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Solar 12
Delicious.

In re-reading it is much easier to get a sense of a books "flow". Solar is flying. The momentum is great. Issues 10, 11 and 12 are superb. I read the in order without the Unity 0 and it was fine. There was some overlap, but that's fine with me.

Issue 12 really cements the "Valiant is not your typical comic company" idea. "I'm not really your mother"... The look on little Albert's face is a perfect reflection for the revulsion of the reader.

The self-esteem issues are really great too. Not many comic books care to explore the characters on that level.

Again, Jim uses the "repetition" formula to reinforce an idea and to show character development. When Erica confronts Solar in the containment unit she reminds him of how he killed 5 billion people and remarks, "This is no place for low self-esteem" as he begins to wither. These are the words that Phil shared with Erica when he first took her to "unreality" or wherever it was he took her.

The futuristic stuff is really cool too. When Erica's final initiate "signs up" she does a hand scan rather than a signature. I like the lingo as well. "Who could squint Solar?"

All of this and a Frank Miller cover to boot? No wonder Marvel was getting nervous!

Ok, can we get back to the part where Jonesy talks about his woman legs?

Solar 13
Poignant. How else can you define this book that defined Erica Pierce. The depth of her character is astonishing. The fact that she, as a victim, became the bully shows incredibly insight into the cycle of violence. The battles that we all face are presented here and help us to delve into our own psyche.

I wonder what happens next with her son. I think that it is explained somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

I'd also like to see some stories told about Erica's time living when Grandmother first gained consciousness. When she created the first Rai, she may have accidentally stumbled upon Erica and attempted to discover more. This could lead to a confrontation wherein Erica learns to fear the power of Japan's Spirit Guardian.

On a sad note, there is no Editorial page at the end of this one. What we got at the end of 12 was Jim's last. IIRC Massarsky will have a "fill-in guest shot" and then...A fan wrote in the other day...

To a lesser extent, it parallels the feeling one gets checking the calendar and suddenly remembering it as the day you lost a loved one. There's an emptiness.

I never realized that Don Perlin had co-written some of these stories. That's cool, and hardly surprising in retrospect. It's just that I had thought it was "all Shooter, all the time" before.

I'm trying to remember how much transition there's gonna be with Unity ending and 14 being the introduction of Fred Bender. Looking forward to it!

IMO the first 13 Solar issues are some of the best first year run of a title EVER...

Agreed, the same goes for Magnus.

+1

Solar 14 and 15
Sigh.
I didn't notice it the first time I read through these titles, but I'm noticing it now.

Solar collapsed quickly after Jim's departure. When I look at the timeline of events, I can't help but play mental detective.

I'm good at it. All my friends think I'm mental.

The story is credited to Jim Shooter and Steve Ditko. What's the story? It' s basic introduction to a new villain. With Erica gone, Valiant needed another top shelf baddie. What we got instead was Dr Eclipse. My guess is, this "story" was nothing more than an idea Jim had. When you look at the way it was handled it's pretty clear that this is not how Big Jim would have rolled him out.

This is the first character whose first appearance was right on the front cover. Catchy. Probably good for sales. It was too, for about a month or so.

Instead of having Fred Bender make a cameo appearance and later being revealed as an important character we were hit over the head with it! "Here he is! Buy it now! Next big villain's first appearance! Buy multiple copies!"

Coincide this with the launching of a new title which just so happens to have a gatefold cover by Jim Lee, the first Valiant work for Joe Quesada and I think it's pretty clear to see that Valiant had made a tremendous shift in direction.

This is exactly how Massarsky explained it in the editorial column as well. Jim wanted to go a direction that no one else did. What was Jim's vision? Incremental, sustained growth of a cohesive universe. What did we get the minute he was wished nothing but success-somewhere else? Splashier art combine with title and first appearances that did not truly "mesh" with the universe around them.

Bender could have been a pretty good character. I don't think he could've held a candle to Erica Pierce, but he could've been far better than the laughing stock he was.

How the mighty have fallen.
Much of the dialogue is re-hashed battle talk from previous encounters with Erica. "If only one of us is a god..."

Come on! It was there for character development when Phil allowed himself to consider it-only because he wanted to rebuke her claims to be divine. Here, it's just tired.

I do remember thinking that Valiant dipped into the Unity well too often back in '93 and '94. I just never realized the exact timing of it all. The handwriting is clearly already on the wall by this point. I can see why my good friend Scott started discounting his Valiant's around this time.

It was the bubble bursting that allowed me to "take a chance" on Valiant in the first place though, so I suppose I should be thankful.

Great. Thanks.

Editorial-wise, Dr Dobson suddenly became Mr Dobson in issue 14 and Fred lamented that Phil had "Stolen girlfriend's watch."

Hurm.

Solar 16-20

Here's Solar #16...

Wait! Give me a minute to catch my breath! From the pulse pounding opening shot of Phil and Gayle "packing up their things to move to Cupertino, CA" ...to the end where Solar hovers above "the dark side of the moon" it must've taken me seven minutes to read the entire book! Talk about a whirlwind tour!

The last time Solar and Harada meant the parted on pretty good terms actually. They had to battle the Dragon Lady and they fought as allies. Now, they are sworn enemies again, with no trust whatsoever. I guess being trapped in that worm cincture hole messed with Phil's head a little.

The editorial page was little more than ad space for the Bloodshot appearance and news of the upcoming release of his own title.

*yawn*

Issue 17

It's a really great cover. Here we learn of the "seeds" that the Manowar armor produces. It doesn't amount to much, but I suppose you could say that the seed has been planted for future reference. Couldn't resist.

Hey look! An ad for another number one issue. Secret Weapons! Looks neat! Some secrets are better kept that way.

Dialogue box:
Their racial memories of me as "The Destroyer" must have made them take off.
Three panels later:
Their racial memories of me as "The Destroyer" made them flee.

Thanks for clearing that up.
So, Solar and Aric battle for a while. Aric decides not to use his ion canons, presumably because they work so well, and decides instead to lift a heavy rock to smash Solar's head in.

Solar decides to quit fighting and go inside. There he communicates his intention to follow the aliens back to their home world where he will destroy them all again, he apparently couldn't communicate that bit of information to Aric while they were in the vacuum of space.

This was Evil Jon's pick hit of the Month

Issue 18

The first thing we see...the Very first thing we see is a word balloon in outer space. Are you kidding me?
It was a plot point last issue! Dang.

In issue 17 we were led to believe that Phil and Gayle had never been intimate. Now, we've been blessed with their "coupling" in back to back issues. Gayle just hangs out while Solar flies around wiping out alien races. When he gets back, she's ready to go! Yeah, that's realistic!

The stuff with John is confusing...apparently Phil told John about something he did before he merged with his other self...and now it's time to do it?

I like the "training program" that Hendricks got. Green is good, red is bad, come get me at lunch!" Who is that trainer? Homer Simpson?

They spelled "popsickle" and "awile" wrong. The colorist got confused by Phil's lab coat. He goes back and forth with brown and white sports coats.

In a great foreshadowing move, Gayle mentions tickets to next week's Virtual Reality Exhibit! Woo!

Evil Jon's pick hit of the month: Magnus 21.

In Issue 19 we get to meet Bruce's fiance Karry. She would have made a great villain. Just kidding.

I have a hard time believing that Phil would be impressed with Virtual Reality. I have an equally hard time believing that Gayle suggests they go back after hours. I have an even harder time than my previously harder time that after the exhibit closed a second VR headset arrived from Palo Alto and was installed. I have an even hardlier than the...

Solar Couple Attack! Now that was a great line! "I said something stupid like that once...". Badump bump!

I wonder how this issue looks with the Valiant Vision glasses on?

Coming soon:
Rai and the Future Force!

Evil Jon picks X-O Manowar 14 guest starring Turok!!!

This guy has a pretty low batting average!

Of course, Bob Layton is predicting in his '93 preview that they will blow 1992 out of the water. More like they ran the ship aground.

"No less than 6 new monthly titles!" Because the suits demanded it!

After two short months Pop Pourri is gone...

Sean Chen's cover is the highlight of this issue. He does a great Solar. BWS helped.

"Dawn of the Malevelants" issue 20. Another cool cover.

As a bit of a side note, this issue speaks of being "plugged into one reality and dying in the real world" just like in the Matrix-much of which is also found in Magnus #21...interesting.

Phil and Gayle have a fight that we've probably all had with our wife. You know, the one that starts out about trust, and then she's asking you if you were ever attracted to any of the spider aliens. She won't let up, and so you tell her about the time you created a black hole and her body was ripped apart before your very eyes.

I hate that.

I said I was sorry already.

I wish she'd just let it rest.

By this time, if you're still reading this post you're either very dedicated or a cyber stalker bent on gleaning every nugget of information you can from my warped little brain.

More editorial issues:

"Some are large enough for a giants to walk through..."

Even the title of the book is spelled wrong. Malevelents. At the end Solar says the ship he discovered seemed ... "Almost malevolent."

Was this the Malevs coming to Earth for the first time? Or at least near the Earth, I should say.

Evil Jon's pick hit of the month was Hard Corps #5.

Have you ever heard anyone pronounce that "corpse"? One of the guys at my shop does. It bugs me.

In the editorial pages we discover that Jim Perham was a Red Wing fan!

That was your whiz-bang tour through 5 issues of Solar, but don't you worry none. I've got more issues!

You guys sure are quiet...makes me feel like I'm talking to myself. No it doesn't! Yes, it really does...anyway:

There were some good moments in here. I feel that Kevin Van Hook really hit his stride in the "Afraid of the Darque" storyline. Still, much of the story had some room to be filled out a bit. It's like me when I'm wearing the 32 inch waist pants my wife bought me because the were on sale.

Kevin's writing is filled with literary and pop culture references. In these ten issues Phil and Gayle made plans to attend an REM concert as well as the Headbanger's Ball. At the Ball there was a song playing and I even Googled the lyrics and came up with nothing. Something about "Leaving my girl in NY, she said goodbye with a gun...". Anyone? Anyone?

Gayle was singing Birdhouse in your soul. Mayor Rusk was singing Chantilly Lace by Jerry Lee Lewis.

The movie Deliverance was alluded to. As was the Purloined Letter.

I wore the glasses to read issue 29 in true Valiant Vision. My eyes are still hurting a little. It's cool that stuff floats and looks all 3D, but it really is too much for an entire book.

I really enjoyed the one issue that was not penciled by Peter Grau. He really isn't my favorite Solar artist. His jaws look weird. Faces are all too long. I find it surprising that he was the regular artist for as long as he was.

His name was David Wong. As far as I know issue 26 of Solar was his only Valiant work. Check it out though, it's totally "house style".

Issue 27 was a little weird. Feels like they were tired of Phil having guilt feelings over the 5 billion people he killed, so this issue gave him an out. Otherwise, I don't understand the point of this installment. We do learn herein, however, that there can be only one Geomancer at a time.

I'd be interested in learning how much Kevin Van Hook's duties changed after issue 23. I mentioned already that I believe the arc featuring Master Darque was his best. The title wandered a bit after that again.

I don't want to give the impression that I don't like his writing. It's clear that some people are ideally suited to write certain stories for certain characters. His Bloodshot work was always good. Solar was more hit and miss.

Issue 30 gives us a terrible introduction to a ridiculous new villain (one of the most powerful he'd faced-according to Solar). But I love Ravenous. The issue that I believe it next was a moment that really stuck with me. Gayle flipping out that Phil brought him home for the holidays is a great moment in the Valiant Universe.

On a literary note, I really wonder what the purpose of the character Solar the Destroyer. Destroy the Spider Aliens? Why? Soften Phil? Again, why? Create a new guy in a snazzy uniform and give him a #1? I hope there was more to it than that.

We're here, Dave.





Unfortunately, "bingo."



-slym (the "more" to it was the Valiant Vision colour-process)

I thnk that my eyes are still hurting from it!

pretty sure carol van hooks do too...

I was home sick from work yesterday and I wanted to catch up on my Solar's until I realized that more Valiant Vision was next, and my head already was hurting.

I read the last one without the glasses and it still made my eyes hurt.

Does this bother everyone or are my eyes just a little sensitive?

I got a headache after reading the Valiant Vision issues with the glasses. Not so much without the glasses, but it's still kind of annoying.

I had some other flu type symptoms coming on at the time, so I think that may be why my head was hurting, but the idea of reading one right now, is not appealing.

Screen glare's not bad though.

Do you guys find it difficult to make out the text while using the glasses? The words always look blurry to me, but I swear it wasn't that bad years ago when I first put the glasses on...lol. The headache has always been a given though...

Totally, my wife never takes my advances seriously when I am wearing them...

And yes, the text is blurred for me as well!

Solar 31
Solar battles Ravenus! No, that was last issue. This issue he has to battle Gayle in an argument over what to do with his defeated foe.

This is a fun issue. Gayle just wants to lead a normal life this Christmas. She wants to hang out with their friends at John Verhusen's party.

What do you do with villains that you capture in the "real world"? The police think you're looney, and there aren't any facilities that can handle a guy with "superhuman" powers.

The answer is pretty simple. Take him with you! This story had the potential to be a riot, but it was done in a pretty straightforward manner.

Sources close to me tell me that this is the first Valiant book to hint at a woman's menstrual cycle. Think that'll show up on a CGC label?

First app: Gayle's Aunt Flo

Keeping with the family theme, Gayle's mom does show up and decides to move in with them. Later Phil's dad shows up. Isn't family showing up unannounced for the holidays grand?

This last bit is not a Valiant only thing-but why are the months on the outside of comic books never come close to matching the actual month that they are released, or on the shelf?

The issue I just reviewed (31) was released just before Christmas and it says March on the outside cover. It makes it hard to figure out the advertised books on the inside are due out etc.

It's funny, but I don't remember anything about Phil's dad making any appearances in the books. What's gonna happen in their estranged relationship? Does he hook up with Gayle's mom?

It has to do with newsstand distribution. The month on the cover is the month that newsstands return any unsold copies.

I have to add here, while the info is basically correct, that is the month that the distribution companies send the un-sold copies back. The newsstands themselves usually return copies to the distribution centers when the new issues came out to replace the old.





-slym (apologises for being anal, but he used to manage a newsstand for three years)

Well, I hate it. Wouldn't it be easier for the one guy sending things back to keep track of that, rather than every reader have to look at the ads that say Coming this November!" with a picture of the cover that clearly says February? It's kinda goofy.

I would guess magazines are the same way, but they don't seem to be as far off as comics are. Here at the library we have a few July issues out on the shelves. In a few weeks we'll have a few more. Why are the comics so far off?

-slym

Does that mean, you don't know, and it embarrasses you and now you're thinking about it?

Or does that mean, you don't know what I'm talking about, and hope not to give any offense, but you're doing your best to figure out what on earth I'm talking about?

Or "C".

'Sup?