Confirmed: Valiant Ending Unity

[cray_ws]

I've just caught myself up on Unity last night, and I gotta say it was rather mediocre book. The characters were poorly aligned and there seem to be this vague "superpower" agenda that we've seen in thousands of team books from 90's era. Unity is nothing special. I think Rai is a better team book than Unity ever was. There's more going on with Rai, Spylocke, Lulu, Momo, and Silk than there is with entire cast of Unity. X-O, Ninjak, Livewire, and Gilad had nothing in common with each other. None them had any reason to be together. None had any motives or agendas to be with each other. It was just a superhero job.

Whatever sales it has it hanging by the thread of variant covers. The writing for Unity was so simpleton, it insulted my reading comprehension. It totally lacked any depth or emotional complexity.

[BugsySig]

Surely Secret Weapons takes over next year? fingers crossed.

Have we learned nothing from thinking that re-using an old book title will help a new launch? Secret Weapons sucked way back when; I view it as more of an anchor around a new title's neck than a life preserver.

People like new stuff. Divinity proved that.

1. Just because something sucked the first time around, doesn't mean it will when VEI does it.
2. Just because something is new doesn't mean it will be any good (Dead Drop anyone )
3. The universe could really benefit from a major team book beyond the Harbinger/Imperium books (regardless of the name)
4. Secret Weapons is just a cool *SQUEE* name for a team book (better than Unity)

[leonmallett]

1. Just because something sucked the first time around, doesn't mean it will when VEI does it.

2. Just because something is new doesn't mean it will be any good (Dead Drop anyone )

3. The universe could really benefit from a major team book beyond the Harbinger/Imperium books (regardless of the name)

3[sic]. Secret Weapons is just a cool *SQUEE* name for a team book (better than Unity)

[Dallow Spicer1]

Surely Secret Weapons takes over next year? fingers crossed.

Have we learned nothing from thinking that re-using an old book title will help a new launch? Secret Weapons sucked way back when; I view it as more of an anchor around a new title's neck than a life preserver.

People like new stuff. Divinity proved that.

+1

I'm in the 'new stuff please' camp. There's been enough use of the original characters and enough nostalgia (retro homage covers etc), with the current creative writers at VEI they must have some original ideas for lead characters?

[jeremycoe]

Surely Secret Weapons takes over next year? fingers crossed.

Have we learned nothing from thinking that re-using an old book title will help a new launch? Secret Weapons sucked way back when; I view it as more of an anchor around a new title's neck than a life preserver.

People like new stuff. Divinity proved that.

+1

I'm in the 'new stuff please' camp. There's been enough use of the original characters and enough nostalgia (retro homage covers etc), with the current creative writers at VEI they must have some original ideas for lead characters?

Yes, but if I'm them I use those ideas for creator-owned books.

[leonmallett]

Surely Secret Weapons takes over next year? fingers crossed.

Have we learned nothing from thinking that re-using an old book title will help a new launch? Secret Weapons sucked way back when; I view it as more of an anchor around a new title's neck than a life preserver.

People like new stuff. Divinity proved that.

+1

I'm in the 'new stuff please' camp. There's been enough use of the original characters and enough nostalgia (retro homage covers etc), with the current creative writers at VEI they must have some original ideas for lead characters?

Yes, but if I'm them I use those ideas for creator-owned books.

And would VEI have to pay for new lead character concepts? (Through royalties or as work for hire on top of page rates?). If so, that would deter new creations when they have a sizeable library to draw upon.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Surely Secret Weapons takes over next year? fingers crossed.

Have we learned nothing from thinking that re-using an old book title will help a new launch? Secret Weapons sucked way back when; I view it as more of an anchor around a new title's neck than a life preserver.

People like new stuff. Divinity proved that.

+1

I'm in the 'new stuff please' camp. There's been enough use of the original characters and enough nostalgia (retro homage covers etc), with the current creative writers at VEI they must have some original ideas for lead characters?

Yes, but if I'm them I use those ideas for creator-owned books.

And would VEI have to pay for new lead character concepts? (Through royalties or as work for hire on top of page rates?). If so, that would deter new creations when they have a sizeable library to draw upon.

Yeah, I agree with the above two perspectives and you're both probably right. But, given the choice between re-hash old stuff it create new then I'd like to see new. As Jmatt said, it worked for Divinity.

[BugsySig]

I just like the name better. And the original concept was VALIANT's Avengers or JLA. It could be filled with any number of characters, new or old. I'm not talking about replacing Unity with Bad Eggs.

But if I'm VEI, I'd rather preserve an existing IP as a name for a super team then come up with a new name for the exact same team.

[agent_graves]

New York Times best-selling writer and Valiant superstar Matt Kindt presents the final chapter of his acclaimed two-year run on Valiant’s premier superteam…and then all-out chaos ensues.

Kind-t's definitely finishing out his run, before all the humor ensues.

[Ras the future fan]

I just like the name better. And the original concept was VALIANT's Avengers or JLA. It could be filled with any number of characters, new or old. I'm not talking about replacing Unity with Bad Eggs.

But if I'm VEI, I'd rather preserve an existing IP as a name for a super team then come up with a new name for the exact same team.

I agree with BugsySig, Secret Weapons can be used to intro some of the characters teased in BOD, like Outcast, Visitor, Beast Brigade.

[leonmallett]

I just like the name better. And the original concept was VALIANT's Avengers or JLA. It could be filled with any number of characters, new or old. I'm not talking about replacing Unity with Bad Eggs.

But if I'm VEI, I'd rather preserve an existing IP as a name for a super team then come up with a new name for the exact same team.

I agree with BugsySig, Secret Weapons can be used to intro some of the characters teased in BOD, like Outcast, Visitor, Beast Brigade.

Can we be careful with spoilers outside the published issues threads, especially as some of us won't be reading BoD for at least a couple more months. Thanks.

[jaspersk]

Will it end the way it began
With golden ticket variants?

[jmatt]

1. Just because something sucked the first time around, doesn't mean it will when VEI does it.
2. Just because something is new doesn't mean it will be any good (Dead Drop anyone )
3. The universe could really benefit from a major team book beyond the Harbinger/Imperium books (regardless of the name)
4. Secret Weapons is just a cool *SQUEE* name for a team book (better than Unity)

Fair enough. It's a cool name. Just jettison the concept.

[BugsySig]

1. Just because something sucked the first time around, doesn't mean it will when VEI does it.
2. Just because something is new doesn't mean it will be any good (Dead Drop anyone )
3. The universe could really benefit from a major team book beyond the Harbinger/Imperium books (regardless of the name)
4. Secret Weapons is just a cool *SQUEE* name for a team book (better than Unity)

Fair enough. It's a cool name. Just jettison the concept.

The thing is: What concept? I never got what the concept of Unity was. It was supposed to be a team that didn't get along, but I don't think that was ever fully realized (they seemed to get along fine to me). The rotating cast to suit the mission never really materialized either. Then they were the Earth's first line of defense for GATE, but we never really saw that either. By this last arc, they were running around doing MI6 missions

As someone earlier mentioned, if Unity had just been the VEI event book it could have gone: XO vs Harada, Webnet, Armor Hunters, Divinity, The Valiant, BoD. That would have been enough for 24 issues right there and could have kicked *SQUEE*.

[jmatt]

1. Just because something sucked the first time around, doesn't mean it will when VEI does it.
2. Just because something is new doesn't mean it will be any good (Dead Drop anyone )
3. The universe could really benefit from a major team book beyond the Harbinger/Imperium books (regardless of the name)
4. Secret Weapons is just a cool *SQUEE* name for a team book (better than Unity)

Fair enough. It's a cool name. Just jettison the concept.

The thing is: What concept?

The VH1 concept for Secret Weapons.

[BugsySig]

1. Just because something sucked the first time around, doesn't mean it will when VEI does it.
2. Just because something is new doesn't mean it will be any good (Dead Drop anyone )
3. The universe could really benefit from a major team book beyond the Harbinger/Imperium books (regardless of the name)
4. Secret Weapons is just a cool *SQUEE* name for a team book (better than Unity)

Fair enough. It's a cool name. Just jettison the concept.

The thing is: What concept?

The VH1 concept for Secret Weapons.

Oh, well duh...thought you were talking about the concept for Unity.

In fairness, though, it was the second concept of basically "not nearly as cool Armorines" that really stunk.

[omega_override]

Secret Weapons...I'm just sayin'...

I doubt even Secret Weapons would be enough to save Unity from being scrutinized as a half-baked team book

[jmatt]

In fairness, though, it was the second concept of basically "not nearly as cool Armorines" that really stunk.

Post Unity, VH1 was way too derivative of everything else they did. Armorines and Secret Weapons was a derivation of X-O and HardCorps and Psi-Lords was derivative of Harbinger.