Continuity.

[Michael_Ayer]

When DC relaunched I picked up several titles. I started dropping them when they began to get overly complicated and even began to ignore their brand new continuity. But I get it. 52 titles. That is hard.

Alas... It's only 9ish titles and Valiant seems to be dropping the United feel: dead drop, maybe the new Archer and Armstrong, and by glancing at the new XO it seemed that Venditti is disregarding the relationship between Aric and Ninjak in the unity series.

There are other drops and I still don't know the timeline of BOD and The Valiant... Etc.

[ShadowTuga]

I'll just add that I was unpleasently surprised when I saw that Ninjak is going to hunt Trill. While on the Deadside. Granted, this could be a "before Operation D" but it rubbed me the wrong way.
The NEW A&A is something I'm dreading. Honestly, I feel that the company is WINNING with books like Imperium, Ivar and Ninjak but at the same time we get something that is not that well planned, like the examples you mentioned. I mean, Dead Drop was a slap in the face of VEIs continuity. IMHO.

[rkjock1]

When DC relaunched I picked up several titles. I started dropping them when they began to get overly complicated and even began to ignore their brand new continuity. But I get it. 52 titles. That is hard.

Alas... It's only 9ish titles and Valiant seems to be dropping the United feel: dead drop, maybe the new Archer and Armstrong, and by glancing at the new XO it seemed that Venditti is disregarding the relationship between Aric and Ninjak in the unity series.

There are other drops and I still don't know the timeline of BOD and The Valiant... Etc.

Okay......

So Dead Drop was definitely off a bit on characterization, but not on continuity. But your main concern is for two titles that haven't been released yet, so I'm assuming you haven't read??

Hmmm.....

[dornwolf]

When DC relaunched I picked up several titles. I started dropping them when they began to get overly complicated and even began to ignore their brand new continuity. But I get it. 52 titles. That is hard.

Alas... It's only 9ish titles and Valiant seems to be dropping the United feel: dead drop, maybe the new Archer and Armstrong, and by glancing at the new XO it seemed that Venditti is disregarding the relationship between Aric and Ninjak in the unity series.

There are other drops and I still don't know the timeline of BOD and The Valiant... Etc.

To be fair Unity and a lot of the titles basically ignore a lot of characterization that was present elsewhere. Ninjak debut in X-O by Venditti as a merc that MI-6 occasionally hired for deeper than black missions. Unity turned him into a fully fledged MI-6 operative and of course Batman

and Gilad is even rougher so... I wouldn't go claiming a writer is just disregarding things, Venditti is just readding a nice layer to Ninjak. Less Batman more of an *SQUEE*.

Also...

When DC relaunched I picked up several titles. I started dropping them when they began to get overly complicated and even began to ignore their brand new continuity. But I get it. 52 titles. That is hard.

Alas... It's only 9ish titles and Valiant seems to be dropping the United feel: dead drop, maybe the new Archer and Armstrong, and by glancing at the new XO it seemed that Venditti is disregarding the relationship between Aric and Ninjak in the unity series.

There are other drops and I still don't know the timeline of BOD and The Valiant... Etc.

Okay......

So Dead Drop was definitely off a bit on characterization, but not on continuity. But your main concern is for two titles that haven't been released yet, so I'm assuming you haven't read??

Hmmm.....

This... Archer and Armstrongs not out yet written by someone who hasn't done Valiant before so we got to give it a chance.

[Keith]

I raised the proverbial eyebrow at the X-O/Ninjak ill-will seen in the preview, but then realized:

In Book of Death, Aric learned Ninjak had a sword designed specifically to kill him. Plus, Aric may be feeling guilty over Gilad's death and blaming Ninjak in part. He did instigate that fight. Considering that, I think it makes sense that Aric isn't to keen on Collin once more.

I'll just add that I was unpleasently surprised when I saw that Ninjak is going to hunt Trill. While on the Deadside. Granted, this could be a "before Operation D" but it rubbed me the wrong way.

I feel you there. While it can make sense chronologically, I worry about heavy usage of any character across titles. We are about to have a Ninjak heavy run with his title, X-O, and Bloodshot (though that's the future)

[BugsySig]

It's the Wolverine effect. You simply can't have a character in 3-5 books in a given month and have the continuity work. Ninjak is currently in his own book and XO, but just finished being in Unity and BoD. There's no way that can be juggled properly, but its a modern reality of comics that we just have to deal with. Popular characters are going to appear in multiple books.

[kjjohanson]

It's the Wolverine effect. You simply can't have a character in 3-5 books in a given month and have the continuity work. Ninjak is currently in his own book and XO, but just finished being in Unity and BoD. There's no way that can be juggled properly, but its a modern reality of comics that we just have to deal with. Popular characters are going to appear in multiple books.

Considering that most story arcs are published over the course of a few months and generally take place in a much shorter time span, I have no problem with a character appearing in several different titles at once. Just accept that not everything is published in chronological order (e.g. the notes in Unity 23 & 24 specifically state they take place before BoD).

[jmatt]

...and by glancing at the new XO it seemed that Venditti is disregarding the relationship between Aric and Ninjak in the unity series.

This was mentioned in the Spoiler Section thread about X-O #43. He says something like "the last time you worked as a duo..."

So I don't think he's ignoring the Unity stuff.

[ShadowTuga]

It's the Wolverine effect. You simply can't have a character in 3-5 books in a given month and have the continuity work. Ninjak is currently in his own book and XO, but just finished being in Unity and BoD. There's no way that can be juggled properly, but its a modern reality of comics that we just have to deal with. Popular characters are going to appear in multiple books.

I kinda get it, but ... VEI has so many "underused" great characters. E.G. I'd LOVE to see Livewire instead of Ninjak on the next X-O arc. And Ninjak, although ubercool, should be used with caution. I was a HUGE Wolvie fan in the 80s, but even as a kid I got sick of seeing him in almost every Marvel book I read att. And he had the pedigree to do that (10+ years history, iconic minis, instant fandom). Ninjak is still growing as a character (the same for his corner of the universe) and overexposure tires a character real fast.