Post-Unity: What comics to get and what to avoid

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 9:04 am

I was a big Valiant fan back in the day and I had all the Pre-Unity issues. I got somewhere around the first 8 issues of every series that came out after that until after Dr Mirage came out and read some of the old series too. I'm curious about the ones I've missed and about what they did with the characters and concepts. Does anyone have any reading recommendations on Post-Unity issues that are worth getting and issues to avoid, lest I want to stab my eyes out? Here's my own recommendations off what I've read so far.

Recommended issues that capture atleast some of the Pre-Unity feel:

Archer & Armstrong 0-12 by Barry Windsor Smith
Eternal Warrior Yearbook #1
Magnus/Nexus (a true Russ Manning tribute!)
Magnus/Predator (plots by Shooter)
Shadowman by Bob Hall
Magnus 20 (wonderful tale of Magnus's childhood by Shooter)

Recommended issues just to see some great action and art:

Eternal Warrior up to 25
Rai and the Future Force

Issues to AVIOD at all costs:

Magnus 25 to the end of the Malev Wars
Not only did the book become nothing but an after thought to Rai (you couldn't even read the series without reading Rai!) but it became boring, with lack luster art.

Eternal Warrior 28-32
The Geomancer doesn't want Gilad to be his Fist and Steel anymore. What happens? An issue with Gilad showing real emotion and introspection about his purpose? Nah. He gets drunk and then proceeds to kill every criminal he can find in a vigilante rampage until one of them just happens to be poccessed by the Immortal Enemy. Really bad art on the main stories too. Interesting prologues though.

Love to hear any recommendations you guys have.

myron · Post by **myron** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 9:11 am

Issues to AVIOD at all costs:

Magnus 25 to the end of the Malev Wars
Not only did the book become nothing but an after thought to Rai (you couldn't even read the series without reading Rai!) but it became boring, with lack luster art.

don't just stop at the end of the malev wars for magnus....don't bother with the entire rest of the run...

Bloodshot holds it's own through the majority of the run

avoid the last issues of X-O like the plague

I kinda liked Timewalker...haven't read entire run though

haven't seen any reason to recommend Psi-lords...

Jaknife · Post by **Jaknife** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 11:07 am

bloodshot definitely. maybe some EW, shadowman is good, xo manowar.

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 2:18 pm

I really enjoyed the Malev war, and in fact, the entire Magnus run. I think you have to be a true sci-fi geek to enjoy it though. I'd recommend reading up to Magnus #25. If you're not liking it by then, there's no point in continuing. I do feel the Malev War era is slow to warm, but by #25 begins to hit its stride.

Timewalker's first few issues absolutely ROCKED. I haven't read further.

Solar is great up until the early 30s (that's as far as I've gotten). In many ways, I think it gets better than the pre-Unity Solars were.

Agreed that X-O takes the big plunge into badness after Unity.

Dr. Mirage is fun, but not a "great" book in any way.

I really dug the Chaos Effect epilogue.

Harbinger is decent up to #25, but nothing beats the pre-Unity issues.

Warrior-13 · Post by **Warrior-13** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 5:36 pm

Outside of the Quesada issues I could never get into Ninjak.

Harbinger was my favorite book but what the hell happened after issue 15, it went downhill from there and issue 25 was icing on the cake. Although it was a cool fight between Harada and Sting, I just couldn't get into the fact that Harada was controlling everyone from the start. Yeah right

I'm not even going to get into what happend after #25.

For the most part the post unity books began to lack quality after Shooter was fired and it seemed like storyline and characterization was compromized for overprinting and endless gimmick promotions on subpar books. For example- full cover chromium - Turok 1, yeah that went over well when people saw it wasn't a full chrome cover like Ninjak 1 & Bloodshot 0. Secret Weapons#1 in a paper bag??!! and my favorite Psi-Lords with that stupid Valiant vision thing.

willyt · Post by **willyt** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 7:23 pm

Warrior-13 wrote:.
For example- full cover chromium - Turok 1, yeah that went over well when people saw it wasn't a full chrome cover like Ninjak 1 & Bloodshot 0. Secret Weapons#1 in a paper bag??!! and my favorite Psi-Lords with that stupid Valiant vision thing.

you know I don't know people didnt like the turok #1 look because it wasnt full chrome such as ninjak 1 or others. To me, I really like it, the rest of the comic acts as matting, as in matting and framing art. So it looks well put together and it seems to capture more detail than the others, even the comparable style in the bloodshot #1 preceding it. At the time when ultraverse and marvel/Dc were putting those crappy holograms on stuff, chrome was a nice change.

It may have been a typo but it is secret weapons 11 but yea it was kinda funny, talk about brown bagging it.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 7:33 pm

myron wrote: don't just stop at the end of the malev wars for magnus....don't bother with the entire rest of the run...

I think if you're a Magnus fan there are some bright spots after the Malev war.

Todd Luck wrote:with lack luster art

Call me crazy, but I've always preferred Jim Caliafiore to Sean Chen.

myron wrote: avoid the last issues of X-O like the plague

I can't say anything good about the Sears run, but the last 3 issues of X-O by Layton and Guice are actually real good (I thought), and it kind of leaves an opening that ***SPOILER WARNING***** everything since X-0 #1 has been a dream.

Warrior-13 · Post by **Warrior-13** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 8:20 pm

I hear ya willyt but if I'm not mistaken Valiant at the time produced 3 different promo chromium cards to coincide with the release of Bloodshot 1, Turok 1 and Ninjak 1. Bloodshot 1 was cool because I don't think that type of cover was ever done like that at the time BUT I believe they advertised Turok as a full cover chrome, it wasn't and I don't think it was as well received as Bloodshot 1. Ninjak 1 beat both those covers though with a full chrome cover and Quesada art of course.

Speaking of gimmicks, do you remember that special trading card in the comics that came in a black plastic sleeve? Supposedley The Visitor was going to be the rare card. Man, I'll take the pre-unity stuff any day of the week.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:21 am

Ryan wrote:
myron wrote: don't just stop at the end of the malev wars for magnus....don't bother with the entire rest of the run...
I think if you're a Magnus fan there are some bright spots after the Malev war.
Todd Luck wrote:with lack luster art
Call me crazy, but I've always preferred Jim Caliafiore to Sean Chen.

On some issues I do prefer Caliafiore's art, just not Magnus. The inker and colorist worked with him very well on X-O and it looked fantastic. He wasn't as fortunate on Magnus

.

You know it's also interesting how the sales plunged right at the end of the Malev Wars when everyone knew the leap to the future with the hero's kids was coming. I know it was around that time that ALL the sales went down but Magnus and Rai were two of the old books that seemed to decline the fastest judging from the print runs given on this site. Sometimes going in a completely different direction works, but most of the time it ends in cancelation.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:36 pm

Thanks for the suggestions so far. What about the new VH-1 titles they came up with after Dr. Mirage? I've seem a couple recommendations for Timewalker. Does anybody have any thoughts on any of the other series? Some of them did actually look interesting.

Vault-Keeper · Post by **Vault-Keeper** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:54 pm

as cheap as most of them are, why not pick up a handful, & decide for yourself. We are a mixed bag of nuts here, & you're not likely to get a concensus one way or the other. I liked Valiant Vision. Turok #1 was supposed to be the 1st Chromium/Metalic hybrid. X-O #0 was the 1st wrap-around chromium cover ever in comics.---Steve G

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:42 pm

Todd Luck wrote:Thanks for the suggestions so far. What about the new VH-1 titles they came up with after Dr. Mirage? I've seem a couple recommendations for Timewalker. Does anybody have any thoughts on any of the other series? Some of them did actually look interesting.

Turok is pretty uneven overall, but you can't go wrong with any of the issues by Timothy Truman or Rags Morales.

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:57 am

if you're a fan of the comics medium, and have a sense of humor about it-try punx. it's good for many laughs.

meanwhile in another part of the city...

Ax · Post by Ax » Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:08 pm

Todd Luck wrote: Issues to AVIOD at all costs:

Magnus 25 to the end of the Malev Wars
Not only did the book become nothing but an after thought to Rai (you couldn't even read the series without reading Rai!) but it became boring, with lack luster art.

There are a small handful of good issues within the Malev story arch. Magnus didn't lose my interest until issue 43.

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Post-Unity: What comics to get and what to avoid

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