Book of the Month - April 2014

[Big Red]

Last month, Harbinger: Bleeding Monk #0 beat Unity #5 by 7 votes to win March.


Which book was the best this month?

Feel free to rank this month's books in your post.

You are allowed two votes, so ring in your top 2 books this month. This should help determine which books were best.

[BugsySig]

But two of those haven't been released yet

[mateo107]

But two of those haven't been released yet

Rai has for those in Chicago.

[Ramses818]

And for a couple of us WonderCon!

[Big Red]

But two of those haven't been released yet

Sorry. I jumped the gun.



I get my books from DCBS and forgot that there are 5 Wednesdays this month.

[Shade]

Rai and Shadowman.

This week for the win, basically

[mateo107]

this was such a difficult month to rank. I also picked Rai and Shadowman, but I just can't break down the others after that, they were all a close second, except Eternal Warrior.

[BugsySig]

Not even close.

Rai #1 and Harby #22.

[bygranddesign]

1 and 2 were the clear winners for me - Rai and Harby this month were 2 of the best issues VEI has ever put out.

The rest were all good also .. very tough to rank - no clunkers this month, imo.

1) Rai #1 - One of the best 1st issues i've ever read .. some of the best art i've ever seen in a comic book. Nuff said.

2) Harby #22 - Masterful storytelling by Mr. Dysart. A mesmerizing roller coaster ride that keeps you guessing and guessing and you never want to see end.

3) X-O Manowar #24 - Diego Bernard is a beast. Great introduction to the Armor Hunters.

4) Unity #6 - nicely written and drawn. Complicated but intriguing story.

5) A&A #19 - fun, fun, fun. Pere Perez solid as always .. and I think FVL writes these smartly written, fun stories in his sleep.

6) BS&HC #21 - very good and satisfying ending to the crossover

7) Shadowman: End Times #1 - good story and decent art.

8) Eternal Warrior #8 - solid ending to the 4001 storyline. Its hurt by expectations, lack of long term direction and plot points that were left hanging as it went on hiatus

9) Q&W #9 - kind of a tough luck last place for Q&W. The story was a bit all over the place but overall pretty good. And the art was good. Just didn't stand out among the others this month.

[BugsySig]

1 and 2 were the clear winners for me - Rai and Harby this month were 2 of the best issues VEI has ever put out.

The rest were all good also .. very tough to rank - no clunkers this month, imo.

1) Rai #1 - One of the best 1st issues i've ever read .. some of the best art i've ever seen in a comic book. Nuff said.

2) Harby #22 - Masterful storytelling by Mr. Dysart. A mesmerizing roller coaster ride that keeps you guessing and guessing and you never want to see end.

3) X-O Manowar #24 - Diego Bernard is a beast. Great introduction to the Armor Hunters.

4) Unity #6 - nicely written and drawn. Complicated but intriguing story.

5) A&A #19 - fun, fun, fun. Pere Perez solid as always .. and I think FVL writes these smartly written, fun stories in his sleep.

6) BS&HC #21 - very good and satisfying ending to the crossover

7) Shadowman: End Times #1 - good story and decent art.

8) Eternal Warrior #8 - solid ending to the 4001 storyline. Its hurt by expectations, lack of long term direction and plot points that were left hanging as it went on hiatus

9) Q&W #9 - kind of a tough luck last place for Q&W. The story was a bit all over the place but overall pretty good. And the art was good. Just didn't stand out among the others this month.

I think I would agree with that entire list. Maybe flip XO and Unity, but that's all.

[Keith]

1 and 2 were the clear winners for me - Rai and Harby this month were 2 of the best issues VEI has ever put out.

The rest were all good also .. very tough to rank - no clunkers this month, imo.

1) Rai #1 - One of the best 1st issues i've ever read .. some of the best art i've ever seen in a comic book. Nuff said.

2) Harby #22 - Masterful storytelling by Mr. Dysart. A mesmerizing roller coaster ride that keeps you guessing and guessing and you never want to see end.

3) X-O Manowar #24 - Diego Bernard is a beast. Great introduction to the Armor Hunters.

4) Unity #6 - nicely written and drawn. Complicated but intriguing story.

5) A&A #19 - fun, fun, fun. Pere Perez solid as always .. and I think FVL writes these smartly written, fun stories in his sleep.

6) BS&HC #21 - very good and satisfying ending to the crossover

7) Shadowman: End Times #1 - good story and decent art.

8) Eternal Warrior #8 - solid ending to the 4001 storyline. Its hurt by expectations, lack of long term direction and plot points that were left hanging as it went on hiatus

9) Q&W #9 - kind of a tough luck last place for Q&W. The story was a bit all over the place but overall pretty good. And the art was good. Just didn't stand out among the others this month.

I think I would agree with that entire list. Maybe flip XO and Unity, but that's all.

Agreed, but I'd flip Eternal Warrior and Q&W instead.

[MarkRoseHFX]

here's my april rankings

#1 - Rai #1
#2 - Harbinger #22
#3 - Unity #6
#4 - X-O #24
#5 - A&A #19
#6 - BS & HC #21
#7 - Shadowman End Times #1
#8 - Eternal Warrior #8
#9 - Q&W #9

#'s 1-7 all very good books, EW was ok, not really digging Q&W.

[greg]

here's my april rankings

#1 - Rai #1
#2 - Harbinger #22
#3 - Unity #6
#4 - X-O #24
#5 - A&A #19
#6 - BS & HC #21
#7 - Shadowman End Times #1
#8 - Eternal Warrior #8
#9 - Q&W #9

#'s 1-7 all very good books, EW was ok, not really digging Q&W.

I'm pretty sure that most of us --- here on this website --- agree with this order, or we're very close to the same.

From what I can tell, Valiant knows that WE aren't big fans of Q&W... because Q&W aren't Valiant... in the traditional sense.

Q&W are meant to reach whatever audience is more interested in the absurd, both story and art, and potentially find customers outside of the "Valiant norm".
If some of us enjoy Q&W, that's just a bonus, because it's unlikely we are the target audience.

So far, I've really enjoyed what I've seen about Armor Hunters, but again, they're pushing the comfort zone for the "Valiant norm".
The Armor Hunters look like a combination of 1960s Marvel and 2010s Guardians... with a hint of 1990s Image.
Obviously, there is a market for all three of those types of comics, but traditional Valiant isn't any of those three.

If Armor Hunters is well-received, it means that Valiant has successfully incorporated a much larger set of genres into the Valiant universe.
I'd venture to say that Armor Hunters is already better-received amongst "old Valiant fans" than Q&W.

Valiant has targeted us for two years, almost exclusively, and we've been very happy for the most part --- even making statements like "better than the original" in some cases.

That's awesome. That was Valiant's original plan... to be accepted as "real Valiant" by even the most hardcore of the Valiant fan base.

Going into year three, we should be prepared for Valiant to target those who haven't tried Valiant, those who like something different, those who buy other things.

Without losing what makes Valiant so "Valiant", they're attempting to incorporate more flavor onto the menu.

We "hardcore Valiant fans" are still the targets of the main course, but we should be prepared for some exotic appetizers and desserts in dozens of flavors (variants) to be advertised heavily to get other people in the door.

I started a new topic for the "Year Three" aspects of this discussion:
http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... =1&t=43282" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bygranddesign]

I think I would agree with that entire list. Maybe flip XO and Unity, but that's all.

Yeah I could have went either way with those two

I've been giving Unity so much love ... I just wanted XO to get a little extra lovin' for this month. I've been sort of ho-hum on the title for many months (in 2013) but the last few issues have been top notch leading into Armor Hunters.

[grendeljd]

1 - Harbinger #22.
I love this book so much, it even beat out RAI for me this month!
2 - RAI #1.
Awesome debut. Just awesome. Just a hair below Harbinger in greatness.
3 - Unity #6.
I re-read this a number of times, always a sign of a great issue for me.
4 - XO #24.
On any other month, this issue would have ranked even higher. Love those last 4 pages.
5 - Eternal Warrior #8
Solid ending to this story, just a little less epic than I expected.
6 - Archer & Armstrong #19
7 - Bloodshot & HARDCorps #21
8 - Shadowman: End Times #1
9 - Quantum & Woody #9

[ShadowTuga]

-RAI #1 - This is more than just a great comic, I can not do it justice with my poor english skills.

-HARBINGER #22 - Loved all the Faitorque bits. I came to really warm up to them as a couple. Flamingo was great being the one to see the change in Torque. I that stuff. Seriously, IMHO Harbinger shines best when it's all about these quite moments. I will "hate" JD (IN THE BEST OF WAYS, MIND YOU) when he kills one of these 5 kids. I TRULY dread 23.

-X-O MANOWAR #24 - Because I am already an Armor Hunters fanboy, based on those last pages. I loved this whole issue, for a comic book fight that it was, but the AH bit elevated it to badassery land.

-SHADOWMAN: END TIMES #1 - Very good issue, the art (not RDLT but very good) and the coloring (hellyeah) were great, so as the story. Shadowman vs Shadowman- I like it.

-UNITY #6- Not as fantastic as the previous issues, but still very good. Silk is truly an original type of cliché, if this makes any sense. But this book needed more Ninjak, imho.

-QUANTUM & WOODY #9: Laugh fest. This book is fun again, thank the (editorial) gods.

-ETERNAL WARRIOR #8 - I liked it, but I feel like this arc answered zilch, when it came to the foundations laid in the first one.
Good story, nice tidy ending. But, wtf was all the Houses stuff? The Mitu situation?

-ARCHER & ARMSTRONG/BLOODSHOT & H.A.R.D. CORPS crossover- It was fun, but I prefer these 2 books on their own. Also, the best part of it was in the previous month (Gun Fu!). I was not a fan of the B&HC art, but Pere Perez kills it in A&A. Like with Clayton Henry's style, he's clean and funny as hell.

[bygranddesign]

Great comments.

Loving VEI right now - they are firing on all cylinders.

This is one of the best months ever for valiant - building up some amazing momentum right now.

[ShadowTuga]

I totally agree, this was indeed one of the best months since X-O 1.

[kjjohanson]

Faitorque

No. Just no. Stop it.

[jmatt]

Faitorque

No. Just no. Stop it.

Maybe "Forque"?

[ShadowTuga]

Faitorque

No. Just no. Stop it.

Maybe "Forque"?

[MarkRoseHFX]

Faitorque

No. Just no. Stop it.

Maybe "Forque"?

[lorddunlow]

Faitorque

No. Just no. Stop it.

Maybe "Forque"?

Nailed it!

[Phoenix8008]

Faitorque

No. Just no. Stop it.

Maybe "Forque"?

Nailed it!

Heck yeah he did!

[Dallow Spicer1]

Easily the best month for a good while...here are my rankings!

1 - Harby #22 - emotional story telling from Dysart leading to something big (as we know!)
2 - XO #24 - the best single issue since XO #5 IMO
3 - Rai #1 - great start, only reason I didn't score it higher is that XO and Harby have 'deeper' stories at this point whereas we're only just learning about Rai.
4 - Unity #6 - improvement on issue #5
5 - Shadowman #1 End Times - slightly disappointing issue but I'm hoping it just sets up issues 2 and 3.
6 - Eternal Warrior - ok issue it felt a little 'rushed' to conclude before the hiatus.

Don't read A&A, BS&HC and Q&W.