Pre-Valiant Shooter stuff?

[shaxper]

I know Jim's first stint was on Legion of Superheroes, but what else did he write before Valiant, and how's the quality?

[DawgPhan]

I know Jim's first stint was on Legion of Superheroes, but what else did he write before Valiant, and how's the quality?

I think that he might have had a little hand in Secret Wars...I think that turned out ok.

[Brother J]

I think Shooter wrote quite a few Avengers issues. I personally enjoyed Star Brand while Jim was writing that, but it got trashed by John Byrne after he left Marvel.

[shaxper]

I know Jim's first stint was on Legion of Superheroes, but what else did he write before Valiant, and how's the quality?

I think that he might have had a little hand in Secret Wars...I think that turned out ok.

D'oh. Oh yeah...

[hillmanthe2nd]

He did a lot at marvel - Secret Wars, New Universe titles, and more

[twofour]

He was EIC over at Marvel so he did alot of stuff. The Secret Wars was amazing. Great stuff.

twofour

[Todd Luck]

Here's a run down of the stuff I know for sure Shooter wrote before Valiant:

Spiderman/Superman (the second crossover in the 70's) which has been reprinted a couple times and is in atleast one Marvel/DC trade. I've read it. He seemed to be trying to keep the characters in line with the way they were written at the time so don't expect anything innovative but it's a decent story with some great moments (Hulk v Superman, the Parasite with Spiderman's powers!). I liked it.

Avengers: the Korvac Saga (or something like that) now in tradepaperback. Haven't read it yet but I hear it referred to as the "definitive Avengers" so I'm assuming somebody liked it:).

Secret Wars which is in tradepaperback. I've read a few issues of it and I liked it a lot.

Secret Wars 2 which has no trade that I know of, but the individuals issues are cheap and common. I've read the first few issues and the next to last. It was a neat idea but the first few issues were as boring and dumb as everyone says. However, the penultimate issue shocked me because it was good. Suddenly there's real humanity and suspense in the story and a twist that really made me want that final issue. The issue was so good I'll proabably actually get the rest of the miniseries just for the ending.

Starbrand which has no trade. I'm not sure when he stopped writing it. I don't really have enough issues of it to judge the quality.

From what I know this represents his main body of work at Marvel (he did a few issues here and there on other series but I can't tell you which ones for sure). At DC, I heard he worked on a Superman title of some sort but that's all I know. I think Shooter wrote a story in Valiant's WWF Battlemania #5 and drew one in issue #4.

Can anyone fill in the gaps? Especially curious about the Superman issues...

[shaxper]

I didn't realize Jim actually wrote any of the titles in the New Universe. I thought he'd simply proposed the idea and done some basic plotting and organization. We still have many Star Brand issues available around here in bargain bins. I wonder if I should check them out.


LOVED Secret Wars, incidentally.

Has anyone read the early Legion issues?

[cinlach@aol.com]

i'll tell you guys a book that was a favorite of mine from the new universe run. it wasn't written by shooter but let's see if you notice how close it is to a certain valiant book.

people all over the world start to develop superhuman powers. a "clinic" is set up by a man named voight (spelling correct?) in order to "help" these people use their powers.
at the clinic, a group starts to notice there's something fishy going on and end up stumbling onto a sinister scheme. the man who heads the clinic is revealed to have powers just like another member of this group only he has full knowledge and control over his abilities.
these guys leave and are pursued by the clinic in an attempt to get them back.

sound like something we've all read before? mark gruenwald actually wrote d.p. 7 but i swear if that's not a near harbinger prototype then i don't know what is. jim shooter was the main creative force behind the new universe, there's a lot of things like that in the new universe:
starbrand/solar
d.p. 7/harbinger
spitfire/x-o (ok so they both only involve a suit of armor but work with me here)
nightmask/dr. mirage

but you have to hand it to marvel in the way they handled jim's departure from the company. they had his favorite character (starbrand) destroy his home town (pittsburgh). now that's harsh.

[cjv]

the man who heads the clinic is revealed to have powers just like another member of this group only he has full knowledge and control over his abilities.

Actually, if I recall correctly, his power was to mimic over DP powers but to a greater degree.

all read before? mark gruenwald actually wrote d.p. 7 but i swear if that's not a near harbinger prototype then i don't know what is. jim shooter was the main creative force behind the new universe, there's a lot of things like that in the new universe:
starbrand/solar
d.p. 7/harbinger
spitfire/x-o (ok so they both only involve a suit of armor but work with me here)
nightmask/dr. mirage

actually, I would say Nightmask is more Shadowman.

Who were the other chracters...trying to remembers.

There was the football team, Kickers, Inc.
There was PsiForce (or something like that). Actually, I would say Harbinger are more like a combination of PsiForce and DP7.

There was Justice, Mark Hazzerd:Merc.

I always sort of thought of Spitfire more like the Armorines.

Justice and Mark Hazzard might be similar to Gilad and/or Bloodshot.

[The Spider]

According to comics.org, Shooter worked on the first seven issues of STAR BRAND. Byrne started on #11.

You're welcome to try to read the non-Shooter issues too, but... I hate to say it, but I really, really did not enjoy the Byrne run on Star Brand.