Valiantfans awards -what was the best ongoing series of 2015

[bygranddesign]

Happy New Year Everyone!

May everyone have a joyous and Valiant 2016!

Looking back now at 2015 - what was your favorite ONGOING Valiant title??

You can pick 2 choices in the poll

Feel free to reply and give your reasoning

List them in the order of favorite to least favorite if you want also

It was another great year for Valiant but I think the best is yet to come!

(Not enough issues of Wrath to qualify)

[leonmallett]

Imperium just pips Ivar, Timewalker to the post for me.


My 2015 ongoing list:
1. Imperium
2. Ivar, Timewalker
3. Rai
4. X-O Manowar
5=Ninjak
5= Bloodshot Reborn
7. Unity

X-O Manowar has been pretty consistent post-Armorines IMHO, and Rai shows Kindt's strengths (especially world-building) without the weaknesses I have seen inherent in Ninjak and especially Unity (the repetitive point of view story structure; naming tricks - Ninja-K, Unit-Y etc.; rushed endings).

Ninjak started well, but the Shadow Seven arc was underwhelming. Bloodshot Reborn has felt like 4 or 5 issues of story stretched over 9 issues, so I struggle to separate them because of those problems I have with both.

IMHO Unity has been a car crash post United, and had a terrible, and terribly indulgent, denouement with #25.

[DirtbagSailor]

Imperium
Ivar, Timewalker
Rai

--------------

Bloodshot: Reborn
Ninjak
X-O Manowar

--------------

Unity

[leonmallett]

...

(Not enough issues of Wrath to qualify)

I would honestly place the 2 issues of Wrath of the Eternal Warrior above the year's worth of Unity...

[BugsySig]

1. Ivar, Timewalker
1a. Imperium
3. Bloodshot: Reborn
4. Ninjak
5. XO Manowar
6. Rai
7. Unity

Ivar and Imperium are far and away the best of the year.

XO has been very good and very consistent this year.

Some are down on BSR, but I've enjoyed every issue.

Rai takes too many damn breaks and never seems to get anywhere until the last issue of each arc.

Ninjak meandered a bit in the second arc, but the first and operation Deadside showed what this book can be.

Unity was *SQUEE* poor since Armor Hunters.

[rkjock1]

Ivar and Imperium and its a coin flip on which is first and which is second.

[rkjock1]

...

(Not enough issues of Wrath to qualify)

I would honestly place the 2 issues of Wrath of the Eternal Warrior above the year's worth of Unity...

I dunno. Personally, I've been pretty underwhelmed by Wrath so far. Venditt did a much better job of execution on his early XO stuff.

[Ramses818]

This was incredibly difficult for me. My first place was Rai. The art is beyond good, and the story has been the same. I can not wait to get this collected into a large oversized edition. Ninjak was my 2nd choice. I have thoroughly enjoyed the converging 3 stories. XO manowar, Imperium, Ivar, are all excellent books! I also liked Unity, though much less, it was still enjoyable. Isn't it nice that we have a problem deciding what the best was and we can all have so many right answers?

[ShadowTuga]

Imperium (drops mic).

[Dallow Spicer1]

Imperium and Ninjak get my vote but the standard has been excellent.

XO (apart from the Armorines issues) has been great along with Rai and Bloodshot Reborn.

Unity was my least favourite and I don't read Ivar.

[agent_graves]

Imperium... Expected

Ninjack... Consistent

Bloodshot Reborn... Solid

Rai... Amazing (I'm behind on Rai, if not for that, this book would easily be, 1 or 2)

Unity... Shameful (The first arc, and the one and done solos, I enjoyed)

X-O... Flagship (I haven't read in awhile, and that's the only reason Unity, ranked better)

Ivar... ? (I've yet to read this book, which I plan to correct soon, but from what I'm hearing, if I had, it'd be ranked much higher)

[grendeljd]

Imperium is my hands down favourite, although Ivar is a very close second.

I think I'd place Ninjak in third, Bloodshot 4th and XO in 5th as another cluster of books that are all nearly too close to call in terms of personal enjoyment. RAI is just below those, and Unity comes last primarily due to a weaker finish on the run - I really liked everything up to the Warmonger arc though.

[Donovan]

Imperium #1
XO Manowar post-Armorines has been phenomenally tense (and well coloured!)

I'd rank Ivar Timewalker in the top 2, but I have absolutely NO idea what's going on in that series. it's my own fault - I need to read it in one sitting. It was just too big of a picture for me to grasp with 22 pages every 30 days.

[jmatt]

Same. Maybe Ninjak above BSR.

Imperium
Ivar, Timewalker
Rai

--------------

Bloodshot: Reborn
Ninjak
X-O Manowar

--------------

Unity

[bygranddesign]

1) Ivar
2) Imperium
3) Rai
4) Bloodshot Reborn
5) Ninjak
6) X-O
7) Unity

Ivar was a brilliant and extremely satisfying 12 issue run - FVL is a true master storyteller

[sonicdan]

1) Imperium
2) Bloodshot Reborn
3) Rai
4) Ninjak
5) Ivar, Timewalker
6) X-O Manowar
7) Unity

[SwiftMann]

X-O and Bloodshot Reborn for me. The most consistent titles month in, month out.

Ivar and Ninjak in the middle of the pack with peaks and valleys.

Rai, Imperium, and Unity all far behind the first five. Dysart and Kindt just don't do it for me.

[jkingman]

man...it's a bummer to see no votes for Unity. I really dug it, probably my 4th or 5th favorite Valiant title. I was bummed to see Faith leave the team so early (issue 14 came out in January)...I get that they were more violent than she expected or whatever...but, Peter killed people, Torque killed that psiot kid that controlled Faith in Las Vegas, and so I don't think it was that outside of her life experience. plus I wanted Faith and GIN-GR to have a funny friendship...I mean, if I was a super hero and had a giant robot that seemed innocent and friendly, I'd try to become friends with it. but anyways...after she left, I liked the history Kindt was creating, and the arc where it focused on them solo after a battle, and then showing the battle in the final issue of the arc, I thought that was cool.
the Warmonger arc...I liked it up until the ending, where the whole thing only makes sense to set up suspense to the comic reader, when Valiant is usually so real world, this arc stood out as a comic story, not like a documentary vibe it has had from the start. but jeez, Kindt writes like 8 books a month so I can forgive a less than stellar ending. having Anchor take her out at the start seems more logical than all the fighting and letting her ramble out her history to the reader. anyways.
all the titles have such solid storytelling, amazing characters, and while Valiant continuity isn't as tight as the original (which seems impossible without a Shooter type masterminding everything, which stifles creativity of writers, so I'll take some minor flaws), it's still above and beyond the other shared universes and always are at the top of my reading pile. after 30 years of being a Marvel and DC fan, I quit buying all their books a few years ago because Valiant gave me stories that had meaning, not just plot lines that get rebooted or ignored by a new writer or endless crossover events with tie-ins into obscure comics and all the other problems...and things have changed so dramatically in the Big Two that I don't even miss them. well, maybe Jason Aaron's Thor. but I get a lot of other independent books and Image books that I really like, but I'm so thankful Valiant is back and that they are continuing to make INCREDIBLE comics!

[Nameless7]

I agree with the last poster. I see a lot of Unity hate that is IMHO very much undeserved. Unity was a great book - I thoroughly enjoyed every arc; some more than others for sure. Additionally I feel like Kndt clearly hit it out of the ballpark with Unity - so much so in fact, his best Unity arcs were taken out of the title and given their own miniseries (The Valiant, and Divinity).

I guess all I am saying is that even though Unity wasn't my all time favorite (That went to Ivar), it clearly was not a bad book at all.

[bygranddesign]

I voted Unity my least favorite ... but that has more to do with the high quality of the other titles than any big slight on Unity.

Unity had some strong moments but I never felt like it got its footing.

Some arc's felt convoluted(Silk arc) or felt like filler issues (AH issues).

And little things / little details bothered me .... like Harada was less powerful than the way he is depicted by Dysart. You better be wearing some Psiot Dampening head gear if you face off with that mutha farker! he'll make your head go Doof! Also why is he wearing a business suit to battle? You notice in imperium, when Harada goes to war he wears a uniform meant for battle. I appreciate little details like that - it gives the action greater substance.

Similar issue with Eternal Warrior -- he goes from gun toting bad *SQUEE* in A&A (and even in the short lived solo series) to a brute with an axe wearing the same outfit he wore thousands years ago.

In both cases it felt too much like a marketing angle -- Harada is the guy in the expensive suit and tie, and Ew is the guy with the cool costume and signature Axe ...and thats how we shall always depict them no matter what the situation!

But there was some really good moments as well .... I actually really enjoyed the Faith / United arc the best. Faith brought some great energy to the title ... and the United were actually a pretty interesting group for Unity to face off against.

And Kind-T did some nice world building -- fleshing out the history of Unit-Y.

There is still a lot of great potential with the team concept -- and look forward to the eventual reboot (just speculating). Hopefully the re-boot will feature MORE characters as part of the team (only 3 full time characters was not enough) ... and they build something great from the already solid foundation.