Valiant Comics

[annihilator]

This comic company was around in the 90's and was very popular for a while. HAve you ever read any Valiant comics? Which titles were good?

[hshaukat]

I used to read a lot of the Valiant titles. I revisted some of them a few months ago, and sadly they just don't stack up these days. I found them compelling back when they were new, but I find them bland now.

That being said, my favorite of the Valiant titles was definitely Harbinger. It was more of a soap-opera than anything else if you ask me, but I liked it.

I was a big fan of their big UNITY crossover as well.

[Ryan Day]

Barry Windsor-Smith's 12-issue run on Archer & Armstrong remains one of my favourite comics ever; I think it still holds up very well. Very unique, funny book with fantastic art.

I really enjoyed Harbinger at the time, though I haven't re-read it in years. Shadowman was excellent for a while; just stop reading before Aerosmith shows up. Solar did some really interesting stuff.

Generally, I think most people would recommend the early stuff: Lots of great creators working on interesting concepts that weren't necessarily superhero-centric, until things just fell apart from overexposure and non-stop hype. Once they got into the second wave of titles, like HARDcorps, Turok, Ninjak, and that team-up book (Secret Something?), things just got lame.

[annihilator]

So titles like Ninjak and Bloodshot, which were later Valiant titles aren't good?

[Ryan Day]

So titles like Ninjak and Bloodshot, which were later Valiant titles aren't good?

IMO, anyway. Some people may disagree; really, I think Bloodshot was probably the beginning of the end, as it was a massively hyped book with a super-nifty Chromium cover that starred a fairly generic anti-hero with guns. Heck, it was competing for hype with the Death of Superman. Like most of the rest of the industry, Valiant expanded too quickly and kind of collapsed; too much hype, too many super-duper-fancy-foil-holo covers.

I did enjoy John Ostrander's Magnus, though. That came later on (and began with a fancy all-foil cover.

[Young Avenger]

IMO, anyway. Some people may disagree; really, I think Bloodshot was probably the beginning of the end, as it was a massively hyped book with a super-nifty Chromium cover that starred a fairly generic anti-hero with guns. Heck, it was competing for hype with the Death of Superman. Like most of the rest of the industry, Valiant expanded too quickly and kind of collapsed; too much hype, too many super-duper-fancy-foil-holo covers.

I did enjoy John Ostrander's Magnus, though. That came later on (and began with a fancy all-foil cover.

I thought the beginning of the end was when video game publisher Acclaim brought the company.

[sePL]

I enjoyed the Rai (and the Future Force)TPB.
X-O Manowar TBP was very entertaining. It has great artwork and a well written story.
Try Solar Alpha/Omega ? collection. Really great. This Solar guy puts Superman in his pocket.

[founder81]

Simple way to tell if a valiant books is good

Begging -> Unity = good stuff

Post unity -> Choas Effect = mostly good

Post Choas effect -> opinoins vary, imo not very good stuff

---

A not so simple way to tell if a book is good

Company with Jim SHooter at the helm = good stuff

After Shooter was pushed out, but BWS and Bob Layton still in creative control = mostly good

After all the talented creators lost control (and BWS and Bob Layton left) = opinoins vary, imo not good stuff.

[Schmakt]

I managed to round up a full collection of all Valiant comics published... but was never able to read past Birthquake... I suppose I should get around to that at some point...

like founder81 said... all the Pre-Unity stuff, I found enjoyable. And the Unity saga itself was sweet. Rai was probably my favorite tho. After it became Rai and the Future Force... a big thumbs down. Shadowman tho... I enjoyed that pretty much until the end. Ninjak and Bloodshot were ok, but nothing spectacular. I kind of liked HardCorps for a while too...

and early Secret Weapons... after the team changed, I hated this book so much...

I always thought Eternal Warrior had some really cool ideas in it as well. Maybe my favorite book - when considering its full run.

[Quato]

Anything published before Rai #0 is good (including Rai #1-8 which were published prior). Anything after Rai #0 is crap... utter crap. The wrestling & nintendo comics are even better than the stuff after rai #0.

Q

[matt levin]

I liked Archer and Armstrong a lot, and there was a super-group of teens.... confusing it with DNAgents and Liberty Force and Next Men and all those; but I remember liking Valiant's take on the idea. Or am I really confusing things!?

I liked Archer and Armstrong a lot, certain for the first couple of years!

Matt

[riftt]

shouldnt this be in classic comics?

there are plenty of good valiants post rai #0

[Yoda]

I just picked up the entire Unity cross over, Magus 1-4, Shadowman #1 and Archer & Armstrong #0 & 8. I'm surprised how well they hold up actually, having read them when they first came out and sold them off before Valiant implodeded. I'd really like to track down a run of Solar.

I'd say the early stuff definitely holds up as quality comics, and for the later stuff the Magnus Malev War is a good run.

[Schmakt]

I just picked up the entire Unity cross over, Magus 1-4, Shadowman #1 and Archer & Armstrong #0 & 8. I'm surprised how well they hold up actually, having read them when they first came out and sold them off before Valiant implodeded. I'd really like to track down a run of Solar.

I'd say the early stuff definitely holds up as quality comics, and for the later stuff the Magnus Malev War is a good run.

check www.valiantfans.com :)

[drwho]

I did try alot of valiant books when they first came out. My faves were

Solar
Bloodshot- The character had a neat look and was a cool killing machine
Dr. Mirage- interesting character with a cool rivalry with Master Darque
Turok- This book was pretty fun even though each storyline centered around which new evil dinasaur shows up next.
HardCorps- The book was an interesting take on a team book
X-Omanowar- This book always had good art and writing.

When Valiant tried to relaunch the books as ACClaim the titles that I enjoyed were X-O Manowar and they had an interesting new take on Shadowman.