Speculation on which titles are continuing and how

[Phoenix8008]

So, I wanted to do some detective work to try and figure out how VEI is planning on keeping the number of titles capped at 10 through the Valiant First push and beyond. So I'm laying out what we know and then we can speculate from there. (Titles that are BOLDED are confirmed via solicits or Armor Hunters issue list)

May
1. Archer & Armstrong #20 (new arc)
2. Bloodshot & HARD Corps #22 (new arc)
3. Harbinger #23
4. Quantum & Woody #10
5. Rai #1
6. Shadowman: End Times #2 (of 3)
7. Unity #7 (part 3 of 3)
8. X-O Manowar #25

June
1. Archer & Armstrong #21 (part 2 of ?)
2. Armor Hunters (1 of 4)
3. Bloodshot & HARD Corps #23 (part 2 of ?)
4. Harbinger #24
5. Rai #2
6. Quantum & Woody #11 (part 1 of 2?)
7. Shadowman: End Times #3 (of 3)
8. Unity #8
9. X-O Manowar #26

This is all we know for sure as of posting this thread. Although July solicits should be out soon. Below this is speculation.

July *All of the following confirmed per July solicits on Newsarama*
1. Archer & Armstrong #22 (part 3 of 4?)
2. Armor Hunters #2 (of 4)
3. Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #1 (of 3)
4. Armor Hunters: Harbinger #1 (of 3)
5. Harbinger #25 (CONFIRMED PER LATER SOLICIT ON BLEEDING COOL)
6. Quantum & Woody #12
7. Rai #3
8. Unity #9 (part 2 of 4)
9. X-O Manowar #27 (part 2 of 4)
*Removed the guessed at Shadowman #17 since it wasn't in the July solicits

August (All confirmed from VEI's website May 14th post in News section)
1. Archer & Armstrong #23 (part 4 of 4?)
2. Armor Hunters #3 (of 4)
3. Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #2 (of 3)
4. Armor Hunters: Harbinger #2 (of 3)
5. Harbinger: Omegas #1 (of 3)
6. Rai #4
7. The Delinquents #1 (of 4)
8. Unity #10 (part 3 of 4)
9. X-O Manowar #28 (part 3 of 4)

September (All confirmed via Newsarama Solicitions article on 17 June, 2014)
1. Archer & Armstrong #24 (assumed, since #25 confirmed for October by Multiversity Comics article)
2. Armor Hunters #4 (of 4)
3. Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #3 (of 3)
4. Armor Hunters: Harbinger #3 (of 3)
5. Harbinger:Omegas #2 (of 3) (assumed at this point after confirming #1 last month)
6. The Death Defying Doctor Mirage #1 (of 5 mini) (Confirmed a 5 issue mini on 21 April from Wondercon)
7. The Delinquints #2 (of 4)
8. Unity #11 (part 4 of 4)
9. X-O Manowar #29 (part 4 of 4)
* Rai #5 On hiatus till December to keep Crain doing his fantastic art. (confirmed in Kjjohanson's Special Edition report thread)

October -*All confirmed by Newsarama October Solicitations on July 16th
1. Archer & Armstrong #25 (confirmed in June 15th Multiversity Comics article)
2. Bloodshot #24 (confirmed in Kjjohanson's Special Edition report thread)
3. Harbinger:Omegas #3 (of 3)
4. The Death Defying Doctor Mirage #2 (of 5 mini)
5. The Delinquints #3 (of 4)
6. Unity #0
7. X-O Manowar #0
8. Armor Hunters: Aftermath #1
9. Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody (part 1 of 5) (confirmed in Newsarama Jun 15th article)

Also-
VH1- 1. Quantum & Woody Omnibus
TPB- Rai, Volume 1
Deluxe Edition Hardcover- Shadowman (collecting #0-10)
One Dollar Debuts returns! $1 for #1 issues of X-O, Harbinger, A&A, Q&W, Rai, Unity, and the Valiant Universe Handbook!

November - Lots of guessing here and lots of open spaces to fill!
1. Bloodshot #25??
2. The Death Defying Doctor Mirage #3 (of 5 mini, assumed)
3. The Delinquints #4 (of 4, assumed)
4. Unity #12 (part 1 of new arc, assumed)
5. X-O Manowar #30 (part 1 of new arc, assumed)
6. Archer & Armstrong: The One Percent (confirmed via CBR story on 23 July)
7.
8.
9.

December
1. Rai #5 (confirmed via VEI)
2. The Valiant #1 (of 4) (confirmed via CBR article)
3. The Death Defying Doctor Mirage #4 (of 5 mini, assumed)
4. Unity #13 (part 2 of arc, assumed)
5. X-O Manowar #31 (part 2 of arc, assumed)
6. Bloodshot #26??
7.
8.
9.


** Edited on 18 May 2014 after confirming August books: Since VEI has stated they aren't going to do more than 9 titles per month for now, I removed the Eternal Warrior #9 and Shadowman Prospective entries from September. With the 3 Armor Hunters mini series ending in September, that will leave 3 slots to be filled in for October. One of those three slots should be a new #1 of something we haven't heard about yet (as of 18 May 2014 at least). That leaves 2 other openings to be filled. Maybe Eternal Warrior returning, or Shadowman, or both?

** Edited on 13 July, 2014: Added November & December spaces. Added Q&W Omnibus, Armor Hunters: Aftermath, and Cary Nord secret project to October, and The Valiant, and Rai #5 to December.

With throwing EW back in during September, that would violate the rule of 10 titles. Of course maybe they don't bring Shadowman back right away after the End Times mini, but I'm guessing they do. And unless they want to really *SQUEE* off alot of people, they shouldn't stop Harbinger. Especially since stopping it at the point where the AH:Harbinger three parter begins mean waiting awhile to get the big #25 issue arc finale. So I think they'll do #25 at the very least in July alongside the mini #1. If it goes into hiatus after that or not, we'll see. But if they didn't have EW and Shadowman, and Harbinger, then there would only be like 8 titles on many of those months.

What do you think is more likely?

[lorddunlow]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

[bygranddesign]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

[bygranddesign]

This is all we know for sure as of posting this thread. Although July solicits should be out soon. Below this is speculation.

Cool, thanks for posting this ... it will be interesting to see the July solicits it might answer a lot of these question marks.

In regards to Harbinger - the death of a renegade arc ends in issue #24 so there will be resolution to that arc before jumping into Armor Hunters so I do think they can delay issue #25 until after the mini is over. They can also take their time in making it an event like XO #25.

[Phoenix8008]

This is all we know for sure as of posting this thread. Although July solicits should be out soon. Below this is speculation.

Cool, thanks for posting this ... it will be interesting to see the July solicits it might answer a lot of these question marks.

In regards to Harbinger - the death of a renegade arc ends in issue #24 so there will be resolution to that arc before jumping into Armor Hunters so I do think they can delay issue #25 until after the mini is over. They can also take their time in making it an event like XO #25.

THAT I did not know. That makes it alot easier to accept that they would put issue #25 on hold till after Armor Hunters.

[Phoenix8008]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

I'm also interested in hearing alternate theories. Looking forward to your thread dunlow.

[bamaphilosopher]

That is interesting that they've said they're going to try to keep it at 9 titles, in the interview someone else posted. I assume they'll put some things on hiatus while they introduce other books?

In any case, I think it's a good plan to stay at a certain amount of titles that are readable to someone who wants to collect all the issues. One of the things that the original VH1 did that was a mistake, I think, is they tried to pump out a whole bunch of new titles following Unity, and got too big too quickly for a manageable universe. The quality of the whole suffered, too.

It sounds like this company, VEI, cares about its stories and its readers. That's great to see!

[kjjohanson]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

No, that's not Flamingo, because she's the Renegade that dies.

[bamaphilosopher]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

No, that's not Flamingo, because she's the Renegade that dies.

Are you sure about this, do you have info? Or is that just your guess? I'm curious because I think the chances are high it's Flamingo, but the chances are even higher that it's Kris (IMO). I think it's one of those two. Just wondering if you knew for sure or were just guessing.

[lorddunlow]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

No, that's not Flamingo, because she's the Renegade that dies.

I think you mean Flamingo is the one who kills Faith.

[AnthonyF]

I never read the solicits, so this thread is very helpful!



Also, I don't trust any of the preview covers. The Hardcorps previews showed characters that didnt' appear in the book.
cover != story

[kjjohanson]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

No, that's not Flamingo, because she's the Renegade that dies.

I think you mean Flamingo is the one who kills Faith.

I'm pretty sure that I don't.

[kjjohanson]

I never read the solicits, so this thread is very helpful!



Also, I don't trust any of the preview covers. The Hardcorps previews showed characters that didnt' appear in the book.
cover != story

I think it's interesting that Armor Hunters: Harbinger wasn't one of the chromium covers sent to Bleeding Cool. Although I think that and Bloodshto are shipping a month later, so that could be the reason.

[kjjohanson]

As far as Harbinger #25 goes, I'm pretty sure they said in an interview that the Armor Hunters: Harbinger book is taking the regular book's place, so I'd count out Harbinger #25 until after Armor Hunters.

I've had a thought I can't shake about all of this, but I think I'll leave this thread pure and start a separate for my theory.

I'll be interested in hearing your theory .. as I also have a theory that I think might explain the absence of Pete, Kris and Flamingo(i don't think that's her) on the Harbinger: Armor Hunters cover.

No, that's not Flamingo, because she's the Renegade that dies.

Are you sure about this, do you have info? Or is that just your guess? I'm curious because I think the chances are high it's Flamingo, but the chances are even higher that it's Kris (IMO). I think it's one of those two. Just wondering if you knew for sure or were just guessing.

See the "Wanna Bet?" thread in the Registered Members section.

[Phoenix8008]

I never read the solicits, so this thread is very helpful!



Also, I don't trust any of the preview covers. The Hardcorps previews showed characters that didnt' appear in the book.
cover != story

I think it's interesting that Armor Hunters: Harbinger wasn't one of the chromium covers sent to Bleeding Cool. Although I think that and Bloodshto are shipping a month later, so that could be the reason.

That could be the reason as well, yep. I actually like that not all 5 of the chromium covers were shipping in the same month. Especially since they are $6 each and DCBS isn't discounting them at all! So I can better afford 3 of them in June and 2 of them in July.

[Phoenix8008]

Updated the first post now with Harbinger #25 confirmed in July and Harbinger: Omegas in August as a second #1 that month.

***Edit: Also updated to show the Dr. Mirage series starting in September is a 5 issue mini instead of an ongoing.

[Phoenix8008]

Updated to show what is confirmed for July now in the solicits on Newsarama. Removed the guessed at Shadowman#17.

[jaden_sai]

July Solicitations list - Quantum & Woody #12

[BugsySig]

Now that the July Solicits are out we have 3 distinct families of books developing over the summer: Armor Hunters titles (5), Comedy titles (2) and 4001 titles (1)...not including the end of Harbinger with #25.

After the Summer I'd like to see:

Continuing Series (8-9/month)
Flagship titles: XO, Unity, Harbinger (Gen Zero or whatever), Shadowman and/or Bloodshot (in some form)
4001 titles: EW and Rai
Comedy titles: A&A, Q&W

Rotating Mini-Series (1-2/month)
Dr. Mirage
HARD Corps
Timewalker
Ninjak
Armorines
PsiLords
Darque Passages
Q2

That would make me a pretty happy (and not-quite broke) reader

[Phoenix8008]

July Solicitations list - Quantum & Woody #12

Thanks for pointing out that miss. There was a number spot there missing, so maybe I did have that there before and accidentally deleted it. Not sure.

[Aram]

I thought everyone already knew that they are cancelling all ongoing titles in September except X-O and Unity, and switching to mini's.

[bamaphilosopher]

Interesting about the rotating titles theory. I saw where Dr. Mirage will be a 5-issue miniseries. If they then rotate Timewalker in later...that would be cool. That way, they're keeping it affordable at around 10 titles or so, but keeping things fresh.

I don't know if I like the Harbinger: Gen Zero, but only because it makes me wary of how, in VH1, they stopped with the renegades after issue 25 and introduced just a whole new team. I didn't like that.

However, VEI has, in general, been handling things better than VH1, so hopefully this will not read like that VH1 debacle did (IMO).

[icefan13]

There will be anthologies I believe not just limited series. Dino said in the Comic Vine interview that the second phase of Valiant First will have some new price points.

[kjjohanson]

There will be anthologies I believe not just limited series. Dino said in the Comic Vine interview that the second phase of Valiant First will have some new price points.

I'd love to see an 80-page monthly with the Anni-Paddas. Three separate stories, but every so often 2 or 3 could connect.

Do the same for Shadowman, Doctor Mirage (maybe 48 pages).

[BugsySig]

There will be anthologies I believe not just limited series. Dino said in the Comic Vine interview that the second phase of Valiant First will have some new price points.

I'd love to see an 80-page monthly with the Anni-Paddas. Three separate stories, but every so often 2 or 3 could connect.

Do the same for Shadowman, Doctor Mirage (maybe 48 pages).

Not a horrible idea, but I just don't know how well anthologies do in the market. Most don't seem to last very long, even long established ones like MCP and DHP have come and gone (Though DHP has made a comeback recently).

I like the Immortal Brothers Anthology idea, though. Maybe a Darque Passages one with the Darque's, Shadowman and Dr. Mirage would work well...could introduce some others like Trinity Angels, etc., too.