A couple reading order questions

[dtm07]

Hey just got into Valiant books recently (and loving it), and have a couple reading order questions.

Which should I read first, Harbinger: Omegas or Harbinger: Armor Hunters?

Can I read Rai at anytime? Does it have any spoilers for other books or any other Valiant characters?

Should I read anything specific before reading The Valiant or Divinity?

Thanks!

[kjjohanson]

Hey just got into Valiant books recently (and loving it), and have a couple reading order questions.

Which should I read first, Harbinger: Omegas or Harbinger: Armor Hunters?

Can I read Rai at anytime? Does it have any spoilers for other books or any other Valiant characters?

Should I read anything specific before reading The Valiant or Divinity?

Thanks!

Welcome to the boards!

The two Harbinger minis involve completely different sets of characters, so read them in whatever order you want. (They both take place after Harbinger #25 though, so you'll want to get through that series first.)

Rai is mostly standalone. I'd say if you have the first two Unity arcs, you may want to read them before Rai, since Kindt uses some elements of the main continuity in his vision of the Valiant universe of 4001, but it's not completely necessary. The second Eternal Warrior arc also occurs in 4001, but it doesn't really cross over with what we've seen in Rai so far.

Unity pops up in Divinity, so it might help to have read some of that, to get an idea of who those characters are.

I've been thinking about The Valiant a little more, and as someone who had read everything up to that point, it seemed little thin, but that may be because there's a big recap of what has gone on with Bloodshot and with Geomancer up to that point, so maybe you can go in without much background. At some point, though, you may want to check out the second Archer & Armstrong arc, which introduces Kay, and the first VEI Bloodshot series.

[DIrishB]

My timeline thread for the VEI universe may be useful.

While it goes into more specifics than you're probay looking for, if you start around 2012 generally you can see the layout for all arcs for all titles. With a bit of generalization you can easily figure out a general reading order for just specific series like Harbinger, or the entire universe.

[DIrishB]

Here's a general chronology/reading order for the complete VEI universe, and it includes which issues are collected in each TPB volume next to the listings in parentheses (also included the web comics, and the stories not collected in TPB or that won't ever be collected like the Book of Death - Legends of the Geomancer series or Shadowman #13X$:



Eternal Warrior - Days of Steel (EW-Days of Steel #1-3)
Eternal Warrior - Vol. 1: Sword of the Wild (#1-4)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 1: By the Sword (#1-4)
Bloodshot - Vol. 1: Setting the World on Fire (#1-4)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 1: The Michelangelo Code (#1-4)
Harbinger - Vol. 1: Omega Rising (#1-5)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 2: Enter: Ninjak (#5-8)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 2: Wrath of the Eternal Warrior (#5-9)
Bloodshot - Vol. 2: The Rise and the Fall (#5-9)
Harbinger - Vol. 2: Renegades (#6-10)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 3: Planet Death (#9-14)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 3: Far Faraway (#10-13 / #0)
Harbinger Wars - Vol. 1 (#1-4)
Harbinger - Vol. 3: Harbinger Wars (#11-14 / #0)
Bloodshot - Vol. 3: Harbinger Wars (#10-13)
Shadowman - Vol. 1: Birth Rites (#1-4)
Harbinger - Vol. 4: Perfect Day (#15-19)
Bloodshot - Vol. 4: H.A.R.D. Corps (#14-17 / #0)
Shadowman - Vol. 2: Darque Reckoning (#5-9)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 4: Homecoming (#15-18)
Unity - Vol. 1: To Kill a King (#1-4)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 5: At War with Unity (#19-22)
Quantum and Woody! - Vol. 1: The World's Worst Superhero Team (#1-4)
Quantum and Woody! - Vol. 2: In Security (#5-8)
*Quantum and Woody! - Weekly #1-7 (Uncollected, web comic)
Quantum and Woody! - Vol. 3: Crooked Pasts, Present Tense (#9-12, The Goat #0)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 4: Sect Civil War (#14-17)
Shadowman - Vol. 3: Deadside Blues (#10-12 / #0)
*Shadowman #13X (Uncollected)
Shadowman - Vol. 4: Fear, Blood, and Shadows (#13-16)
Harbinger - Vol. 5: Death of a Renegade (#20-25)
Shadowman - End Times (Shadowman - End Times #1-3)
Bloodshot - Vol. 5: Get Some! (#18-19, #22-23 / H.A.R.D. Corps #0)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 5: Mission: Improbable (#18-19, A&A: Archer #0, Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps #20-21)
Unity - Vol. 2: Trapped by Webnet (#5-7)
The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage - Vol. 1 (#1-5)
*The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage #1 - Plus Edition (Not Collected - Bonus Story)
Bloodshot - Vol. 6: The Glitch and Other Tales (#24-25)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 6: American Wasteland (#20-23)
Archer & Armstrong - Vol. 7: The One Percent and Other Tales (#24-25, The One Percent #1)
*Punk Mambo #0 (Not Collected)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 6: Prelude to Armor Hunters (#23-25)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 7: Armor Hunters (#26-29)
Armor Hunters (#1-4, AH-Aftermath #1)
Unity - Vol. 3: Armor Hunters (#8-11)
Armor Hunters - Harbinger (Harbinger - Armor Hunters #1-3)
Armor Hunters - Bloodshot (Bloodshot - Armor Hunters #1-3)
Harbinger - Vol. 6: Omegas (Omegas #1-3, Harbinger - Bleeding Monk #0)
Unity - Vol. 4: The United (#12-14, #0, Harbinger - Faith #0)
The Delinquents - Vol. 1 (#1-4)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 8: Enter: Armorines (#30-32 / #0)
Quantum and Woody! - Vol. 4: Quantum and Woody Must Die! (Valiant-Sized Q&W #1, Q&W Must Die! #1-4)
Unity - Vol. 5: Homefront (#15-18)
Divinity - Vol. 1 (#1-4)
*Tales of the Valiant (Uncollected, web comic)
The Valiant - Vol. 1 (#1-4)
X-O Manowar - Vol. 9: Dead Hand (#33-37)
*X-O Manowar - Valiant 25th Anniversary Special #1 (Uncollected)
Imperium - Vol. 1: Collecting Monsters (#1-4)
Ninjak - Vol. 1: Weaponeer (#1-4)
Ivar, Timewalker - Vol. 1: Making History (#1-4)
Imperium - Vol. 2: Broken Angels (#5-8)
Ivar, Timewalker - Vol. 2: Breaking History (#5-8)
Bloodshot Reborn - Vol. 1: Colorado (Bloodshot Reborn #1-4)
Unity - Vol. 6: The War Monger (#19-22)
Dead Drop - Vol. 1 (#1-4)
*FCBD 2015 - Valiant 25th Anniversary Special (Uncollected)
*Book of Death - Chapter Zero (Uncollected, web comic)
Book of Death - Vol. 1 (#1-4)
*Book of Death - Legends of the Geomancer (#1-4, Uncollected)
*Book of Death - The Fall of Bloodshot/Ninjak/Harbinger/X-O Manowar (Uncollected)
The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage - Second Life (#1-5)
Rai - Vol. 1: Welcome to New Japan (#1-4)
*Rai #1 - Plus Edition (Not Collected - Bonus Story)
Rai - Vol. 2: Battle for New Japan (#5-8)
*Rai #5 - Plus Edition (Not Collected - Bonus Story)
Rai - Vol. 3: The Orphan (#9-12)
Eternal Warrior - Vol. 2: Eternal Emperor (#5-8)

[dtm07]

Wow awesome! Thanks, this was exactly what I needed.

[DIrishB]

Wow awesome! Thanks, this was exactly what I needed.

Happy to help!