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

[ksbord]

LOL YES! A B5 quote. You my friend have become exponentially more awesome.

Thank you, my friend! Babylon 5 is only my most favoritest show ever, ever!

[harashkupo]

Thank you, my friend! Babylon 5 is only my most favoritest show ever, ever!

It's the Harbinger/Imperium of television ie the best.

[ksbord]

Holy hell... Generation Zero #1... strongest start to a comic that I can recall in a long time!

[TheFerg714]

My short thoughts on this week's books:

Rai 16- Really well paced and intense, but ultimately felt kind of pointless. The tie-in with Rai #1 was neat, but other than that, the whole book was essentially "Look How Cool Rai 10 is: The Comic." I'm sounding negative, and although I would've preferred a story about another previous Rai, I really enjoyed it, as well as the last 3 Rai issues. CAFU is just ridiculously good at crafting a good, easy-to-follow action scene. I hope he gets to work in the 4001-verse at some point in the future.

Faith 2- I appreciate the new "arch-enemy," and I like that he's essentially the exact opposite of Faith in every way, but I was honestly a little bored. Pere Perez's art was stunning as usual (he might even be getting better than Clayton Henry imo).

Gen. Zero 1- I really liked it. It set up a really interesting mystery, and the (fictional?) town of Rook, Michigan was pretty cool too. To top it all off, the story surprisingly had me hooked even before Gen. Zero actually showed up, and when they did, it blew my socks off. They came off as total badasses and I totally buy their new 'mission.'

[thewarning]

Gen. Zero 1- I really liked it.

Well well well!

[JasonTodd428]

Holy hell... Generation Zero #1... strongest start to a comic that I can recall in a long time!

Holy hell indeed. I really enjoyed the heck out of this one and it hooked me in right away. I'm looking forward to more.

[scribbleMind]

I also thought Gen Zero was good, better than I thought, and my expectations weren't low to begin with. Plus, I'm a sucker for Doom Patrol style enemies. Really curious to see the twins. Because they played such a huge role on both sides of Harbinger Wars, I'm definitely more invested in them than the others.

Rai was also excellent. Like I said before, this is absolutely what Rai needed. The Valiant aside, through the world building and glimpses of history and the bigger picture that 4001 AD has allowed us, I have been absolutely convinced that Rai is Matt Kindts best work at Valiant.

[TheFerg714]

Rai was also excellent. Like I said before, this is absolutely what Rai needed. The Valiant aside, through the world building and glimpses of history and the bigger picture that 4001 AD has allowed us, I have been absolutely convinced that Rai is Matt Kindts best work at Valiant.

I was literally just thinking the same thing last night. Matt Kindt has brought some of the greatest stories that have come out of Valiant... The Valiant, Divinity, Unity Vol. 1, and Rai, but all of these are really just one story arc, or in Rai and Divinity's case, a chain of mini-series. I think 4001AD has solidified Matt Kindt's place at the top of the Valiant talent roster by joining the ranks of Venditti's X-O, Dysart's Harbinger/Imperium, and Van Lente's A&A (and probably Lemire's Bloodshot soon), as a writer that can write a full, well-realized, long-form run with the best of them.

[kinggirlfriend]

More Valiant trade reading ....

X-O Vol 4: Homecoming - Super excellent. Man I really should have started with X-O. Love the interaction with Gilad and the set up for Unity. I have Vol 5 sitting here for this weekend. Can't wait!

Harbinger: Omegas - Yep, I skipped ahead, I really wanted to read IMPERIUM so I picked this up. I know the basic gist and didn't feel lost at all. The whole thing plays like one big summary. Wasn't thrilled at first with the art but it won me over by the end. The Bleeding Monk issue was incredible. I'll probably go back now and read HARBINGER from the beginning since it's the last big hole in my Valiant library (I guess I also haven't read any RAI, Shadowman except #0 and 10, or pre-Kindt Bloodshot).

IMPERIUM Vol 1: COLLECTING MONSTERS - Wow! Another Doug Braithwaite masterpiece. And now I see what all the fuss about Dysart is! Incredible 4 issues. Loved everything about it. However, I flipped through Vol 2 at the store and it looked really lackluster. Sell me on the rest of this series, because the art looks really sub par in the other trades I looked at but the story is so good I'd like to read more.

[new_onslaught]

More Valiant trade reading ....

X-O Vol 4: Homecoming - Super excellent. Man I really should have started with X-O. Love the interaction with Gilad and the set up for Unity. I have Vol 5 sitting here for this weekend. Can't wait!

Harbinger: Omegas - Yep, I skipped ahead, I really wanted to read IMPERIUM so I picked this up. I know the basic gist and didn't feel lost at all. The whole thing plays like one big summary. Wasn't thrilled at first with the art but it won me over by the end. The Bleeding Monk issue was incredible. I'll probably go back now and read HARBINGER from the beginning since it's the last big hole in my Valiant library (I guess I also haven't read any RAI, Shadowman except #0 and 10, or pre-Kindt Bloodshot).

IMPERIUM Vol 1: COLLECTING MONSTERS - Wow! Another Doug Braithwaite masterpiece. And now I see what all the fuss about Dysart is! Incredible 4 issues. Loved everything about it. However, I flipped through Vol 2 at the store and it looked really lackluster. Sell me on the rest of this series, because the art looks really sub par in the other trades I looked at but the story is so good I'd like to read more.

Yeah, Imperium Vol.2's art was not good. The art in the other 2 volumes is much better. The only problem with this series is that vol. 4, which is the last, does not feel like a proper ending to the series. Still worth reading it though.

[ksbord]

More Valiant trade reading ....

X-O Vol 4: Homecoming - Super excellent. Man I really should have started with X-O. Love the interaction with Gilad and the set up for Unity. I have Vol 5 sitting here for this weekend. Can't wait!

Harbinger: Omegas - Yep, I skipped ahead, I really wanted to read IMPERIUM so I picked this up. I know the basic gist and didn't feel lost at all. The whole thing plays like one big summary. Wasn't thrilled at first with the art but it won me over by the end. The Bleeding Monk issue was incredible. I'll probably go back now and read HARBINGER from the beginning since it's the last big hole in my Valiant library (I guess I also haven't read any RAI, Shadowman except #0 and 10, or pre-Kindt Bloodshot).

IMPERIUM Vol 1: COLLECTING MONSTERS - Wow! Another Doug Braithwaite masterpiece. And now I see what all the fuss about Dysart is! Incredible 4 issues. Loved everything about it. However, I flipped through Vol 2 at the store and it looked really lackluster. Sell me on the rest of this series, because the art looks really sub par in the other trades I looked at but the story is so good I'd like to read more.

Don't let the art of Imperium vol. 2 dissuade you from giving it a read... the story is really good and definitely worth it.

[TheFerg714]

Harbinger: Omegas - Yep, I skipped ahead, I really wanted to read IMPERIUM so I picked this up. I know the basic gist and didn't feel lost at all. The whole thing plays like one big summary. Wasn't thrilled at first with the art but it won me over by the end. The Bleeding Monk issue was incredible. I'll probably go back now and read HARBINGER from the beginning since it's the last big hole in my Valiant library (I guess I also haven't read any RAI, Shadowman except #0 and 10, or pre-Kindt Bloodshot).

Man, since you've gone this far without reading Harbinger, I'd say you should save that for the very end.

IMPERIUM Vol 1: COLLECTING MONSTERS - Wow! Another Doug Braithwaite masterpiece. And now I see what all the fuss about Dysart is! Incredible 4 issues. Loved everything about it. However, I flipped through Vol 2 at the store and it looked really lackluster. Sell me on the rest of this series, because the art looks really sub par in the other trades I looked at but the story is so good I'd like to read more.

Yea, the second volume's art isn't great. However, I actually grew an appreciation for it by the end. It has a certain charm to it imo. Regardless, Dysart's scripts are on point like usual, and Divinity totally shows up, so trust me, if you liked the first volume, you'll like the rest of it. The third volume (The Vine Imperative) gets CAFU which is significantly better, and the fourth (Stormbreak) has Khari Evans (not sure on your opinion on him, but I think it's pretty solid), and guest stars Livewire and HARD Corps. It's awesome.
Yea, it's kind of a bummer how it ended, but I think Dysart did a good enough job at wrapping it up. I loved that book, but unfortunately, the insanely low sales numbers didn't justify it's continuation.

[kinggirlfriend]

Man, since you've gone this far without reading Harbinger, I'd say you should save that for the very end.


Yea, the second volume's art isn't great. However, I actually grew an appreciation for it by the end. It has a certain charm to it imo. Regardless, Dysart's scripts are on point like usual, and Divinity totally shows up, so trust me, if you liked the first volume, you'll like the rest of it. The third volume (The Vine Imperative) gets CAFU which is significantly better, and the fourth (Stormbreak) has Khari Evans (not sure on your opinion on him, but I think it's pretty solid), and guest stars Livewire and HARD Corps. It's awesome.
Yea, it's kind of a bummer how it ended, but I think Dysart did a good enough job at wrapping it up. I loved that book, but unfortunately, the insanely low sales numbers didn't justify it's continuation.

Alright you guys sold me on it, I'll stick with IMPERIUM. lol, I really do want to read the rest of HARBINGER too, eventually, and HARBINGER WARS.

[TheFerg714]

Unfortunately I found this AMA right before I have to do actual work at my job, so I don't have any fun quotes for you like Inhuman X did for Dysart's, but here's Fred Van Lente's AMA from yesterday. From a quick skim I can see that there is plenty of Valiant/A&A/Ivar/Gen. Zero questions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/..._here_ask_him/

Well, I have another mini I'm working on for Valiant which hasn't been announced yet... But it shouldn't be too shocking as to what it is when you hear it...

Soooo, yea.. we're probably getting a War Mother mini-series soon!

[new_onslaught]

Soooo, yea.. we're probably getting a War Mother mini-series soon!

That would be great! I read 4001 A.D.: War Mother last night and it was really good!