Rebirth or Reboot?

[ManofTheAtom]

What would you be more interested in seeing from the new VALIANT owners?

Green Lantern: Rebirth-type mini series that present the characters background to a new audience, resolve the cliffhangers and then move on to new ongoing series that don't dwell on the resolution to those cliffhangers?

Man of Steel/Year One/Emerald Dawn-style reboots that start the concepts from scratch using aspects and ideas from every issue of the title and introduce them earlier or later than before with more consistancy to them (i.e. Bloodshot's father being introduced earlier, the Psi-Lords making an earlier apperance, etc)?

[Todd Luck]

Hmmm... this seems familar .

It'll be interesting to see if anyone had changed their mind in the last couple months. Of course, different phrasing of the question might effect things too.

[ManofTheAtom]

Both approaches have merit, but it really depends on what people want to see.

Jim Shooter managed to bring back Magnus after nine years in limbo without a reboot and without dwelling too much on his past. He just wrote a new Magnus story set in the old continuity.

Personally I'd be more interested in seeing that happen to VALIANT, but I'd also like to see some resolutions to those cliffhangers.

[tcolli]

Deja Vu?

[Todd Luck]

Both approaches have merit, but it really depends on what people want to see.

Jim Shooter managed to bring back Magnus after nine years in limbo without a reboot and without dwelling too much on his past. He just wrote a new Magnus story set in the old continuity.

Personally I'd be more interested in seeing that happen to VALIANT, but I'd also like to see some resolutions to those cliffhangers.

Everyone always mentioned uses the Magnus example for that arguement but never mentions the fact that he rebooted Solar.

The difference was that one concept worked as it already existed and the other one didn't (at least in his view). Ofcourse, the continuity for both those titles was relatively simple with very few back stories compared to what we're discussing here.

[ManofTheAtom]

Imagine if that had to happen now because the new owners don't have the Gold Key characters.

We get old X-O, old Harbinger, and old Rai with their old continuity (cliffhangers included), but rebooted Solar, Magus, and Turok with new names, new supporting characters, and new settings but similar funtions.

Instead of "Magnus, Robot Fighter" from the 41st Century, we get "Raven, Cyborg Hunter" from the 51st Century.

Instead of "Solar, Man of the Atom", we get "Pyro, the Nuclearman".

And instead of "Turok, Dinosaur Hunter" from the Lost Valley/Land, we get "Atok the Scalphunter" from the Lost Nexus.

[400yrs]

this again? I voted rebirth - as in, another question please.

If the man is involved or people who can handle it correctly, I'd like to see a reboot. Otherwise, start over.

[Todd Luck]

Imagine if that had to happen now because the new owners don't have the Gold Key characters.

We get old X-O, old Harbinger, and old Rai with their old continuity (cliffhangers included), but rebooted Solar, Magus, and Turok with new names, new supporting characters, and new settings but similar funtions.

Instead of "Magnus, Robot Fighter" from the 41st Century, we get "Raven, Cyborg Hunter" from the 51st Century.

Instead of "Solar, Man of the Atom", we get "Pyro, the Nuclearman".

And instead of "Turok, Dinosaur Hunter" from the Lost Valley/Land, we get "Atok the Scalphunter" from the Lost Nexus.

Uck! That would pretty much kill it dead all the way around for me .

Not to mention all the lawsuits you'ld be inviting. The owner's of the Gold Key characters could sue for all the rip off concepts. Marvel might not take kindly to the use of the name "Pyro" and even DC could get in on the action over the title phrase "the Nuclearman" (as in Firestorm!). On the bright side, I don't think Dark Horse could sue .

[shadowmite]

I don't ever want to revisit those last issues or VH2. I say reboot in the vein of early valiant

[tcolli]

[k_c_collectibles]

As I have said time and time again - the only VH2 stuff I REALLY like is Quantum and Woody. the rest of the stuff was OK at BEST. At worst it was terrible!!

Chris

[whetteon]

It was all caused by some green energy that lived inside the xo ring. That's the reason xo series went dumb towards the end. But now that he's dead the green energy has formed with aric as "Solar" and then he got redemmed and raised from the dead and...ummmm okkkkaaayyy.

yeah, I got nothing.

But use the ring dammit!

[whetteon]

dont RUIN IT... I have not read it yet !!!

well if you understood all that then more power to you.

[tbrezz]

Rebirth would be Great

[depluto]

Or Afterbirthquake anyways ...

[DeadshotFan]

IMO and only IMO I cannot see anything but a fresh start working.
I admit I am a "newbie" as everything I have read I read this year, but the GK3 just played too big a role to make anything else warrant doing.
And given the level of talent available today characters like Eternal Warrior, Ninjak, Rai, and the rest would benefit greatly from the freedom of Zero Continuity.
Imagine what a guy like B. Clay Moore would do with Eternal Warrior or Greg Thompson (Hero Camp check it out) could do with those Harbinger kids. Ninjak done by Christos Gage would be a good read. The possibilities are awesome if you give a great writer a fresh page.
And would stand a better chance of kicking Joe Q. in the nuts.
Christos Gage on Ninjak..........I wish I hadn't thought of that one because now want to buy it.
CAN WE JUST GET SOME COMICS PLEASE, I AM DYIN' HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[slym2none]

I voted for rebirth. I stopped collecting right after the "Chaos Effect" almost a decade ago, but I thought the stories right up to that point were pretty well done. I didn't read an of the Acclaim-era stuff, but I still think anyone who has these characters would be crazy not to go back to original Valiant roots. Besides, I have never been a fan of the reboot anyways.



-slym

[myron]

That is right when I stopped reading as well... and feel all the better for it. Months ago when I finished my 'common' run of books, I finally got to read the Birthquake issues. OMG, I was sorely disappointed.

yeah...bad *SQUEE* man...bad sh!t...

[Todd Luck]

I voted for rebirth. I stopped collecting right after the "Chaos Effect" almost a decade ago, but I thought the stories right up to that point were pretty well done. I didn't read an of the Acclaim-era stuff, but I still think anyone who has these characters would be crazy not to go back to original Valiant roots. Besides, I have never been a fan of the reboot anyways.



-slym

The problem is it's hard to agree when these characters strayed from their roots. I think a lot of those titles and characters were very bad long before Chaos Effect. The Malev Wars and future that came after it, Harbinger after they got rid of the original team, Harada after he started spouting out Harbinger supremacist crap and exploring space, and many other things killed Valiant for me before Chaos Effect even came along.

And if you wanted to get the characters at their best and most original states you'ld have to take it all the way back to the original Unity and chunk a lot of the revisionist stuff that was added on to these characters later.

Always seemed like too much to fix with a recton or by just igoring the bad parts. A reboot gives them a second chance to get these characters right without confusing or intidating readers with contradictory backstories.

[DeadshotFan]

I think no matter what people will complain. And that is just the state of comics today.
But if you go with a reboot, use a solid creative team, print with quality and deliver ON TIME, you will please the bulk of the fans and pick up new fans.
Picking up new fans will be the key to a Valiant relaunch.
If you try and sift through all the garbage and carry the established continuity no matter what something will be wrong and a "Fresh Start" will not be available.
If you go from Chaos Effect people will *SQUEE* & moan just as if you went post Unity but Pre Malev or Pre Unity. The biggest reason I know this is because you have to exclude Magnus, Solar, And Turok. So Rai, X-O, Bloodshot, and the rest have to be retconned or face the wrath of iBooks/Classic Media.
Having to exclude amy references to the "Gold Key3" make anything but a complete reboot seem futile.
Honestly I would hope each character could exist encapsulated for a good while without all the plot weaving for developments sake.
I love my Valiant books but you really do not want to "go home again" if you have lost 3 essential family members.
And the last thing I would want is written stories held up to be scrutinized by the courts to see if any infringments exist, and that would be very likely, TOO likely given what has happened already.

[Todd Luck]

I never did like two different timelines for Magnus, Solar is an idiot (ooohhh let me give YOU some of my power, oops I didnt learn so let me give YOU some of my power)... so there ya go.

I may not be remembering correctly, but didn't Phil's reactor (his "wish machine") give Erica powers? I mean it was real subtle and I didn't realize it until I read the first draft of Alpha & Omega on Petrilak's site. It said that she was in the background just having put on a radiation suit when Phil went down to the reactor. If I recall correctly when I went back and looked at those panels, there she was hidden deep in the background. She was there just like she like her VH-1 counterpart and, like her other self, she supressed her powers. Phil just triggered her powers when he showed her the "secret of the universe" and she lost it. Remember in EW #2 Geoff said she was got her powers in the same accident Solar got his in?

I'm going off memory here, so if there's no one in a radiation suit in the background in those A & O panels, ignore what I just wrote .

And Bender.. well, I never understood how grabbing Solar's outfit gave him powers and how Solar took them away. Probably a sad by-product of other writers who didn't know the science finishing Shooter's incomplete plot.

[X-O HoboJoe]

And Bender.. well, I never understood how grabbing Solar's outfit gave him powers and how Solar took them away. Probably a sad by-product of other writers who didn't know the science finishing Shooter's incomplete plot.

What's that damn robot got to do with MOTA?

[Todd Luck]

Todd, you are probably correct... but you have to admit, Phil was a goof.

Can't think of anyone who didn't become one at some point after Shooter left...

[Daniel Jackson]

Todd, you are probably correct... but you have to admit, Phil was a goof.

Can't think of anyone who didn't become one at some point after Shooter left...

Hmm... good point.