Valiant Comics. - Page 2

Babytoxie · 03-09-2013, 12:58 PM

I picked up the trades of Harbinger, Bloodshot, and Archer & Armstrong. At $9.99 for the introductory volume of each series, I was willing to take a chance on these, and it paid off. The writing and art are great, so I'm in for the long haul (I even re-read X-O and liked it a bit more). Bloodshot, in particular, is a dramatic improvement over the original series.

Obviously, Valiant didn't have the rights to Solar, Magnus, and Turok, so they had to start from square one with their original characters. I'd expected a half-hearted rehashing, but these books are doing their own thing, and doing it well.

Simplyrob · 03-09-2013, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babytoxie

I picked up the trades of Harbinger, Bloodshot, and Archer & Armstrong. At $9.99 for the introductory volume of each series, I was willing to take a chance on these, and it paid off. The writing and art are great, so I'm in for the long haul (I even re-read X-O and liked it a bit more). Bloodshot, in particular, is a dramatic improvement over the original series.

Obviously, Valiant didn't have the rights to Solar, Magnus, and Turok, so they had to start from square one with their original characters. I'd expected a half-hearted rehashing, but these books are doing their own thing, and doing it well.

I think, back in the day, Valiant obtained those rights from Gold Key. Solar and Magnus were my favorites. I was really into Valiant back in the day, still have all the older ones. I started off the relaunch reading all the series, but after Nord quit drawing XO, just ended up reading Harbinger. Its one of my monthly pulls.

Babytoxie · 03-09-2013, 09:28 PM

Did Nord return to X-O? I could swear I saw a recent preview with his art.

Simplyrob · 03-10-2013, 01:39 AM

he did the cover for the last issue i think. i don't know really, i dropped it. even harbinger is sorta losing my interest. tough to beat all the solid and new titles Image is putting out these days.

MiamiLoco · 03-10-2013, 04:11 AM

Simplyrob, I think you are in the minority. These books KICK ASS!! Yet again I loved the old Valiant books so maybe I'm a little bias.

Simplyrob · 03-10-2013, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiamiLoco

Simplyrob, I think you are in the minority. These books KICK ASS!! Yet again I loved the old Valiant books so maybe I'm a little bias.

its possible. i live in a heavily Kirkman driven comic world these days. i tried to like the new ones, gave them all a shot, a few issues into each series. i know Valiant won some recognition last year for returning to the scene and have most of their old titles back on the shelves. thats tough to do. props to them. i also enjoyed Valiant books back in the day, but, BWS was one of my favs back then. also, still have all my gold/platinum/chrominum covers!

Babytoxie · 06-21-2013, 10:27 AM

At the LCS yesterday, I purchased a polybagged copy of Solar: Alpha & Omega in pristine condition for cover price - $9.99. This collects the origin story that was serialized in backups in Valiant's regular Solar: Man of The Atom series. It basically lays the foundation for the original Valiant Universe. Written by Shooter and Layton, with stunning art by Windsor-Smith. It reminded me that, even though we're getting some good reboots of Valiant's characters, it just ain't right without Solar, Magnus, and Turok in the mix.

Back in the speculator heyday, Valiant must have printed their trades by the ton. I regularly see polybagged editions turn up in stores 20 years later. The Solar and Magnus trades are a bit harder to find, as they were from earlier in Valiant's run and likely didn't have print runs as high as the later collections.

rjs1162 · 06-21-2013, 12:12 PM

I'm not sure if Valiant owns rights to Solar,Magnus and Turok any longer? I think Dark Horse has them. I agree with you that Valiant is not the same without them!

I used to love Barry Windsor-Smith's Solar. Looks like you picked up something specail!

protector2814 · 06-21-2013, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babytoxie

At the LCS yesterday, I purchased a polybagged copy of Solar: Alpha & Omega in pristine condition for cover price - $9.99. This collects the origin story that was serialized in backups in Valiant's regular Solar: Man of The Atom series. It basically lays the foundation for the original Valiant Universe. Written by Shooter and Layton, with stunning art by Windsor-Smith. It reminded me that, even though we're getting some good reboots of Valiant's characters, it just ain't right without Solar, Magnus, and Turok in the mix.

Back in the speculator heyday, Valiant must have printed their trades by the ton. I regularly see polybagged editions turn up in stores 20 years later. The Solar and Magnus trades are a bit harder to find, as they were from earlier in Valiant's run and likely didn't have print runs as high as the later collections.

BT - Did you pick up/read the recent (2 years back) Dark Horse' version of Solar? It didn't last long, but I thought it was really good & fresh. Rebooted origin, which respected the Gold Key' original, and great writing & art. Shame it didn't go the distance. - 8 issues which was collected into a trade.

Babytoxie · 06-21-2013, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjs1162

...
Looks like you picked up something specail!

Indeed!

The original Valiant licensed the Gold Key characters (Solar, etc.), but the license expired at some point post-Acclaim. Dark Horse has been reprinting various classic Gold Key series for some time now, so they currently hold the license. I have to wonder what this new Valiant could have done if they'd been available.

Protector, the only one of those Dark Horse series I read was Turok, and I didn't like it. I think I need to give the others a try.