Secret Weapons #4 Discussion

[nonplayer]

Awsome finish. I loved it. Not a big splashy story but refreshing like blooming love. hits as hard as a grand piano. 5/5 Did Amanda just kill someone entertimos.

[hawkeyeps]

I'm right there with you buddy, 5/5 DOG!taimos.

This feels like a return to form for Valiant and it was really needed, we need more books like this.

[tell]

I loved this series, art and writing wise it was a home run. I really hope we get this creative team doing more work asap. This is probably my favorite Valiant book in the last year or two.

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

I have a handful of nitpicks about the series, none of which took away from my satisfaction:

1. The gun hand doesn't fit with Livewire's powerset in my opinion. I don't really care, to have work this good it's worth having nebulous consistancy here and there.

2. Livewire seems to know a lot of people in Oklahoma. Cheapjack is a cool character I hope we see more of, reminds me of a Gaiman creation.

3. I wish there more loser psiots to meet.

[agent_graves]

-An Amazing Series!!!

No question about it, Secret Weapons should be an ongoing series...

Can't Wait for #0...

[Sunlight on Snow]

5/5 ELEVATOR-taimos. Such smart bird!

[hawkeyeps]

I loved this series, art and writing wise it was a home run. I really hope we get this creative team doing more work asap. This is probably my favorite Valiant book in the last year or two.

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

I have a handful of nitpicks about the series, none of which took away from my satisfaction:

1. The gun hand doesn't fit with Livewire's powerset in my opinion. I don't really care, to have work this good it's worth having nebulous consistancy here and there.

2. Livewire seems to know a lot of people in Oklahoma. Cheapjack is a cool character I hope we see more of, reminds me of a Gaiman creation.

3. I wish there more loser psiots to meet.

As far as gun hands go I think this can be attributed to her "Remote" as was seen in Unity #17, it's not a function of her psiot power but rather a function of the suit she wears. She started creating this "remote" as a teenager when she was with Harada, after bonding with Shanhara her power increased exponentially and her "remote" also became much more advanced. She wears it as a suit and it has a wide range of abilities, it even balls up like a XO armor when she is not wearing it.

As for more loser psiots there was mention of "Lucia" who was also at the Willows and the others seemed afraid of her.

[Thegreatmagnet]

VCR review for anyone that's interested:

http://onlythevaliant.com/episodes/vcr134/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also did a written review:

http://www.comicsthegathering.com/revie ... -weapons-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tell]

I loved this series, art and writing wise it was a home run. I really hope we get this creative team doing more work asap. This is probably my favorite Valiant book in the last year or two.

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

I have a handful of nitpicks about the series, none of which took away from my satisfaction:

1. The gun hand doesn't fit with Livewire's powerset in my opinion. I don't really care, to have work this good it's worth having nebulous consistancy here and there.

2. Livewire seems to know a lot of people in Oklahoma. Cheapjack is a cool character I hope we see more of, reminds me of a Gaiman creation.

3. I wish there more loser psiots to meet.

As far as gun hands go I think this can be attributed to her "Remote" as was seen in Unity #17, it's not a function of her psiot power but rather a function of the suit she wears. She started creating this "remote" as a teenager when she was with Harada, after bonding with Shanhara her power increased exponentially and her "remote" also became much more advanced. She wears it as a suit and it has a wide range of abilities, it even balls up like a XO armor when she is not wearing it.

As for more loser psiots there was mention of "Lucia" who was also at the Willows and the others seemed afraid of her.

I don't remember the remote she uses but that's good enough for me, thanks.

I originally thought Lucia was going to be the Scavenger, their fear made me think she could have been a Harbinger staff member, then I just forgot about her. There were supposedly 6 psiots housed at Willows, we know Rexo ate Sonya and Martin and used their powers. With Avi, Nikki, and Owen that gives us 5, if Lucia is the sixth it makes me wonder why Rexo wasn't hunting her down too. At the beginning of issue 1 Scavenger shows a list if targets and it's just the 4 psiots we meet, so did they already get Lucia, or did she maybe flee the region entirely after Omen invaded? I only recall Rexo using those two powers, but I could be wrong...

[Keith]

I loved this series, art and writing wise it was a home run. I really hope we get this creative team doing more work asap. This is probably my favorite Valiant book in the last year or two.

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

I have a handful of nitpicks about the series, none of which took away from my satisfaction:

1. The gun hand doesn't fit with Livewire's powerset in my opinion. I don't really care, to have work this good it's worth having nebulous consistancy here and there.

2. Livewire seems to know a lot of people in Oklahoma. Cheapjack is a cool character I hope we see more of, reminds me of a Gaiman creation.

3. I wish there more loser psiots to meet.

As far as gun hands go I think this can be attributed to her "Remote" as was seen in Unity #17, it's not a function of her psiot power but rather a function of the suit she wears. She started creating this "remote" as a teenager when she was with Harada, after bonding with Shanhara her power increased exponentially and her "remote" also became much more advanced. She wears it as a suit and it has a wide range of abilities, it even balls up like a XO armor when she is not wearing it.

As for more loser psiots there was mention of "Lucia" who was also at the Willows and the others seemed afraid of her.

I don't remember the remote she uses but that's good enough for me, thanks.

I originally thought Lucia was going to be the Scavenger, their fear made me think she could have been a Harbinger staff member, then I just forgot about her. There were supposedly 6 psiots housed at Willows, we know Rexo ate Sonya and Martin and used their powers. With Avi, Nikki, and Owen that gives us 5, if Lucia is the sixth it makes me wonder why Rexo wasn't hunting her down too. At the beginning of issue 1 Scavenger shows a list if targets and it's just the 4 psiots we meet, so did they already get Lucia, or did she maybe flee the region entirely after Omen invaded? I only recall Rexo using those two powers, but I could be wrong...

Maybe Omen got her?

[Sunlight on Snow]

I loved this series, art and writing wise it was a home run. I really hope we get this creative team doing more work asap. This is probably my favorite Valiant book in the last year or two.

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

I have a handful of nitpicks about the series, none of which took away from my satisfaction:

1. The gun hand doesn't fit with Livewire's powerset in my opinion. I don't really care, to have work this good it's worth having nebulous consistancy here and there.

2. Livewire seems to know a lot of people in Oklahoma. Cheapjack is a cool character I hope we see more of, reminds me of a Gaiman creation.

3. I wish there more loser psiots to meet.

As far as gun hands go I think this can be attributed to her "Remote" as was seen in Unity #17, it's not a function of her psiot power but rather a function of the suit she wears. She started creating this "remote" as a teenager when she was with Harada, after bonding with Shanhara her power increased exponentially and her "remote" also became much more advanced. She wears it as a suit and it has a wide range of abilities, it even balls up like a XO armor when she is not wearing it.

As for more loser psiots there was mention of "Lucia" who was also at the Willows and the others seemed afraid of her.

I don't remember the remote she uses but that's good enough for me, thanks.

I originally thought Lucia was going to be the Scavenger, their fear made me think she could have been a Harbinger staff member, then I just forgot about her. There were supposedly 6 psiots housed at Willows, we know Rexo ate Sonya and Martin and used their powers. With Avi, Nikki, and Owen that gives us 5, if Lucia is the sixth it makes me wonder why Rexo wasn't hunting her down too. At the beginning of issue 1 Scavenger shows a list if targets and it's just the 4 psiots we meet, so did they already get Lucia, or did she maybe flee the region entirely after Omen invaded? I only recall Rexo using those two powers, but I could be wrong...

They call Lucia a "box of crazy" and she seems dangerous and life threatening. This could have been a reason for not adding her power to Rex-O, or a reason that made her a difficult target to catch.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Maybe Omen got her?

Avi would have noticed... maybe?!

We certainly need more Secret Weapons!

[jmatt]

Fantastic wrap up to a terrific arc. Perfect. Loved it.

[otomo]

I held off on this story to read it all in one shot, and avoided all spoilers. I had no idea what it was about and didn't read the preview bits from the back of the older valiant issues either. Which was great, cuz I went in fresh.

At first, I was a bit thrown by the art style, but I found it grew on me.

And that's kinda my takeaway from #4 here and this whole series "but I found it grew on me."

The pacing was a bit slow, and as he wrote in the back of his columns at the end of the books, he was used to writing films, not comics, so he laid it out like discussions cinematically, which isn't quite the pacing of comic books. However, with this I guess more "indie vibe" art style, that pacing kind of worked for the story.

The dialogue is some of the best I've read in comic books, and that comes from the filmmaking. So well done on that level. I cared about these characters a lot all the way through, and that was all the writing. On the art front I really love the way this artist makes facial expressions and conveys emotion. Was very important for the amount of talking in the book.

Definitely liked the teamwork against Rex-O for the climax. I thought the "Livewire's power is really so much beyond this" Deus Ex was, well, a bit of a Deus Ex. It was fine though.

Bottom line, I liked the characters, I had fun, good book and wrap up and I really want a second arc of this. It's a very different speed for Valiant, but a good speed nonetheless.

8/10

[TheeBaldMoose]

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

CRAZY THEORY TIME: I read this and started wondering a few things myself. While dead is dead here, he is an alien/mechanical thing, so maybe re-programming is possible. Maybe it was Heisserer's idea to keep him alive for just what you were stating. I started looking for clues outside of SW, and instantly saw this, what are your thoughts?

All the Pins that are getting released at NYCC are characters that can continue to be used in the VU, except Rex-o...

Why would you create a pin of a character you've already killed off? Even Mr. Flay could still be considered to be active, as he hasn't been killed off. The 1%'ers are still around, right?

Maybe I'm wrong, but that clue has me thinking you might be onto something

[grendeljd]

Such a fantastic final issue of a fantastic mini-series. Loved it so much, this has been my absolute favorite Valiant comic so far this year. Can't wait to see this creative team get together for more in the future. ( )

I really liked the way it all played out with The Scavenger - in the end, he really seemed like another psiot who just wasn't quite good enough for Harada's high standards. He is like Livewire, but far less powerful or useful. Maybe he was at the Willows too at some point, and/or was abandoned with a loose directive to make Rex-o. I didn't get the impression that Rex-o would ever be capable of taking down the HARD Corps, so it seemed like a toss away command from Harada. Scavenger was almost clinging to that mission to give himself a sense of purpose. Might also explain why Livewire had such a hard time finding out about it online.

The page of panels forming a heart was so great... also really liked the page where Livewire discusses each of their abilities and where they could take them further. Really glad to see Owen in particular really figure out how to control his ability more directly. It's actually a really clever & cool power - I wonder if it's meant to be like a variation of the psychic shell projections that others (like Torque or Animalia) can do? That would kind of explain why Cheapjack sensed the objects as being Owens...

[tell]

I hope Rex-O isn't actually dead, more like reprogrammed like GIN-GR, if he is a alien/machine thing with random psiot powers that Livewire can reprogram then he could be a pretty good weapon/tool still. If Livewire reprogrammed him to be on her side she could even do things like Psiot blood drives to overpower him, could be pretty cool, he's like a monster/alien Archer. Plus Rex-O is an interesting being that could use more backstory. Scavenger had a cool powerset, too bad he's dead but of course Livewire had to it.

CRAZY THEORY TIME: I read this and started wondering a few things myself. While dead is dead here, he is an alien/mechanical thing, so maybe re-programming is possible. Maybe it was Heisserer's idea to keep him alive for just what you were stating. I started looking for clues outside of SW, and instantly saw this, what are your thoughts?

All the Pins that are getting released at NYCC are characters that can continue to be used in the VU, except Rex-o...

Why would you create a pin of a character you've already killed off? Even Mr. Flay could still be considered to be active, as he hasn't been killed off. The 1%'ers are still around, right?

Maybe I'm wrong, but that clue has me thinking you might be onto something

I'm not sure if that should be taken as a hint or not really, I could see it also being a promotional tool for a pretty successful recent series. I'm not sure when the trade comes out but I'm sure they will be pushing the mini pretty hard at NYCC so tie in merchandise is a given. Could also be that he's just a visually interesting character, his pin certainly jumps out more than Nikki's for example.

I do hope there's more in the future for him, I'm not convinced Livewire telling us he's dead means he's literally deceased permanently.

Really glad to see Owen in particular really figure out how to control his ability more directly. It's actually a really clever & cool power - I wonder if it's meant to be like a variation of the psychic shell projections that others (like Torque or Animalia) can do? That would kind of explain why Cheapjack sensed the objects as being Owens...

Very interesting idea, it makes sense but I hadn't considered it. I wonder if the objects have permanence, most are used then abandoned along the way.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Only just got my copy of this but was very impressed with how this series went from start to finish. Great art and story perfectly complimenting each other. Colours fantastic too and it all comes together for some very clear story telling.

Shocked that Scavanger got killed, shame in a way. I’m sure Rexo will be back though

Seems that when Avi is in statue form he doesn’t need to breath, wonder is there a time limit on that?

Nice touch how it ends with the possibility of expanding on their abilities, clever stuff.

My only tiny nit pick with this series is that there seems to be a bit of ‘political social agenda’ in terms of characters chosen. It didn’t bother me as such, but I’m not keen on political agendas in comic books.

4.99/5 looking forward to more!

[jmatt]

Seems that when Avi is in statue form he doesn’t need to breath, wonder is there a time limit on that?

Mmm, I got the sense that it mattered. I recall a sense of urgency in retrieving him... but perhaps I was just reading that into it.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Seems that when Avi is in statue form he doesn’t need to breath, wonder is there a time limit on that?

Mmm, I got the sense that it mattered. I recall a sense of urgency in retrieving him... but perhaps I was just reading that into it.

Yeah, there did seem to be urgency but my understanding was that he couldn't go back to him 'human form' because he didn't have enough air to swim 40ft to the top.

I think there should be a limit to how long he can stay in statue form though, maybe there is but we just haven't found it yet.

I often think VEI character are somewhat overpowered, e.g. XO, A&A, Bloodshot etc so it's nice to have characters with limited abilities whereby the writer has to be more creative to solve problems.

[jmatt]

Yeah, there did seem to be urgency but my understanding was that he couldn't go back to him 'human form' because he didn't have enough air to swim 40ft to the top.

I think there should be a limit to how long he can stay in statue form though, maybe there is but we just haven't found it yet.

I often think VEI character are somewhat overpowered, e.g. XO, A&A, Bloodshot etc so it's nice to have characters with limited abilities whereby the writer has to be more creative to solve problems.

Well, I think we kind of saw that right here. He'd run out of oxygen (they even made a point of stating that his breath was squeezed from him) soon, and needed to be retrieved asap.

I'd say that he's still flesh and bone beneath a stone exterior. A variation on the concept of the 'hard light' that Torque wears.

[tell]

Yeah, there did seem to be urgency but my understanding was that he couldn't go back to him 'human form' because he didn't have enough air to swim 40ft to the top.

I think there should be a limit to how long he can stay in statue form though, maybe there is but we just haven't found it yet.

Well, I think we kind of saw that right here. He'd run out of oxygen (they even made a point of stating that his breath was squeezed from him) soon, and needed to be retrieved asap.

I'd say that he's still flesh and bone beneath a stone exterior. A variation on the concept of the 'hard light' that Torque wears.

What I think happened here is that Rexo was trying to hold Avi underwater so he couldn't turn back to flesh without drowning, maybe trying to spook him into fighting and drowning. In the long panel of him sinking, he's stone at first, then flesh where he grabs Rexo and it looks like the air is then squeezed out of his lungs here, then back to stone trapping Rexo. I took the others' concern was that if he turned to flesh he would gulp water and drown on the bottom of the pool.