Virgin Comics

[ManofTheAtom]

Funny how when fanboys at DC, Marvel, and Dynamite revive 30, 40, and even 50 year old characters, it's okay to respect that continuity.

I have not been following Dynamite, but I imagine that the characters have been "Revamped" to fit the 2000s.

But the old characters that have been revived by DC and Marvel have all been significantly altered from my understanding. Good alterations and bad alterations, I am sure depending who makes that call because it is all subjective to each of us.

Step back and realize, that is what Acclaim did. There is no difference, they were trying to revitalize what was (at the time) a dying universe. Their revival failed.

But very few older characters that are brought back come back unchanged. The major question is...what is the change that is going to make it work?

It used to be that DC brought back old characters in a modernized way, they did it all the time in the Superman comics, but ever since Infinite Crisis they've brought characters back as if they never left.

In Superman, the first issue that featured Atlas contained Jack Kirtby-like artwork. I don't know if it was a reprint or an imitation, but the story, I think, was the same from 40-60 years ago. There was no revamp involved at all, no modernization,

Morrison has been doing the same with Batman, where he brought back Bat-Mite and the Batmen of Many Nations.

VEI has shown no signs of intent to alter the original characters, yet you keep thinking they will.

What makes you believe that?

What is it about the new stories that makes you doubt that the new comics they'll do will be set in the original universe? What makes you think they're going to change anything?

[ManofTheAtom]

Well VEI doesn't own Turok anymore and the Shadowman video game was based off of the Acclaim version, wasn't he?

Yes, but the first Turok game was based on the VALIANT/Gold Key version, not the Acclaim version.

A question that I don't know is answerable but I keep falling back on is, How much of those millions of dollars in sales were inflated due to the speculator bubble that burst?

You would figure those millions of dollars in sales should have been enough to cement Valiant and yet it was not. A very real question that us fanboys are not asking ourselves is....was Valiant just a fad and was its success not completely a product of its own demise?

The video game sold millions of dollars, not the comic. That money probably went to Acclaim Entertainment, not to VALIANT. If it had, then it's doubtful that they would have shut down the revamped comics division after only 21 months.

[Sensationalcomics]

Didn't JMS claim that what he disagreed with was keeping the continuity and trying to fix it by explaining how everything still happened except for the marriage? That he was still for splitting them up but not how it was done?

I know I read before civil war that both JMS & Quesada didn’t like the idea of Peter & MJ being married, and that they wanted to end the marriage. But after the story was out and the bad reception it received JMS came out and said that while he wanted to end the marriage, he was against the way it was done and also bringing Harry back. The Harry thing just made me laugh because when Quesada took over he made a big deal that dead was going to mean “dead” in Marvel, guess he forgot about that one.

[ncameron]

Didn't JMS claim that what he disagreed with was keeping the continuity and trying to fix it by explaining how everything still happened except for the marriage? That he was still for splitting them up but not how it was done?

I know I read before civil war that both JMS & Quesada didn’t like the idea of Peter & MJ being married, and that they wanted to end the marriage. But after the story was out and the bad reception it received JMS came out and said that while he wanted to end the marriage, he was against the way it was done and also bringing Harry back. The Harry thing just made me laugh because when Quesada took over he made a big deal that dead was going to mean “dead” in Marvel, guess he forgot about that one.

See Also:
Colossus
Magneto
Bucky
Danny Ketch

But then again Uncle Ben's still dead and so is Karen Page.

Regardless its comics so N.E.R.D.

-Neil

[ncameron]

A very real question that us fanboys are not asking ourselves is....was Valiant just a fad and was its success not completely a product of its own demise?

You are probably more right than wrong with that question. I would venture that the absolute best of the Valiant stories (pre-unity Shooter), were read by fewer readers than all of the lesser works. The super-overprinted books, Turok #1, Bloodshot #1, Rai #9 while decent enough probably didn't engender much long term fan appeal to those that read it.

That's why my personal belief is that Valiant would be best served restarting the universe a new cherry picking the absolute best parts of Valiant. Though the direct market system often eschews conventional logic as to what will or will not be successful. Starting over prevents any storytelling issues that could arise from the inability to use Solar or Magnus from the previous continuities. Though its really a moot point as whatever storytelling methodology used to either maintain the past continuity or start something new is predicated by quality writing and good art.

-neil