Why I liked Valiant Comics

How did you become a VALIANT collector?

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Killer Shrike
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Why I liked Valiant Comics

Post by Killer Shrike »

Hey, new to the boards.

Thought Id introduce myself formally with a topical.

I started reading Valiant with Unity. I was a pretty serious collector as a kid, for my means and age, and had been hearing some buzz about V for months.

I was ordering from Diamond directly at the time, but for some reason i cant recall I couldnt or wouldnt order them from Diamond directly. Anyway, its hazy now, but long story short I hunted down a store about 30 miles away that shelved Valiants so I got a friend to take me out there and leafed thru a few isshes and ended up buying all the titles I could afford at the time. The guy had a box full of the early releases and I wish I had more funds because when I went back two weeks later with more cash to buy up the rest they had all sold after the Unity buzz.

Oh well. Anyway, I really enjoyed that era of Valiants, particularly Harbinger, XO Manowar, EW, Archer & Armstrong, HARD Corps, and Bloodshot. I also liked elements of RAI & the FF later on, and I liked the run of SW with the 3 suits and Tank; not so much the Geomancer/Live Wire/High Rise run. Didnt care for Shadowman or Mirage at all, or Solar. I didnt like Magnus at first, but he grew on me. Turok was readable but not a favorite, and Ninjak never clicked for me -- I never did buy into the great white ninja shtick. Im sure Im forgetting some lines and passing over some others like Armorines, but thats the main books that I recall.

All that aside, what really grabbed my attention was Rai 0. I was amazed that a comics company would print something like that. It was brilliant, IMO. Unmatched.

I was also reading Wild Cards about that time, and was playing the F2F RPG Champions, and the VALIANT universe was so much more rich and plausible to me than Marvel or DCs efforts. It reminded me of some of the things I liked in DP7 previously, and had some of the grittiness of Wild CARDs. I was still reading a lot of Marvel books initially, but as the X-books got weaker and weaker, the Image phenomenom happened, and Fabian Nicieza eventually bailed on the New Warriors later on my interest in Marvel waned to nothing.

However, Valiant started tanking as well and eventually my enjoyment of comic collecting hit an all time nadir and I stopped collecting while in the Marines at around age 19.

These days I pick up the occasional Buciek effort (Astro City is brilliant IMO), and enjoy Ultimate Spiderman (only), and some Ross books (Kingdom Come, the first X book). My comic collection has been distilled and reduced over the years to just 4 boxes of things that I have sentimental attachment to (including most of my Valiant :D ).

Still, I still play Champions and go to super hero based movies and idly wish that VALIANT had continued under Shooter's creative control. I sometimes wonder where he would have taken the line if not sold down the river.

Glad to see that some other Valiant fans are still out there. Even among the former comic collector RPG geeks Ive hung out with over the years, none of them collected or even knew about Valiant (Ive had to show a couple of guys actual issues to convince them I wasnt making the whole thing up in fact :D ) so it's good to bump into some fellow fans.

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greg
The admin around here must be getting old and soft.
The admin around here must be getting old and soft.
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Valiant fan since: Rai #0
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Favorite title: Depends on writer
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Post by greg »

Welcome to the boards!

We've got the full spectrum of Valiant fans here, so you'll fit right in.

:)

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depluto
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Post by depluto »

Welcome to the boards!

Please don't feed the animals. :wink:

Killer Shrike
Working on the first full appearance of me
Working on the first full appearance of me
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Post by Killer Shrike »

depluto wrote:Welcome to the boards!

Please don't feed the animals. :wink:
Hey, another Floridian. Im orignally from Palm Beach County :D

No worries. I walk softly and carry a RBFG. Animals, beware!

WalrusCyclone
Working on the first full appearance of me
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ditto

Post by WalrusCyclone »

Sounds a lot like myself, except I was a Magnus freak and my parents sort of forcefully ended my comics hobby as a sophomore in high school (to their credit it had become too much of an obsession).

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Jaknife
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Post by Jaknife »

rbfg meaning really big freaking gun. :D yeah, me too!

welcome aboard.
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