Poll to get a better feel for reboot support

[aj583]

No on a reboot. Shadowman is a great example of how you can keep the history and “reboot” the approach to the character without staring from scratch.

I admit I would check out the first few issues of a reboot...but I’d have a very short attention span if they weren’t good. I’d have to pass on the inevitable 1:500 gimmick cover (maybe this time gold metal covers?) that keeps driving demand now days.


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[markie7235]

I guess I don't understand why a reboot is even necessary

Honestly, I'd rather they either add new series to the existing line up, or change out series for awhile. I know X-O, Shadowman, Bloodshot, and Ninjak are some of the more popular characters, but with so many character IPs to select, be nice to see something new (side note, actually looking forward to the new books in the fall).

For example, more Dr Mirage? I actually like the new Mirage, Shan Fong, and feel they've barely tapped the surface of stories they could make with her. Aside from Shadowman, she's also the most likely character to face off regularly against Darque, and feel there's still material here to work with (side note, where the heck has Darque been lately)

Or Eternal Warrior. A character who basically has been alive for 4,000+ years?!? Not like there's any end of eras to do stories in from there. Plus, I know it was a slow start, but still disappointed when they re-launched Eternal Warrior in 2012/2013 they abruptly ended the narrative of his daughter and son, and then jumped to 4001 AD. While the whole "I am rebelling and killing the gods/earth" part of it was extremely out of character and not something I liked, I was interested in the idea of his son as the avatar of an evil god that becomes one of Gilad's main nemesis. I feel this story was ended way too soon before it was given sufficient time to be told. Really want to see it picked up again.

Harbingers. I'm not sure why Harbinger Renegades wasn't popular. Harbingers was always one of the more popular and flagship series for Valiant. I think the biggest problem, like in the originals, is at some point you need to move the team past an inexperienced bunch of screw ups and make them more of an effective team. Otherwise, the story eventually becomes stale (sorta like Shadowman where we can't seem to move beyond Jack hating the Shadow loa). Plus, with a new villain in Solomon, seems like there was more to do here and again ended abruptly. Almost feels like Livewire and her "Secret Weapons" is the new Harbinger team, which is cool, I like Livewire, but what happens to the old characters then.

Rai? Ok, I'll admit, I'm honestly not a huge fan of Rai. The original Rai Valiant comics, he was kinda of a jerk who cared little about anyone else. The new Rai for VEI was better, but still didn't really appeal to me...That said, I wouldn't mind seeing more characters and stories of 4001 AD...

Which brings me to War Mother. Cool character, got a 4 part series....then nothing.

Savage? Didn't care for this story either, but with only 4 issues, not a lot of page time to judge the character too soon. Lot of possibilities here if anyone picked it up and did something with it.

Or Ivar, Archer & Armostrong, maybe the Psi-Lords book that was going to happen and never did.

I don't know, just seems like where anyone starts talking re-boots, it's because the characters of X-O, Shadowman, Bloodshot, and Ninjak have become stale (and they have). That tells me we don't need a reboot but need to set those characters down for a bit and start stories on some of the others instead.

[Shadowman99]

I guess I don't understand why a reboot is even necessary

Honestly, I'd rather they either add new series to the existing line up, or change out series for awhile. I know X-O, Shadowman, Bloodshot, and Ninjak are some of the more popular characters, but with so many character IPs to select, be nice to see something new (side note, actually looking forward to the new books in the fall).

For example, more Dr Mirage? I actually like the new Mirage, Shan Fong, and feel they've barely tapped the surface of stories they could make with her. Aside from Shadowman, she's also the most likely character to face off regularly against Darque, and feel there's still material here to work with (side note, where the heck has Darque been lately)

Or Eternal Warrior. A character who basically has been alive for 4,000+ years?!? Not like there's any end of eras to do stories in from there. Plus, I know it was a slow start, but still disappointed when they re-launched Eternal Warrior in 2012/2013 they abruptly ended the narrative of his daughter and son, and then jumped to 4001 AD. While the whole "I am rebelling and killing the gods/earth" part of it was extremely out of character and not something I liked, I was interested in the idea of his son as the avatar of an evil god that becomes one of Gilad's main nemesis. I feel this story was ended way too soon before it was given sufficient time to be told. Really want to see it picked up again.

Harbingers. I'm not sure why Harbinger Renegades wasn't popular. Harbingers was always one of the more popular and flagship series for Valiant. I think the biggest problem, like in the originals, is at some point you need to move the team past an inexperienced bunch of screw ups and make them more of an effective team. Otherwise, the story eventually becomes stale (sorta like Shadowman where we can't seem to move beyond Jack hating the Shadow loa). Plus, with a new villain in Solomon, seems like there was more to do here and again ended abruptly. Almost feels like Livewire and her "Secret Weapons" is the new Harbinger team, which is cool, I like Livewire, but what happens to the old characters then.

Rai? Ok, I'll admit, I'm honestly not a huge fan of Rai. The original Rai Valiant comics, he was kinda of a jerk who cared little about anyone else. The new Rai for VEI was better, but still didn't really appeal to me...That said, I wouldn't mind seeing more characters and stories of 4001 AD...

Which brings me to War Mother. Cool character, got a 4 part series....then nothing.

Savage? Didn't care for this story either, but with only 4 issues, not a lot of page time to judge the character too soon. Lot of possibilities here if anyone picked it up and did something with it.

Or Ivar, Archer & Armostrong, maybe the Psi-Lords book that was going to happen and never did.

I don't know, just seems like where anyone starts talking re-boots, it's because the characters of X-O, Shadowman, Bloodshot, and Ninjak have become stale (and they have). That tells me we don't need a reboot but need to set those characters down for a bit and start stories on some of the others instead.

I think some great points have been made here. I think that when there's a literally inexhaustible realm of possibilities for scenarios that each character/group/series/combination could run through the notion of 'rebooting' occurs when either imagination is running dry or as a reaction to sales figures being too low. Maybe in some cases the solution isn't to reboot or pull a series off the shelves until something fresh becomes available to try, but to maybe just try harder instead. Ninjak's transition from 'Ninjak' to 'Ninja-K' seems like a good example of this to me, although I'm not sure that the series was afflicted by low sales figures at any point(?). Maybe taking a series off the shelves until the next good idea comes along is also a good move in the correct context - this seems to be the case for the current Shadowman series to date at least.

At the end of the day there are so many possibilities for the characters that currently exist in the VU that in theory the comics could run forever without need to create new comic concepts, so rebooting really is a sure sign that the company feels the end has been sighted and is executing a drastic change in tack to postpone arriving at it.

Should the VU be rebooted right now? Not at all, considering the number of things that hasn't been done with it yet.