Which are your favorite Magnus time periods?

[shaxper]

Magnus: Robot Fighter (Vh1) stood out from other comics because the focus and environment kept changing, and so did Magnus. So, adding the Gold Key and Vh2 series to the list, which were your top three favorite Magnus periods, and why?

1. Gold Key/Manning Era
2. Early Vh1 Era
3. Malev War Era
4. Terran Consortum Era
5. Giffin Era
6. Vh2 series Era



My choices:

1. Gold Key/Manning Era:

It was simpler and a little hokey, but the theme of man's need to be resilliant and self-made rang truer in those issues. I loved that Magnus was able to smash steel simply by working hard enough at it; wanting it enough through all those years of training. Attributing such strength to a "harbinger effect" in the later continuity really killed that for me. Magnus was the ultimate symbol of everything we could be if we put our hearts and minds to it, while North Am was both a fantasy and nightmare rolled into one. Plus, campy 1960s robots are cool!


2. Malev War Era:

I didn't want to like the new premise introduced in Magnus #21 because it was obviously an attempt to cash in and get readers to buy fifteen copies of an issue. "Rai and the Future Force" was a terrible name for the sister title, as well. Nevertheless, the sheer ambition in annihilating North Am was incredible, as was what it did to Magnus (snapping him out of his whiny "I don't know what's right!" mode and giving him a clear objective as "Robot Fighter"), as well as how it captured the whole of the human race and its spirit throughout such a crisis. You'd swear these issues had been written after September 11th. The storyline didn't end as well (why the change of author mid-storyline?), but it still ended well enough, and Rai's final fate was quite a twist.


3. All of the rest, except Vh2:

I just can't choose. The Early Vh1 Era was a classic in its own right, launching Valiant and adding some depth (as well as teenage rebellion) to a somewhat shallow legend, and both the Terran Consortum and Giffin Era's were really risky and ambitious, taking Magnus and the future to wild and new places without staying in one place long enough for it to get old (or familiar). These issues made Magnus true sci-fi; not just a regular comic with sci-fi aspects. None of these eras are my favorites (each has flaws, some more than others), but I respect and appreciate each of them, and find something redeeming about going back and reading each.


How about you?[/b]

[BloodOfHeroes]

Personally, I love anything that Giffen did for Valiant. His MAGNUS issues were some pretty powerful stuff.

BoH

[myron]

Personally, I love anything that Giffen did for Valiant. His MAGNUS issues were some pretty powerful stuff.

BoH

ehmm.. that's my opinion and I stick with it...

I would rank the firts 12 magnus issues as the best...tight stories, lots of action, neat "feel" to the work...

[Zero_UK]

Magnus: Robot Fighter (Vh1) stood out from other comics because the focus and environment kept changing, and so did Magnus. So, adding the Gold Key and Vh2 series to the list, which were your top three favorite Magnus periods, and why?

1. Gold Key/Manning Era
2. Early Vh1 Era
3. Malev War Era
4. Terran Consortum Era
5. Giffin Era
6. Vh2 series Era

I agree with your first choice for mainly the same reasons. North Am was so real and the art was better than anything Valiant did at all.

My second choice would be Early VH1 Era, especially 0-12, as they preserved the 'feel' of North Am from the Gold Key issues. 13-21 were not bad either.

The Malev War period has a lot going for it, but went too far in destroying what came before.

The Terran Consortium Era had the advantage of bringing in a wider Solar System, but we didn't get to see the moon colony or to revisit mars. My other criticism of this era and the Giffen Era is that since #38 (Reconstruction) far too much of the original concept was lost. This no longer bore any resemblance to, or had any connection with the original series.

I was particularly sickened by Magnus' treatment of his former freewill allies in the war and the outlawing of robots (which destroyed the whole premise of the series).

As for VH-2, well, no more needs to be said.
Zero

[shaxper]

I agree that the original feel was lost later on. It seemed like Valiant had to keep asking itself "How do we throw robots into the story so that he's still Magnus ROBOT FIGHTER". The Terran Consortum Era strayed furthest from this, though the Malevs were hardly the kind of robots that the title implied.

However, looking back, I don't mourn the loss of the original feel. I think the original premise had been explored as far as it could be explored in the original Gold Keys. If the series had ran another eight hundred issues, it just would have felt as recycled as most Superman issues prior to the 1990s. They just kept covering the same tired ground.

Early Vh1 tried to do more with the series; explore it's darker angles, but it just got too cynical for my own taste. Once Shooter made North Am, IA, and Magnus's mission out to be so crooked, there was nowhere to go but downhill. Tekla was the only source of hope in goodness in the entire world of 4001 AD.

The Malev invasion just took a long and painful disintigration process and pulled it off in three issues, giving us the opporunity for heroes, hope, and faith in humanity once more. Ever since, I've praised the title's ability to take wild leaps and try new things. The Gold Key series got the time it needed, the early Vh1 got the time it needed, the Malev War could have been a bit more drawn out, but was enough, and the last two Eras in Vh1 felt far too rushed. It was as if Valiant was afraid to let things calm down enough for Magnus to have boring, ordinary adventures against boring, ordinary bad-guys. I think the fight for the Lost Land in issue 12 was Magnus' last easy conflict.

Sure it felt a bit hurried and frantic, and it never gave the reader nor the characters much of a chance to get comfortable ("Wait, he's got a son? Wait, his son is a Psi-Lord now??"), but I admire the ambition in it, as well as the vast array of futuristic periods and ideas. Magnus, as a series, really outdid itself, refusing to ever settle for comfortable and familiar.

[Jaknife]

Early VH-1 time.

[shaxper]

Bumping an absurdly old topic just because I was thinking about it again...

[Ryan]

However, looking back, I don't mourn the loss of the original feel. I think the original premise had been explored as far as it could be explored in the original Gold Keys. If the series had ran another eight hundred issues, it just would have felt as recycled as most Superman issues prior to the 1990s. They just kept covering the same tired ground.

I disagree with this. There was a lot that could have been explored. You have MSN or anything man? I have to run now but would love to chat with you about this.

[speedracex]

Issues 1-21 worked for me, my fav....I got really confused during that malev war, and I had to stop reading it, I really need to try and force myself to read the complete run......with magnus 12 and the start of issue 21, they flashed back to gold key issues, which got a little confusing, Magnus 12 was well explained, but when I got to issue 21, I felt like I should know all about these malevs and what had happened years ago in the gold key issues, and I had no idea and was very confused

[comicguy]

For me it would be a tie between the first 12 issues of Magnus VH1 and the Gold Key/Manning era

[shaxper]

Issues 1-21 worked for me, my fav....I got really confused during that malev war, and I had to stop reading it, I really need to try and force myself to read the complete run......with magnus 12 and the start of issue 21, they flashed back to gold key issues, which got a little confusing, Magnus 12 was well explained, but when I got to issue 21, I felt like I should know all about these malevs and what had happened years ago in the gold key issues, and I had no idea and was very confused

It all happened in Magnus (Gold Key) #7, and most of it is pretty thoroughly explained in #21, but you can usually acquire the original issue for about $10 on ebay.

[shaxper]

You have MSN or anything man? I have to run now but would love to chat with you about this.

Unfortunately no. It would tempt me to spend more time online than I already do.

[childres]

Early VH-1 without a doubt!



-Joe

[Todd Luck]

The Manning era and early VH-1 (Magnus 1-20) were excellent, A+ stuff .

All the others were just painful as far as Magnus goes .

[Byrneout]

I was a fan of Magnus' Gold Key and VH-1 stuff up to the end of the Malev War. The Terran Consortium stuff never rang well with me, although it seemed that Giffen was trying something new towards the end that had potential, even if it fell a little short of what I had hoped.

[Byrneout]

I was a fan of Magnus' Gold Key and VH-1 stuff up to the end of the Malev War. The Terran Consortium stuff never rang well with me, although it seemed that Giffen was trying something new towards the end that had potential, even if it fell a little short of what I had hoped.

[riftt]

vh2 magnus is almost unreadable

[Ryan]

However, looking back, I don't mourn the loss of the original feel. I think the original premise had been explored as far as it could be explored in the original Gold Keys. If the series had ran another eight hundred issues, it just would have felt as recycled as most Superman issues prior to the 1990s. They just kept covering the same tired ground.

Basically what I wanted to say was one of the most interesting (if not the most interesting) thing about GK Magnus was the city of North Am. In the early Valiant issues Shooter made the characters much more interesting, but managed to keep the city intact. I don't think there was any reason to destroy the city just to introduce a new threat. There were a million different ways to introduce a new threat that was 'more deadly than any before' and not completely destroy the setting of the comic book.

I'm just saying that there were endless story possibilities from the original city of North Am for any writer with the imagination to explore different areas and aspects of the world that Manning created. What we get after issue 21 however is just another cliche war-torn future dystopia that is not even recognizable as the same world. Talk about limiting story ideas, if anything the Malev war killed far more story possibilities than it created.

[dellamorte]

Here is where I get beat down by the masses.

I liked VH2 magnus. I really did. I know Mike is gonna say its a Terminator rip off but so what, comics rip off stuff all the time. It had great art.

Like it or not they handled Magnus in our time much better than Vh1 did post Chaos Effect.

That aside I like 'em in this order not counting the Gold Key cause I aint read 'em.

Early VH1
Terran Consortum
Malev War Era
Giffin Era

[shaxper]

I'm just saying that there were endless story possibilities from the original city of North Am for any writer with the imagination to explore different areas and aspects of the world that Manning created. What we get after issue 21 however is just another cliche war-torn future dystopia that is not even recognizable as the same world. Talk about limiting story ideas, if anything the Malev war killed far more story possibilities than it created.

I personally thought #21 was a very bold move, and quite original. I don't know of any other long respected comic title that devastated its own world so abruptly and completely, and then kept the story going. Granted, the scope became too limited after a while. When all we hear for over a year is Malev Malev Malev, you start missing the potential for diversity of stories that existed in the early Valiant issues, but I think that if the writers had been given more time to explore the Terran Consortum era and the post Birthquake era (both of which were ended almost as soon as they started) we would have had the opportunity to see more of that.

Maybe there was a lot more that could have been done with the original premise. It's hard to say without seeing someone do more with it, but the early Valiant issues felt tired to me after a short while. Once Magnus left North Am to join the Gophs, it seemed like Magus was just whining and complaining in a directionless series.