EXCLUSIVE: Valiant's The Forgotten Queen returns

[jaden_sai]

EXCLUSIVE: War-Monger Returns in Valiant's The Forgotten Queen
https://www.cbr.com/valiant-comics-the- ... ign=CBR-TW

In February 2019, War-Monger, the villainous immortal who first debuted in Unity, returns to Valiant Comics in the four-issue miniseries The Forgotten Queen, written by Tini Howard with art by Amilcar Pinna.

[SuperMage]

Looks cool. The name change makes sense. It's redundant to have two lead characters with "War" in the name when we already have War Mother. It's similar to the Faith/Zephyr situation. I wonder if the mini-series will reveal her real name. I dig the redesigned outfit on the last cover. She looks a lot better her than during her Unity arc. Hoping this means some other characters can also get new outfits. Mainly The United, and Armorines. Interior art is looking great. Between this and Livewire, it looks like new Valiant has few potential hits under its belt. It also helps that both Livewire and "Forgotten Queen" are focused on bringing back continuity threads that have been forgotten over the past couple of years. Wasn't expecting that, but it's a pleasant surprise.

[TheeBaldMoose]

I'm always down for a dark book! Love that her main influence was Randal Flagg, one of Stephen King's main baddies!

"I'm all about immortals taking long walks and leaving bloodied corpses in their wake" Tini Howard via Twitter

[WrathOfArmstrong]

Looks cool. The name change makes sense. It's redundant to have two lead characters with "War" in the name when we already have War Mother. It's similar to the Faith/Zephyr situation. I wonder if the mini-series will reveal her real name. I dig the redesigned outfit on the last cover. She looks a lot better her than during her Unity arc. Hoping this means some other characters can also get new outfits. Mainly The United, and Armorines. Interior art is looking great. Between this and Livewire, it looks like new Valiant has few potential hits under its belt. It also helps that both Livewire and "Forgotten Queen" are focused on bringing back continuity threads that have been forgotten over the past couple of years. Wasn't expecting that, but it's a pleasant surprise.

It's funny because that last cover, looks really reminiscent of War Mother. ...Except I don't think War Mother could bend an axe handle without snapping it....

[TheFerg714]

I'm not happy about this. War-Monger is a s*** character.

[Sven the Returned]

The last cover is terrible.

[kinggirlfriend]

I'm not happy about this. War-Monger is a s*** character.

Agree'd!
I sure hope they change her speech pattern. Even though it wouldn't be consistent with her appearance in Unity it would be waaaay less annoying. Last character I thought they'd ever bring back.

Congratulations on whoever called this one, I remember someone in another thread suggested this might be War Monger! Nice job!

Besides their look and name are there any other parallels that can be drawn between War-Monger and War Mother? In the Book of Death are we certain that's War Mother? I always assumed it was War-Monger based on the timeline (it wasn't the far future).

[nycjadie]

Can't help but think of Tank Girl, which was really fresh in the early 90s. Still, I like the fact that we're getting an interesting minority character leading a title. Let the speculation begin!

First appearance:
Unity 18 (last few pages - little bit of a teaser).

Other appearances:
Unity 19-22

Always loved the yellow cover of Unity 21. She's also on the cover of 22A, and sort of 19B (just an outline).

[nycjadie]

I'm not happy about this. War-Monger is a s*** character.

Agree'd!
I sure hope they change her speech pattern. Even though it wouldn't be consistent with her appearance in Unity it would be waaaay less annoying. Last character I thought they'd ever bring back.

Congratulations on whoever called this one, I remember someone in another thread suggested this might be War Monger! Nice job!

Besides their look and name are there any other parallels that can be drawn between War-Monger and War Mother? In the Book of Death are we certain that's War Mother? I always assumed it was War-Monger based on the timeline (it wasn't the far future).

Same thought came to me. Did War Monger cameo in Book of Death?

[kinggirlfriend]

I'm not happy about this. War-Monger is a s*** character.

Agree'd!
I sure hope they change her speech pattern. Even though it wouldn't be consistent with her appearance in Unity it would be waaaay less annoying. Last character I thought they'd ever bring back.

Congratulations on whoever called this one, I remember someone in another thread suggested this might be War Monger! Nice job!

Besides their look and name are there any other parallels that can be drawn between War-Monger and War Mother? In the Book of Death are we certain that's War Mother? I always assumed it was War-Monger based on the timeline (it wasn't the far future).

Same thought came to me. Did War Monger cameo in Book of Death?

I'm pretty certain that's her in the lower left, right? I mean who else would it be?

[syzhang28]

What a waste. Terrible character. VEI swung and missed and then rightly/smartly put her away and created War Mother. Which was great. Now, creatively bankrupt DMG/Valiant do this? Try doing something original guys. Not appealing to Twitter by putting a spotlight on every diverse character you can even when they suck. And how do you get a great artist like Veronica Fish and still make a bad cover??

[nonplayer]

I kinda liked war monger. And glad to see dmg following up on loose ends. Hope this is written well and is a good story DMG needs some positives.

[kjjohanson]

I'm not happy about this. War-Monger is a s*** character.

Agree'd!
I sure hope they change her speech pattern. Even though it wouldn't be consistent with her appearance in Unity it would be waaaay less annoying. Last character I thought they'd ever bring back.

Considering the storyline in her first arc, it seemed to me a given that eventually she'd be brought back.

[hawkeyeps]

I'm boycotting this book, I can't stand that character.

Why would they do this? If they wanted yet another book with a female lead why not Mary Maria, Roku or Red Guardian? You know characters that people actually liked from stories that were fairly decent instead of utter crap.

I was willing to give the new team a chance but a move like this rapidly diminishes my faith.

I have a feeling I will be checking out after LADOTH.

There is no way in hell I would even pay for this, epic fail.

[jmatt]

As always, I will wait to read before formulating an opinion. Her epithet laden dialogue was a little tiring the first time around but I'm willing to give it a go.

[nycjadie]

I'm boycotting this book, I can't stand that character.

Why would they do this? If they wanted yet another book with a female lead why not Mary Maria, Roku or Red Guardian? You know characters that people actually liked from stories that were fairly decent instead of utter crap.

I was willing to give the new team a chance but a move like this rapidly diminishes my faith.

I have a feeling I will be checking out after LADOTH.

There is no way in hell I would even pay for this, epic fail.

Yes on Mary Maria and Roku (which could be Electra-worthy).

[Sheikhaljabal]

Well, I, for one, will be all over this one. Valiant lacks more Good Villains than anything else in their line. Even some historical ones as the Immortal Enemy and Dr Silk are really underused, besides the possibility of creating new ones repurposing some of their unused IPs (which is what I was/am expecting from PSI-LORDS) so yay for upgrading a VEI female one: I was glad that Sondria Darque was going to star in SHADOWMAN but now that that title is going to be cancelled, I'll take War Monger under a new name. She was probably UNITY's run better foe, besides the Armor Hunters and I'm also curious about Anchor's fate. Her riff being «Mongolian witch», the Red Legend makes lots of sense as one of her opponents. As for WAR MOTHER connections, nothing less than the latter's with BRITANNIA's Achillia would remotely seem funny or original.

The other thing VEI is lacking is team books. With the new FUTURE FORCE and SECRET WEAPONS out of the picture, I would prefer stuff such as Bloodshot USA, Rapture, Faith, Dreamside or Incursion to occur within an ongoing UNITY title featuring a roster of the company's Stars mostly without a title (such as Shadowman, Timewalker, Geomancer, Dr Mirage, Ninjak) or break out characters (like Punk Mambo, Deathmate, Savage, Neela and so on).

[kinggirlfriend]

Yes on Mary Maria and Roku (which could be Electra-worthy).

I agree!
Also GN-GR! Why hasn't GN-GR had her own series? I'd rather read about her than War-Monger, Q&W, Faith, Bloodshot prequel, etc. This honestly feels like Valiant is trolling us.

[kinggirlfriend]

Interview with the writer: https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2018/ ... ueen-2019/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The more I see of this the more I hate it. I can't believe that there are people out there that found this character amusing?! It's like nails on a chalkboard. The whole sticking the tongue out thing. The lesbian angle.... It all feels very ham-handed.

This might be were I get off the Valiant train. Most likely skipping BLOODSHOT RISING SPIRIT too. I look forward to LIFE & DEATH OF TOYO HARADA and after that I think I'm done unless some established talent (like Fred Van Lente) comes back.

[TheeBaldMoose]

Interview with the writer: https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2018/ ... ueen-2019/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The more I see of this the more I hate it. I can't believe that there are people out there that found this character amusing?! It's like nails on a chalkboard. The whole sticking the tongue out thing. The lesbian angle.... It all feels very ham-handed.

This might be were I get off the Valiant train. Most likely skipping BLOODSHOT RISING SPIRIT too. I look forward to LIFE & DEATH OF TOYO HARADA and after that I think I'm done unless some established talent (like Fred Van Lente) comes back.

I dunno, I still look forward to the book. Yea, the character's origins were annoying, but maybe she could make it more interesting. That's my hope at least. As far as the lesbian angle, again I don't have a problem with it. I would figure, any immortal 1) would not be interested in sex much, because they've had so much, it just doesn't matter to them anymore. 2) would eventually venture into being bi-sexual because again, you're living forever, why not try and enjoy. I would imagine, if we ever get Ivar back, he will be bi. I state this because to his brothers, sex really doesn't matter much to them. Sure, Armstrong is, well, Armstrong, but he doesn't take it all that seriously.

[kinggirlfriend]

That interview and her twitter posts said she fell in love with the potty-mouth bitshiness of the character. Oh boy, an annoying bitsh. Is that what women think is empowering?

Yuck.

I don't have a problem with her being a lesbian or bi. But it feels cheap.

It would be like if they announced a Jar-Jar Binks comic and they tried to make him edgy by saying "he's bi now!" Like that's going to make the turd more interesting.

I would hate for Ivar to come back as bi, unless I missed something that previously alluded otherwise? They've shown all the Immortal Brothers to be drawn to the opposite sex, there's no reason to think otherwise. Gilad has a wife in heaven and a grip of kids. I didn't see some dude up there waiting for him in the back of the cabin. Ivar's whole arc was essentially a love story between him and Neela. It sure would suck the air out of it to see him again with anyone else. And Aram clearly is in love with the opposite sex.

I feel like the Dying One is a much more interesting character to explore those sexual possibilities. Sometimes he's (it?) in a woman's body and sometimes he is in a man's body. I'm assuming he's had sex as both over the centuries. And for him I could see sex becoming meaningless and I think that's a great idea to explore.

[SuperMage]

It just sounds like an immortal Tank Girl to me. I don't remember people having much of an issue with Tank Girl when Jamie Hewlett debuted her in the 90s. Pretty much every "vulgar" "edgy" "female protagonist" is just a variation of Tank Girl. Tank Girl was a violent bisexual sociopath who had sex with a talking kangaroo. Doesn't Punk Mambo share a lot of those character traits? Minus the part about having sex with kangaroos, that we know of.

[SwiftMann]

The character was definitely annoying and ham-fisted in Unity. Not sure what they plan to do here.

Really hated Pinna's art on Generation X, especially the faces. The preview art here is slightly better (read: less deformed), but still pretty meh. A couple good panels and a lot of bland or bad ones.

[jeremycoe]

I wasn't really a fan of how she was written in Unity, either. That being said, I wasn't really a fan of how FVL wrote Gilad early on in Archer & Armstrong. I like what others have done with the Eternal Warrior since. I'm willing to reserve my judgment on this series until after I've read it.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Re-read Unity #18 to check out her first appearance, boy was that a mediocre issue! War Monger doesn’t come into it until the end so i guess I’ll neee to dig out #19 to refresh my memory on this character.