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It sucks to hear valiant is bad now, but nothing can survive the squeeze
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Apr 21, 2021 16:30
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Rhyno posted:Pretty nuts. Dinesh started a new company but I don't know if anything is out yet. If his first comic brings a lawsuit from Marvel over the title kind of resembling a grade-Z character's name, then we'll know history is repeating.
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Apr 21, 2021 16:31
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Random Stranger posted:If his first comic brings a lawsuit from Marvel over the title kind of resembling a grade-Z character's name, then we'll know history is repeating. Which character was that originally?
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Apr 21, 2021 16:43
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Madkal posted:Which character was that originally? Valiant had a book called Plasm, which Marvel claimed was an infringement on a '90s Marvel UK character called Plasmer.
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Apr 21, 2021 16:48
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Madkal posted:Which character was that originally? Warriors of Plasm, the first comic from Jim Shooter's DEFIANT comics. Marvel sued because the name Plasm was too similar to a Marvel UK book, Plasmer X-O posted:To be fair Dinesh started to fall into the same trap as the previous owners of Valiant did by doing a bunch of really dumb gimmicks. After the poo poo they pulled with the Legend of the Geomancer mini I was hopeful it was a one time thing. That one still bugs me to this day though. To be fair, this is the retailers fault. They jumped on the Valiant gimmick bandwagon 100% which is what encouraged them to do more.
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Apr 21, 2021 16:49
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if I remember right Plasmer hadn't even been published yet, Shooter claims he had a cartoon and toy deal lined up, and Marvel's lawsuit was enough of a delaying tactic to scuttle those. real dick move, very petty.
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Apr 21, 2021 16:53
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Rhyno posted:To be fair, this is the retailers fault. They jumped on the Valiant gimmick bandwagon 100% which is what encouraged them to do more. Those who do not learn are doomed to repeat. Lots of blame to go around. As for Valiant, it's had better times for sure. But it's not all a loss right now. In fact they've been doing a lot better in the last year. Dennis Hopeless is on the X-O Manowar series. It's early yet but it's a perfectly good book right now. X-O has been consistently a strong title no matter the shakeups. Dan Abnett has found a groove with Rai that is pretty solid. Savage is good. Doctor Tomorrow was weird but fun. Things are looking alright all things considered.
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Apr 21, 2021 17:00
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Rhyno posted:I don't have any insider info, just what my friend has passed along but some of it is public. Oh, I didn't mean to imply I didn't believe you, it was just reflecting that Valiant looked poised to be a Big Deal but that didn't happen. (History repeating itself.) If they're making comics people like I'm happy. I liked what I read of Harbingers, I think.
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Apr 21, 2021 17:03
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Really brief Valiant Comics timeline: 1988-9: Jim Shooter and some other comics people tried to buy Marvel Comics when it was up for sale (and eventually purchased by Ron Perelman). The big investor backing the move was Steven Massarsky, who was an entertainment lawyer/manager. 1989: Unable to buy Marvel, Shooter/Massarsky launched Voyager/Valiant Comics, initially just publishing licensed Marvel and WWF comics (two of Massarsky's clients) before getting the rights to the Gold Key characters and launching a superhero line that was a mix of Gold Key characters (Magnus, Solar, Turok) and new characters (X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Shadowman, etc. 1992: Valiant Comics were a hit for various reasons, Shooter/et al wanted to do a slow sustainable build of the line, Massarsky wanted more chromium covers, crossovers, and celebrity appearances like Shadowman fighting his clients Aerosmith. Massarsky won and Shooter was fired. 1993: Jim Shooter (and various creators who left with him) launched Defiant Comics, whose flagship title was going to be PLASM. This was launched with a trading card line, as was the custom of the time. Before any comics were published, Marvel sued them because they'd announced (and filed for a trademark in the UK prior to Defiant doing so) a Marvel UK mini-series with the titular character being PLASMER. This was a frivolous lawsuit that Marvel lost, but it still kneecapped Defiant. 1994: Massarsky sells Valiant to Acclaim so that they can make X-0 Manowar and Turok video games. Defiant Comics folds. 1995: Valiant shakes things up and hires 'big names' (Dan Jurgens! Ron Marz!) to spearhead a BIRTHQUAKE rebranding. They also spend a lot of money to get the rights to publish licensed comics based on Magic the Gathering, Baywatch, Killer Instinct, and Sliders. Jim Shooter launches Broadway Comics which doesn't even last as long as Defiant before funding gets pulled. 1996: The entire Valiant line folds, leaving Valiant with a couple of creator-owned books and the aforementioned licensed books. October 1996: Valiant v2.0 launches, run by Fabian Nicieza. It is mostly (only?) remembered for introducing Quantum & Woody, and folds in mid-1998, though a few books trickle out for the next couple of years, mostly a failed relaunch of Q&W and some video game tie-in books for Shadowman and Turok. 1999: Acclaim hires Jim Shooter and Jim Starlin to do UNITY 2000, a return to the original Valiant universe with an eye to relaunching the whole line. Unity 2000 gets three of its six announced issues out over the course of nine months. 2004: Acclaim files for bankruptcy. Gold Key characters revert to their original owners, who eventually get purchased by Dreamworks. I feel like they've licensed these out in an attempt to relaunch them at least four times in the past 15 years. 2005: Another group (led by the aforementioned Dinesh Shamdasani) buy out the rights to all of the Valiant stuff (minus the Gold Key characters), and launch the current Valiant Comics. 2018: DMG Entertainment buys out Valiant and Dinesh leaves. I'm hazier on the details of the current version of Valiant, but the new owners were the ones who justified their purchased in the context of "we're going to be the next Marvel Cinematic Universe", and really put all of their chips on that. So it really is history repeating itself in a way, as Shooter/Dinesh both wanted to build a sustainable model where they were happy to be a solid 3rd/4th company and an alternative to Marvel/DC, and the money people went NO WE WANT TO BE MARVEL. Dinesh's new company is Bad Idea, which was supposed to launch last spring and then launched last month. Part of the gimmick/the 'bad idea' is that they're selling their comics directly to retailers and not through distributors, they're not doing same-day digital comics, they're not doing variant covers, etc. This may be why people are not talking about them much, and doing this in the midst of a pandemic where people probably are not getting hand-sold nearly as many comics as in 2019 was a particularly bad idea. Edge & Christian fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Apr 21, 2021 |
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Apr 21, 2021 17:06
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There was also a second group competing to acquire the Valiant rights at the time Dinesh was making his push. I'm trying to find details but coming up with very little. Shortly before the buyout Dinesh was hinting that talks to purchase the Gold Key characters were in motion, something Valiant fans had been wanting since the rebirth. The reborn Valiant had a lot of excellent books. X-O, Archer & Armstrong and Ninjak were all excellent. When they announced the Quantum and Woody relaunch I was not pleased as it was one of my favorite books of all time but to my surprise and joy, the new Q&W was amazing, a worthy successor to the original. I'm quite a bit behind since leaving comic retail, the only time i really dip into Valiant is when they release a new OSHC and those have slowed to a glacial pace.
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Apr 21, 2021 17:15
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Birthquake
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Apr 21, 2021 18:04
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Alaois posted:Birthquake Nobody wants to talk about that.
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Apr 21, 2021 18:07
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Alaois posted:Birthquake A name so stupid it becomes smart, but so smart it becomes stupid.
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Apr 21, 2021 20:58
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Yeah I enjoyed Archer & Armstrong, Quantum & Woody, Eternal Warrior, and have a bunch of trades sitting in my Comixology account waiting to be read
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Apr 22, 2021 04:01
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Alaois posted:Birthquake  The deflation of Valiant Comics has been such a sad thing to witness. The new X-O Manowar and Rai series are pretty good, but not as good as the ones under Dinesh were. And now that the licenses are owned by a company that most likely won't fold for years, I don't think we'll see a third rebirth any time soon. 
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Apr 22, 2021 04:19
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I remember seeing comments from Valiant about their movies and feeling second hand embarrassment; they have good characters and good comics, but you can just force your way into becoming a competitor to the MCU. Sad to see that they are struggling now. I've been on a GI Joe kick lately and wanted to read something of that franchise. I know Paul Allor wrote a 10 issue series last year, but what else is going on with GI Joe now?
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Apr 22, 2021 05:31
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Dinesh hates the Bloodshot film.
Rhyno fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 05:47
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It's not a good film.
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Apr 22, 2021 05:59
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radlum posted:I've been on a GI Joe kick lately and wanted to read something of that franchise. I know Paul Allor wrote a 10 issue series last year, but what else is going on with GI Joe now? I'm a huge, lifelong G.I. Joe fan. I've read almost every issue Larry Hama ever wrote -- both his original Marvel series that ran from 1982 to 1994, and then the IDW series that continued where it left off, which started over a decade ago. Skip it, at least for now. Get a book called Cobra: The Last Laugh, by co-writers Christos Gage and Mike Costa and artist Antonio Fuso. It's the best G.I. Joe story in any medium, ever. I read it on Hoopla several years ago, bought the hardcover for my best friend for Christmas two years ago, and finally got an affordable copy for myself a few weeks ago, after wanting my own ever since. The hardcover has a $50 cover price, but IDW keeps postponing the release date of a $30 TPB edition, which may finally come out this summer. I can't recommend it highly enough. Cobra: The Last Laugh is a different continuity than the Hama comics, which are also different from the '80s cartoon. The world Gage and Costa have created is much darker, and somehow they present G.I. Joe and Cobra as semi-realistic organizations -- at least less of the '80-style cartoonish villainy and over-the-top jingoism. This is like an Ultimate universe version of G.I. Joe and Cobra, or maybe even more like a Vertigo-inspired take on it. It's definitely a comic for mature readers, but not in a "grimdark" way, like something from Mark Millar or Garth Ennis giving into their worst impulses. The thing it reminds me of most is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Sleeper (my favorite of all of their collaborations), and I make the comparison as a high compliment. If you haven't read any G.I. Joe before, it is the absolute coolest. The only problem is that everything else you read afterwards will disappoint, although I believe Costa continued writing more stories in the Last Laugh continuity, and I am planning to pick up those TPBs pretty soon. EDIT: I should go back and say that a lot of Hama's G.I. Joe comics for Marvel are great, but the first couple of years were kind of formulaic and boring. #21 is a famous and highly influential issue for good reason, #26-27 detail the origins of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, and the comic continues on a pretty solid run, with good material greatly outnumbering the mediocre/boring/bad, up until about #115. Big Bad Voodoo Lou fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 06:12
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:I'm a huge, lifelong G.I. Joe fan. I've read almost every issue Larry Hama ever wrote -- both his original Marvel series that ran from 1982 to 1994, and then the IDW series that continued where it left off, which started over a decade ago. Cool!! I love myself a good reimagining
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Apr 22, 2021 06:14
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Rhyno posted:Dinesh hates the Bloodshot film. Good.
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Apr 22, 2021 06:16
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radlum posted:I remember seeing comments from Valiant about their movies and feeling second hand embarrassment; they have good characters and good comics, but you can just force your way into becoming a competitor to the MCU. Sad to see that they are struggling now. It's well worth it to pick up Allor's series. It's really good (also being a reimagining where GI Joe is a resistance organization and Cobra has basically taken over the US) and features an issue about PTSD that's amazing.
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Apr 22, 2021 13:26
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I was reading Avengers Annual #10 and came across this Are there any other good examples of background people having the same name as/soon to be major characters? EDIT: Better image. bessantj fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 20:47
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bessantj posted:I was reading Avengers Annual #10 and came across this Annual 10 is the Claremont fixing Avengers 200 issue, isn't it?
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Apr 22, 2021 20:52
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I assume this was Claremont just recycling the same name? Or knowing him, the kid was supposed to be Maddy's reincarnation after her soul would be sent back in time in the storyline he had planned for 1987 (but abandoned like 50% of his ideas) and this was foreshadowing.
Gaz-L fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 20:53
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Gaz-L posted:I assume this was Claremont just recycling the same name? Yeah, he probably either forgot he'd already used it or liked it enough he decided to use it again.
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Apr 22, 2021 20:55
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Skwirl posted:Annual 10 is the Claremont fixing Avengers 200 issue, isn't it? Yes and I'm very glad I'm reading it. I read Avengers #200 not too long ago and it left a bad taste in the mouth. Also good introduction of Rogue. Getting Danvers powers and smacking Captain America around before giving him a kiss to steal his abilities.
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Apr 22, 2021 21:10
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Maddy Pryor is an English folk singer, Claremont stuck a lot of names like that in his stuff and probably lost track of which ones he'd already used
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Apr 22, 2021 21:15
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Yeah. One time I asked him if Robert Kelly the X-Men character was named after Robert Kelly the poet who was at Bard around the same time as Claremont and he was like I have no idea.
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Apr 22, 2021 22:03
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:I'm a huge, lifelong G.I. Joe fan. I've read almost every issue Larry Hama ever wrote -- both his original Marvel series that ran from 1982 to 1994, and then the IDW series that continued where it left off, which started over a decade ago. I had forgotten that I got Last Laugh in a humble bundle years ago; I'll check it now. Thanks!
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Apr 23, 2021 02:15
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There was a pre-Jubilation Lee Jubilee last time I went through Claremont I'm pretty sure.
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Apr 23, 2021 05:29
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Rochallor posted:There was a pre-Jubilation Lee Jubilee last time I went through Claremont I'm pretty sure. There was, but she debuted in Ann Nocenti's Longshot miniseries instead of one of the Claremont books  she was one of the Bratpack/Fatboys e: ah! but she was only referred to as Jubilee in a New Mutants Annual written by Chris Claremont! Alaois fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 05:42
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Alaois posted:There was, but she was in Ann Nocenti's Longshot miniseries instead of one of the Claremont books Was that good or just weird? I kinda like Nocenti's work and like Longshot as a concept
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Apr 23, 2021 05:43
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Skwirl posted:Was that good or just weird? I kinda like Nocenti's work and like Longshot as a concept I liked the original Longshot mini better than any other use of him I've seen since. But yes, it is weird, quirky, and very Nocenti.
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Apr 23, 2021 07:24
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Selachian posted:I liked the original Longshot mini better than any other use of him I've seen since. But yes, it is weird, quirky, and very Nocenti. Plus it was some of the earliest art from a young Arthur Adams, one of my all-time favorite artists. I think his style peaked over the next few years after Longshot, though.
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Apr 23, 2021 13:08
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My favorite Longshot thing is Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe. That was a fun mini.
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Apr 23, 2021 13:59
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Selachian posted:I liked the original Longshot mini better than any other use of him I've seen since. But yes, it is weird, quirky, and very Nocenti. As X-O says, the Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe mini is really good.
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Apr 24, 2021 01:46
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Has Wonder Woman ever had an explicit female love interest?
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Apr 26, 2021 17:46
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Vandar posted:Has Wonder Woman ever had an explicit female love interest? ...sort of. In Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott's Wonder Woman: Year One, she has a romance with another Amazon but we only really find out about after she's left the island and is unable to return and it's only explicitly referenced during a romantic moment between Steve and Diana. Morrison and Paquette did something similar in Wonder Woman Earth One, if I recall as well, as well as having Paula Von Gunther develop a submissive crush on Diana. Rucka during his original run on the title had a character called Io, a blacksmith on the island have a clearly unrequited crush as well. And G Willow Wilson had Atlantaides, an intersex Olympian also flirting with Diana in a mostly one-sided manner. (Diana's showing to be attracted to them, but they're a child of Aphrodite and literally everyone falls in lust with them) Basically, DC are ok with Diana being bi or pan as long as she's bi or pan in a hetero way. The way they've sort of sidestepped this recently is having the modern incarnation of Etta Candy be a lesbian and even then the most we've gotten on her part is her and the pre-Cheetah making googly eyes at one another before we jumped forward in time to after the latter turned evil. Gaz-L fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Apr 26, 2021 |
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Apr 26, 2021 18:40
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Has there been more real-world time since the release of the first Iron Man film in 2008 than Marvel-Time since the Fantastic Four got their powers? If not, when is the break-even point likely to happen?
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May 10, 2021 12:21
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