments
Equally Faith has been a little trying lately. Glad they're giving her a rest.
Onto the good stuff... really enjoying the mini series they're putting out. Savage, Britannia and the Divinity arcs have all been really strong. The Prestige formats are really nice too. Real bang for your $3.99.
The long going Bloodshot and Ninjak series from Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt respectively are my favourite though. Two great creators just being allowed to do as they please... and doing it well. Loving the covers on that new Master Darque arc in Ninjak too.
Love the guys upstairs at Valiant too, they really seem to get themselves out there and big up their properties. Along with things like the Humble Bundle deals, they're doing all the right things to bring in new readers and keep existing readers happy. Great publishers.
For me, I'm still digging Bloodshot the most - and anything related to Rai/4001 A.D.. I also like the new X-O Manowar relaunch (so far), and recent limited series titles like Britannia and Divinity (1 & 2).
To what do you guys attribute the fact that Valiant remains such a small, indie title though? I remember back in the 90's, they seemed to be booming. Then that delay-riddled crossover with Image and the foil-covered Turok Dinosaur Hunter over-prints seems to be around the time they lost their way which was also preceded by the moment Jim Shooter was forced out. I'm not convinced they've ever attained those heights, in spite of several attempts to rise again. Any thoughts on that? And maybe what they could do to boost their visibility?
I'm hoping this big screen presence will translate to comic sales.
1 - They learned their lesson from the original Valiant, which grew too large too fast.
2 - I'd imagine that there's still a fair amount of skepticism from people that remember, and were burnt by, the later days of Valiant and then Acclaim.
As far as Shooter goes, really,much of their best stuff happened under his watch. I'm not sure if he was just too desperate at the end of his tenure or if they just fell victim to the whole 90's over-the-top mentality sooner than other publishers. Unfortunately, I see a certain amount of that gimmicky stuff going on with VEI as well. Not a real big fan of what they did last year with the Book of the Geomancer and not terribly thrilled with their coupon campaign that just wrapped up in Harbinger Renegades for a Harbinger Wars II #0.
Hot and cold on Savage. It was an interesting enough story, but I was pretty disappointed with how the first series ended. Definitely not what I would consider a self-contained story.
I'd say that part of the challenge, as @luke52 suggested is that people are getting their superhero fixes elsewhere. The other consideration is that their limiting themselves to 8 titles makes them very accessible if you want to read everything, but less so if you're really interested in something like Imperium or one of the other titles that has ended in favor of throwing more stuff at the walls to see what might stick.
I will say that I really do miss the presence of the GoldKey characters. Divinity is a pretty acceptable analog for Solar, but I'm not at all sure about Savage as Turok and Magnus feels pretty irreplaceable (had a bunch of old Magnus books from my uncles as a kid).
I tried almost all of the relaunches, but nothing caught my interest the way those first relaunched titles did, though I did stick with A&A for at least an arc or two.
At this point I'm trying the new X-O again, but that's about all the Valiant I'm reading these days.
Bloodshot has been very good in each incarnation.
Ninjak has been consistent.
I'd be willing to trade Faith, A+A, Generation Zero and completely excising Q&W from the Valiant universe to bring back Imperium and Ivar Timewalker and the first go-round of Archer and Armstrong in a heartbeat.
Anyone else read any books this way, I know Marvek has had something similar, is it worth investing anymore time and/or money on?