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Amazing OP. Thanks for the updated thread. This company puts out the most consistently good comics, with the exception of Dead Drop which was garbage that should have never happened. Otherwise, everything else ranges from good to 'my God this is awesome'. The way the whole universe feels unified is amazing. It is great when something you nearly forget about in an early arc of XO manowar shows up in Imperium. It doesn't make reading XO manowar first a requirement, but it is a great bonus for dedicated readers. Everything feels like part of an amazing whole.
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Sep 5, 2015 02:30
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X-O posted:I don't know when that'll happen though, the way Ivar acted it seems as if that happens after Archer destroys Bloodshot. I don't see that happening any time soon. Man I love the Far Faraway arc. Fred van Lente said in a podcast that Archer 'destroying' Bloodshot happened in the Mission Improbable arch. I guess Ivar was exaggerating...
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Sep 29, 2015 23:04
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X-O posted:I would like to hear this podcast, I mean I totally believe you, but I just love Fred Van Lente and would like to hear him talking about his Archer and Armstrong run. I believe it was on 'only the valiant' episode 191 or 192.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:24
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X-O posted:This is also touched upon in Fall of Harbinger. Faith dies in her sleep at the age of 57 next to her husband Archer. Her funeral is attended by thousands as she was the most popular superhero the world had ever known. Fall of Harbinger is the most heart-wrenching but fulfilling ending to the harbinger story. All Josh Dysart needs to do is tie where the story currently is with this amazing issue and we'll have a modern masterpiece. Regarding the quoted spoiler: I am so proud of Dysart for killing Faith in her fifties from heart failure. It is awesome to see hefty people represented in comics. Everyone doesn't look like Flamingo and it is great to see people of all body types in comics. That being said, being overweight does take a toll on your body. Having her die in a way and age that is typical for overweight people sends the message that it's not shameful to be overweight if that is the lifestyle you want to lead, but you need to be realistic about how it'll affect you and your loved ones. People may disagree with this message (and this thread is certainly not the place to argue), but it is a surprising mature statement compared to something like Bitch Planet. The proven and intuitive health problems associated with obesity shouldn't be downplayed and Dysart brings that to the forefront by having Faith die of heart failure in her fifties. Torque's death almost gave me heart failure because of sadness! It's easy to forget that inside of Torque is someone with a crippling disease. Having him die of that disease despite everything is heartbreaking.
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Oct 1, 2015 05:07
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graybook posted:Uh, is it just me, or is one of the early panels in today's Bloodshot Reborn a tracing of the most common GIS result for "sassy black woman"? There is some heavy inspiration for sure.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:25
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Very solid week. You aren't alone about missing the twist at the end. Apparently the entire world was surprised too.
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Oct 16, 2015 03:28
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zoux posted:Dinosaur Roman Empire is the reason humanity invented comic books as a medium. Between this and the 'whiteys' in the previous issue, I really hope they'll continue to have Fred Van Lente write things indefinitely.
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Oct 22, 2015 00:30
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X-O posted:Couldn't wait until tomorrow, had to read Book of Death before bed tonight, and I am so glad I did. What a fantastic issue. Tama is a badass is a badass in the making. The way she completely punked Darque by turning him into a tree was great. Seems she's already the most powerful Geomancer we've seen. Poor Gilad though. That did not end well for him at all. The hook and first few pages of the new Eternal Warrior title definitely left me wanting more right now. I guess the plot of the book will be him fighting his way out of Hell. I gather from the dialogue he's died several times and escaped each time. One of Gilad's titles in the latest Rai is 'the one that hell spit out'. I guess we'll be learning real soon how he got that title. Great ending to the whole event. I can see how more stuff comes out of this other than the eternal warrior stuff, much like how the Valiant set up the Bloodshot reborn and the book of death.
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Oct 29, 2015 13:48
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Everyone should be reading Imperium. The lack of sales does not reflect the quality of the comic. Best drat comic on the shelves and it deserves more sales than it is getting. Everyone read Imperium and urge your friends to read Imperium.
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Jan 22, 2016 14:32
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Both new books are top notch this week. Bloodshot #10 definitely is drawing its influences from a particular blockbuster movie from last year, but its foreshadowing is on par with the best of Book of Death. Bloodshot chills with Shadowman? XO gets fed up and leaves? G.A.T.E creates a crazy city? It's amazing. Faith is also very good. It's refreshing, but not just in the 'untraditional bodytype' way. We have had quite a few dark books lately. It is nice to revisit the younger more lighthearted side of Valiant, like Archer, Faith, @x, and Torque. Serious poo poo is going down, but the light tone is exactly what Valiant needs at the moment.
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Jan 27, 2016 16:19
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I know that kind of guy. I brought this up during the Book of Death, but their treatment of Faith's weight is really drat mature and extremely commendable. On one hand, you have Faith being a normal confident geek kicking rear end, having normal relationships, and generally just being awesome. All of this happens without acknowledging her weight, which is how it should be. I love it. On the other hand, the Fall of Harbinger book mentions her dying in her fifties of heart failure. This is also very commendable. It acknowledges a negative of being overweight, the health concerns. The message is pretty drat good. If you are overweight, you are more likely to have various health issues as you grow older, but you shouldn't allow that to affect your self image and self confidence. If that is the version of yourself that you are most comfortable and happy with, then don't worry about it. Anyone who tries to shame you into anything different is an rear end in a top hat. It's an awesome comic that makes this kind of point without being all in your face about it. It's why Ms Marvel and Squirrel girl ranked so high in last year's 'Best of' lists, and Faith does it so much better.
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Jan 28, 2016 02:49
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bobkatt013 posted:Bloodshot reborn is awesome this week. Looks like they are doing a Mad Max storyline, and it's sick Yes sir, and for a hint of where it ends, look at page 5ish of Fall of Bloodshot. The panels where Bloodshot is walking through his memories. Bloodshot + Ninjak = All of LA being burned to the ground.
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Jan 29, 2016 02:52
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I was having a discussion with folks about what makes a good TV/ book/comic series, and we determined slow character development to be a indicator of success. Characters who don't develop are uninteresting, and characters who develop quickly are jarring and unrealistic. XO Manowar definitely develops slowly but that is part of what makes it good.
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Feb 3, 2016 03:39
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I suspect Valiant of having low print runs just so they can make announcements that they need another printing. This is my tin foil hat opinion.
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Feb 4, 2016 01:23
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I really didn't like shadowman, even though I tried really hard on my second reading of it. The Doctor Mirage cameo is not something to look forward to because they treat her in a very comic book 'bosomy lass' sort of way. It is jarring to go from the mini series to that. The treatment of female characters in the whole series is really shameful, especially considering how good Valiant is with the rest of their series. The last bits are especially painful. Jack gets all emo and for some reason Alyssa loves him even though she just kinda met him and he has no redeeming qualities. Edit: Don't get me wrong, though. If you are getting into the Valiant universe, I think it is a worthwhile read for the lore. It explains the deadside and loas, as well as other things in the supernatural corner. It'll help you understand the last few issues of Ninjak and other various books that dip into that corner. Its plot and characters are just complete garbage. Rusty Kettle fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Feb 6, 2016 |
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Feb 6, 2016 16:35
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X-O posted:How the books intersect and build off each is one of the greatest strengths of Valiant comics. The small size and attention to detail is why it has the most cohesive interconnected universe of all. I would add that if you can swing it, the Armor Hunters hardcover is awesome. It puts all the issues in order and is in a really tight presentation. It is a relatively expensive book, but I found that it was worth it because I didn't have to jump around trades.
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Feb 11, 2016 15:18
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bobkatt013 posted:Dead Drop is unreadable garbage right? I fell for Ales Kot with Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier once due to enjoying Secret avengers and Bucky is one of my favorite characters. Is it worth a read or is it just unreadable trash? It's definitely the worst thing they have put out since their relaunch.
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Feb 16, 2016 21:14
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X-O posted:It's not nearly the trash that is his Winter Soldier. It's actually fine, just incredibly inconsequential. Nothing in it really matters. Except for some reason Archer completely changes personalities and loses all his ability to fight. If you life Fred van Lentes Archer, it is grating. Also XO cannot catch a running person. Terrible.
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Feb 16, 2016 22:38
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bobkatt013 posted:Wait I thought Archer's whole thing was he was an awesome fighter as he has been training all his life and was born to be one? XO can conquer a planet and destroy an invasion fleet, but cant catch a running person. Yep. Dead Drop is bad. Archer can take down Bloodshot but not a few ninjas. XO can kill a planet made from robots but not catch a running thief. Dumb as hell.
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Feb 16, 2016 22:53
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bobkatt013 posted:This seems to be another potential future. I complained about this in the Facebook spoilers group. There are a few possibilities: 1) This future is a fake one programmed into him like his rising spirit memories or even the bloodsquirt one. 2) This is all a lie from Ninjak to manipulate Bloodshot into helping him. 3) This was written before BoD and it is a serious mistake. Alternative futures would completely contradict Ivar, but if they hosed up, then maybe they'll need to fall back on that.
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Feb 26, 2016 06:18
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bobkatt013 posted:I could see it being one of the first two as Lemire wrote both this and Book of death. Lemire wrote the Fall of Bloodshot, where you can see what happens at the end if the arc in an early panel. Dysart wrote Fall of Harbinger where the contradictions occur. There is a chance that the communication between writers/editors isn't as strong as we think. There is also a chance they do something cool with it so we'll see I don't know what you mean by Eternal Weapon.
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Feb 26, 2016 15:00
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Shitshow posted:Can someone refresh my memory of Torque and Faith's death in Fall of Harbinger? I don't remember their deaths bring that explicit... Torque dies of the disease he has in his thirties. Faith dies of heart failure in her fifties. I love these realistic endings for these characters. Torque puts on the appearance of a big tough guy, but he is still just a frail sick boy inside. And I've mentioned how awesome I find Faith's final days earlier in the thread. This is good evidence that Dysart is one of Valiant's most valuable assets.
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Feb 27, 2016 06:39
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Adnor posted:When did Faith and Archer first meet? Did it happen in Harbinger? I still haven't read that series. It's complicated! Technically Ivar first brought it up in Archer and Armstrong. Though they didn't actually meet until Aric got married in XO.
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Mar 6, 2016 15:42
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The best shadowman is 0 and 10(?), which are the prequels. The rest is emo Jack, and is bad.
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Mar 9, 2016 22:39
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In true Venditti style, Wrath moves perhaps a bit slowly for some folks. But I thought it was great and well paced, so YMMV. I'm guessing that if you like XO's pacing, you'll be more than okay with Wrath. I'm of the opinion that too slow is much better than too fast, so that is the side to err on. For instance, the second arc of Ninjak could have easily been spread through two more arcs, and Im sure everyone would be okay with it.
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Mar 14, 2016 14:23
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I did that, and now I am spending way too much money on Valiant. I have everything digitally thanks to Comixology sales, and have all their titles in my pull box. Also, I'm starting to pick up the hardcovers. They are really the best in the business, though I don't really like the new A&A as much...
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Mar 17, 2016 16:41
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Norns posted:I want to branch out a bit from the Big 2 for hero books. My favorites characters are Thor and Batman. For my friend who likes Batman, I gave him a Ninjak trade and he loved it. Think a good mixture of James Bond, Batman, and a ninja. Otherwise, for generally getting into the universe, I usually recommended reading The Valiant, then Book of Death. You'll be introduced to a whole bunch of characters who you can look into, and a few series branch off of those. There are a lot of fun entry points, though. XO, Bloodshot (Reborn or vanilla) Harbinger, A&A and even Imperium can be jumped into. For a couple, you have a series you can read for more background. For instance, folks can jump into the excellent Imperium and later read the lead up, Harbinger, to learn how the world ended up that way. Good times. Lots to dive into.
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Mar 17, 2016 22:45
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CharlestheHammer posted:Valiant deluxes are weird, if you want the complete story you are gonna double dip a lot. Kinda... Reading the trades is hard because if you want to read the intended order, you read one issue from one trade, hop to another trade to read the second issue, and so on. The hardcovers for Armor Hunters and Harbinger Wars are all in order, so they are so much better. But why they didn't start XO's third hardcover after Armor Hunters is beyond me.
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Mar 18, 2016 01:22
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LordPants posted:Can you get the essentials just from reading X-O Vol. 3? Most likely, and you can get the trades to fill in the Harbinger and Bloodshot parts which are more or less stand alone. But Armor Hunters is already out, and 100% of the third XO hardcover is in the Armor Hunters hardcover. So instead of making people confused, why not just make them pay the extra ~$10 or so for the Armor Hunters HC and pick up XO at 30? At this point, people are either going to buy 1,2 and 3, skipping AH, or 1,2,AH skipping 3. Or buy everything and feel ripped off because they bought the same comics twice. Dumb.
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Mar 18, 2016 02:28
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LordPants posted:No I mean X-O volume 3 has the armor hunters issues and the X-O issues but not the unity and uhhh harbinger(?) issues. XO 3 is missing the Unity, Harbinger and Bloodshot issues. Literally the only thing it'll have over AH is the variant covers in the back, from what I can tell. There will likely be overlap there as well... Honestly, the only reason I would recommend XO3 over AH is if you really need to save the extra $10 but are still buying comics, or if you will get upset if your books are numbered 1,2,AH,4. Just get the AH hardcover. It's a thing of beauty.
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Mar 18, 2016 02:55
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Rhyno posted:It sounds like those issues are getting their own super limited HC. If I can get one you get first dibs. What is your source on this?
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Mar 18, 2016 04:48
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I would be first in line for a hardcover even though I am a dumb baby who hunted down all the issues. They are pretty drat good, and give some great background into the lore behind the whole Valiant universe. That being said, Dinesh has gone on record dozens of times that they will not be reprinted, so I am pretty skeptical of those rumors.
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Mar 18, 2016 06:09
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bobkatt013 posted:So did the book of death ending change the fates of all the characters? The prophecy did not come to pass, but we know due to 4001 that some of the fates do happen. I dunno. Ivar makes it seem like it'll happen one way or another, but then again the end could make the future able to be changed.... I think we should follow the advice of Ivar and realize that you shouldn't think too hard about time travel and let things play out. I have a feeling that while the whole 'bad guy kills everyone' event won't happen, most of the story beats including the Fall Of stuff will happen.
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Mar 19, 2016 05:15
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Rhyno posted:Dinesh told us at the booth that Q&W is coming back this year, it might be that. My goodness. If Fred takes over Q&W, that would be awesome.
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Mar 24, 2016 02:44
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To be honest, I don't see why that should surprise anyone. 56 issues for a single author is a huge run in comics, and now that he is doing the Wrath of the Eternal Warrior, it makes sense that now is a good stopping point. My 2017 Venditti wish list is that he'll fix the turd that is shadowman, and make Jack Boniface cool. Also, could XO be FvL's new series!? That would be more exciting than QaW, IMO.
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Mar 24, 2016 19:22
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bobkatt013 posted:They have made Shadowman a villain I would love to see a Venditti series where Shadowman goes from emo villain to badass hero.
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Mar 24, 2016 19:48
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The annual contains both one of the funniest things Ive read in comics and as well as the most heartbreaking. Pick it up ASAP. You won't regret it. The jury is still out on A&A, but there isn't really a stinker out there at the moment. Imperium somehow ups the ante every drat week and Bloodshot has morphed into a crazy thrilling (and holy poo poo beautiful) book. Those two are most likely my top of their reoccurring books, followed closely by the badass Wrath and Ninjak. And of course XO is consistently good, but it is good in a way you know you are getting into.
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Mar 30, 2016 14:26
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Space Fish posted:I was down like a clown for the first Bloodshot Reborn trade, and the second is just as strikingly beautiful with its visuals, but... wtf is with Magic? It's one thing for Aric, Space Barbarian to need to lay with a woman to feel big, but in Bloodshot her portion of the story feels like Lemire overcompensating for something. I'm twenty by the way, no jailbait here! Glad Kay's still around as a latent vision to guilt him about it. With the current arc of BS:R the Magic being young thing is there to emphasize the timelessness of Bloodshot. He meets her when she is young, and we see her again 30 years later. I like it because it emphasizes the human aspect of Bloodshot. He loses the nanites, becomes human, falls in love, then becomes superhuman again to the point where he outlives his loved ones. I like the tragedy associated with Magic.
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Mar 30, 2016 19:55
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If you really need to know what happens in Shadowman, listen to the album Tales from the Deadside by A Sound of Thunder, and read the lyrics. The best Shadowman books from that were Shadowman 0 and whichever followed that... I am think 10. They go over the background of Master Darque, who pops up all over the place.
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Apr 26, 2016 14:21
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Alucard Nacirema posted:How stable is Valiant financially right now? I like what their doing but I'm scared of investing too much of my time/money into their books if there just gonna go under like last time You can track the detailed information on almost exactly how many books they sell via Diamond's sales numbers. In general, their numbers have been more or less rising slowly year after year. They got a huge investment to do the movies, and they are slowly branching out into other merchandise. Their books are being printed in at least three other languages so they are spreading internationally. They have been winning lots of industry awards. Finally, they have been getting a fair amount of attention lately for being a better alternative to the big two by sites like io9, especially when Faith's book started coming out. That being said, their sales numbers are tiny compared to the big two, they come out with far less books, and they pay their talent more per page than any other company. I don't know how, but it seems like they are doing well. Becides, I don't like taking the possibility of failure into account when getting into something, especially when it has hundreds of hours worth of high quality content already out there. I'd understand if they have been around for only a year and they seems like they were flopping, but this is certainly not the case.
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May 20, 2016 13:37
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