I was born a poor black child...

[bRai]

I’ve never heard of Valiant until two months ago. But in that same amount of time, I’ve destroyed more TPBs than the Immortal Enemy has Geomancers. Your very own Keith from this board was responsible for my assimilation. I can’t thank him enough for being the Morpheus to my Neo (c’mon, no one considers themselves the sidekick). That red pill was delicious, although I’m kind of *SQUEE* about having to wait for all this magic to be written, drawn and printed now. The rest of this will have no structure at all, much like my life. I may never post again, so I might as well make this my Valiant manifesto. And there may be **spoilers** for old stuff.

I find the Valiant Universe to be wonderfully refreshing. The Big Two are impossible to keep up with anymore. If they aren’t collapsing multiverses, they are doing complete reboots. I feel like I hooked up with Valiant at the right time. I can’t help myself when drawing comparisons between these characters and other long established mainstream characters, but I don’t believe that is a bad thing. If anything, they take the best parts of comic archetypes and create excellent and unique stories around them. Ninjak has that same implied immortality as Batman despite having no powers, but I certainly don’t consider him derivative. No one calls Ninjak derivative and walks away with all limbs intact. It’s not just comics, either. I see shades of Roland the Gunslinger in Gilad; this poorly fated *SQUEE* that continues forward, despite having the stink of a thousand failures on him. Great emotional character arcs.

My favorite title so far has been Archer & Armstrong. I enjoy things that are wacky, but smarter than perhaps advertised. Was a total sucker for the revised take on the Epic of Gilgamesh and other historical events. I’m also willing to admit that Armstrong was exactly who I thought I was (and wanted to be) in my twenties; a pseudo-intellectual hedonist with an insatiable thirst and an ever-expanding waistline. My favorite major arc so far has been Armor Hunters. That one blew the Valiant Earth’s butthole out right through its underpants. Plus, because Unity. I still maintain that General Fathead has a secret agenda against the armors, and that they don’t necessarily destroy planets on their own, but time will perhaps tell.

X-O, Bloodshot and A&A were the first three that Keith laid on me, and I think those were good foundational starting points, as they set up Harbinger Wars and Armor Hunters. I was recently in a comic shop and heard the guy talking about The Valiant being a good entry point. I’m not sure I agree with that notion. Sure, you have the three or four pages where the entire roster is present, but we don’t gain much insight into WHO they all are, except maybe “WTF is that goat???” I also think what happens to Bloodshot at the end of The Valiant is more powerful when you better understand his journey. I do love that Valiant has these different tracts (silly, fantasy, cosmic, etc.) but won’t think twice about crossing the streams and with little confusion. Can’t wait to see Bloodshot and Harbinger on the big screen within the next couple of years. To hell with the MCU; give us the VCU.

Hope to partake in future conversations, but my level of commitment on message boards has historically been as a lurker. This seemed like a fun and relaxed way to get used to posting.

Be excellent to each other.

-bRai

[bRai]

No swearing? I was honestly surprised at the limited number of swears in my post.

[Keith]

Who is this?

I kid, I kid. Welcome to the boards! And as I was telling you: Dynamite

[depluto]

Welcome aboard, *SQUEE*!

[nscc]

Welcome, it cool that Keith got ya into the comics.
oh... and to help Depluto correct your lack swearing in this thread problem *SQUEE*! *SQUEE* *SQUEE*

[bRai]

"I'm just trying to make a point, Frank. You don't have to celebrate it."

Thanks, sirs. I understand that swearing just demonstrates a lack of inspired vocabulary, but I also don't give a *SQUEE*.

[DirtbagSailor]

Welcome!

[comicsyte95]

Welcome!

[bobby97801]

Welcome *SQUEE*!

[Beware Cyclops]

Not everything gets replaced with a *SQUEE*. Sometimes it's replaced with "piano recital".

Oh yeah, Welcome, and see ya at the piano recital.

[Daniel Jackson]

Excellent story, welcome to the board.

[jmatt]

Welcome. Now to get you started, this is instructional.