There Is NO HOPE For Valiant Comics Future
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- Valiant Comics shared superhero universe is in shambles. After this weeks news regarding Resurgence Of The Valiant Universe, there is no hope. All of the titles in the event have two things in common: terrible writers and worse art. Not a recipe for success in the comic book industry. A lot of Valiant Comics fans were hopeful after their new deal with Alien Books was announced. But if this is the best they can do, it's time to close up shop. Wes breaks down Resurgence Of The Valiant Universe and explains why he thinks there isn't one comic series worth reading. There is no hope for Valiant Comics future.
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I'm surprised Valiant Comics is still alive after Heather Antos poisoned the brand.
Wanted to name my son “SOLAR: MAN OF THE ATOM!” Got shot down. Would’ve been cool AF!
Should have made it their middle name, and never told them 😂
Maybe you could have sold her on just Solar. That's a solid name.
I tried with Conanas a middle name. Fan of Arthur Conan Doyle and the barbarian. Also shot down. The ex wife wanted Brendan which is also an ancient Scottish name and is still a win
Sigh.....could have just named him Phillip Seleski. Sheesh .😅
That Faith cover is like a fever dream. She looks like the villain with that smile.
I loved Valiant comics as a kid. While everyone was drooling over Image, I was devouring Turok and Bloodshot
The best issues were when Jim Shooter was at the helm. Eternal Warrior, Shadowman and Bloodshot were consistently good post Shooter.
Turok too.
Faith is a ridiculous message. I'm a bit overweight, it doesn't make me a bad person, but it's nothing to be proud of. Telling overweight people they are capable of working hard and getting in shape is a positive message, but being overweight isn't something in itself to be positive about. Like people who get on with life after losing limbs are to be admired, but that doesn't mean losing a limb in itself is good.
I'm disappointed you didn't name your kid X-O 😂
The most frustrating thing about being a Valiant fan is knowing they've had multiple opportunity's the past 30+ years to maintain success and grow from it, and they've squandered it.. Every. Single. Time. As you know this goes all the way back to when they ran Shooter off. I'm still convinced, had they not done that, the industry would be looked on as "The Big 3," today.
It's so very rare to get multiple chances in comics like Valiant's had, and I just don't see them getting another. 😮💨
It’s kind annoying that users act like Dinesh never existed when this ever this company’s brought up.
@@Quarckster I get it, but he bailed out.
@@jaylucien669 Yeah but back when he was in charge of Valiant according to Wes at least, he carried the company with quality comics and by making no mention of that, it dismisses the good he had done.
@@Quarckster Fair enough
Faith was never meant to be a central character with her own book. She doesn't work without the other Harbinger kids. She actually is a great character if you read the original Valiant comics and the relaunch by Josh Dysart. Readers connected with her because she was a nerd. She loved Star Trek, comic books and Firefly. Valiant tried to make her a spokesperson for body positivity which is when it all went wrong.
💯. I liked Faith when I first saw her, and she got me interested in the valiant universe and characters, but this all bs with body positivity and stuff just makes things uninteresting and boring
All of these comics businesses are getting money from somewhere despite being awful and aggressively rejecting fans. The "hope" they run on is finding a new sucker.
Blackrock
Jeff Lemire Bloodshot was REALLY dope
Few things in comics has hurt me more than when I found out that valiant went so far to the left them with the crazy Woke shit. Literally I was devastated. Archer and Armstrong is probably my singular favorite comic of all time
High in the sky.
High calorie meals.
High fat per body mass.
High cholesterol.
The only thing Faith doesn't have is high sales.
Not so. If reviewers get high when reading the series, then sales soar into infinity and beyond!
🤟🤤
Sounds very interesting
DAMN!
😅😅😅😅😅😅
Long as she's got High Hopes
The Valiant books have been much, much improved under Alien Books & I look forward to all these new books.
I’m ok with a female fat superhero but it’s always gotta make sense narratively. Comics, Manga, Fictional Book, traditional Books, ARE ALL RELIANT on how well your able to tell a story.
Faith's grocery bill every month must be insane. It's probably more than some people's rent.
Not so. She eats all her critics and detractors for free. You should probably delete this comment before she reads it.
😏
I saw her on the Macy's Day parade a few years ago.
Actually, Valiant went downhill after 2015 when they started to close there original line up.
The three eternal brothers were Gilad (the Eternal Warrior), Aram (Armstrong), and Ivar (Timewalker). Gilad was my favorite character in the original Valiant run and that's really saying something because I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of those books/characters in those first couple of years.
I can't help but wish Valiant would get it together. Love the Shooter era and the foest relaunch, but they keep squandering their characters and opportunities. Its just sad.
Body positive heroes....do not sell. Nobody buys a comic for that. We buy to be entertained. That is why Faith was doomed from the start after the #1 issue was bought by collectors, and then they all dumped out because they were never going to actually read it. Valiant is done. I don't know why they keep try to continue. X-O Manowar is a killer character that was probably there best, but even that is dead as a property. Just close it up and call it a day. You are not going to be a media powerhouse company as you planned. WTF20.
It's so nice to hear (especially from you) someone loving Valiant comics.
More Ninjak? sign me up. Also Ninja-K is good? I'll have to check it out
One of the many regrets I'll have from the 90's, is not having given Valiant a chance. I remember many critics in Wizard Magazine raving about their titles. But back then I was sooo focused on DC and Marvel ... And also had pretty much no disposable income. Today, since "the Big Two" have decided to flush history and quality, I'm open to give samller publishers a try: Ablaze, Aftershock, AWA, sometimes Zenescope, and of course my childish crush on Red Sonja and Vampirella (except when the creative team has proven to be a failure).
I was on board with Valiant from the very beginning in the '90s and absolutely loved the books and loved the characters. I forget what year I stopped, but it was still during the '90s and it was after they went downhill. I haven't read anything from Valiant since, but this video has me wanting to re-read all of those original books if I ever find the time.
Loved Valiant when Shooter was at the helm. He’s the reason I first got Magnus Robot fighter, he literally talked me into getting the book and signed it on the spot lol I really enjoyed the line and still have every book from that Valiant era. Unfortunately I am not looking forward to this new take.
I was a huge fan of X-O, The Eternal Warrior and Magnus. 😢
Same here!
I got Venditti’s XO Manowar based on your recommendation. I can see why you like this character. But I’d read anything Venditti writes.
Back in January I bought 10 of his X-O volumes from Venditti himself via Twitter. He signed every one and threw in some free comics too. He's a good guy.
Relaunch of a relaunch. Its a shame, like before it started strong but creators matter.
I want to like the Valiant Universe. It doesn't need to be Marvel/DC, it just needs to be good.
The 90's stuff (which is still the best IMO), is very cheap to get right now. I've been collecting them for the better part of the past 6 months, and I've enjoyed every second. Awesome reads. Awesome universe.
Bunn's Shadowman series was great, other than that, it's been either mediocre or terrible. The Valiant, Armor Hunters and Harbinger War are some of my favorite comics event stories ever.
I started reading it back in around 2017 from a recommendation from a clerk at my LCS - they had a great plan of selling issue 1 of trades for a run under $10 CDN to get you into the universe, so smart.
I got right up to Harbinger Wars, read X-0, Bloodshot, Ninjak, Archer and Armstrong, Harbinger, and Shadowman. They were so much fun, then I couldn't find a copy of Harbinger Wars it was out of print, I didn't want to pay crazy insane markups. So I had to give up on the series, and haven't heard much good since.
It's a shame.
I got to visit the OG Valiant office in Manhattan in 1995. I am always kind of shocked Valiant is still around and in such a sorry state.
Well, I agree. These new Valiant books look pretty lame.
On a side note, I think "The Far Away" is meant to be a replacement/stand in for The Lost Land, the setting for the Valiant series Turok. Because the Turok rights are with Universal, Valiant probably wanted to use the Lost Land, but couldn't.
Faith "never did anything impactful"...au contraire Wes, the concrete and Faith's furniture beg to differ.
Yikes. I was stupid enough to buy Faith when it first came out. I never bought Valiant again. I'll avoid this like the plague.
There is so many ways you can make me like Faith as a character, not just comedy BUT just make her Cute, a Cute Round Flying Girl with Big puppy Eyes, a Big smile and Long Flowy Hair. Just play into her her being over weight by making her body round and cartoony, sorry might sounds offensive for same, but her being over weight and then not doing anything with it, doesn't make any else, also the attractiveness over weight thing seems to be working for the Big Ethel Energy comic, so that could work too. People are not going to buy a comic about a boring Girl with Over weight, it has to be somehow part of the character and Really look Good on the Covers.
That's actually a great idea. Portray her chibi manga/anime style.
I only care about the Bloodshot series. To me, he's like their Batman.
13:41 Raijin is from the Rai-run from Abnett which follows an idea from Matt Kindt about previous versions of Rai
One of them is Raijin
I think aj ampadu has a chance becuase he says he was fan when the very 1st comic came out and he says he's read matt kindt and christos gage's run on ninjak. I know that doesnt mean it'll good but i think he has a chance. And i do think its understandable of why you dont like emiliano correa's art, but i do like how he draws roku and i do perfer him over mike norton. And i do think alien books did them better than dmg did.
you know what? im with you wes, Valiant is not so bad.... faith looks so bad.. and I tried to read it awhile back...
Me personally I would love to see a crossover between Valiant and DC. I think it would be better than the ones they had with Marvel and Image years ago.
What really surprise me is they didn't announce a Harbinger comic book or a The Harbinger: Peter Stanchek comic book which is a shame because it's one of my favorite characters in that universe.
9:20 wasn’t Roku Ninjak’s handler and then the undead monk stuck the nail in the base of her skull? It’s been like a year since I read it. It was good.
I just bought XO Manowar #0 chrome cover. I had it back in my younger years but sold it for like $10 but I recently bought it again for nostalgia purposes.
I'm hopeful for the future of Valiant given that at least there is now a regular publishing schedule. The Britannia book released last week was incredible (while the Livewire book was straight garbage). There were actually 4 issues of Bloodshot Unleashed by Deniz Camp but now the continuing series Reloaded only has the first issue from Deniz Camp. My guess that just finishes his initial 5 part arc.
Love valiant. I applied to be an artist but I didn't make the cut
I liked Blodshot unleashed as a kind of celebration/homage of the action genre in comics, XO Manowar by Liam Sharp was a wasted oportunity using his digital render style with no action whatsoever. I really want to like Valiant, becuse in hispanic countries we get them as hardcover collection with great production quality, but is sad that this iteration of the characters can get good writers. And the best years seems to be their 2012 first wave.
At least it seems they are reprinting their entirw runs begining with the 90s stuff with Alien Books.
Ivar was Timewalker wasn't he? - Poor old Valiant. I loved the original stuff and still have those comics. X-O Manowar was particularly good back then. But there's been as many reboots as DC now hasn't there, and the ownership has proved to be a real issue. Alien Books whoever they are seem to have a stake in it now? They seem to largely be going for unknown European art teams by the looks of it, and the art does look very average at best. The books are not the easiest to find either. I can imagine the print runs are very low, although there doesn't seem to be much incentive to pick any of these up.
Ninjak is a ninja version of James Bond.
You could put me on a cover and sell more comics.
And im 50lbs heavier than my pic full disclosure that was 2009 LOL
This Valiant Universe sounds really interesting, aside from Faith of course.
Finally, someone that has my thoughts in this comment section. Although they could get different artists. How Alien books and Valiant did A very valentines is Solid in art and story, Bloodshot Unleashed Reloaded #1 is alright in story, very good in art, Livewire and the secret weapons is decent in story, in art...Emiliano Urdinola's part is good but could use a different colorist, Miguel something's part ( I forgot his name. ) is good but Emilio utrera part is weak, and I haven't read the new Britannia comic yet. I hope Valiant and Alien books gives us some solid stuff.
Faith was alright in small doses on a team like with Harbinger. I initially found her endearing, but they tried to do too much and ruined the character.
The Faraway is basically the Lost Land without Turok and Mothergod. You were also thinking of the Deadside from Shadowman.
As much as I love valiant comics, why do they feel the need to constantly shoot themselves in the foot?
It seems like every time they get something going, they mess it up.
XO is probably their most consistently good book over the years.
Why was faith pushed so damn hard for so many years?
I started reading comics/graphic novels recently after spending close to 20 years reading novels...
I pocked up valiant universe as I really didn't want to read dc/marvel...
So far, I'm blown away by the valiant comics and it breaks my heart that such a promising universe was buried...
I think I have some Valiant comics in my collection but not sure what box has them. Maybe I will do some digging and let you know. Great video Wes!
Dan Abnett is also responsible for some of my FAVORITE entries in the Black Library.
The "far away" is the value brand version of the lost land that the original unity took place in.
I love Eternal Warrior and Time Walker back in the 90s!
I enjoyed Jody Hauser's Mother Panic for DC's Young Animal imprint.
Thankyou for heads up about the xo Manowar books, I loved the original ongoing, I’ll stick to what brought me here
Wes, I never thought of Bloodshot in the way you described him but it is true. I was thinking Punisher meets Wolverine in my mind.
We did get a Bloodshot movie, and I don't remember a single thing about it.
The incarnations of Valiant Comics under Voyager Communications and Valiant Entertainment is some of the best I have ever read. But for some reason, everything implodes after three years where the number of titles multiplies alongside mini-series and events. Seems like the preset owner, DMG Entertainment, is going to eat dirt jut as Acclaim did. If you can't hire recognized premiere artists and writers, the you hire the best unrecognized premiere talent that will generate sales and excitement. Also hiring a competent management, marketing and sales staff doesn't hurt.
Bloodshot Reloaded is really good. It's him vs. Failed super soldiers gone rogue
Thanks for this one. Long time Valiant fan from the Shooter days, ended up walking away when Dinesh was terminated by DMG. They’d been doing great stuff, but I knew bringing in Illidge and Antos was going to ruin my favorite comics.
7:28 The 3 brothers are
- Gilad the warrior
- Ivar the timeslider
- and Armstrong the drunk
Ivar is an excellent character but being a Time traveler , his focus and goals are very far from justice ; he is more in search of saving Time and everything (like a cool-british Rip Hunter ; or like Doctor Who)
There was a time were all I wanted to see on solicitations was when the new Valiant deluxe HC´s were coming out; occassionally I see there are still some good ones coming up on new solicitations back from the time were I was reafing Valiantand that really surprises me a lot
Wondering what you thought of X-O Manowar with Liam Sharp.
I'm looking forward to reading The New Deadwardians by Dan Abnett.
That was a really good series!
I was a big fan of the Turok comics as a kid after playing the Evolution, it was a cheap series to collect at the time. I wish they’d reprint the series
Manowar XO is combo of Thor (viking) Ironman (techsuit) and Captain America (relic of the past), Trinity of Avengers in one ripping off unit
*Conan
XO is Conan if he put on Ironmans armor.
I'm morbidly certain the only way Valiant can resurge, is if the IPs are given to Japanese artists and writers, to do with as they wish- American comic book companies have essentially turned themselves into Atari, anyways. Having anime based on Valiant characters, should drive interest in the comics-turned-manga.
For Faith to SELL, she will have to be changed in ways that will make her UNRECOGNIZABLE to her own creators. If her character design is not redesigned to be "oversexed," then maybe turn her into a cute animal mascot- basically Pikachu the superheroine- so children will want their parents to buy plushies of her.
Never really gave that label a shot but will do after your recommendations.
hi, I like Valiant comics ... X-O Manowar was first hero from Valiant I heard and i like it more than others.
Your commenting on a character that you don't remember anything about? Rai has been amazing. I understand you liked Crain art, I loved it to, but Abnestt Rai is fantastic!. He continued everything from Kindts run that you loved so much. Raijin is from that run. Abnett series continues on directly from Kindts run. Maybe re read it. Number 2 of Abnetts run is amazing! So many layers. Btw DMG, specifically The hated Dan Mintz forced Dinesh out. Such a crazy story.
Its only a matter of time before Rebel Wilson stars in a Fairh movie.
Last I saw she dropped the weight .
More likely lizzo in today's industry
I could never get into Valiant. I was more of an Ultraverse fan, but I love that there are aither universes to explore than the big 2.
The OK Corral? Damn. Star Trek TOS did that too. Not sure how that would work. The entire sixth season of the Wyatt Earp television series of the 1950s built up to it. They were hoping to do two more seasons to cover the aftermath of the shootout but the show was canceled.
How do you think " I want valiant movie franchise'" presumably because you have faith in the IP (the comics) then proceed to let many of the comics post purchase go to shit?
I enjoyed X-O Manowar Unconquered, but it took so long to get the 4 issues out and with the change in art, I'll probably just skip it.
Big fan of Valiant since the 90s. Outside of the stupid amount of variant covers, I have almost everything ever done by Valiant. I actually have a decent amount of the variants too… I’m just not made of money, so there are limits.
Other than a few random months, they have published 1 - 4 new issues each month over the last few years (usually 2 each month).
My favorites are Harbinger, Archer and Armstrong, and Quantum and Woody… sadly, none seem to be involved in the new event.
I agree that 2018 was when the decline started.
Its funny I never got into Valiant couldnt really get any emotive connection to the characters, but I do know that Liam got a real kicl out of his time on the book, even more so than his run on Wonder Woman, I think that it reminded him a little of Don Lawrences run on Trigun Empire ( Liams old teacher / Our old friend ) It had that scope to the story, and Liam is great with big tapestry both literally and artistically ….
Faith has never taken off. She exceeded the weight limit for flight.
1:15 book of shadows for the team-up following shadowman by Bunn
That Matt Kindt X-O run was the last good thing we got. Rai was ok but seemed short. Hasnt been halfway decent as a universe since the 2000 relaunch.
Book of Shadows is the team up book.
Lol I have it and read it and still couldn't think of the name
I thought perch bought that company
Gave up on universe when last XOmanowar started even then was downloading from free sites. Only reason was doing that was to keep up incase they turned it around to much substandard art with stories that went no where not even worth effort to read for free
Valiant was always a unique alternative to the big two comic publishers -- one that I collected intermittently in the 90s and kind of lost interest in after a few years as there were so many events and new comic lines popping up at the time -- I'm still annoyed that Marvel cannibalized the Ultraverse, only to let it die. If I recall, Faith started out as not a horrible (or at least, insufferable) character when she was in Harbinger, and you remember rightly in that her codename was Zephyr or, as she was sometimes unflatteringly referred to, Zeppilin. No idea why they decided to change her from chubby to full-on morbidly obese and give her her own book.
You should have named your son, Son of Creamcorn,Creamcorn. Or Shithead Jr.
I was a fan of the original Jim Shooter Valiant and dipped my toe in at various times since then. This video reminds me of another indie that was really fantastic named Crossgen. The ideas there were top notch. I still think that was the best Mark Waid we've seen even though he was stiffed at the end. The Negation to me was their greatest book. Aliens from the Negative Universe kidnap people from ours to study them for a future invasion. Many of these escape and cause all sorts of trouble for these would be invaders. Fantastic concept. I love when these indie universes want to do what Marvel did in the 60's. I always hope they succeed.
It was sad that they put a powerhouse like Liam Sharp on a story from the Clonrads
XO is also my favourite - I’ve been buying up copies of the original Valiant runs to enjoy fresh again…
Valiant needs to be reunited with the Gold Key characters.
Shadow Man will forever be my all-time favorite, specifically Mike LeRoi (the acclaim version who stars in the games).
I really hate that all of this bullshit is poisoning everything.
I loved Valiant when they first relaunched about a decade ago now. I collect XO-manowar, Ninjak, and Rai. Then I noticed out of the blue they started pushing Faith as their flag ship character. That's when it all started going downhill, and I stopped buying them.
I’m pretty sure Dan Abnet also writes WH40k novels. He’s very good.
“Space Engineers,” the newer versions introduced in Prometheus are an interesting move away from what Dark Horse had posited years ago. The last two series from Dark Horse were well-written and great reads for Alien vs. Predator vs. Space Engineers.
Wes if you love valiant it would be cool if you had Jim shooter on he really had a huge part in making valiant comics
Never read a single Valiant comic ever, don’t know any of the characters.
30 years ago, before the crash, Valiant had something. It's been a long time since that Valiant.
Bloodshot, XO Manowar, Rai, turok, Solar. Lots of awesome characters. Def check their original runs. Usually dirt cheap 2nd hand
@@nickpatterson6099 Everybody always forgets about Eternal Warrior. Eternal Warrior's my jam.
X-O manowar (2012) is pretty good. Give it a shot.
I miss Solar to bad he is no longer own and no longer part of The Valiant Comics universe. Last I heard Dynamite has the rights to the character and they haven't done anything with the character in years.
In the original Valiant universe you had Ivar the time walker, Gilad the eternal warrior and Aram aka Armstrong who will become the "eternal geomancer".
The Faraway is another name for the lost land of Turok fame.
There are basically 3 Valiant universes, with the latest one having different names and characters from the first 2 universes.
Well at least they can afford to put out more than one comic a month.