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If anyone would like to hear our OTV:VCR podcast discussing/reviewing this issue [& XO Manowar [2017] #14], please follow the link;

http://onlythevaliant.com/episodes/vcr162/

Thanks to any who listen in

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The Brethren awaiting Darque's rule. Diggle isn't letting anything go. I was ambivalent about them the first go 'round... I tire of seeing business people and capitalism portrayed as villains but I'm content to see how this plays out.

The scene with the little girl was unnervingly cold. I felt a pang of horror, which is perfect for this book.

Yeah my first thought on reading this issue was "damn I need to go back and read the rest of the shadowman stuff again cuz I don't remember this level of detail."

This is phenomenal. Valiant's best work in awhile.

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My super-successfully crowdfunded debut comic, Flying Sparks: https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Sparks-Jon-Del-Arroz/dp/9527303419 is now up on Amazon! The story of a hero and villain dating under their secret identities. Worlds collide!

Jack has to stop feeling sorry for himself, I’d think by now he’d be more confident. Other than that, the art is on point, and the story is finding it’s footing, in this three issue (tpb) arc era...

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#StayValiant

I think this series will be the one that gives him more concrete reasons to stop feeling sorry for himself.

I can sympathize with him taking a lot of time to process all the bad things he has done though... I mean really, some of the things he's done - a real person would probably never fully recover from. Not that I want to keep reading lamenting dialogue from him all the time either, but I think theres always a place for it to come up over the course of his story.

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My wife likes to draw stuff too, and she is better than me! [I'm very proud of her]... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Dec ... ref=stream

Really happy with the further nods to continuity here. All it took was one simple line to address the fact that Rapture happened. Perfect.

I'm also so happy to see the Brethren featured, the Abbettors organization mentioned [would still like to see them re-built - they were a cool idea that Justin Jordan brought in and wiped out far too fast in the first series, IMHO], and that Baron Samedi is also a prominent figure in this story. Love the more traditional nods to Voodoo/ Vodun that Alyssa is bringing to it over the Punk Mambo version - not that I don't like Punk Mambo as a character, but this just feels more appropriate for the book right now. Great stuff.

The one thing that has been overlooked ever so slightly is the fact that Jack was actually free of the deadside for at least a short time, when Ninjak pulled him out & he was at MI6 for an undefined period. I still also need to re-read Rapture to remember how he was left off at the end of it... did he just go back into the deadside then? This series so far has generalized that detail and simply stated that he has been lost / trapped for 5 years in the deadside.

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My wife likes to draw stuff too, and she is better than me! [I'm very proud of her]... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Dec ... ref=stream

Agreed. The teddy bear into the trash can... such a simple thing but so very effective.

I liked the speech about their motivations here too - they're driven by a fear of not surviving Darque coming back unless they do something to secure themselves a power base. Perfectly believable for what could otherwise become the proverbial mustache-twirling variety of bad guys.

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I like to draw stuff... http://grendeljd.deviantart.com/

My wife likes to draw stuff too, and she is better than me! [I'm very proud of her]... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Dec ... ref=stream

The return of VH-1's Darque Power!

I think that can be purely down to the notion that there are some things that people just want to forget. Also, in comparison to being in the Deadside, MI6 seems inconsequential.

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This is what happens when you try to work...

I would add that this series needed to show Shadowman's growth. It has to show him getting past all of this, so I expected him to feel sorry for himself, at least for a little while.

I expect Shadowman going back through time and learn from his LOA and find that everyone makes mistakes, it's how you stand up and learn from them. This year, falling back through time, could make Shadowman one of the strongest superheroes in the VU. Aric still falls on his errors and past mistakes, Bloodshot does as well. Shadowman may just be able to defeat all of his own demons and mentally, become the strongest in the VU. He should be an entity that no one wants to "F" with!

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Moose

I've been pleased with the first two issues, especially that they are calling back to Justin Jordan's run and not just ignoring it. I too was questioning whether Rapture was just being ignored, since there was no reference to his time with MI6. I guess since Jack returned to the Deadside at the end of Rapture, just ignoring that he ever got out conveniently allows people to jump on after End Times without realizing they missed anything.

Neither issue #1 or #2 wowed me, but they were really solid. These didn't feel like the beginning of a series to me. They feel like jumping into the middle of a solid ongoing series. And I think that is exactly what Shadowman needs. I hope Valiant will stick to their guns and give this series at least the full 25 issues that the other initial series got, and really let the characters
breathe and develop. Overall, off to a good start!