full magnus run...read completed

[myron]

ok...somewhere, earlier, I had talked about reading a full run of magnus...the first 20 or so are great, ostranders run is ok once you get used to the change in style...folks it is all downhill from there...bedard's introduction of dor..er, Torque and the rapid aging process...baaadddd... and it gets worse. In my opinion Giffen totally destroys the title...it's a good thing issue 64 was the last 'cause it's rock bottom. In just 8? issues Giffen drives magnus insane, kills him, resurrects him, turns Torque into a psi-lord, makes Takashi into a half Rai, turns the almost the entire world population into malevs and has the destroyer obliterate the entire population (plus making 1-a into a human). I think I want to rip open my skull and remove the part of my brain that is keeping that crap in there...

[twofour]

You are right, it was horrible!

twofour

[whetteon]

My question, "Was Griffen given free reign when he wrote these stories?” Remember slipping sales were prevailing in those days these and it’s not above the company to have a writer go way overboard just to get some much needed attention to the titles.

However, in the grand scheme of things and 20/20 hindsight, Magnus's last 8 issues were so painful to read that by issue 64 I was just skimming the contents in order to get it over with

[Brother J]

I just finished Magnus today, and I wasn't as unhappy with it as a lot of you fellas were. It was a little difficult to figure out what the heck was going on at first since they took so long to explain what happened to Magnus that made him go wacky. I also thought the resurrection bit was a bit goofy but I guess it had to be done so he wasn't infected by the Malev nano-virus-thing-a-ma-bob. I did enjoy the last few issues with the Malevs and I thought the last issue did a pretty decent job of wrapping up the storyline, unlike the final issues of Solar and X-O. There were a lot of loose ends left and a lot of potential future stories that went unfulfilled, but I actually did enjoy reading these books, which is more than I can say for the last issues of Solar and X-O.

I also finished reading Turok today, as well. Very good book, my main complaint about later Turok issues was that there was so much bouncing around between the Lost Land and Earth-Valiant. I think this was mainly because of the seemingly alternating creative teams on this book. Turok #0 is an incredibly good book, I really became a Rags Morales fan after reading that one.

I still have to read the rest of Eternal Warrior and Bloodshot and I think I'm going to re-read PunX to try to make a little more sense out of it.

[myron]

I just finished Solar...and while it did get a little goofy in spots, and hard to follow I personally didn't get as cheesed on that one as I did on the Magnus (I still get *SQUEE* about Magnus, and it's been over a month since I finished it). I don't have enough Turok books to do a read yet...so that will have to wait. I have read EW and Bloodshot...those two stood up prett well...Bloodshot better than EW...you should enjoy both of them through their runs.

[DJSpecter]

Maybe we should take a poll in terms of which were the best and the worst of the last issues.

I thought that the Eternal Warrior was least dissappointing, it had a nice firm storyline in the book and had the Calvin and Hobbes "let's go exploring" ending. (The storyline that came before that really shows how well the team doing that book held up: powerful, powerful stuff.)

In terms of the worst, wow, there is just so much to choose from. I thought that the X-O storyline was the first to seriously dive in quality, I think it was the most drawn out, painful end a book that great could possibly have. Some of those last (20) issues fulfilled what Don Perlin jokingly said, "Someone better write a plot, I'm almost finished penciling the book."

-Dave

[Jaknife]

Agreed, and very single friggin cover was the same. XO shooting, or flying, or standing looking mad. nothing new. at least the last magnus covers had him doing something. like, fighting...wow, what a concept. the content of the last issues was bad, on most books. Bloodshot was dissapointing, but thats only because it was the end.

[cinlach@aol.com]

as i get closer to completing my run i'm going back and re-reading all the valiant books and i've already gone thru magnus. here's some thoughts.

the first 20 issues were awesome...i loved the idea of him turning his back on north am and shacking up with someone other then leeja.

i liked the malev war...a lot. i like the tie in with the old gold key continuity and i liked the idea of giving magnus a purpose again. he had lost his way for awhile. he was supposed to be mankind's savior after all.

the torque issues were bad. i mean BAD. keep up with me here...magnus and the rest of the "future force" defeat the malevs with the help of the remaining freewill robots. north am decides magnus is the guy they want for president. as a show of thanks to the brave freewills who risked or sacrificed their lives in order to destroy the malevs magnus orders them all killed...huh? the original rai's son hates the new rai's son because his dad didn't die like a punk...tee hee! freewills are inserting their essences into human bodies and therefore "becoming" human...tekla isn't dead??...and leeja, after doing complete 180 and becoming something other then a simpering cloud cloddie completes her turn with another 180 and end up right back where she was...as a spolied little rich girl...who just happens to be controlled by the malev's along with every other man, woman and child in north am...except for jesus...i mean magnus who is killed and then after 3 days rises from the dead.

ugh.

i want to smack giffen in the head and ask "what the hell were you thinking?!?!".

and don't EVEN get me started on the last issues of X-O...<grumble>.

[myron]

frustrating, isn't it????

[tbrezz]

I dearly love Valiant comics and hate to say this but the last 6-12 months of the comics were wack they were going downhill trying to do stuff to get people interested in them again and driving everyone off. and most of the last issues they either were crappy like magnus and the melevs, X-O (which is my farorite comic) starting over or it left you hanging like Shadowman taking a nosedive and boy that is way more crappy than a crappy ending. I agree Eternal Warrior probaly had one of the better endings in the last year leaving you to know that there could be more good story lines
Long Live Valiant

[myron]

bumpski

[StarBrand]

Just ran across this thread. The top post is a good recap.