Hardcorps vs. Psi-Borgs - why the name change?

danthecomicman · Post by **danthecomicman** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:26 am

It's one of those questions that I've never been able to find an answer.....
can anyone shed some light or direct me to a posting thread with the answer? I sure hope it's not one of those Marvel-has-sued-so-Valiant-must-change-the-title situations.....

Thx!

danthecomicman · Post by **danthecomicman** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:54 pm

Anyone? Any info? Bueler......????

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:58 pm

danthecomicman wrote:Anyone? Any info? Bueler......????

When were they called Psi-Borgs? I don't know anything about that.

danthecomicman · Post by **danthecomicman** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:09 pm

http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/im ... rgsmed.jpg

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:11 pm

I'm guessing they toned it down to "humanize" the characters.

myron · Post by **myron** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:21 pm

maybe some problem with Borg...like star trek next generation...?

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:02 pm

Interesting. Also, it's interesting that they didn't have any problem calling the HARD Corps of the future the Psi-Lords.

And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?

magnusr · Post by **magnusr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:03 pm

Will wrote:Interesting. Also, it's interesting that they didn't have any problem calling the HARD Corps of the future the Psi-Lords.

And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?

That I have the feeling was something legal.

/Magnus

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:05 pm

Will wrote:Interesting.
And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?

I believe it was "infringing" on something lame over at Marvel.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:01 pm

My uninformed guess is they dropped the Psi-Borgs of their own accord. Maybe it was, as depluto said, to make them more human. Maybe it was fear of the Star Trek thing. Or maybe they just changed their mind and didn't like it. (Although personally, I think it's a pretty clever word play: Psi-Borg / Cyborg.)

I think it's been documented that they had to change Starwatchers because of conflict with another title, but I think it was a Mobius character, not Marvel. I could be wrong. Anyway, when they were looking for new ideas, they revisited the original Psi-Borg concept and changed it to Psi-Lords.

That's my conjecture.

X-O HoboJoe · Post by **X-O HoboJoe** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:01 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:
Will wrote:Interesting.
And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?
I believe it was "infringing" on something lame over at Marvel.

That narrows it down . . .

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 9:29 pm

X-O HoboJoe wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:
Will wrote:Interesting.
And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?
I believe it was "infringing" on something lame over at Marvel.
That narrows it down . . .

Naw.. Marvel only did a few lame things didn't they?

Will · Post by **Will** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:57 am

X-O HoboJoe wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:
Will wrote:Interesting.
And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?
I believe it was "infringing" on something lame over at Marvel.
That narrows it down . . .

I was going to post those exact same 4 words, but you beat me to it!

Byrneout · Post by **Byrneout** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:47 am

Daniel Jackson wrote:Naw.. Marvel only did a few lame things didn't they?

...per week...

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:42 am

Byrneout wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:Naw.. Marvel only did a few lame things didn't they?
...per week...

Ha, ha... poor Marvel...no respect.

danthecomicman · Post by **danthecomicman** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:20 am

Daniel Jackson wrote:
Will wrote:Interesting.
And that brings up another question: why the change from Starwatchers?
I believe it was "infringing" on something lame over at Marvel.

The only tihng I can think of was Marvel's 4-issue limited series with Quasar called Starblast.

It had truly bad Herb Trimpe art. I must say (apologies to Trimpe fans out there, if there any.....) that Herb Trimpe should have stuck to his original "classic" art style, instead of trying to mimick Liefeld.

D.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:21 pm

OK I dug around a bit and found this in an old Valiant newsletter......

Valiant has had to change the name of their upcoming book
the Starwatchers. It conflicted with Moebius' character of the same name.
So they changed the name to Psi-Lords. The first two issues of the comic
will be titled Psi-Lords: Return of the Starwatchers and become Psi-Lords
with the 3rd issue.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:27 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:OK I dug around a bit and found this in an old Valiant newsletter......

Valiant has had to change the name of their upcoming book
the Starwatchers. It conflicted with Moebius' character of the same name.
So they changed the name to Psi-Lords. The first two issues of the comic
will be titled Psi-Lords: Return of the Starwatchers and become Psi-Lords
with the 3rd issue.

Hmmm, that sounds vaguely familiar...

Heath wrote: I think it's been documented that they had to change Starwatchers because of conflict with another title, but I think it was a Mobius [sic] character, not Marvel.

dave · Post by **dave** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:46 pm

i remember that-the qualtiy of the book REALLY dropped off when they dropped the starwatchers from the title...

k_c_collectibles · Post by **k_c_collectibles** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:18 pm

dave wrote:i remember that-the qualtiy of the book REALLY dropped off when they dropped the starwatchers from the title...

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:45 pm

k_c_collectibles wrote:
dave wrote:i remember that-the qualtiy of the book REALLY dropped off when they dropped the starwatchers from the title...

Yeah...good one Dave.

dave · Post by **dave** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:49 pm

it was like the whole series lost its direction. what were they doing? before they were watching the stars.

Todd Luck · Post by **Todd Luck** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:58 pm

danthecomicman wrote:It's one of those questions that I've never been able to find an answer.....
can anyone shed some light or direct me to a posting thread with the answer? I sure hope it's not one of those Marvel-has-sued-so-Valiant-must-change-the-title situations.....

Thx!

Calling them Psi-Borgs may have just been toned down as the concept was developed. It's probably the same reason why the early ads say Gilads been fighting for 10,000 years and the comic has him being 5,000 years old and why the early X-O ads had a slightly different armor in it, vastly different spider aliens, etc.

They went in a very para-military direction with the title, so HARDCorps sounds a heck of a lot more appropriate than Psi-Borgs.

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:16 pm

The only tihng I can think of was Marvel's 4-issue limited series with Quasar called Starblast.

It had truly bad Herb Trimpe art. I must say (apologies to Trimpe fans out there, if there any.....) that Herb Trimpe should have stuck to his original "classic" art style, instead of trying to mimick Liefeld.

D.[/quote]

HAHAHAHA.

I remember the Diamond/marvel pre order catologue from way back when and they actually had the balls to say hey retailers check out Herb Trimpes new Liefeld esque style which will be sure to make your customers want to pick this gem up.

sick puppies

oh so sick

mrwoogieman · Post by **mrwoogieman** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:26 pm

depluto wrote:I'm guessing they toned it down to "humanize" the characters.

Everytime you post anything, I pretend it's being said by that crazy dude in your avatar. Man he's got a lot of opinions about valiant stuff...