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

[Muadib]

Yes War Mother in my mind is the Magnus analog,

Savage is Turok and of course Divinity is Solar.

[Captain Craig]

So, wait...Turok is owned by...Comcast?
Comcast must be the parent company of the publishing firm that has him, yes?
I still hold out faint hope VEI could outright purchase all legalities of Turok to wholly own him.

[TheFerg714]

Yes War Mother in my mind is the Magnus analog,

Savage is Turok and of course Divinity is Solar.

I don't see it. Both Savage and Divinity are different enough, but share the same core traits as their Gold Key counterparts.
Solar: Man of the Atom- Divinity essentially has control over everything, at the atomic level (possibly quantum, now that I think about it), just like Solar.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter- Savage is obviously all about killing and hunting dinosaurs.
Magnus: Robot Fighter- War Mother really has nothing to do with robots at all... I think she's a totally new character, now joining the ranks of Punk Mambo, Brittania, and Gen. Zero as VEI's wholly original characters.

[TheFerg714]

I hope him being connected to England will allow for some sort of teamup between Savage and Ninjak further down the line. Because honestly, who wouldn't want to see a teenage dinosaur hunter fight a ninja in the streets of London.

Oh god yes. I honestly can't wait to see him interact with a number of characters, namely Aric and Gilad.

EDIT: Remember that Harvey Awards fiasco from a few months back? Looks like it got even more ridiculous.
http://mostviral.club/saga-march-win...harvey-awards/

Notably absent from the winners was Valiant Entertainment, who dominated several nomination categories thanks to a wave of fan support during the open nominations process.

I hate everything about this statement.

[thewarning]

I hate everything about this statement.

Sorry, I know that you were really pulling for those Unity #25 noms.

[TheFerg714]

Sorry, I know that you were really pulling for those Unity #25 noms.

I'm not annoyed at the fact that Valiant lost (although it was pretty silly, considering how many noms they got), I'm annoyed at the statement, "a wave of fan support." First of all, the Harvey Awards are supposedly voted on by "industry professionals." Secondly, where are all of these crazy Valiant fans? We never did or heard anything about the noms before they were announced. ValiantFans.com didn't have anything to say about it either. Is there some mysterious Valiant group that banded together to get 90% of the nominations?

...and now I'm beginning to realize that it's all bulls**t and I should stop caring about any of it.

[Shadowras]

I don't see it. Both Savage and Divinity are different enough, but share the same core traits as their Gold Key counterparts.
Solar: Man of the Atom- Divinity essentially has control over everything, at the atomic level (possibly quantum, now that I think about it), just like Solar.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter- Savage is obviously all about killing and hunting dinosaurs.
Magnus: Robot Fighter- War Mother really has nothing to do with robots at all... I think she's a totally new character, now joining the ranks of Punk Mambo, Brittania, and Gen. Zero as VEI's wholly original characters.

Well Divinity is the only blatant analog they have.
Gen Zero always remind me of the Troublemakers for some reason.
When you read about Savage's origin it sounds closer to Tarzan than to Turok. The dinosaurs are the only thing that connects him to Turok.
War Mother is a tech scavenger in the future, while Magnus is a robot fighter, they are both very good at what they do and is respected within their society. The main difference is their environment coming from opposite 4001 AD's.

[Captain Craig]

I had thought I was the only one sensing a Gen Zero to Troublemakers analog vibe.

That said I feel there is still room for Troublemakers at some point. While I didn't just love the Trinity Angels I feel reimagining them as connected to or being in the same vein as Geomancers is something to explore.

[Anjohl]

I just dipped back into the Valiant U, and I think i'm staying, provisionally. I just read "Unity Vol 1", " Wrath of the Eternal Warrior Vol 1", and am re-reading "The Valiant". If they can keep Mattt Kindt and Jeff Lemire around, I will too.

[TheFerg714]

Quick thoughts on this week's books.
Ninjak 19- Pretty awesome. Loved the awkward moments that come from the camaraderie between our heroes. Silk was appropriately creepy. Really enjoyed the overall weirdness of the plot. Kindt is really taking this Ninjak (and the Valiant U) in some strange directions. This is probably some of Evans' best work imo. I didn't find the faces as wonky as usual (probably because everyone's old and wrinkly), and there were some pretty epic splash pages (Vegas in the future, from the perspective of the tip of a pyramid; Silk's Deadside buddy). And I surprisingly found myself really hype about the last page character reveal. Also, I found the fact that Gilad and Ninjak are comfortable with seeing eachother naked to be... interesting.
A&A 7- More tripe. I dislike this book more and more with every issue, especially because I'm currently rereading Van Lente's run, and this is just sucking the life out of these characters (specifically Archer). The plot is boring, pointless, and stupid. Armstrong's an idiot. There's no character development whatsoever. I don't care about the mystery. The art isn't bad, but wasn't as good as the last two issues. Ugh, I'm just so done with this book. Van Lente's run had some of this over-the-top silliness, but balanced it out by taking itself completely seriously. Yea, insane, ridiculous stuff happened, but it always felt grounded. This run just does not feel like "the world outside your window," like Valiant purports itself to be.
Also, I know this is weird, but why the hell does Archer not have a bulge? In the back half of the issue he wears this stupid, skin-tight outfit made for women, and there is literally nothing down there. Wtf?

Well Divinity is the only blatant analog they have.
Gen Zero always remind me of the Troublemakers for some reason.
When you read about Savage's origin it sounds closer to Tarzan than to Turok. The dinosaurs are the only thing that connects him to Turok.
War Mother is a tech scavenger in the future, while Magnus is a robot fighter, they are both very good at what they do and is respected within their society. The main difference is their environment coming from opposite 4001 AD's.

I still just don't see it dude. How does tech scavenger have anything to do with robot fighting? I'm sure, when/if we get the Magnus analog, he'll be quite different from the Magnus we know, but I think, at the very least, he/she will have something to do with robots. The similarities between the other "analogs," as I've elucidated, are pretty clear... Divinity: Man of the Atom; Savage: Dinosaur Hunter; War Mother: Robot Fighter?

I just dipped back into the Valiant U, and I think i'm staying, provisionally. I just read "Unity Vol 1", " Wrath of the Eternal Warrior Vol 1", and am re-reading "The Valiant". If they can keep Mattt Kindt and Jeff Lemire around, I will too.

Awesome. You definitely picked the right books to kick yourself back in. Wrath Vol. 2 is even better than the first one. I don't think Matt Kindt has any desire to leave. He's said, on many occasions, that he loves Valiant and wants to stay and help it grow. Don't get overly excited though. Most of his stuff is pretty quality, but Unity is wildly inconsistent, with ridiculous highs (To Kill a King), and bottom of the barrel lows (War-Monger). Jeff Lemire, on the other hand, is sort of a question mark. I think he's for sure in for at least 25 issues of Bloodshot, but we'll see what happens after that.

[Muadib]

Just caught up with Eternal Warrior. So pleased to see who the Dying One turned out to be. Callbacks to VH 1 is always appreciated, and the VH 1 version was Gilad's greatest enemy. Great job.

Enjoyed Ninjak 19, but itching to get back to finding out who the mysterious last member of the Shadow 7 is. Hoping its Sanada Goro, who was Ninjak's archenemy in VH 1.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

http://comicsalliance.com/beginners-...-introduction/

I found this set of articles while reading a Generation Zero review and thought it to be an interesting read.

Well a tech scavenger could still end up fighting robots for their parts to be refitted/reused.

[Muadib]

To me the "War Mother = Magnus" analogy lies in the fact both are 40th century warriors protecting their communities. War Mother doesn't fight robots, she's a tech scavenger, but she protects a 40thC community using her unique skills and abilities and has an AI companion. None of the 3 new characters are straight analogies, but they are definitely meant to replace the Gold Key characters, occupy similar but not the same thematic space and have enough differences and straight out changes that Gold Key cant sue for infringement.

VEI has cleverly avoided blatant copies, making something new and interesting that still calls back to the Gold Key characters.

Also i am convinced War Mother is come kind of Android or artificial human, which plays further with the elements of Magnus she borrows from.

[kinggirlfriend]

Finished IMPERIUM Volumes 3-4. Holy cow that was soooo good! Definitely a bit miffed that that's all there is right now. Can't imagine how you guys felt reading the floppies only to have it just stop. I'm excited to see what happens next!

[kinggirlfriend]

I should also note that yeah the artwork in the fourth volume leans towards straight Fumetti at times. Khari Evans work can usually go either way for me. The people are ok, and some of the backgrounds work but at times it just felt really lazy and rushed. Couldn't they have at least used the photo reference to trace? Still tho, that story was great.