Valiant Universe: Harbinger, Unity, Rai, A&A; current state & future prospects

[Captain Craig]

I'm hyper concerned.
Acclaim bought Valiant and their focus was to mine the IPs for video games. They ignored the publishing side. Fans got less interesting versions of their characters. Company went bankrupt.

DMG has stated they intend to focus on movies. Some lip service was paid to keeping the publishing side strong but I'm going to need to see proof.
Dinesh and others who built this up not having a place at the publishing side is a negative. I'll need to see who steps in and what guidance they intend for the publishing side to not feel like history is repeating itself.

[Shadowras]

I'm hyper concerned.
Acclaim bought Valiant and their focus was to mine the IPs for video games. They ignored the publishing side. Fans got less interesting versions of their characters. Company went bankrupt.

DMG has stated they intend to focus on movies. Some lip service was paid to keeping the publishing side strong but I'm going to need to see proof.
Dinesh and others who built this up not having a place at the publishing side is a negative. I'll need to see who steps in and what guidance they intend for the publishing side to not feel like history is repeating itself.

I agree with everything said here, just have to wait and see.

[Javasaurus]

I remember when Acclaim bought Valiant; and the decline of the publishing quality that followed. It would be heartbreaking to see that kind of history repeat itself.

[Dark-Flux]

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Well s#it! Now that I had just gotten into Valiant! I guess this was basically inevitable in this day and age, but still... The most upsetting part of the news is Dinesh being removed as CEO, as it was his passion and drive along with Kothari's which led to Valiant's resurgence in 2012. Now if the publishing division was wildly profitable I'd have very little concern, but given the current state of the comics industry I strongly doubt it is.

[Captain Craig]

It was mentioned in an article that Dinesh is being kept on as a Consultant...for whatever impact that might could have.
He should be kept on in charge of the publishing side if these new owners had the brains they think they do.

[Joshua]

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

It still lasts. All the ongoings are currently selling over 9k a month. Shadowman and Harbinger Wars 2 are coming up. Who knows if they do another summer/fall publishing initiative but Fred Pierce and Warren Simons are still running the publishing end.

[scribbleMind]

I wouldn't have a problem with this if Dinesh was still in charge of publishing. I absolutely feel that his passion and love for Valiant is a huge reason Valiant has managed to find the success that it has. I'll keep reading it until there's a line wide drop in quality, which there may not be. It's possible.

[TheFerg714]

This honestly feels like Dinesh let a fox (DMG) into the henhouse (Valiant), and eventually they inevitably ate all of the hens... or at least the hens that were in charge. I don't get exactly what went down, but my guess is that Dino thought that it would be a great idea to get a little extra cash to try and grow Valiant. Then, when Valiant's film announcements never really came to fruition, and the publishing side didn't see any marked growth, DMG made some sort of strategic play to grab the rest of the company. Obviously they wanted to go in a different direction from Dinesh/Cuneo, so they took over.

This sucks. Really bad. I'll continue reading through the end of HW2, and if the current ongoings stay good, I'll keep reading those, but they're going to have to pull off a miracle to get me interested enough to spend $4 on the stuff that comes after.

Dinesh build a community and family, not just amongst the fans, but amongst his coworkers. Everyone who's ever given an interview about Valiant comments on how great Dinesh is. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the top talent started to leave, one by one.

[Scott M Davis]

I'll probably bail with the end of the current arcs. And I betcha everything is gonna reboot/restart after HW2.

[Gaastra]

And three of the top guys are gone.

https://www.newsarama.com/38376-vali...quisition.html

[Captain Craig]

And three of the top guys are gone.

https://www.newsarama.com/38376-vali...quisition.html

The Silver Lining I think we should look at are in these paragraphs.

According to Valiant representatives, Chairman Peter Cuneo, CEO/CCO Dinesh Shamdasani, and CCO Gavin Cuneo are resigning as part of the terms of the DMG deal. Dinesh and Gavin, however, will continue to work with Valiant as consultants.

Valiant's publishing team, overseen by publisher Fred Pierce and Editor-In-Chief Warren Simons, are slated to remain in place and continue the company's comic book plans. Valiant is scheduled to remain in their New York City headqaurters.

How long and to what extent Dinesh's recommendations as a Consultant are applied is something we should watch for. Also, with publishing operations staying in NY under the current leadership I'm hoping that means DMG will "mine the properties for movies" on one coast and let publishing alone on the other.

[mrbrklyn]

Your right about Archer and Amstrong. It is hard to do that wiothout BWS. It was much of a unique creation by him, and to do that title again would require taking the series in a different direction, which might be related, but not a direct continuity. Think of the relationship of Jon Byrne to Kirby and Lee with the FF. Somebody needs to be aspired to make it theres like that, with love for the original.

[TheFerg714]

Your right about Archer and Amstrong. It is hard to do that wiothout BWS. It was much of a unique creation by him, and to do that title again would require taking the series in a different direction, which might be related, but not a direct continuity. Think of the relationship of Jon Byrne to Kirby and Lee with the FF. Somebody needs to be aspired to make it theres like that, with love for the original.

I haven't read the original run yet, but Van Lente's run is great.

[Captain Craig]

Eternity #4 - wraps up where Divinity and Myshka are in their relationship and setting the stage for a real foe(David) to become their nemesis. The art is again excellent. I'd need to re-read this all in one sitting but the recap about the lone bullet traversing space/time that killed the Watcher is a plot point that doesn't work well for me.

Quantum & Woody #2 - never been a strong Q&W fan, not starting now. However, staying objective I so far find the first two issues to be enjoyable. Mainly cause the juvenile toilet humor is largely absent. Let's see how long that lasts. I don't recall there being a story about removing their "klang" bands being done since the relaunch so the impetus of this first arc is interesting and not been wasted thus far.