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So back in 1987, Jim Shooter was fired from his gig as Marvel's editor-in-chief. After an unsuccessful attempt to actually buy the company, he instead decided to start his own. It launched in 1989 as Valiant Comics, with a bunch of creators he took from Marvel in tow. In addition to a large number of brand new characters, Valiant licensed (or purchased - I'll claim ignorance on the complete details) of older Gold Key characters, notably Magnus: Robot Fighter, Solar: Man of the Atom, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Yeah, that Turok. The comic wasn't as foggy. Valiant was a bit different than Marvel and DC. They tried, as much as possible (which is to say, not very) to follow real-world science. Characters were affected by friction, Newton's laws, relativity, and so on. They also tried to let the universe spread organically. They didn't just throw whatever they could at the wall to see what stuck. Pretty much everything was interconnected, but not in a way that required you to read everything. Valiant also, for better or worse, pioneered a number of innovations that spread through the Big 2 like wild fire, such as #0 issues as origin stories and chromium covers. (Okay, for worse.) Through all of this, Valiant was pretty successful, both commercially and critically (as much as Wizard counts as critic). That, of course, didn't last. Shooter was ousted in 1992 and two years later, Valiant was sold to Acclaim, the video game company. Being a video game company, they weren't so hot on making comics, but they did like the properties. Games based on Turok, Shadowman, and X-O Manowar (in a crossover with Iron Man!) were released (along with maybe some others I forgot). They're all, at best, forgettable, but they're worth noting, none the less. At around the same time, they relaunched the entire line, with new versions of the character. This eventually proved to be an unpopular move, despite having quite a bit of talent working on the books, and most of the line was had been canceled by 1999. The following year, Jim Shooter came back and wrote a big crossover that led into what he claimed was what Valiant would have been like had he never left. Nothing much happened after that and Acclaim was dead by 2004. As part of Acclaim's demise, the original Valiant and Acclaim properties were auctioned off, with the Gold Key characters reverting to current owner, Random House. After a couple reprint volumes that included some original material, the current Valiant has decided to relaunch one more time. Which brings us to today: The Summer of Valiant. As part of this relaunch, Valiant is bringing back four of their series:   X-O Manowar is the story of Aric, a Visigoth who is abducted by aliens and forced into slavery. He eventually comes into possession of one of their most powerful weapons, the X-O Manowar armor. Issues 1 and 2 written by Robert Venditti and penciled by Cary Nord are out! And they're pretty damned good so far.  Harbinger tells the story of Pete Stanchek, a psionically powered teenager on the run from some mysterious agency. Issue 1 written by Joshua Dysart and penciled Khari Evans just dropped this week. I'll say that I wasn't as high on it, but I'm definitely curious to see where it goes.  Next up is Bloodshot written by Duane Swierczynski with pencils by Manual Garcia and Arturo Lozzi. I'm not actually sure what this is entirely about. I'm a bit hesitant since it seems the most 90s of the bunch, but here's what Valiant has to say: quote:Your name is Angelo Mortalli. Your brother is trapped behind enemy lines and on the verge of — no. That’s not right. Your name is Raymond Garrison. You’ve retired from the dangers of the field, but a desperate plea from your oldest friend plunges you into a vicious firefight that — no. That’s not right, either. You are Bloodshot. You are the shade of gray that freedom requires. The perfect confluence of military necessity and cutting-edge technology. A walking WikiLeaks that is a reservoir of dirty secrets that could set the world on fire. And you’ve just been captured.  Last, but certainly not least is the book I'm looking forward to most, Archer & Armstrong. From what I recall of the original series, it was basically a buddy book about an assassin monk and his drunkard immortal friend. This book's written by Fred Van Lente with pencils by Clayton Henry. Sounds pretty promising, and is scheduled for an August release. So far, I've been pretty impressed with what they've put out, and I'm definitely looking forward to more. Anyone else checked these out?
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Jun 8, 2012 05:16
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I'm not entirely interested in Bloodshot, but I'll try the first issue or two. The premise sounds interesting, but it's definitely the book I'm least interested in.
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Jun 18, 2012 15:37
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I wasn't too impressed with Bloodshot. I'll give it another issue, but nothing about it really interested me too much.
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Jul 14, 2012 03:42
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BGrifter posted:A Solar relaunch is also very welcome.
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Jul 25, 2012 13:55
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Rhyno posted:I have made really good friends with one of the guys at Valiant, we hung out at C2E2 and they had a presence at our local con earlier this year. So let me say this. Reading this, Rich? 
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Jul 25, 2012 22:38
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Yeah! It was a really fun book, and I already can't wait for the next issue. X-O had a slower burn, but I think I'm sticking with it, and I think I'm dropping Harbinger if the next issue doesn't do anything for me. Bloodshot I'm still waiting to see where it goes.
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Aug 9, 2012 16:08
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Action Missile Eye posted:
45k is a good sales figure. For comparison, in March (newest that came up on the first page of Google), that would have made it the highest selling comic not by Marvel or DC by a good 8000 copies (Saga #1 sold 37k) and it would be somewhere in the low 30s in sales ranking, around books like Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Batwoman, Batgirl, Kick-rear end 2 (I guess Icon books are not separated), and Green Lantern Corps.
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Aug 13, 2012 15:17
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Now mark your calendar for Sept. 5th!
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A&A #2 was even better than the first. I haven't read through all my books yet, but it's my favorite so far. Bloodshot 2 and 3 (I guess I missed #2 coming out) were much better than the first, too. I think I'm going to drop Harbinger.
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Sep 6, 2012 12:05
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prefect posted:I'm only halfway through #2 (I have a bit of a backlog), and I love this comic. Is Valiant always this good, or is this just a result of Fred Van Lente being one of the bestest comic-book writers on Earth? It's definitely the best of the bunch.
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Oct 1, 2012 01:29
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Tequila Bob posted:I just discovered these comics, and for the most part I'm really impressed at how good they are. I've picked up the first two of each series (except Shadowman, which just released its first). Archer & Armstrong is my favorite, Harbinger is also good, and Bloodshot is already way better than I'd expect a comic called "Bloodshot" to be.
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Nov 11, 2012 04:30
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EmperorFritoBandito posted:Are these reboots starting completely fresh, or are they going to hang on to any of the original continuity?
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Nov 14, 2012 01:14
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SPACE HOMOS posted:How are the Bloodshot comics so far? I had a couple issues (#34 and 35) back in the day and thought they were pretty cool, but then again I was 10. I had given them to my roommate as he has a large comic collection but I think he just tried to sell them all. Gotta find out if he still has them. Also, Shadowman #1 hit last week. It was weird.
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Nov 14, 2012 13:29
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I've dropped to just X-O and Archer & Armstrong, and X-O is probably on the chopping block, as well. Archer is still really great, though.
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Mar 12, 2013 19:16
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I guess I'll have to check it out. My Valiant reading has dropped down to just Archer and Armstrong at this point.
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Aug 8, 2013 14:43
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Rhyno posted:Really? I find the Valiant books pretty refreshing. They're great for getting the bad DC taste out. Granted, I probably would if I worked in a comic store, but I don't, and I'm sure as hell not paying for bad comics. But yeah, I dunno. I slowly dropped the books as I lost interest, leaving A&A as the only one I'm reading.
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Aug 8, 2013 16:23
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Rhyno posted:Oh man, way to get me back onto the book Valiant.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:43
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It's a shame we don't live in a universe where John Belushi is alive and like 20 years younger.
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Jul 10, 2014 20:08
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Ivar was good and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where it goes. It's lacking some of A&A's charm and seems a bit too Doctor Who maybe.
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Jan 23, 2015 08:12
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