Valiant keeps killing It!

[Hawkeyeps]

Would be nice, but also possible he is referring to Sandria Darque.

Maybe both, issue #5 looks like something BIG!

[stephen wacker]

I don't think Allan Moore, Neil Gaiman or Frank Miller were ever just "trying to sell comics".

When DC was too concerned about giving Moore the Charleton characters to play with, because he might damage their long-term marketability, he just created his own archetypal characters and produced one of the most praised creative works of the past 50 years.

I'm not comparing anything at VALIANT to those creators' seminal works (though I think Harbinger will one day soon be held in very high regard), just that Wacker has no fucking clue what this medium's potential is.

I come to bury comics!

Hawkeye 6.... on sale this week!

Mwa ha ha ha !

SW

[Dark-Flux]

Well, uh... im loving all of Valiants output.
And Daredevil and Hawkeye (and to a lesser extent Captain Marvel and Venom) are top of my reading pile each month.

I guess I need to pick a side or I cant play? :(

[hunter_peterson]

I come to bury comics!

Hawkeye 6.... on sale this week!

Mwa ha ha ha !

SW

Well, uh... im loving all of Valiants output.
And Daredevil and Hawkeye (and to a lesser extent Captain Marvel and Venom) are top of my reading pile each month.

I guess I need to pick a side or I cant play? :(

While I love Valiant, Wacker is an excellent editor. His books consistently outperform other Marvel ones. Also, I think his posts on the forums are largely both well reasoned and hilarious. If he plays fast and loose with continuity, it's becaus Marvel's is so convoluted and tangled anyway that it's often better ignored and the creators doing what they want very often is a sound strategy. I'd love to see what he'd do with a full reboot, same with Alonso. I imagine they'd be great at facilitating the world-building that we see with Valiant.

That said, his comments were pretty cynical. But he's also right, which is less bad than it sounds. If the books weren't financial endeavors, they'd be free. Especially in the case of ongoings, economic benefit is pretty much what defines whether or not a book is a success and will continue.

Anyway, back to Valiant... I really can't wait for the next Shadowman arc. I like that series the least of the five, but it also has an obviously huge potential that I think will be expressed more and more as Jordan and Zircher get into synch. That, and I felt the same about A&A before the end if the first arc. Once the momentum gets going, the awesome train rolls!

[oldforce]

Yeah, sorry dudes. Valiant's killing it, but not much harder than anyone else if you look at the output from other publishers that appeals to you. Don't have to hate one to love another. For superhero books, Valiant's are as good as any of the best. But they don't publish Saga or Revival or Fatale. Rick Remender doesn't write for Valiant.

Life's about choices, but in comics I can have it all.

[Sentinel Supreme]

I get what some of yall are saying about being burnt out by Marvel and all - but lets not act like the entire company has gone to the crapper. Hickman has released some essential comics the past few years over there - plus Jason Aaron and Rick Remender are no slouch for bringing fresh and edgy stuff to long running characters. Theres still very high quality books out of Marvel.

Valiant's new launch has been amazing. I get excited every time a new book is released. And as a long time Valiant fan from way back it seems impossible to miss any title or issue. A smaller, tight continuity, and highly varied books with limitless possibilities does all the tricks.

Agreed. The Valiant relaunch has been very good, but that also doesn't take away from the fact that Marvel NOW has been MUCH better than I think anyone expected. The overall quality of Marvel NOW has been excellent, and there are a ton of books (Deadpool, X-Men Legacy, All New X-Men, Avengers Arena) I'd never thought I'd buy that I am now completely hooked on.

Valiant has a few good titles coming out on a monthly basis, that's a good start, but it doesn't mean I'm going to become the Valiant equivalent of a Marvel Zombie and bash Marvel/DC while only reading Valiant. Frankly, I've given each of the Valiant titles a chance over the past few months, but I'm probably going to drop at least a couple of their titles in the coming months for budgetary reasons and because I'm just not feeling the overall direction of the book. The only title that is really exempt from that right now is Harbinger, whereas everything else they're putting out right now is "wait and see."

[stephen wacker]

Well, uh... im loving all of Valiants output.
And Daredevil and Hawkeye (and to a lesser extent Captain Marvel and Venom) are top of my reading pile each month.

I guess I need to pick a side or I cant play? :(

There are no sides. Just some waaay too angry people being silly online.

What is true is that Valiant's had a helluva year. I really look forward to seeing what Warren and the gang have up their sleeve for 2013.

SW

[Scurlogg_Hawkk]

From whole bunch of comic-books i really like x-o manowar.The new Shadowman ,but i wait for him go more like 7 issue to try it

[BugsySig]

I come to bury comics!

Hawkeye 6.... on sale this week!

Mwa ha ha ha !

SW

Well, you replied to my post, so I take it all back Most are not able to let our fanboy rants slide off their back so easily, which I think speaks volumes.

I do like Hawkeye, and I am intrigued by FF and Young Avengers. But as those titles are a bit "out of the box" my fear is always that they will be cancelled, like many similar books I supported in the past. I know Marvel & DC have a business to run, but the constant rebranding and relaunching of books like Avengers and XMen (which will sell regardless of those strategies) seems to draw readers away from the "smaller" books. Either that or it pushes readers away who are tired of their favorite books constantly being reworked and the continuity they have invested in being trashed (more so with the New 52 than Marvel NOW).

[havok1977]

There are no sides. Just some waaay too angry people being silly online.

What is true is that Valiant's had a helluva year. I really look forward to seeing what Warren and the gang have up their sleeve for 2013.

SW

Very graceful Steve, thats the kind of comment that makes me glad to be a fan and follow this industry.

[hunter_peterson]

There are no sides. Just some waaay too angry people being silly online.

What is true is that Valiant's had a helluva year. I really look forward to seeing what Warren and the gang have up their sleeve for 2013.

SW

Now I'm just imagining you pretending to read a Spider-Man comic at the office with a Valiant one inside it... research! Of course it's research!

[Hawkeyeps]

Here's another little tid bit about the mind set over at Marvel, from the boards over at Bleeding Cool-

Steve Wacker-No comic company has ever cared about the "greater scheme of things". Every comic you've ever loved was simply people trying to sell some comics that month.

That's the way of commercial art. If it becomes a perennial...then all the better. BUt if you aim for that, you more often than not miss.

BC Poster- Also, bullshit on the part in bold. Shooter has talked specifically, and extensively, about his mission when he arrived at Marvel, to build creative equity in the characters and to tell good stories. Those are the bedrocks of how he built the company. But I know that is lost on someone who is strip-mining the characters and generally trying to stay afloat - and is content to do so

Wacker- I can't be responsible for your naiveté.

I like to think VALIANT is an exception to Wacker's rule, "strip-mining" that was a great line.

Simons: I want to make it really clear that one of the great things about working up here is the first question we have when we start every series, or when we started every series, is never who can we get that will sell the most units? The thing that we stress over and over again is just story, story, story. For me, as an editor, that's why it's such a great place to work, and I think that's why some of the freelancers we work with love working here. The main thing that we're targeting over and over again is the story. Just like Valiant was such an extraordinary leader in story when it first launched 20 years ago, that's something we're trying to replicate here, and just tell great, great, powerful stories. We're not marching into this saying, "How can we spike sales? How can we get the numbers higher? Who can we get?" That's not the stuff we're looking at -- what we're looking at is how to make great comics.

No company has ever cared about the "greater scheme of things".... huh Wacker?

That doesn't sound like what Warren was saying.

Go drink more Kool-aid Steve, you sound like you almost believe your own shit. The fact that you (and Marvel) have copped this attitude is a big problem and also the perfect reason for the existence of VALIANT.

[Captain Craig]

pwned

LOL!!

[400yrs]

There are no sides. Just some waaay too angry people being silly online.

What is true is that Valiant's had a helluva year. I really look forward to seeing what Warren and the gang have up their sleeve for 2013.

SW

Keep up the great work, Steve! Haters gonna hate.

Very much looking forward to ASM 700 next week. Whatever Slott does is gold as far as I'm concerned. And I hope the ending pisses me off a bit. Who wants to read vanilla comics (aside from crazy fanboys)? I'm avoiding spoilers like a madman.

I re-read #600 yesterday in preparation and man, was that book awesome!



If you notice in that interview, Warren says that sales haven't influenced story yet. If you read that CBR interview carefully, there are some concerning snippets in there. Particularly one of Atom! Freeman's comments (I think it was).

I'm loving Valiant, but the negativity around it (whether attacking or defending) gets old. VEI has always taken the high road. Can't the fans?

[Queso6p4]

Most definitely. I don't read too many Valiant titles but the ones I do read are very well-done.