Valiant Comics Universe Relaunch in 2012!

[Jacklefttown]

Tankers,

Even though Magnus: Robotfighter, Solar, Man of the Atom and Turok, Dinosaur Hunter will NOT be returning due to Jim Shooter taking them off to Dark Horse (only for that ploy to FAIL miserably), the Valiant Comics Universe will relaunch next year!

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/48285-valiant-comics-looks-to-return-in-2012.html

Characters include:
Bloodshot
Rai
X-O Manowar
Eternal Warrior
Archer & Armstrong
Harbinger
Shadowman
Timewalker
Armorines

and many more!

[Saboteur]

Wow. I haven't read any of that stuff in 16-17 years. Shame about Magnus: Robot Fighter and Turok, but Bloodshot, Rai and Manowar are some heavy hitters.

[Owner of a Lonely B.A.T.]

I am suprised....I'm not sure any of this will work, but hey why not.

[Dr. Whom]

What about H.A.R.D. Corps?

[vermillion21]

What about H.A.R.D. Corps?

That was the only series I liked from Valiant. The entire line is highly overrated IMO.

[zedhatch]

The line was great the first two or so years, right up until shortly after Unity.

I got a feeling this is going to fall like the relaunch they did towards the end, but I will pick up X-O just to see what they do (I loved that series when it started, Conan meets Iron Man). The rest I will probably ignore, unless SOMEHOW they manage to capture that old magic (which is extreamely doubtfull).

[Jacklefttown]

Well, I have my fingers crossed! Hopefully, it will turn out decent!

[Jacklefttown]

Your First Look at the New Valiant Comics - Comics News at IGN (http://comics.ign.com/articles/121/1214270p1.html)

[Troynos]

I'm interested in this. Some of those books were good.

I'm glad that Magnus, Solar, etc.. aren't involved.

[Jacklefttown]

I actually LOVED the future Valiant titles with Rai and the future Eternal Warrior, but i know they weren't everyones cup of tea.

This new XO Manowar art looks quite bland, however. Nothing like how Bart Sears used to draw him!

[Troynos]

Looks more like the Sean Chen version from when Acclaim took over and relaunched the titles.

[Jacklefttown]

This is the first pic released from the new Valiant and to be honest, now I'M WORRIED.

[Troynos]

Why? It doesn't look bad. It's pretty similiar to the old X-O Manowar.

[ljacone]

My favorite Valiant book was Magnus, Robot Fighter, which just had it's own failed relaunch over a Dark Horse with Jim Shooter. So while this is neat I don't think I will be picking any of it up.

[Troynos]

Shooters relaunchs of the Gold Key books were HORRIBLE.

Magnus, Solar and Turok weren't Valiant properties.

It was a cool idea at the time to take existing properties (I have some old Whitman/Gold Key Magnus/Solar/Turok that were decent) and build a new shared universe around them.

[ljacone]

Magnus, Solar, and Turok sure were Valiant properties. They might have been licensed from Gold Key, but Magnus and definitely Solar were crucial (ha!) to the classic Valiant universe. Turok was a bit on his own, but those other two were very important.

Magnus started off well but crashed and burned.

[Troynos]

Magnus, Solar, and Turok sure were Valiant properties. They might have been licensed from Gold Key, but Magnus and definitely Solar were crucial (ha!) to the classic Valiant universe. Turok was a bit on his own, but those other two were very important.

Magnus started off well but crashed and burned.

Missing the definition of properties. Valiant owned the liscense to use the properties, but didn't own the characters themselves.

I already said that it was a cool idea by Valiant to build their shared universe around licensed properties.

Risky move too. If the owners of the properties had ever taken them from Valiant, then Valiant would have had to do alot of retconning to replace those characters in the continuity.


This actually happened with Image. Image originally was a giant shared universe with all the characters owned by their respective creators. They even shared backstories. Erik Larsen's Superpatriot was originally turned into a cyborg by Marc Silvestri's Cyberdate. Todd McFarlane's Spawn was killed by Rob Liefeld's Chapel. Jim Lee's Warblade and Marc Silvestri's Ripclaw used to be teammates on Silvestri's Cyberdate merc squad.

Years went by and splits happened.

Superpatriot was no longer made by Cyberdata but by a Larsen creation called Covenant Of The Sword.

Spawn was no longer killed by Chapel, but by a McFarlane creation named Priest.

So the Gold Key characters were not Valiant properties, but they were essential to the Valiant universe.

The new Valiant will probably be closer to the Acclaim relaunch then the original line.

[zedhatch]

X-o alreadly looks disappointing I have to say. At least the comic will be free and we can make a jusgement based on what that entails.

Still lightning in a bottle is hard to recapture, I'm just not feeling it this time. I can't help but notice they are saying a great deal of thier "hard work" and "great storytelling" but next to nothing about the characters themselves. With Acclaim's eff-up of the valiant universe this would seem to be a huge point that needs to be made. Some big names were in the acclaim relaunch, which fell flat on it's face (Mostly because the characters barely cosmeticly resembled thier originals).

[ljacone]

Missing the definition of properties. Valiant owned the liscense to use the properties, but didn't own the characters themselves.
I never said they owned them. Even if they were licensed, I still considered them to be Valiant properties during that era. Technically that is not correct, but it's the same way that GI Joe was considered by lots to be a "Marvel property" in the 80s and 90s.

Anyway, the Image thing was a different animal. The Image creators did not license the other characters from each other. They used them with permission and with credit given in the traditional indy comics style with the idea of building a shared universe. That the "Image universe" collapsed was not in any way surprising.

[ljacone]

In any event, I'll probably at least get the FCBD book to give it a look, but I don't forsee picking up much from the new Valiant.

[Troynos]

Still lightning in a bottle is hard to recapture, I'm just not feeling it this time. I can't help but notice they are saying a great deal of thier "hard work" and "great storytelling" but next to nothing about the characters themselves. With Acclaim's eff-up of the valiant universe this would seem to be a huge point that needs to be made. Some big names were in the acclaim relaunch, which fell flat on it's face (Mostly because the characters barely cosmeticly resembled thier originals).

Acclaim tried but yeah, couldn't capture the same effect that Valiant had.

Quantum & Woody was a masterpiece. The rest, not so much.

Valiant collapsed under it's own weight and suffered the same fate that alot of publishers do (Malibu's Ultraverse, Crossgen, Defiant): expanding too much, too fast, too soon.

They forget that the "empires" of Marvel and DC were not built in a day, it took decades.

[zedhatch]

Acclaim tried but yeah, couldn't capture the same effect that Valiant had.

Quantum & Woody was a masterpiece. The rest, not so much.

Valiant collapsed under it's own weight and suffered the same fate that alot of publishers do (Malibu's Ultraverse, Crossgen, Defiant): expanding too much, too fast, too soon.

They forget that the "empires" of Marvel and DC were not built in a day, it took decades.

To be fair Ultraverse was 90% crap (I think they had 2 or 3 good books in the whole line).

Defiant suffered from the fact it lacked direction and originality (everyone was just super strong or a direct rip off of a more popular property ie Dark Dominion=Constantine).

I think Vailant derailed when Shooter was canned (Not that he was a God of comics, but a lot of talented people who built Valiant went with him). After he left some lame ideas hit the stands and it just spiraled into a tailspin. Quality suffered tremendously (compare the end runs to the beginings, HUGE difference in storytelling, art, and overall feel). They did expand too fast but also they expanded with crap. They destroyed Harbinger (really probably thier best title), Rai (which had troubles from the get-go, but it really shot downhill), Eternal Warrior and Archer and Armstrong held on for a while but even they couldn't sustain a good story for long.

But I honestly think while under shooter they had it right. Establish characters, build up slowly (I think they only added a title or two a year after the big launch of thier mainstays) and keep it simple.

[Troynos]

But I honestly think while under shooter they had it right. Establish characters, build up slowly (I think they only added a title or two a year after the big launch of thier mainstays) and keep it simple.

That's the way to do it.

You have to let the titles establish themselves and build an audience.

You can't overwhelm the reader. Ongoing comics survive because the reader is linked to the characters, has a history with them, is tied to the characters, is connected.

Have to let the reader get that connection, not dangle another character in front of them to confuse them.

[Serpymatt]

Always enjoyed Shadowman :)

[zedhatch]

That's the way to do it.

You have to let the titles establish themselves and build an audience.

You can't overwhelm the reader. Ongoing comics survive because the reader is linked to the characters, has a history with them, is tied to the characters, is connected.

Have to let the reader get that connection, not dangle another character in front of them to confuse them.

That and make it worth while, The Secret life of Dr. Mirage had some potential but it was dragged down being a romance title (which stinks when the characters are already married) which disguised itself as a superhero book. Armorines felt like a rip off of Iron Man (with multiple IM's) with a bit of HARD Corps added in (although it did have potential, but it fell flat). I recall Ninjak being the worst first issue I ever read (not sure why though, I can't even remember it now).

But the newer stuff they did try just had nothing to it is my point, no reason to even pick it up.

[Troynos]

Right. Expanded too fast.

Instead of taking the time to establish and really flesh out the titles, like they had to when they first launched, they just started throwing books out there.

[Jacklefttown]

I wish they wouldn't try to flood the market with characters. Start off slow with maybe 2 or 3 titles a month and slowly rebuild the univers. If the start off with q lot titles a month, they are setting themselves up for failure.

I am very excited since the original Valiant Universe books are my favorite books of all time (until Birthquake, anyway) and I was hoping they could recapture the magic... and it's way to early to tell, but seeing that dull blah pic of XO kinda let me down.

And to be fair, Magnus & Rai - the future Valiant universe was good stuff. As if you couldn't tell by my Avatar (it's the Malev Emperor, one of Magnus's main villains for most of the run via the Malev War). And now that Shooter failed with Magnus at Dark Horse, a lot of my enthusiasm drained. I HOPE they don't screw up Rai.

[Jacklefttown]

As a matter of fact, I made a quick comic on my blog a few months ago about Shooter/Magnus & the Valiant Relaunch...

Mythical Microcosms: Valiant Funnies #1 (http://mythicalmicrocosms.blogspot.com/2011/09/valiant-funnies-1.html)

.

[Cobra Terrorist]

Holy crap, does this mean my issues of X-O: Manowar will actually be desirable - and sellable?

I doubt it...


Hmm, what do I have stuffed away in those longboxes? Archer & Armstrong, X-O, Bloodshot #1 (foil cover - WOW!), maybe a couple issues of Harbinger...

[Jacklefttown]

What issues of Harbinger do you have? The early issues are actually worth a little something.

[Beckley]

Right. Expanded too fast.

Instead of taking the time to establish and really flesh out the titles, like they had to when they first launched, they just started throwing books out there.

That pretty much sums up all comic books in the 1990's.