Embracing The Valiant

[SiegeTheBox]

Growing up, I was always a DC Comics fanboy. I didn't have many opportunities to go to the comic book shop as a kid, but I loved DC's animated shows like Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Teen Titans. And I'm still a DC fanboy to this day. Having always loved reading my few comics as a kid, and with some encouragement from some friends who were heavily into comics, I eventually started reading comics regularly during college. And the New 52 made that pretty easy for me.

Like many comic readers, I eventually started being drawn to creators more than characters. One such creator was Jeff Lemire. One day, Lemire put on his blog that, among other books, he would be doing a book called The Valiant for Valiant Entertainment. This was the first time I had ever even heard of Valiant, and as much as I love Lemire's work, I really just wasn't interested in this presumably weird little publisher.

Jump ahead to December of 2014, I see The Valiant #1 sitting on the rack at my local shop. The first thing I noticed was that the cover was a really nice, thick material and that kind of impressed me. So adding the seemingly high quality production to Lemire's name being on it, I decided to pick it up. After all, if this Valiant company was good enough Lemire, it's probably good enough for me. So I took it back to my dorm with the rest of the pull list and began reading it.

It blew me away. I was shocked to find that this one issue had successfully grabbed my attention, not just for this story, but for the whole universe that contained it. I instantly wanted to read more. So doing a tiny bit of research, I found that this universe had gone through a reboot of its own in 2012. I found a digital streaming service called Scribd and started reading the first few trades from the 2012 series. They continued to blow me away. A few months later I was picking up the first issues of Bloodshot Reborn, Ninjak, and Divinity. There was a good while where I just could not get enough Valiant.

As the Valiant universe became more and more normal for me, my excitability died down. But my love for Valiant did not go away, and I'm consistently pulling most of their output each month.

Eventually (yeah, this story is still going), I heard about a podcast called Only The Valiant from reddit. Everyone said they were great, so I went back and started listening from the first episode. Now I had been avoiding the 90s Valiant stuff up this point. First, because I figured they would be pretty different from the new stuff, and second, because 90s superhero comics have a horrible reputation. But as I listened to OTV, I became more and more curious about the old Valiant. Naturally, I decided to try it. I bought a digital copy of Valiant Masters: X-O Manowar Vol. 1 (kinda wish they would put out a volume 2) and loved it. So I bought the rest of the Valiant Masters books and loved all those too. Then, since Unity was supposed to be such an amazing crossover, I figured I should read that. Unfortunately, there are currently no trades of Unity, so I bought the lot on ebay for $20 bucks. Then I thought, "oh man, the whole lead up to Unity was in Solar. Maybe I should get those too." And I did (well, most of them. I'm missing #2 and #7). Then I thought, "well the whole universe really started with Magnus. Maybe I should pick those up." And I will, once I'm able. So now, I've decided to try and collect the pre-Unity books. I only wish I wasn't starting this now, because getting books like Harbinger #1 is going to be a *SQUEE*.

So there you guys go. That's my story. Hopefully, I didn't put you guys to sleep. Or if I did put you to sleep, hopefully you got a good night's rest.

Edit: Damn typos.

[nycjadie]

Welcome! I had an analogous story 25 years ago!

[DirtbagSailor]

Welcome!

[SiegeTheBox]

Thanks, guys.

[greg]

Great story! Welcome to the board.

[Summydad1]

Welcome. I'm new here too. You're gonna enjoy the forum. So much great info.

[Ricomortis]

Great story! Valiant has a way of setting the hook!

Welcome!

Rico

[Chiclo]

Welcome!

Pre-Unity is a pretty good read and the whole set is only 55 books. But the most fun is in the hunt!

[SiegeTheBox]

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

A bit of a side question: I just noticed that a word in my post got censored to SQUEE. Am I not supposed to swear on here? If so, that's fine. I'm just trying not to get banned.

[Chiclo]

Swearing won't get you banned, it just gets censored to SQUEE. It's a reference to Magnus.

[JonesyAZ]

Siege, welcome to the Valiant Fanmily!!! Reading your post and how our contributions via OTV helped you discover Valiant is very cool and flattering. Before I was a cohost (as you've likely heard by now, since you've listed to OTV since ep. 1), the OTV podcast helped spark my love of Valiant. Then, this AMAZING board of fine gentlemen and ladies on Valiant Fans further stoked and full on LIT my fire for Valiant.

Welcome welcome and keep posting and sharing your Valiant love, brother!

[SiegeTheBox]

Thanks, Jonesy. I'll be sure to contribute as much as I can.

[bobby97801]

Welcome