(Re-)Reading Acclaim

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SwiftMann
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(Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by SwiftMann »

Fabian takes over and restarts the universe. Sort of. It’s an admirable attempt and (mostly) far better than history and critics lead me to believe. I had only read Q&W and the 1999 stuff when it came out. Pretty much everything else was new to me. The titles are listed in the order in which they were released.

X-O Manowar – I did not see the quick change in #1 & 2 coming. Nicely done. Early on, the rest just felt like Tony Stark’s Armorines though. Far better Armorines, but Armorines. The book found a bit more of a voice when McDuffie came on, but throughout the characters were a bit too one-note. Despite that, this was an enjoyable, light ride. The history of the suit, including Operation: Stormbringer, was a nice approach.

Ninjak – This was a big miss. Busiek can be like reading homework even when he’s at his best (Avengers, Astro City). This was not his best. It’s just kind of dumb and cliché. I like both Vokes and Oeming separately, so it’s weird that they don’t work together very well.

Shadowman – The Ennis/Wood issues just didn’t work for me. Four issues just to get a hazy explanation of the set-up was too long and just devolved into obscenity for the sake of obscenity. And while I like Wood’s art later in his career, this is too rough around the edges with unclear layouts and too little detail. The Delano/Adlard follow-up was no better. Seemingly ignoring or outright undoing what was set up and setting up a new status over four MORE issues. The premise shouldn’t have taken 8 issues to get to. And then it’s seven more issues of nonsense before Clermont and Crain actually start making a real story. But then it’s over.

Troublemakers – I struggled with this series at the beginning as Nicieza stumbled a bit by being too vague in his writing. But it really picked up after the first few months and became a favorite. Even the “after school special” style issues, which I vaguely remember being mocked back in the day, were surprisingly good. This series ended up being the emotional spine of the entire VH2 universe.

Turok – Empty Souls provided a good basis for the new iteration. It was a bit cliché but not bad. Likely a huge turnoff for fans of either previous version. The quarterly publishing schedule of this is a headscratcher considering they had a hit video game on their hands. Even power reading these, there needed to be more Turok and Turok legacy deep dives in the VH2 universe.

Magnus Robot Fighter – The first issue was a bit confusing regarding timelines and it seems like they tried to correct that by retelling the whole first issue in the first few pages of the second. After that it was mostly just a big ol’ pile of fine. The individual issues were engaging enough, but there was limited growth in character until far too late in the run. The Albanian storyline definitely made the book more interesting, but, again, too little too late.

Solar – I loved MotA. Granted, it’s Warren Ellis during his creative peak, but the explanation of the VH2 universe and its connection to VH1 is absolutely awesome. It was diminishing returns after that. Revelations was good for sure, but the mini fell a notch or two. Overly convoluted with a need for tighter focus on what was attempting to be told.

Eternal Warriors – This just didn’t click for me at all. The characters were poorly designed and the entire hierarchy of the Forever Family just felt off. I never once cared what happened to these characters since they all came off as d-bags.

Quantum & Woody – I was nervous that maybe after 20+ years this book wouldn’t really hold up. So glad it does. This is a near perfect read from start to finish. Even the fill-in artists nail it. These are VERY human, VERY damaged, but very skilled and funny (in their own ways) individuals that you always want to dive deeper into. And of course, the awesomeness of Vincent.

Bloodshot – I read a couple issues of this a long time ago. Didn’t like it. Still don’t. It’s more of an approach problem* than an actual story problem. Although the story doesn’t seem terribly different than the original and (despite appearances by X-O and Shadowman) feels like it’s happening in its own universe.

*Babbling narrative boxes of random words attempting to sound literate – from #12: ”What’s left mewls flops jabbers in a swamp of tears agony excrement until the Triad’s offer. Let us help. Remake rebuild faster stronger better: the sins of Steve Austin.” WTF?!?

Trinity Angels – I was genuinely surprised that I liked this as much as I did. For most of the run, Maguire skillful handled an ever growing cast. While I know it was canceled early, I still wish the final issue had been a little more inventive in wrapping everything up. And in showing us all the wonderful baddies we had met over the run. Not a one of the known 99 actually makes an appearance.

Doctor Tomorrow – I really dug the entire approach to this series. The first couple issues of set-up did drag, but once we meet Mushroom Cloud and Tomorrow’s life completely spins out of control for decades, it becomes a fun, dark read. The issue by issue homage to artists didn’t always work out, but it was a great idea.

Master Darque & Darque Passages – I loved the one-shot. Thought it set a great new status quo for Darque. The mini-series lost me along the way with convoluted writing and too many “side missions” that distracted from the plot. Leonardo Manco’s art has always and will forever be a favorite though.

Harbinger – This was a really weird one. I get that they were trying to set up something that they didn’t get to before publishing ceased, but this version of the team wasn’t any better than the original. And the redesign on Faith was a particularly poor choice.

Concrete Jungle – I didn’t remember this being connected to the Q&W but I’m glad it was just barely. A really interesting read and set-up to something I wish we had gotten more than one issue of before the line died.

Other than Bloodshot, EWs, and Ninjak, I found myself surprisingly enjoying the VH2 universe. The connective tissue between this and the original universe was well done and all of the new IPs introduced here were actually good. I found myself really looking forward to the terribly named “Final Solution” event with Harada that never happened.

Unfortunately, they stumbled with the books they chose to lead things off with. Of the first three titles (X-O, Ninjak, Shadowman), only X-O was remotely good. Even then it was probably too much of a stretch to go from barbarian to smartest man in the world and one of the coolest armors ever drawn to an Iron Man cartoon knockoff. Then Troublemakers, Turok, and Magnus weren’t the strongest of starts either. Troublemakers and Turok turned into something really fun, but it was probably already too late.

If they were to get a redo on it, I would think coming out the gate with MotA (or something similar) to show the connection to VH1 and that this was a connected, but divergent, timeline would have gone a long way. Teasing the catastrophe of summer 1998 would have also been good from the start. Assuming either of these ideas were there from the get-go. And publishing Turok as a monthly was definitely needed.

Random observations: Early on across titles, there’s at least four references to peeing ones pants and one pooping ones pants. Just a weird coincidence or early editorial mandate that there’s at least one per month? Speaking of editorial, they did a pretty terrible job after the first couple months. Across the entire lines there were issues with words dropped out of dialogue, names spelled differently. Multiple times. In the same issue. And an absurd number of errors in chapter titles of Bloodshot (which were just Two, Three, Four, etc). And these editorial oversights still exist in the relaunch a year and a half later. Speaking of which.

VH-2.5? 3?

N.I.O. #1-3 – I didn’t know this title existed until I printed out a valiantfans checklist/price guide at work sometime between 2001 and 2003. The second issue’s “Next Issue” box explains this series best, “hyper-kinetic robo-action.” It was fine, just didn’t have anything to do with anything other than originally being a potential Rai reboot.

Turok/Shadowman – So much time spent with the radio broadcast that Priest seems to have forgotten to explain the actual plot here until we are waist-deep. It’s nicely tied into everything from Turok, but now I know why it made me scratch my head 20 years ago when I hadn’t read any VH2 Turok and bought it because 1) it was a Priest penned issue and 2) Shadowman lead in.

Shadowman #1-6 – If this was the tone and style from the first Acclaim version instead of Ennis & Delano, it’s possible they would have had a hit on their hands. This isn’t perfect, Ryan Benjamin’s art pales in comparison to Mat Broome’s and they shouldn’t be sharing issues, but it’s really quite fun.

Quantum & Woody #18-21, 32 – I loved that they shipped #32 like the series hadn’t disappeared for 15 months. Ballsy move. Really though, nothing more to say here than it’s still great stuff. But, man, do I wish they had gotten to fill in the blanks of #22-31.

Armorines #1-3 – This was better than I remember it, but not having read the original Armorines run or any of the VH2 stuff there was a lot I missed that first time. Pretty much everyone in this book is some known character. A pretty decent story that does boarder on the generic at times.

Unity 2000 #1-2 – This is just not good. The new take on Alex and Sandria (both characters and design) is off putting from the start. While the gathering of heroes was fun, stuff like a computer virus as a spell was awful. The second issue was far worse than the first with even more babbling exposition and strange artistic choices.

Turok: Evolution – Even for a video game tie-in comic, this one was bad. Rough art. Light story. Children’s board book style font. Just a hot mess of no one caring.

I loved reading the publisher’s page in the back of these. Each month pumping up Acclaim. Going so far as to “assure [us] here and now that the rug will no longer be pulled from beneath you again” in the August issues and less than six months later, it absolutely was. Or after #6 ships 7 months late, we are told Shadowman is a 12 issue series and doing great in Europe and that the linewide publishing delays were “stumbles and hiccups” that were behind them. And then those titles disappear forever. Outstanding level of b.s.


Still Missing:

N.I.O. #4

Deadside #1 & 3 – Like N.I.O., I didn’t even know this existed until a few years after it came out.

Unity 2000 #3 – Was in my pull box, but knew it was cancelled, the first two issues stunk, and money was tight then so put it back on the shelf. Monetary regrets.

Armorines #4 – My shop never got this issue.

Turok, Turok 2, Turok 3
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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by IMJ »

Thanks for your thoughts on these. They were nostalgia enough for me to be entertaining while also enough to keep me from having to re-read the Acclaim stuff which I basically never want to do again in my life. :lol:

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

Quantum and Woody and Doctor Tomorrow (incl. Operation Stormbreaker) are the best, obviously because they're original stories.

Shadowman is cool. For me it's still Acclaim's best "Valiant" series. Then Eternal Warriors & Bloodshot.

Solar is okay.

The rest is meh.

And Ninjak sucks!

----

Maybe you just forgot to mention them but there's also Bad Eggs, Heavy Metal, and the 3 Adventure Zone digests, plus a lot more non-Valiant related stuff.

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by geocarr »

I think my ranking order would be:

Quantum & Woody
Goat HAEDUS
Shadowman Volume 3
Concrete Jungle
Deadside
Shadowman Volume 2
Bloodshot

I need to read Troublemakers and Doctor Tomorrow but I've heard they were decent or better.
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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by tarheelmarine »

SwiftMann wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 12:49:12 pm
Magnus Robot Fighter – The first issue was a bit confusing regarding timelines and it seems like they tried to correct that by retelling the whole first issue in the first few pages of the second. After that it was mostly just a big ol’ pile of fine. The individual issues were engaging enough, but there was limited growth in character until far too late in the run. The Albanian storyline definitely made the book more interesting, but, again, too little too late.
I didn't find the first issue confusing, but enough people must have because in addition to what you said, the editorial/letters page addressed the issue.

Initially, Russ' character is bland and limited, but after issue five his personality developed and I was engaged in the series. I would have liked to have seen more with his relationships with Whitcraft but it was apparent from the editorial/letter page the entire creative team knew the end was only a day away for Acclaim comics.

I think a lot of the concepts addressed in the book are very pertinent to today. In fact, the book could be picked up today and feel like its written for a 2020 world and not 1998. Aside from a few issues in the series (to include the last one) that were incoherent, I am glad I got to read the series. If anyone else is interested in the series, PM me and I can ship this to you for the cost of a priority box.

One general acclaim item I am interested about is the Turok TPB advertised (not the acclaim adventure zone issues). Did it ever get released?

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

tarheelmarine wrote: Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:08:50 pm One general acclaim item I am interested about is the Turok TPB advertised (not the acclaim adventure zone issues). Did it ever get released?
Besides the Q&W trades that had been published, all other Acclaim trades were only solicited but never released (Solar, Turok, XO).

The Turok trade would have collected the first 2 quarterly issues (Empty Souls & Spring Break) and the short story (The Way of the Warrior) from the booklet of the N64 game which I believe can be found online (in bad quality though).

Or you can find the booklet sold on eBay -- only the booklet; no cartridge.

Make sure the booklet's cover says something like "Collector's Edition Turok Comic Inside"!

In 2019 the game was re-released for the Nintendo Switch by Limited Run but I don't know if the short story was reprinted too. It was advertised as "Classic Collector's Edition" but the official ad did not mention/list the short story. Does anyone have a copy?

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by tarheelmarine »

Sunlight on Snow wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:43:34 am
tarheelmarine wrote: Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:08:50 pm One general acclaim item I am interested about is the Turok TPB advertised (not the acclaim adventure zone issues). Did it ever get released?
Besides the Q&W trades that had been published, all other Acclaim trades were only solicited but never released (Solar, Turok, XO).

The Turok trade would have collected the first 2 quarterly issues (Empty Souls & Spring Break) and the short story (The Way of the Warrior) from the booklet of the N64 game which I believe can be found online (in bad quality though).

Or you can find the booklet sold on eBay -- only the booklet; no cartridge.

Make sure the booklet's cover says something like "Collector's Edition Turok Comic Inside"!

In 2019 the game was re-released for the Nintendo Switch by Limited Run but I don't know if the short story was reprinted too. It was advertised as "Classic Collector's Edition" but the official ad did not mention/list the short story. Does anyone have a copy?
Thank you. Oddly, I have been trying to get all of the Acclaim issues published.

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by operative lm »

Sunlight on Snow wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:43:34 am In 2019 the game was re-released for the Nintendo Switch by Limited Run but I don't know if the short story was reprinted too. It was advertised as "Classic Collector's Edition" but the official ad did not mention/list the short story. Does anyone have a copy?
The Limited Run version has its own unique manual; I think the only thing carried over from the original are the enemy descriptions. No comic included.

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Pocok1 »

Hey, do you plan to do a chronological reading order similar to VH1?

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by SwiftMann »

Pocok1 wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:20:43 pm Hey, do you plan to do a chronological reading order similar to VH1?
Nope. This was it. There's no events to create logical breaks and only 190 or so books total.

I just read them in publication order which worked out fine.
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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

Pocok1 wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:20:43 pm Hey, do you plan to do a chronological reading order similar to VH1?
There really isn't much to keep in mind. Mainly, books can be read in release order.
For some series an actual list may help you.

Also keep in mind Acclaim reset their dates in 1998, e.g.:

Q&W #8 carries a cover/indicia date of JAN 1998 (but had already been released in SEP 1997)
Q&W #12 was actually released in JAN 1998, has no cover date, and the indicia has a JAN 1998 date

This affects all books released between SEP-DEC 1997 and JAN-APR 1998, respectively. Slightly confusing.


READING ORDERS (where needed; with added stuff):


Doctor Tomorrow:
1) Operation Stormbreaker one-shot
2) Doctor Tomorrow series


Q&W:
1) #1-17 (a zero issues was released between #5 and #6)
2) #32
3) #18-21
4) Klang! by Christopher Priest
Containing scripts of #20-21 and drafts for #22-27 and a sh!tload of background information. Priest style, of course.
5) Q2 (released by VEI)

- X-O #16 feat. Q&W was released the same month as Q&W #12.
- The "Concrete Jungle: The Legend of the Black Lion" should not be read before Q&W #13. It's optional anyway.
- The "GOAT: HAEDUS" one-shot comes after Q&W #14.

All trade paperbacks contains some sort of unreleased/deleted/changed scenes. Just in case you're a Q&W fan.

They also cameo in several other Acclaim books and in the final pages of the Valiant-Sized one-shot by VEI.


Shadowman:
1) Vol. 2 #1-20
1.2) Master Darque one-shot was released the same month as SM #12
1.3) Darque Passages mini was released parallel to #14-17 (but it's focus is on Darque not SM)
2) Turok/Shadowman one-shot
3) Vol. 3 #1-6
4) U2K #1 (optional)

Notable appearances in Bloodshot #9, 11-12 (released same months as SM #13, 15-16).


Solar:
1) Man of the Atom one-shot
2) Revelations one-shot
3) Hell on Earth
4) X-O #21 / Q&W #21 (optional)
5) UNITY 2K #1-3 (plots and some scripts available for #4-6)


Other notable appearances:
X-O #10 and Magnus #7-8 (all between Revelations and HOE)

As for U2K, the story starts with the "Valiant Death of Jack Boniface" (backups in Shadowman Vol. 3 #3-4); the U2K PREVIEW is an ashcan of #3.


Turok: (it's a mess)
1) Operation Stormbreaker one-shot (was released later; around 2.2; but you can read it first)
2) Turok Quarterly:
2.1) Empty Souls (+ Adv. Zone #1)
2.2) Spring Break (+ Adv. Zone #2)
3) Turok/Timewalker
2.3) Redpath (+ Adv. Zone #3)
2.4) Child of Blood
2.5) Tales...
4) Turok #1-4
5.1) Seeds of Evil
5.2) Adon's Curse
6) Online Exclusive Comic
7) Turok/Shadowman
8) Oblivion
9) Evolution

The Adv. Zone digests are very optional. As are 5 (video game adaptions), 6, 8 (retconned) and 9 (focusing on Tal'Set).
Also optional: "Way of the Warrior" which you can only find in (some) booklets of the N64 game; released between 2.2 and 3.0/2.3.
The booklets with the story have a note on the cover.


X-O:
It's optional (again) but chronologically the story of the #1 Fan Edition (which is different from the regular #1) takes place before the actual series starts.



Acclaim Adv. Zone (62 pages; digest-size):
1 - Extinction
2 - Boss
3 - Dino Rodeo

All 3 contain 1 main story (as per cover) and several short stories feat.
- Turok (2x main)
- Ninjak (1x main)
- Troublemakers
- Bad Eggs
- Megastar (The Greatest Team There Never Was)
- another weird story (Boss & Rodeo only)


Hope it helps.
Enjoy reading! :P

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by SwiftMann »

Sunlight on Snow wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:09:57 am Q&W:
1) #1-17 (a zero issues was released between #5 and #6)
And definitely don't read the #0 first. I forgot there's a major spoiler in there when I did that.
4) Klang! by Christopher Priest
Containing scripts of #20-21 and drafts for #22-27 and a sh!tload of background information. Priest style, of course.
I forgot about this. I tried to read it when it came out, but lost interest pretty quickly.
5) Q2 (released by VEI)
I should have probably re-read these along with the Acclaim run, but they were just so not good when they came out monthly I couldn't bother.
X-O:
It's optional (again) but chronologically the story of the #1 Fan Edition (which is different from the regular #1) takes place before the actual series starts.
That's not correct. I don't remember exactly when it takes place (possibly in between pages of #2), but is best read between #2 & 3.


There's so little crossover between books and whatever there is rarely has much impact on others. The few notes as follows and, if needed, I've moved the books out of alphabetical order to accommodate.

Goat: H.A.E.D.U.S. - takes place during Quantum & Woody (1997) #15, Magnus Robot Fighter (1997) #16, and Shadowman (1997) #18
Harbinger - takes place after Troublemakers #14
Magnus #7 - takes place after Solar, Man of the Atom-Revelations
Trinity Angels #12 - takes place before Quantum & Woody #13
Troublemakers #19 - wraps up the entire VH2 run and should be read last
X-O #10 - takes place after Solar, Man of the Atom-Revelations


These two are a little harder to re-arrange and probably don't have that big an impact to read in publication order.

Solar, MotA - Hell on Earth #3 & 4 - takes place before Quantum & Woody #9
X-O #16 - takes place before Quantum & Woody #9

Also keep in mind Acclaim reset their dates in 1998
Good point. And just generally speaking, Acclaim was wildly inaccurate with their cover and/or indicia dates on several issues of most titles. Best to use the below with consideration of the above.

Monthly publication order list.


Oct-96
X-O #1

Nov-96
Ninjak #1
ShadowMan #1
X-O #2
X-O Fan #1

Dec-96
Ninjak #2
ShadowMan #2
Troublemakers #1
Turok: Empty Souls
X-O #3

Jan-97
Magnus #1
Man of the Atom
Ninjak #3
ShadowMan #3
Troublemakers #2
X-O #4

Feb-97
EW: Time & Treachery
Magnus #2
Ninjak #4
Q&W #1
ShadowMan #4
Troublemakers #3
X-O #5

Mar-97
Bloodshot #1
Magnus #3
Ninjak #5
Q&W #2
ShadowMan #5
Trinity Angels #1
Troublemakers #4
Turok: Spring Break
X-O #6

Apr-97
Bloodshot #2
Magnus #4
Ninjak #6
Operation: Stormbringer
Q&W #3
ShadowMan #6
Trinity Angels #2
Troublemakers #5
Turok/Timewalker #1
X-O #7

May-97
Bloodshot #3
Dr. Tomorrow #1
EW: Digital
Magnus #5
Ninjak #7
Q&W #4
ShadowMan #7
Trinity Angels #3
Troublemakers #6
Turok/Timewalker #2
X-O #8

Jun-97
Bloodshot #4
Dr. Tomorrow #2
Magnus #6
Ninjak #8
Q&W #5
Revelations
ShadowMan #8
Trinity Angels #4
Troublemakers #7
Turok: Redpath
X-O #9

Jul-97
Bloodshot #5
Dr. Tomorrow #3
Magnus #7
Ninjak #9
Q&W #6
ShadowMan #9
Trinity Angels #5
Troublemakers #8
X-O #10

Aug-97
Bloodshot #6
Dr. Tomorrow #4
EW: A&A
Magnus #8
Ninjak #10
Q&W #7
Q&W #0
ShadowMan #10
Trinity Angels #6
Troublemakers #9
X-O #11

Sep-97
Bloodshot #7
Dr. Tomorrow #5
Magnus #9
Ninjak #11
Q&W #8
ShadowMan #11
Solar: Hell on Earth #1
Trinity Angels #7
Troublemakers #10
Turok: Child
X-O #12

Oct-97
Bloodshot #8
Dr. Tomorrow #6
Magnus #10
Ninjak #12
Q&W #9
ShadowMan #12
Solar: Hell on Earth #2
Trinity Angels #8
Troublemakers #11
X-O #13

Nov-97
Bloodshot #9
Dr. Tomorrow #7
EW: Blackworks
Magnus #11
Q&W #10
ShadowMan #13
Solar: Hell on Earth #3
Trinity Angels #9
Troublemakers #12
X-O #14

Dec-97
Bloodshot #10
Darque Passages #1
Dr. Tomorrow #8
Magnus #12

Q&W #11
ShadowMan #14
Solar: Hell on Earth #4
Trinity Angels #10
Troublemakers #13
Turok: Tales of…
X-O #15

Jan-98
Bloodshot #11
Darque Passages #2
Dr. Tomorrow #9
Magnus #13
Q&W #12
ShadowMan #15
Trinity Angels #11
Troublemakers #14
Harbinger
X-O #16

Feb-98
Bloodshot #12
Darque Passages #3
Dr. Tomorrow #10
Magnus #14
ShadowMan #16
Trinity Angels #12
Q&W #13
Troublemakers #15
X-O #17

Mar-98
Bloodshot #13
Darque Passages #4
Dr. Tomorrow #11
EW: Mog
Magnus #15
Q&W #14
ShadowMan #17
Troublemakers #16
Turok #1
X-O #18

Apr-98
Bloodshot #14
Concrete Jungle #1
Dr. Tomorrow #12
Magnus #16
Q&W #15
ShadowMan #18
Goat: HAEDUS
Troublemakers #17
Turok #2
X-O #19

May-98
Bloodshot #15
Magnus #17
Q&W #16
ShadowMan #19
Troublemakers #18
Turok #3
X-O #20

Jun-98
Bloodshot #16
EW: Immortal Enemy
Magnus #18
Q&W #17
ShadowMan #20
Turok #4
X-O #21
Troublemakers #19


VH3

Sep-98
Turok: Seeds of Evil

Oct-98
Turok: Adon's Curse

Nov-98
NIO #1

Dec-98
NIO #2

Jan-99
NIO #3

Feb-99
Deadside #1
NIO #4

Mar-99
Deadside #2

Apr-99
Deadside #3

Jul-99
Turok/ShadowMan
ShadowMan #1

Aug-99
ShadowMan #2

Sep-99
Q&W #32
ShadowMan #3

Oct-99
Armorines #1
Q&W #18
ShadowMan #4

Nov-99
Armorines #2
Q&W #19
ShadowMan #5
Unity 2000 #1

Dec-99
Armorines #3
Q&W #20
Unity 2000 #2

Jan-00
Q&W #21

Jun-00
Armorines #4
ShadowMan #6
Unity 2000 #3

Sep-00
Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
"If you think any of these [older comics/shows/movies] do not carry a political content and is not using the medium of science fiction to explore real-world ideas, than you have not been paying attention." - Dan Abnett, VCR #246

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Sunlight on Snow
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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

SwiftMann wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:53:20 pm
4) Klang! by Christopher Priest
Containing scripts of #20-21 and drafts for #22-27 and a sh!tload of background information. Priest style, of course.
I forgot about this. I tried to read it when it came out, but lost interest pretty quickly.
Yeah, Klang!'s certainly just for the hardcore Q&W fan who also happens to be a hardcore Priest fan.
SwiftMann wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:53:20 pm
5) Q2 (released by VEI)
I should have probably re-read these along with the Acclaim run, but they were just so not good when they came out monthly I couldn't bother.
Q2 is hilarious. It's just not really the same Q&W (vibe) anymore.

Just like VEI's Q&W doesn't really match the original Q&W anymore.
SwiftMann wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:53:20 pm
X-O:
It's optional (again) but chronologically the story of the #1 Fan Edition (which is different from the regular #1) takes place before the actual series starts.
That's not correct. I don't remember exactly when it takes place (possibly in between pages of #2), but is best read between #2 & 3.
Hmm, I don't want to argue here. It was certainly made available at that time (around issue #3).

But isn't it the first field test of the armor by Donovan Wylie?

Well, to be honest I don't remember it oh so well.

You might be right.

:high-five:

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Pocok1 »

Thank you guys all the help, much appreciated!

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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by hulk181man »

For reading order you could begin with 'Starting Over' the 7-part chronology from Previews. It's tough to hunt down those originals - they might be copied on this site somewhere?
"Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts...?"

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Sunlight on Snow
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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

hulk181man wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:01:08 pm For reading order you could begin with 'Starting Over' the 7-part chronology from Previews. It's tough to hunt down those originals - they might be copied on this site somewhere?

Good point, it's the first published VH2 story (not counting stuff like Bad Eggs). Totally forgot about it!

"Valiant Heroes: Starting Over" released in PREVIEWS 199608 - 199702.

Part 5, "The Infinity Spell," has been reprinted in the Q&W Classic Omnibus, alongside various deleted scenes and stuff from the TPBs.

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Ryan
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Re: (Re-)Reading Acclaim

Post by Ryan »

SwiftMann wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 12:49:12 pm Other than Bloodshot, EWs, and Ninjak, I found myself surprisingly enjoying the VH2 universe. The connective tissue between this and the original universe was well done and all of the new IPs introduced here were actually good. I found myself really looking forward to the terribly named “Final Solution” event with Harada that never happened.

Unfortunately, they stumbled with the books they chose to lead things off with. Of the first three titles (X-O, Ninjak, Shadowman), only X-O was remotely good. Even then it was probably too much of a stretch to go from barbarian to smartest man in the world and one of the coolest armors ever drawn to an Iron Man cartoon knockoff. Then Troublemakers, Turok, and Magnus weren’t the strongest of starts either. Troublemakers and Turok turned into something really fun, but it was probably already too late.

If they were to get a redo on it, I would think coming out the gate with MotA (or something similar) to show the connection to VH1 and that this was a connected, but divergent, timeline would have gone a long way. Teasing the catastrophe of summer 1998 would have also been good from the start. Assuming either of these ideas were there from the get-go. And publishing Turok as a monthly was definitely needed.

Random observations: Early on across titles, there’s at least four references to peeing ones pants and one pooping ones pants. Just a weird coincidence or early editorial mandate that there’s at least one per month? Speaking of editorial, they did a pretty terrible job after the first couple months. Across the entire lines there were issues with words dropped out of dialogue, names spelled differently. Multiple times. In the same issue. And an absurd number of errors in chapter titles of Bloodshot (which were just Two, Three, Four, etc). And these editorial oversights still exist in the relaunch a year and a half later. Speaking of which.
Really good rundown and reviews of VH2. There was a decent amount of hype when these came out, and at the time I was impressed that the production values looked much better than the way VH1 ended. I also liked that it seemed more writer-centric than artist-centric. Waid, Busiek, Ennis, and even Nicieza were all big names at the time.

But in the end it never felt very connected or much like VALIANT at all. It didn't seem like there was much initial planning either. Bring in the 'hot' names for the first 4 issues then completely change the creative teams and direction? Not a good idea. Q&W was obviously a property that the creators actually cared about, and it shows. I'm going to have to find a copy of that Warren Ellis Solar.


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