New VALIANT Comics

[ManofTheAtom]

I literally wrote the first VALIANT Wiki at the original Valiant Entertainment website...

Not relevant. Google yourself.

So, the answer is that you don't.

[Ryan]

Well, of course not. It's updated with modern storytelling, technology, comic standards are higher, the benefit of planning etc. All why it is widely considered the template for launching a shared universe now.

That's debatable. I would say for long-term impact and what's considered 'definitive' Valiant, the Classic universe still holds the edge. That's subjective though, how do you measure it? Who's using VEI as a template to launch a universe?

Everyone - Aftershock, AWA, Vault, Madcave and on and on have all openly discussed it.

That's cool, I guess it shows that I don't follow modern comics that I've never heard of those companies. They all do connected superhero universes?

Are people clamoring for a return to the VEI continuity? Or the VEI style of comics?

[ManofTheAtom]

Well, of course not. It's updated with modern storytelling, technology, comic standards are higher, the benefit of planning etc. All why it is widely considered the template for launching a shared universe now.

That's debatable. I would say for long-term impact and what's considered 'definitive' Valiant, the Classic universe still holds the edge. That's subjective though, how do you measure it? Who's using VEI as a template to launch a universe?

Everyone - Aftershock, AWA, Vault, Madcave and on and on have all openly discussed it.

That's cool, I guess it shows that I don't follow modern comics that I've never heard of those companies. They all do connected superhero universes?

Are people clamoring for a return to the VEI continuity? Or the VEI style of comics?

Doesn't look like it.

https://madcavestudios.com/
https://aftershockcomics.com/collections
https://awastudios.net/series/
https://vaultcomics.com/collections/comics

[Ryan]

Not relevant to what I asked. Do you have any links?

BTW, I've read and still own every VALIANT and Acclaim comic from the '90s. I wasn't able to keep getting VEI at around the time of Stalinverse. That's where I fell behind.

I literally wrote the first VALIANT Wiki at the original Valiant Entertainment website...

A question for all the VEI fans, what are the key post-Stalinverse books that one would need to read to catch up and get the gist of what's going on?

So lets say the first arc of VEI is 2012-2015, what are the key books from 2016-2018? The main storylines. Like if you could only choose 2 or 3 storylines (TPBs) that one could get the best of 16-18 VEI.

[ManofTheAtom]

lol, bro you haven't even read the books.

Not relevant to what I asked. Do you have any links?

BTW, I've read and still own every VALIANT and Acclaim comic from the '90s. I wasn't able to keep getting VEI at around the time of Stalinverse. That's where I fell behind.

I literally wrote the first VALIANT Wiki at the original Valiant Entertainment website...

A question for all the VEI fans, what are the key post-Stalinverse books that one would need to read to catch up and get the gist of what's going on?

So lets say the first arc of VEI is 2012-2015, what are the key books from 2016-2018? The main storylines. Like if you could only choose 2 or 3 storylines (TPBs) that one could get the best of 16-18 VEI.

[Ryan]

Well, of course not. It's updated with modern storytelling, technology, comic standards are higher, the benefit of planning etc. All why it is widely considered the template for launching a shared universe now.

That's debatable. I would say for long-term impact and what's considered 'definitive' Valiant, the Classic universe still holds the edge. That's subjective though, how do you measure it? Who's using VEI as a template to launch a universe?

Everyone - Aftershock, AWA, Vault, Madcave and on and on have all openly discussed it.

That's cool, I guess it shows that I don't follow modern comics that I've never heard of those companies. They all do connected superhero universes?

Are people clamoring for a return to the VEI continuity? Or the VEI style of comics?

Doesn't look like it.

https://madcavestudios.com/
https://aftershockcomics.com/collections
https://awastudios.net/series/
https://vaultcomics.com/collections/comics

So it's not the type of comics, it's more like VEI was an inspiration for how they launched their comics, presentation, promotion, etc.? Well I don't think anyone on here would debate that VEI weren't masters of presentation and promotion. No doubt Dino and crew set a new standard there.

[ManofTheAtom]

Well, of course not. It's updated with modern storytelling, technology, comic standards are higher, the benefit of planning etc. All why it is widely considered the template for launching a shared universe now.

That's debatable. I would say for long-term impact and what's considered 'definitive' Valiant, the Classic universe still holds the edge. That's subjective though, how do you measure it? Who's using VEI as a template to launch a universe?

Everyone - Aftershock, AWA, Vault, Madcave and on and on have all openly discussed it.

That's cool, I guess it shows that I don't follow modern comics that I've never heard of those companies. They all do connected superhero universes?

Are people clamoring for a return to the VEI continuity? Or the VEI style of comics?

Doesn't look like it.

https://madcavestudios.com/
https://aftershockcomics.com/collections
https://awastudios.net/series/
https://vaultcomics.com/collections/comics

So it's not the type of comics, it's more like VEI was an inspiration for how they launched their comics, presentation, promotion, etc.? Well I don't think anyone on here would debate that VEI weren't masters of presentation and promotion. No doubt Dino and crew set a new standard there.

Agreed.

[leonmallett]

Some wish list creative teams I'd love to see:

Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort on a revamped Unity - threading into or through all other books

Al Ewing and Steve Lieber on Divinity

Kyle Higgins and Roger Robinson on Bloodshot

Nick Spencer and Paco Medina on Harbinger

Jed McKay and Shawn Martinbrough on Archer and Armstrong

Jed McKay and Kev Walker on Shadowman

Kelly Thompson and Doug Braithwaite on X-O Manowar

Nick Spencer and Kev Walker on Eternal Warrior

Kelly Thompson and Carmen Carnero on Dr Mirage

[ManofTheAtom]

Some wish list creative teams I'd love to see:

Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort on a revamped Unity - threading into or through all other books

Al Ewing and Steve Lieber on Divinity

Kyle Higgins and Roger Robinson on Bloodshot

Nick Spencer and Paco Medina on Harbinger

Jed McKay and Shawn Martinbrough on Archer and Armstrong

Jed McKay and Kev Walker on Shadowman

Kelly Thompson and Doug Braithwaite on X-O Manowar

Nick Spencer and Kev Walker on Eternal Warrior

Kelly Thompson and Carmen Carnero on Dr Mirage

Nice, cool list.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Not relevant to what I asked. Do you have any links?

BTW, I've read and still own every VALIANT and Acclaim comic from the '90s. I wasn't able to keep getting VEI at around the time of Stalinverse. That's where I fell behind.

I literally wrote the first VALIANT Wiki at the original Valiant Entertainment website...

A question for all the VEI fans, what are the key post-Stalinverse books that one would need to read to catch up and get the gist of what's going on?

So lets say the first arc of VEI is 2012-2015, what are the key books from 2016-2018? The main storylines. Like if you could only choose 2 or 3 storylines (TPBs) that one could get the best of 16-18 VEI.

You probably only need to read Heisserer's Secret Weapons -- which is very good -- followed by HW2 -- which is very bad and somehow established the current status quo, putting some characters into really weird situations the following writers didn't really have good answers to, esp for Bloodshot and Livewire.

Divinity -> #0 issue and Eternity mini

Harbinger -> Joshua Dysart's LADOTH: The Life and Death of Toyo Harada, the final part of his Harbinger/Imperium saga.

Ninjak -> Ninja-K + Killers mini, both not necessarily focused on Colin Ninjak

Rai -> Dan Abnett's Fallen World and subsequent Rai volume

Shadowman -> Andy Diggle's volume which is really good; maybe followed by Cullen Bunn's + Book of Shadows which is different (only recommend if you're into Shadowman and can accept a somewhat different concept for the Deadside)

Last not least, don't even bother reading anything Bloodshot and X-O Manowar related stories after HW2.
They kinda thought it was a good idea to let the least talented creative people work on their flagship characters during the DMG years.

The final Harbinger series is also crap!

[slack]

You probably only need to read Heisserer's Secret Weapons -- which is very good -- followed by HW2 -- which is very bad and somehow established the current status quo, putting some characters into really weird situations the following writers didn't really have good answers to, esp for Bloodshot and Livewire.

Divinity -> #0 issue and Eternity mini

Harbinger -> Joshua Dysart's LADOTH: The Life and Death of Toyo Harada, the final part of his Harbinger/Imperium saga.

Ninjak -> Ninja-K + Killers mini, both not necessarily focused on Colin Ninjak

Rai -> Dan Abnett's Fallen World and subsequent Rai volume

Shadowman -> Andy Diggle's volume which is really good; maybe followed by Cullen Bunn's + Book of Shadows which is different (only recommend if you're into Shadowman and can accept a somewhat different concept for the Deadside)

Last not least, don't even bother reading anything Bloodshot and X-O Manowar related stories after HW2.
They kinda thought it was a good idea to let the least talented creative people work on their flagship characters during the DMG years.

The final Harbinger series is also crap!

I agree with all of this.

[Ryan]

Not relevant to what I asked. Do you have any links?

BTW, I've read and still own every VALIANT and Acclaim comic from the '90s. I wasn't able to keep getting VEI at around the time of Stalinverse. That's where I fell behind.

I literally wrote the first VALIANT Wiki at the original Valiant Entertainment website...

A question for all the VEI fans, what are the key post-Stalinverse books that one would need to read to catch up and get the gist of what's going on?

So lets say the first arc of VEI is 2012-2015, what are the key books from 2016-2018? The main storylines. Like if you could only choose 2 or 3 storylines (TPBs) that one could get the best of 16-18 VEI.

You probably only need to read Heisserer's Secret Weapons -- which is very good -- followed by HW2 -- which is very bad and somehow established the current status quo, putting some characters into really weird situations the following writers didn't really have good answers to, esp for Bloodshot and Livewire.

Divinity -> #0 issue and Eternity mini

Harbinger -> Joshua Dysart's LADOTH: The Life and Death of Toyo Harada, the final part of his Harbinger/Imperium saga.

Ninjak -> Ninja-K + Killers mini, both not necessarily focused on Colin Ninjak

Rai -> Dan Abnett's Fallen World and subsequent Rai volume

Shadowman -> Andy Diggle's volume which is really good; maybe followed by Cullen Bunn's + Book of Shadows which is different (only recommend if you're into Shadowman and can accept a somewhat different concept for the Deadside)

Last not least, don't even bother reading anything Bloodshot and X-O Manowar related stories after HW2.
They kinda thought it was a good idea to let the least talented creative people work on their flagship characters during the DMG years.

The final Harbinger series is also crap!

The only one of those I've read is HW2, and I agree with what you say. The very unrealistic way in which the entire Livewire incident was handled (and continued into the Livewire series) really turned me off of Valiant at that time.

Thanks a lot for the rundown! I will definitely check some of those out, especially Secret Weapons.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Ninjak -> Ninja-K + Killers mini, both not necessarily focused on Colin Ninjak

[ManofTheAtom]

Not relevant to what I asked. Do you have any links?

BTW, I've read and still own every VALIANT and Acclaim comic from the '90s. I wasn't able to keep getting VEI at around the time of Stalinverse. That's where I fell behind.

I literally wrote the first VALIANT Wiki at the original Valiant Entertainment website...

A question for all the VEI fans, what are the key post-Stalinverse books that one would need to read to catch up and get the gist of what's going on?

So lets say the first arc of VEI is 2012-2015, what are the key books from 2016-2018? The main storylines. Like if you could only choose 2 or 3 storylines (TPBs) that one could get the best of 16-18 VEI.

You probably only need to read Heisserer's Secret Weapons -- which is very good -- followed by HW2 -- which is very bad and somehow established the current status quo, putting some characters into really weird situations the following writers didn't really have good answers to, esp for Bloodshot and Livewire.

Divinity -> #0 issue and Eternity mini

Harbinger -> Joshua Dysart's LADOTH: The Life and Death of Toyo Harada, the final part of his Harbinger/Imperium saga.

Ninjak -> Ninja-K + Killers mini, both not necessarily focused on Colin Ninjak

Rai -> Dan Abnett's Fallen World and subsequent Rai volume

Shadowman -> Andy Diggle's volume which is really good; maybe followed by Cullen Bunn's + Book of Shadows which is different (only recommend if you're into Shadowman and can accept a somewhat different concept for the Deadside)

Last not least, don't even bother reading anything Bloodshot and X-O Manowar related stories after HW2.
They kinda thought it was a good idea to let the least talented creative people work on their flagship characters during the DMG years.

The final Harbinger series is also crap!

[lorddunlow]

I'd like to see a maxi series that expands on the events from Rai #0, with each individual issue showing the end of each character's story as detailed in that single issue.

Layton could write the X-O Manowar issue, Hall could write and, potentially, draw the Shadowman issue. Vanhook could write the Bloodshot and Eternal Warrior issues. BWS doing the Archer & Armstrong issue would be nice, but I'm not sure it's likely.

We saw several of these plot points expanded in other comics, like the Harbinger Wars trilogy in Timewalker showed the death of Aric, Deathmate showed Solar ending Gayle's life, and the Bad Penny two-parter showed parts of the death of Bloodshot, but there are still many plot points we haven't seen, like the death of Shadowman (Unity 2000 does not count...) and Archer and the HARD Corps leaving Earth (we saw bits of that in Psi-Lords).

It could be the final ever arc of the original VALIANT Universe.

You really haven't read anything after the 1990s huh? VEI did this and it was AMAZING! Check out Book of Death and the tie ins. The Harbinger tie in will make you cry (you've got to read the Dysart Harbinger issues up to then though). Harbinger is much stronger at VEI than in the 90s FYI.

I managed to read the first two years, I think. But it's not the same canon. It's similar, certainly, but not the same characters and plots.

Well, of course not. It's updated with modern storytelling, technology, comic standards are higher, the benefit of planning etc. All why it is widely considered the template for launching a shared universe now.

But the point would be to tell the last stories of the original iterations. The current iterations are still ongoing.

Oh, you mean the original continuity? Yeah, not many people want that anymore unfortunately. Wouldn't sell well.

I mean, *we* would buy it... That's really all that matters.

Sent from my Pixel Fold using Tapatalk

[ManofTheAtom]

You really haven't read anything after the 1990s huh? VEI did this and it was AMAZING! Check out Book of Death and the tie ins. The Harbinger tie in will make you cry (you've got to read the Dysart Harbinger issues up to then though). Harbinger is much stronger at VEI than in the 90s FYI.

I managed to read the first two years, I think. But it's not the same canon. It's similar, certainly, but not the same characters and plots.

Well, of course not. It's updated with modern storytelling, technology, comic standards are higher, the benefit of planning etc. All why it is widely considered the template for launching a shared universe now.

But the point would be to tell the last stories of the original iterations. The current iterations are still ongoing.

Oh, you mean the original continuity? Yeah, not many people want that anymore unfortunately. Wouldn't sell well.

I mean, *we* would buy it... That's really all that matters.

Sent from my Pixel Fold using Tapatalk

Yeah. And it's not really about nostalgia in so much that it's about closure. We want to see how these stories would end.

[ManofTheAtom]

A great way to gauge how well new comics set in the original VALIANT continuity might perform sales-wise would be to look at how well reprints of the original comics sell.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Without the GK3, new stories set in the original continuity would be pointless.

[ManofTheAtom]

Without the GK3, new stories set in the original continuity would be pointless.

They'd certainly have more value for us with them in it, but I think they still have value nonetheless.

[ManofTheAtom]

So, should Alien bring back Troublemakers and Trinity Angels?

I think if done right, there is value to both.

I've always thought that one thing VALIANT lacked was more corporations that would fight in the Corporate Wars that would become the Harbinger Wars, and that Galloway and Galloway filled that need.

[Ryan]

Yeah. And it's not really about nostalgia in so much that it's about closure. We want to see how these stories would end.

I agree that it's not about nostalgia, for many people that was just the better version of the characters and a more interesting/deeper universe than either reboot. Seeing how they end is only one option. I wouldn't say it's about closure, but preference. For me anyway. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

A great way to gauge how well new comics set in the original VALIANT continuity might perform sales-wise would be to look at how well reprints of the original comics sell.

Maybe, but conversely the reprints would also sell a lot better if they were actually relevant to the current comics. As of now they've been rebooted out of continuity and are like the 'Legends' stories of Star Wars. Only relevant as a historical curiosity.

Without the GK3, new stories set in the original continuity would be pointless.

Turok was never a major player in Valiant. Magnus was in the future and can easily be left out. Solar is the only licensed character that was relevant to the original continuity and could easily be written around or replaced.

[ManofTheAtom]

Yeah. And it's not really about nostalgia in so much that it's about closure. We want to see how these stories would end.

I agree that it's not about nostalgia, for many people that was just the better version of the characters and a more interesting/deeper universe than either reboot. Seeing how they end is only one option. I wouldn't say it's about closure, but preference. For me anyway. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

A great way to gauge how well new comics set in the original VALIANT continuity might perform sales-wise would be to look at how well reprints of the original comics sell.

Maybe, but conversely the reprints would also sell a lot better if they were actually relevant to the current comics. As of now they've been rebooted out of continuity and are like the 'Legends' stories of Star Wars. Only relevant as a historical curiosity.

Yeah.

[Sunlight on Snow]

Without the GK3, new stories set in the original continuity would be pointless.

Turok was never a major player in Valiant. Magnus was in the future and can easily be left out. Solar is the only licensed character that was relevant to the original continuity and could easily be written around or replaced.

This is exactly what I wouldn't want!

[ManofTheAtom]

Without the GK3, new stories set in the original continuity would be pointless.

Turok was never a major player in Valiant. Magnus was in the future and can easily be left out. Solar is the only licensed character that was relevant to the original continuity and could easily be written around or replaced.

This is exactly what I wouldn't want!

If the GK characters ever returned to VALIANT it needs to be an event, and not just a one time thing.

The return of Solar would be the perfect time to acknowledge the multiple VALIANT continuities and revolve them once and for all, without using a multiverse.

It boils down to Phil Seleski being a comic book fanboy, and his wish to become a superhero like the fictional Doctor Solar having unintended consequences on reality as a whole.

His "wish machine", the Edgewater fusion reactor, not only transformed him into a hero, but it also transformed Erica Pierce into a villain (his literal opposite number, much like is the case with the most popular hero and villain pairings in comics) and it fundamentally changed the universe from what it was in Alpha & Omega (OUR worlds) into what the VALIANT Universe, a reality populated by immortals, Harbingers, time travelers, sentient robots, lost lands populated by dinosaurs, etc.

Within that context, it makes sense that it would also cause this new reality to experience sporadic hiccups in continuity, like comic books do.

This is the true root of Erica's anger toward Phil. Not that he messed up time, but that he messed up reality.

He not only flipped HER life upside down, but he did the same with the universe. From her perspective he played dice with the universe and everyone lost.

That's what such an event needs to address. Solar needs to take responsibility for breaking reality and fix it. Not by putting it back the way it was, but by fixing the hiccups.

The way I'd like to see it done is keeping the VEI iterations of the characters and continuity but infusing it with the tone and character arcs of VH 1, such as, for instance, Archer starting his journey to become a spiritual leader, something not present in either the VH 2 or VH 1 versions, and Jack having to deal with his impending death at some time in the future (if such a thing can still matter now). That sort of thing.

[Ryan]

Without the GK3, new stories set in the original continuity would be pointless.

Turok was never a major player in Valiant. Magnus was in the future and can easily be left out. Solar is the only licensed character that was relevant to the original continuity and could easily be written around or replaced.

This is exactly what I wouldn't want!

Fair enough, but you're just stating a preference for VEI (VH3) over Classic Valiant (VH1). The lack of GK3 wouldn't make the original continuity 'pointless', you just personally don't want to see it. Nothing wrong with that.