What Valiant is doing right (and what not), imo

[Sven the Returned]

In a nutshell, my opinion:
the creators have a DC/Marvel playground, but everyone is sort of working like they were at Image.

Tighter connections between ALL the titles.

The books are still the best shared universe right now, imho, but it needs to feel like we're reading an actual shared universe, aside the Harada/PRS connection. Why not make a story that makes you get ALL of the titles to read it properly? VEI fans are for the most part, All-In.
I think we would love seeing ALL of the characters in a big unifying story.

You donát think AA constantly mentioned in the serious Harada/Harbinger stuff would lead to an inconsitent tone for both books?

[Shadowman99]

The books are still the best shared universe right now, imho, but it needs to feel like we're reading an actual shared universe, aside the Harada/PRS connection. Why not make a story that makes you get ALL of the titles to read it properly? VEI fans are for the most part, All-In.
I think we would love seeing ALL of the characters in a big unifying story.

For me personally that'd be a big turn-off of Valiant. It's one of the reasons I also avoid the Big Two, amongst others. As someone who's already 'late to the party' I don't want to have to buy hundreds and hundreds of comics to get the overall picture for a story.

I like that Valiant will once a year do a four-month thing that might involve some element of crossover, because it's typically only 12-ish comics that I have to buy to read the whole story. If Valiant did a huge original Unity-style event that lasted 6 months I'd probably opt out because I wouldn't want to have to buy that many comics in addition to standard monthlies or however it's likely to work. My wallet can only stretch so far. Especially if VEI expands their shelf space to say 20 titles at some point in the future: I don't want to have to buy twenty titles each month (probably can't afford that, literally) because the characters are near constantly dipping in and out of each other's books, it'd just be too much.

As it is I like that there are basically seperate corners of the universe that deal with a handful of characters at any one point in time, and a small number of books on the shelves currently. I think it makes things easy to keep track of and best of all, I can afford to read everything. I honestly dread the 'Success of VEI' to some degree because when they've got 150+ comics on the shelves each month I know I'll be missing out on my favourite comics and basically, that sucks (I'm just gonna enjoy Valiant up until then though!)

Sure, let's have properly universe-wide crossovers every few years or so, but I don't want so much interconnnectivity on a monthly basis that it makes the books hard to keep track of and purchase.

[ShadowTuga]

Lady Oiorpata: I think Aram is a character with a huge emotional range. And in a way, so is Archer. Both could be written sans the comedic element. It could work, I am almost sure.
Quantum & Woody is much more difficult, imho. But, it can be done in the right hands. It all depends on the writer, since these characters are anything but stale.

SM99: Bro, I wasn't in any way suggesting an event that went outside our regulars : just thinking how cool would it be to have a story that happens in one or 2 months across all titles, with maybe a Issue #1 on it's own, a la Unity. It's Marvel-lite yeah, but that's how we would get the feeling that these characters are part of the same world. I don't want to buy 20 books to read a freaking story also, but if the 8/9 VEI monthly books aligned for an event for 2 months... I'd buy it and be very happy about it.

[Aram]

The books are still the best shared universe right now, imho, but it needs to feel like we're reading an actual shared universe, aside the Harada/PRS connection. Why not make a story that makes you get ALL of the titles to read it properly? VEI fans are for the most part, All-In.
I think we would love seeing ALL of the characters in a big unifying story.

For me personally that'd be a big turn-off of Valiant. It's one of the reasons I also avoid the Big Two, amongst others. As someone who's already 'late to the party' I don't want to have to buy hundreds and hundreds of comics to get the overall picture for a story.

I like that Valiant will once a year do a four-month thing that might involve some element of crossover, because it's typically only 12-ish comics that I have to buy to read the whole story. If Valiant did a huge original Unity-style event that lasted 6 months I'd probably opt out because I wouldn't want to have to buy that many comics in addition to standard monthlies or however it's likely to work. My wallet can only stretch so far. Especially if VEI expands their shelf space to say 20 titles at some point in the future: I don't want to have to buy twenty titles each month (probably can't afford that, literally) because the characters are near constantly dipping in and out of each other's books, it'd just be too much.

As it is I like that there are basically seperate corners of the universe that deal with a handful of characters at any one point in time, and a small number of books on the shelves currently. I think it makes things easy to keep track of and best of all, I can afford to read everything. I honestly dread the 'Success of VEI' to some degree because when they've got 150+ comics on the shelves each month I know I'll be missing out on my favourite comics and basically, that sucks (I'm just gonna enjoy Valiant up until then though!)

Sure, let's have properly universe-wide crossovers every few years or so, but I don't want so much interconnnectivity on a monthly basis that it makes the books hard to keep track of and purchase.

Valiant doesn't need more titles to be big, they just need to get more copies sold and keep it at the level it is at. I really think all VEI Needs at this point is good mass exposure, the bloodshot movie if done well should do that.

Now that I'm rereading the early VEI and catching up to current, I'm blown away by how much VEI has kept the quality up. Reading monthly it lost my interest, reading the trades (and accepting that things are different from vh1) has really grabbed my attention and enthusiasm again.

VEI could also easily do a 18-20 part linewide crossover like unity or chaos effect at two issues each title if it made sense. I think unity pulled it off but chaoseffect dropped the ball a bit too much to be a success.

So far I'm pretty happy with these mini events.

[grendeljd]

Lady Oiorpata: I think Aram is a character with a huge emotional range. And in a way, so is Archer. Both could be written sans the comedic element. It could work, I am almost sure.
Quantum & Woody is much more difficult, imho. But, it can be done in the right hands. It all depends on the writer, since these characters are anything but stale.

SM99: Bro, I wasn't in any way suggesting an event that went outside our regulars : just thinking how cool would it be to have a story that happens in one or 2 months across all titles, with maybe a Issue #1 on it's own, a la Unity. It's Marvel-lite yeah, but that's how we would get the feeling that these characters are part of the same world. I don't want to buy 20 books to read a freaking story also, but if the 8/9 VEI monthly books aligned for an event for 2 months... I'd buy it and be very happy about it.

So far, I'm a fan of the way Valiant has been structuring their 'Summer Event' minis - they've mostly been built so that you could just buy the 4-issue core story and forget the rest if you wanted to. But then those additional 8 fringe books (especially the one-shot character books) add some great depth to the overall tale. I'm actually more excited for the 4001AD one shots & RAI 13-16 over the main story for that very reason.

But I'm also liking 'Tuga's idea too - by way of example, I don't buy any Marvel universe books anymore but I do pick up the main Star Wars & SW:Darth Vader series. Recently they did the very thing that Tuga mentioned - an oversized one-shot to kick off a 6-part storyline that then split between SW & SW:DV for the remaining 5 chapters. I was right into it, I didn't mind picking up the single extra one-shot at all - the story was really entertaining!

So I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Valiant do something along this line.

[ShadowTuga]

Lady Oiorpata: I think Aram is a character with a huge emotional range. And in a way, so is Archer. Both could be written sans the comedic element. It could work, I am almost sure.
Quantum & Woody is much more difficult, imho. But, it can be done in the right hands. It all depends on the writer, since these characters are anything but stale.

SM99: Bro, I wasn't in any way suggesting an event that went outside our regulars : just thinking how cool would it be to have a story that happens in one or 2 months across all titles, with maybe a Issue #1 on it's own, a la Unity. It's Marvel-lite yeah, but that's how we would get the feeling that these characters are part of the same world. I don't want to buy 20 books to read a freaking story also, but if the 8/9 VEI monthly books aligned for an event for 2 months... I'd buy it and be very happy about it.

So far, I'm a fan of the way Valiant has been structuring their 'Summer Event' minis - they've mostly been built so that you could just buy the 4-issue core story and forget the rest if you wanted to. But then those additional 8 fringe books (especially the one-shot character books) add some great depth to the overall tale. I'm actually more excited for the 4001AD one shots & RAI 13-16 over the main story for that very reason.

But I'm also liking 'Tuga's idea too - by way of example, I don't buy any Marvel universe books anymore but I do pick up the main Star Wars & SW:Darth Vader series. Recently they did the very thing that Tuga mentioned - an oversized one-shot to kick off a 6-part storyline that then split between SW & SW:DV for the remaining 5 chapters. I was right into it, I didn't mind picking up the single extra one-shot at all - the story was really entertaining!

So I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Valiant do something along this line.

emphasis mine.
"Vader Down" was very well done. I too was buying the 2 series and did not made any difference budget-wise, save for the one-shot which was well, just one book. Not a lot to invest there.
Most of the people here seem to be getting all the books. That'd be a smart way for readers who are not all-in to be all-in for a month or 2, at least.
And it doesn't necessarily need to have ALL of the roster- just every corner being represented.

I mean, 4 years in and that Harasha guy ( to BGD) hasn't demonstrated any interest in the Deadside or the unexplainable/magical stuff like why do we have a Geomancer, an Eternal Warrior, a Shadowman, etc, etc. If I was the most powerful Psiot in the world, with unlimited access to money and s***, I would want to know who or what can be a menace to my status quo. And I do mean everyone, not just the powers-that-be (UN, NATO) or PRS. If there's a guy who can kill ghosts with a magical weapon- I WANT that weapon.

As an aside, when I was a kid reading Marvel, I really felt this was the same universe. The mutants had their own corner with their own villains and all that, but Magneto's kids were Avengers. Spidey would team-up with Wolverine, the Hulk or Namor, if needed.
I want that on VEI.

[badlander86]

On the discussion about "grand architects"-type writers, I think they can work on the grounds that they respect that while the toybox is open to everyone, you can't just grab a couple of toys (or in this case characters) and hoard them all to themselves.

That is what essentially happened with Morrison's early Marvel and DC runs. It did not help that he has that clause or agreement that his work could not be edited which is just...asinine. Because after that you get a massive case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

Firmer editorial decisions with a close eye to continuity to ensure QC is absolutely necessary in this case especially when you have two writers who might have a beef like I suspect Bendis and Hickman were having. Bendis in particular is a case of one such grand architect who really needs to get reeled in once in awhile.

[Keith]

Lady Oiorpata: I think Aram is a character with a huge emotional range. And in a way, so is Archer. Both could be written sans the comedic element. It could work, I am almost sure.
Quantum & Woody is much more difficult, imho. But, it can be done in the right hands. It all depends on the writer, since these characters are anything but stale.

SM99: Bro, I wasn't in any way suggesting an event that went outside our regulars : just thinking how cool would it be to have a story that happens in one or 2 months across all titles, with maybe a Issue #1 on it's own, a la Unity. It's Marvel-lite yeah, but that's how we would get the feeling that these characters are part of the same world. I don't want to buy 20 books to read a freaking story also, but if the 8/9 VEI monthly books aligned for an event for 2 months... I'd buy it and be very happy about it.

So far, I'm a fan of the way Valiant has been structuring their 'Summer Event' minis - they've mostly been built so that you could just buy the 4-issue core story and forget the rest if you wanted to. But then those additional 8 fringe books (especially the one-shot character books) add some great depth to the overall tale. I'm actually more excited for the 4001AD one shots & RAI 13-16 over the main story for that very reason.

But I'm also liking 'Tuga's idea too - by way of example, I don't buy any Marvel universe books anymore but I do pick up the main Star Wars & SW:Darth Vader series. Recently they did the very thing that Tuga mentioned - an oversized one-shot to kick off a 6-part storyline that then split between SW & SW:DV for the remaining 5 chapters. I was right into it, I didn't mind picking up the single extra one-shot at all - the story was really entertaining!

So I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Valiant do something along this line.

emphasis mine.
"Vader Down" was very well done. I too was buying the 2 series and did not made any difference budget-wise, save for the one-shot which was well, just one book. Not a lot to invest there.
Most of the people here seem to be getting all the books. That'd be a smart way for readers who are not all-in to be all-in for a month or 2, at least.
And it doesn't necessarily need to have ALL of the roster- just every corner being represented.

I mean, 4 years in and that Harasha guy ( to BGD) hasn't demonstrated any interest in the Deadside or the unexplainable/magical stuff like why do we have a Geomancer, an Eternal Warrior, a Shadowman, etc, etc. If I was the most powerful Psiot in the world, with unlimited access to money and s***, I would want to know who or what can be a menace to my status quo. And I do mean everyone, not just the powers-that-be (UN, NATO) or PRS. If there's a guy who can kill ghosts with a magical weapon- I WANT that weapon.

As an aside, when I was a kid reading Marvel, I really felt this was the same universe. The mutants had their own corner with their own villains and all that, but Magneto's kids were Avengers. Spidey would team-up with Wolverine, the Hulk or Namor, if needed.
I want that on VEI.

On the flip side... I think Civil War 2 is pushing 60 issues when you loop in every related issue. Seriously.