How to break into Valiant 0

[Cocomonkey]

Not sure if this is the right spot (figure it is?), and tried searching but couldn't find another thread on this topic...

I grew up almost entirely reading Marvel and DC, and have since gotten into various other publisher titles, but have largely stayed away from Valiant, because unlike most of the others, Valiant is an actual shared universe, whereas most of the others have self-contained titles (unless there's some kind of Manifest Destiny/Savage Dragon/Outcast connection I'm unaware of...). However, while I enjoyed Stalinverse and some of the more recent books that have come out, they've also highlighted how little I know about Valiant and its characters. I want to get more into it, but don't know where to start.

Anyone know of any decent kind of reading order for the Valiant books, or have any suggestions on where to begin? Even if it's just a matter of "Read A, B, and C titles until they hit X event/crossover, then read that, then continue with them plus D and E until Y event, etc.)."

Mainly just trying to figure out where to begin and how to tackle them 

Thanks in advance!

[Ken Aldred]

Pre-Unity Valiants first, especially Solar, Magnus, Harbinger, Shadowman, Rai, X-O Manowar.

Extremely good reading material up to and including the Unity mini-series. Some of the best comics of the 90s, actually.

Of the reboots in the 2010s, I’ve only read Harbinger, X-O Manowar and Unity; all consistently very good.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[lizards2]

I loved Harbinger. Although I have Solar and Magnus, I don't remember if a read them.  Another that I remember having good stories is Archer & Armstrong.

[ygogolak]

Bloodshot Reborn. Not tied into anything, stands alone.

[Ken Aldred]

41 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

Another that I remember having good stories is Archer & Armstrong.

Forgot that one.

 Nice BWS art in the early 90s issues as well.

 

 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[CKB]

If you head over to ValiantFans.com, you can find the release order for all the new VEI books, which is what I assume you are currently reading.  I doubt there is anything better than release order!

For VH1, you can not only find "release order" but a number of suggested "reading orders" for the first universe.

It is 100% not required to read VH1 to get into VEI.  But you are missing out if you don't at least get the background of the pre-unity books from the early 90s.  Missing out just because they are very good.

 

[roach04]

I'll echo what others have said! 

Pre-Unity VH1 are among the very best comic book stories from the entire decade of the 1990s.  I'd honestly put the first four issues of Magnus, Robot Fighter ("Steel Nation")  in strong competition for my favourite story from that whole time period.  It's really that good.  Once Jim Shooter was forced out, the quality wasn't as good, but as stated the BWS Archer & Armstrong were excellent and really anything BWS did for Valiant was either really fun or really awesome (Solar Alpha & Omega) ...or both!

X-O Manowar #0 - chromium cover and all - has a really enjoyable Joe Quesada/Jimmy Palmiotti drawn story.

As per @CKB, Valiantfans.com is the place to go for all things Valiant.  Brilliant resource.  My VEI reading - all of Robert Vendetti's X-O Manowar was great.  Dysart's Harbinger as well.  And since Jeff Lemire starting writing Bloodshot it's been among the best books that show up at my place every month!

Good luck and enjoy.  Once you go Valiant (even I've stopped following Shooter's commands of all-caps VALIANT, all the time!), you'll be hooked!

[Cocomonkey]

Thanks for all the advice and the link! Valiantfans.com looks like a good resource. I'll keep digging around there, but it looks like there are a few reading orders listed...some of which conflict with some others, of course 

I'll keep digging around there, see what I can put together...I'd rather go chunk by chunk than jump title to title with each issue, so I may lean more towards following this list over something like the one in this thread, but not sure.

[valiantman]

As others have said, it's not necessary to read any of the 1990s Valiant books to get into the current line (started in 2012), but the original Valiant books were the inspiration (and most of the first appearances, from a collector standpoint) for what Valiant is doing today.  The ValiantFans.com message board has multiple new members who have a similar story, reading Marvel/DC for many years, getting frustrated with Marvel/DC lately, gave Valiant a shot on a whim (or because the first one was free), now they can't get enough of Valiant.   Yep, those of us who have been reading the new books since 2012 thought that might happen. 

Valiant's official recommendation for their new books is their "Start Here" page: http://valiantentertainment.com/start-here/

There's also an official page for preview pages to give the look/feel of the pages of the books if anything looks interesting: http://valiantentertainment.com/category/sneak-preview/ 

If you want a one-page document (fan made) that gives you the basic "roadmap" of the new (2012-current) books, try this one: http://www.valiant101.com/valiant2012to2020.pdf

That's about the easiest way to figure out what's what for the titles, when they were released, and what came immediately before/after if you jump into the middle at any point.

Edited November 2, 2017 by valiantman

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

Go get this book.  Go read this book.  Origin story of how the armor is obtained.  Fantastic story.

 

[valiantman]

1 hour ago, AnthonyTheAbyss said:

Go get this book.  Go read this book.  Origin story of how the armor is obtained.  Fantastic story.

 

Good one - if at all possible, do NOT pay $3.50 for it.  They are still in 50cent and dollar bins around the world.

For the comics industry as a whole, this book is ALSO the first full chromium wraparound cover ever.  Give credit or blame as desired. 

Edited November 2, 2017 by valiantman

[Cocomonkey]

4 minutes ago, valiantman said:

Good one - if at all possible, do NOT pay $3.50 for it.  They are still in 50cent and dollar bins around the world.

For the comics industry as a whole, this book is ALSO the first full chromium wraparound cover ever.  Give credit or blame as desired. 

Having grown up with 90s comics...blame, all the way blame!

I wasn't sure, setting out, how much the 90s stuff still mattered, or if the more recent relaunches were hard reboots. I'm still interested in the 90s stuff, but maybe I'll go from 2012-today first, and then start backtracking, especially as it sounds like 2012 was basically a hard relaunch? Like, I read the Bloodshot relaunch #1 earlier this year, and it starts off with like, 4 Bloodshots in there, so clearly there's history existing before that #1. Guessing if I go back to 2012 and start there, I'll be fine?

It isn't so much disappointment with Marvel/DC's current output (though that is a factor, at least with DC, and chunks but not all of Marvel...) or the higher quality of Valiant's current output (I couldn't judge that, not having read the earlier output). It's been a back-of-my-mind thing to do for a long time now. I like tackling comic reading projects (all of the Star Wars comics from the original Marvels on, all of LoSH from their 1st appearance on, etc.), and have been trying to figure out a new project. Seemed like a good time to finally catch up on Valiant (that and/or GI Joe from the start--but I was more of a Transformers kid than a GI Joe kid, so that's a little lukewarm to me).

[valiantman]

Bloodshot #1 from earlier this year would have been either Bloodshot USA #1 or Bloodshot Salvation #1... which are the start of new arcs, not a relaunch.  Valiant relaunched Bloodshot #1 in 2012, which went up to issue #25, then they did Bloodshot Reborn #1 in 2015, which went up to #18.  Bloodshot USA was a four-issue mini-series.  Bloodshot Salvation is a longer series, current in progress.

You wouldn't need to know anything about 1990s Bloodshot to understand Bloodshot #1 from 2012, but if you want to grab the Bloodshot origins you'd need Rai #0, Eternal Warrior #4 & #5 from 1992.  Bloodshot #1 (1993) started the series which went up to #51.  Acclaim had a very different version of Bloodshot in 1997-1998, but the current Valiant stories for Bloodshot use whatever they liked best from the originals (Valiant and Acclaim) and whatever is new since the 1990s (21st century stories, technology, etc.).

Long story short, yes, if you go back to 2012, you can start there.  Most of those 2012 trade paperbacks are pretty cheap if you get them used or if you like digital, most of the older books (not recent issues) are priced nicely.  Since you enjoyed Stalinverse, you might want to jump right to Divinity (2015) and read Divinity I and II (mini-series) which happened right before Stalinverse. That would get you caught up to Eternity which just started.