Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

kinggirlfriend wrote:I like it a lot too.
Unfortunately none of it is ever followed up on. Volume 2 jumps to 4001AD and tells an entirely separate story. It also has no ties to RAI or any other future Valiant story. But I really like it. Volume 3, DAYS OF STEEL is also a separate tale set during the dark ages. It has wonderful art by Cary Nord and I just love it to pieces.

It's not until Venditti takes control in THE BOOK OF DEATH and WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR series that we get consistent characterization and world building. And he's a great part of Kindt's UNITY, IMO.

I've liked pretty much everything Valiant has done with Gilad, my only complaint is I wish there was more. I also wouldn't mind if they followed up on the ideas and worlds introduced in the first 2 volumes.
This bums me out to hear just ordered vol 2 :( .

I'm gonna wait for Wrath on HC cuz I'm collecting those now.

I REALLY love the one shot that came out earlier this year. I thought that would have made an excellent series.
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Keith »

I’m a little surprised you haven’t read more Divinity as Divinity II and Divinity III: Stalinverse are both out in TPB. Unless, of course, you’re waiting for a deluxe version.
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Keith wrote:I’m a little surprised you haven’t read more Divinity as Divinity II and Divinity III: Stalinverse are both out in TPB. Unless, of course, you’re waiting for a deluxe version.
I'm trying to when I can. :) I wanted to read E-Warrior for when the Wrath deluxe comes out. I know I'll love Divinity II and III really would love a nice oversized HC.
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Zhuge1 »

I wasn't a fan of the first Eternal Warrior volume, but I did enjoy volume 2 (Eternal Emperor) and Days of Steel quite a bit.

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

And my big package from Paradise came in today, which means I've got a zillion new TPBs to read :) .

Eternal Warrior Vol 2

I went through this fast. It was a very light story, very straightforward. The book is set in 4001 and completely ignores issues #1-4, a bit oddly to continue via the same series. It progressed, took us to a different environment each issue but the bottom line is someone made robots in 4001 with nuclear power, and didn't use protections, and everyone's getting irradiated. Gilad is going to fight off some of the people doing this, which leads to more people and more fights.

It's all very fine, and paced nicely. I liked the little girl who's GIlad's granddaughter apparently. Setting was a bit sparse, and didn't seem to have much to do with the rest of the 4001 in later Valiant. A fine self-contained story that felt like a stretched out one shot more than something building on anything.

Art was fine, sensible, good. Standard pro comic art, didn't see any problems.

And that's about it. I wouldn't say there was much special that stood out, nor was there anything that bothered me. It was an alright quick read.

7/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Dead Drop vol 1:

I read some negative reviews of this early and was prepared for it to be atrocious. Perhaps it was low expectations, but I found this a fine comic book. The concept is that someone stole a virus and it's being hunted down by heroes who all appear to be working for MI-6's initiative. It was pretty straight forward, there weren't a ton of surprises.

It was a little weird having each issue be from a different character's perspective. First Archer, then XO, then Beta Max (was this character introduced before?) and then a detective without powers. It came across a little disjointed because of that, and it didn't really hit many emotional highs or lows as we don't really get depth with the characters.

Art was okay. Pretty average comic quality, nothing exciting nor really problematic.

It was worth a flip through at a nice discounted rate from Paradise Comics with the rest of my books. Probably wouldn't reread and it doesn't need to be developed more. I guess the main qualm is there's no real impact on the characters or the valiant universe as a whole (except Beta Max).

6/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Imperium Vol 1.

Been waiting to get a copy of this for a long time. Really loved the Harbinger series and how it ended up (the last installment being the Harbinger: Omega miniseries), and couldn't wait for more. Imperium focuses on Harada vs. Project Rising Spirit as Harada tries to set up this "post scarcity society" and Rising Spirit fights it.

The first volume really is just an introduction to the conflict. Harada gets some strange folk on his side -- a Vine alien and a sentient AI, and Rising Spirit just seems to have problems keeping their own people under control. I really like the strange dimensional alien that takes over one of the Rising Spirit folk Angela -- a cool plot.

I also liked the intro to the series a lot. It takes place in the future 150 years from now and shows us a world changed into a star trek style utopia because of psiots. Very . interesting all around, and quite the contrast to the epic battles we see later in the issues.

Doug Brathwaite does the art, someone I'm a fan of from his recent XO Manowar work. It's not quite as crisp here, and I see how he's improved which is awesome, but it's still solid. Part of it is t he coloring's not quite as good as the new XO stuff.

Overall coming back to Dysart's work with the Harbinger corner of the universe is like having a fine wine, and then just checking out random other stuff at bevmo for like a year, coming back and drinking it again and remembering how much you loved it.

And cuz it's funny: #MakeSunlightOnSnowMajorMechAgain

9/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Chiclo »

otomo wrote:Dead Drop vol 1:

I read some negative reviews of this early and was prepared for it to be atrocious. Perhaps it was low expectations, but I found this a fine comic book. The concept is that someone stole a virus and it's being hunted down by heroes who all appear to be working for MI-6's initiative. It was pretty straight forward, there weren't a ton of surprises.

It was a little weird having each issue be from a different character's perspective. First Archer, then XO, then Beta Max (was this character introduced before?) and then a detective without powers. It came across a little disjointed because of that, and it didn't really hit many emotional highs or lows as we don't really get depth with the characters.

Art was okay. Pretty average comic quality, nothing exciting nor really problematic.

It was worth a flip through at a nice discounted rate from Paradise Comics with the rest of my books. Probably wouldn't reread and it doesn't need to be developed more. I guess the main qualm is there's no real impact on the characters or the valiant universe as a whole (except Beta Max).

6/10
Beta Max was a throw-away Quantum and Woody villain. He was the real winner of Dead Drop.

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

Chiclo wrote:
otomo wrote:Dead Drop vol 1:

I read some negative reviews of this early and was prepared for it to be atrocious. Perhaps it was low expectations, but I found this a fine comic book. The concept is that someone stole a virus and it's being hunted down by heroes who all appear to be working for MI-6's initiative. It was pretty straight forward, there weren't a ton of surprises.

It was a little weird having each issue be from a different character's perspective. First Archer, then XO, then Beta Max (was this character introduced before?) and then a detective without powers. It came across a little disjointed because of that, and it didn't really hit many emotional highs or lows as we don't really get depth with the characters.

Art was okay. Pretty average comic quality, nothing exciting nor really problematic.

It was worth a flip through at a nice discounted rate from Paradise Comics with the rest of my books. Probably wouldn't reread and it doesn't need to be developed more. I guess the main qualm is there's no real impact on the characters or the valiant universe as a whole (except Beta Max).

6/10
Beta Max was a throw-away Quantum and Woody villain. He was the real winner of Dead Drop.
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Chiclo wrote: Beta Max was a throw-away Quantum and Woody villain. He was the real winner of Dead Drop.
Ah! I'll have to read Q&W still.
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Been awhile. I actually have read a lot but haven't had time to review things up.

Imperium Vol 2.

Just as I started to lose interest a little as I couldn't quite root for anyone in the HARD Corps vs. Harada baddie on baddie action, it re-gets interesting as Divinity is introduced. I loved the little time loop thing and thought it was a fabulous storyline with Harada trying to outwit Divinity. Very satisfying couple of issues in there. Also loving the development of Sunlight On Snow and the vine killer creature.

Art is fine comic book quality, nothing to complain about.

9/10

Imperium Vol 3.

Now the Vine have gotten involved on a big level and are coming after Harada. We have some backstory elements that tell a lot of the history of the Valiant universe and Harada himself, as the Vine are connected to him. It's very brutal, a lot of death and destruction. I think the art quality especially in the flashbacks went down a little bit, but it's a compelling story overall.

The most human and interesting element of it is Sunlight On Snow hiding the woman in his quarters, who's connected to the vine and he doesn't know it. He rescued her rather than letting her die in the prior arc, and as that progresses, it gives a nice human element which is missing from a lot of the series. Though this is a side arc, it was the most interesting part of it for me.

8/10

Imperium Vol 4.

Livewire comes after Harada and teams up with the HARD Corps. This is a wrap-up series and it feels like it. A lot of action, very fast paced. Again I feel the art quality just dropped a little here compared to the opening of the story.

A lot less character development in here though it was nice seeing Livewire again and watching the extent of her powers as she escapes a number of traps. It's also interesting to see how well Harada has prepared for an assault. A good battle, but it feels like things kinda got reset and there wasn't too much development here. I would have liked for a bit more. This series wasn't as awesome as Harbinger, but still very enjoyable.

8/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Slowing down as I'm waiting for a lot of stuff in HC format or just not finding stuff like I used to. Also a bit less to read as I'm catching up pretty good. However I did finally snag Q&W HC, in time for the new series!

Quantum & Woody Vol 1.

This is the origin story, a superhero duo of an unlikely team. Quantum is a black guy who's doing well for himself, Woody an adopted white guy as his "brother" who is kinda a screw up. They stumble into powers, and then stumble into an investigation into they're father's death that leads to a Dr. Evil-like lair and hijinx ensue.

Hijinx ensue is a great way to describe the entire storyline as it's stumbling from one thing to the next. Some of the comedy is amusing, some of it's not, but it's alright overall. The characters are pretty solid, I actually find myself caring about them in the comedic setting is a plus. The "Woody's racist" jokes were funny the first couple times, but drag as the series progresses.

Art is pretty standard comic fare. Nothing exciting, nothing detracting. Was fine with it but wasn't anything I found special either.

Overall, a solid start to the series. I'm liking it, invested enough to keep reading (let's be honest, I would anyway) but don't love-love it.

7/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Quantum & Woody Vol 2.

This story bogged down very quickly with heavy anti-Christian, anti-right wing messaging over and over and over. Quantum gets tapped by a government agency to infiltrate a militia sect, who you guessed it, are white supremacists, idiots, rednecks, the usual. If I wanted to read this level of political signalling I'd be reading Marvel Comics! The writer makes his vitriol known on almost every page. The humor is just snark, and so it falls flat a lot, and it's a bit insulting to the readers' intelligence.

Art remained consistently the same in this volume, not quite as high quality as the last, but this storyline was unreadable for the heavy-handed politics and atop that, it was really dragged out pace wise. Could have been done in three issues or even two. It seems like the set ups in this book overall take a really long time for things to get going (was a part of the first arc, but it was more pronounced here without an origin story).

I like the clone-girl character, she's interesting at least, but not central enough to the storyline to have salvaged this one.

3/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by greg »

otomo wrote:Quantum & Woody Vol 2.

This story bogged down very quickly with heavy anti-Christian, anti-right wing messaging over and over and over. Quantum gets tapped by a government agency to infiltrate a militia sect, who you guessed it, are white supremacists, idiots, rednecks, the usual. If I wanted to read this level of political signalling I'd be reading Marvel Comics! The writer makes his vitriol known on almost every page. The humor is just snark, and so it falls flat a lot, and it's a bit insulting to the readers' intelligence.

Art remained consistently the same in this volume, not quite as high quality as the last, but this storyline was unreadable for the heavy-handed politics ...

3/10
Obama was President for two more years after this volume of Q&W.

Rather than being a reaction to current events, as you seem to indicate, it was basically a prophecy.

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Zhuge1 »

otomo wrote:Quantum & Woody Vol 2.

This story bogged down very quickly with heavy anti-Christian, anti-right wing messaging over and over and over. Quantum gets tapped by a government agency to infiltrate a militia sect, who you guessed it, are white supremacists, idiots, rednecks, the usual. If I wanted to read this level of political signalling I'd be reading Marvel Comics! The writer makes his vitriol known on almost every page. The humor is just snark, and so it falls flat a lot, and it's a bit insulting to the readers' intelligence.

Art remained consistently the same in this volume, not quite as high quality as the last, but this storyline was unreadable for the heavy-handed politics and atop that, it was really dragged out pace wise. Could have been done in three issues or even two. It seems like the set ups in this book overall take a really long time for things to get going (was a part of the first arc, but it was more pronounced here without an origin story).

I like the clone-girl character, she's interesting at least, but not central enough to the storyline to have salvaged this one.

3/10
I liked the volume quite a bit and enjoyed the character of Terrence Magnum -- I found him far more interesting and entertaining than the ERA (who reappear in volume 3). I think Asmus tried to take into account current events (for example, in the first volume, there's a character that looks like Antoine Dodson) of the time. I could be wrong about the timeline but think some of the references here related to the Cliven Bundy standoff in Nevada.

In addition, the scene where Woody almost drowned in a baptism was classic and many of the one-liners from Woody and Magnum were some of the best of the series to me.

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Well, I found that nearly unreadable. Different tastes! I actually found volume 3 a nice return to form on the story front:

Quantum and Woody Vol 3:

The ERA are back! and this time they have Thomas Edison in a giant squid monster robot form. It's ridiculous, it's over the top, that's what I'm talking about. They capture our intrepid heroes after busting Woody out of jail because of a heist woody went on. Failed relationships, lots of drama, a very compelling plot in this one. It was pretty ridiculous and I found it to be a lot of fun. Love the Goat twist involved as well.

Now this volume suffers a different problem, which in issues 11-12 the art quality tanks pretty hard. It's some of the lowest quality art I've seen from Valiant. It already was slipping a little from volume 1 but this was not very detailed and didn't match up well with the rest of the book. I did like the little quip in one issue when they did a flashback of edison in classic cartoonist form where it said "don't you hate when a book's got multiple artists?" or something like that. It was amusing, and, unfortunately it drew my attention to the fact this was happening in the book.

Despite the art change, the sequentials and the story flowed nicely all the way through. This ended as a cute book, not the best, but not the worst and it was fun enough. I still actually care about Sixty-Nine more than I do Quantum or Woody, now that I've completed the series. Which is kinda weird, but she was a good character.

7/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Zhuge1 »

Keep in mind there's also a volume 4 (Quantum and Woody Must Die).

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by kinggirlfriend »

....and DELINQUENTS which comes before Q&W MUST DIE.

I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying Volume 2. A big deal was made about how terrible the art is, and while Ming Doyle definitely struggles with cars and buildings and backgrounds, I thought the character work was outstanding. Some really great expressions and body language. Fun stuff!

Politics in comics has always been a thing. Nazi's and the like will always be the go-to for bad guy fodder. A book like Q&W is too silly IMO to take seriously. Sometimes a funny book is just a funny book.
Also I guess I like seeing Nazi's, rednecks and religious zealots getting knocked out. Sue me.

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Bah. I thought I was all caught up for the next month's release!
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Harbinger: Renegade Vol 1.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this after reading Harbinger and Imperium. Those were so epic in scope, but this had a completely different creative team. We get a much more pinpointed scope of a story here, tightly focused on Kris, Peter, Faith and a couple of new Harbingers (Torque is in it too, but minor role). There's a group of kids trying to activate new psiots. And they are doing so at the behest of an Alexander Solomon, a psiot who can predict the future. He's had his run ins with Harada, and it seems split off from him to some degree.

It's pretty slow paced, but the story still held my interest all the way through. It took almost the whole arc to bring the gang back together, and I kind of hate that decompressed storytelling. Also this was a very "talky" volume, just from a slowness perspective. Not a ton of action until issue #4. The historical preludes were pretty nice, as I loved going back and forth and found that well done.

I actually almost like Solomon as a villain better than Harada. He's cool and a bit different. He's the most intriguing aspect of this. Peter, by contrast, is aloof and not doing much, which I feel like they've stuck that character in a rut and they really need to break him out of it and get him to DO something again. Maybe this arc did that, we'll see how it progresses. Faith didn't have as many funny-geeky line moments which I generally find annoying, but when they're absent it feels a bit weird as well from the character perspective.

Art wise, solid, but nothing stand out. There were some awkward panels, and the detail seemed to vary as well, but overall it had an okay flow to it and no real problems. Nothing super exciting either.

Despite its flaws, the plot was intriguing, and I read it all in one sitting. I'm interested and invested in seeing where this goes, though I think my knowledge of the characters prior influenced that, as I've been jonesing for more adventures of them. But with a compelling villain, and some cool new cast, this is a good start to a series. I enjoyed.

8/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Generation Zero vol 1.

This book is the second bring back of Harbinger concepts in the last year or so. It centers on a girl in Michigan, and there's some weird stuff going on with technology from the future in the city of Rook. She's got a boyfriend who's kinda a revolutionary and they're getting together in a very backstory heavy first issue, and he dies a mysterious death. She contacts Generation Zero who comes out to help her.

The book gets bogged down in too much talking heads all the way through. They go back and forth and back and forth with very little action, very little sense of wonder or use of powers, the pacing was all off from issue one forward. It didn't help that they took issue 3 to do some scan of a girl's brain, which it was done Archie style -- I don't know if they got a different artist because the other one was running slow so they adjusted or what, but the storyline really fell flat. I actually liked that art in the fill in issue better than the main art which I'll get to in a second.

Francis Portela drew this book ugly. I mean everything's ugly. The colors are saturated and dark. Every person in it including the main character is completely unattractive to look at. Even if it weren't just talking heads for most of it, it was hard to want to continue to look at the book from the art perspective. It didn't feel right from that perspective. Even the beautiful cheerleader girl still had an ugly quality to her, it was as if the artist intentionally didn't want beauty to exist in this book. Always difficult to read from that perspective. The archie style issue actually helped that, as people at least kinda didn't feel as revolting in that section, even when they were the same characters.

The characters also all kinda talked the same -- and didn't feel like teenagers at all. The main girl felt like she was in college, and was pretty unlikable. I didn't get the point of having the autistic little brother other than she left him stranded, which made her MORE unlikable. As a highschooler, it was a bit creepy to see her naked in the sheets with a boyfriend... I mean that's a bit weird of underage content that just set a bad tone for the book. But the high school party felt like a college party, the dialogue didn't fit the way teenagers talk-- it ends up in Fred Van Lente-snark-speak, which he does in almost every book he's in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and in this it didn't.

There was just no sense of wonder. No coolness to Gen Zero's powers. They didn't do a ton other than invade some girls' mind and talk a lot. The confrontations with the police felt forced and unnatural. It just didn't work out, sadly. Van Lente's books are always hit or miss for me. it's about 50/50 so far, but this one really didn't work out well.

4/10
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otomo
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

Generation Zero vol 2:

This is pretty much a continuation of the story from volume one, except now we get to the meat of the story. Generation Zero goes into an invisible hidden realm and uncovers the mysteries surrounding what's going on in this town. The main baddie's daughter ends up with superhero powers and fighting them as well, and we get a lot of good action through this arc.

The art quality was decent in issues 6-9 comprising this volume, a little better than where I found some issues with it in the first volume.

There's not a lot to say about this volume as it's just a spoiler-wrap up of everything set up in the first. It does wrap up fairly well. I think the series would have done better without so many establishing issues up front and if it dove more into the meat of it like in vol 2. It was worth the read, though I also recommend reading this before Harbinger Renegade.

8/10
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otomo
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by otomo »

It's been awhile! I'm running out of old TPBs to go through. Only a few left and I'm pretty much up on all current run issues. I still need to go through the A&A hardcover, the Divinity HC that just came out (which I'm doing now) and then Ninjak vol 2 HC next month. I've got Delinquents but want to catch up on A&A first. And that's it. This thread will die! In the meantime:

Divinity II:

The follow up to one of my favorite VEI storylines. I reread Divinity in prep for this since, and was very happy I did. I certainly wouldn't recommend going into this without the first volume. It would be imminently confusing. It does make this less of a good standalone story because of that, but it was still interesting. I'd wondered what happened to the other two astronauts from the first book, and this answers it. Spoilers if you haven't read the first, the female astronaut gets the same powers Divinity does from the weird cloud in space, she comes back, and she is flipped out that the USSR is not a power any longer. She tries to reset time, fights Dvinity, they tell stories back and forth, and eventually she just stops.

The conclusion was a little anti-climactic. The last two issues was her telling an old russian tale, and then divinity telling an old russian tale. It felt a bit drawn out and uninspired. I didn't dislike it, was fun, but I think this could have been done in 3 or even 2 issues because it was a straight forward stories. I can tell Kindt had trouble drawing it out because of a big number of splash pages -- something he doesn't do too often in his writing.

It was straightforward, and alright, but missed a bit of a fun factor to the story, and didn't have the "wow this is different" aspect Divinity I had with the followers and the pulling the heroes into different times. I was hoping this would tie in and do more for the world.

The art was very nice, no complaints in that department, It was on par with the first issue and Hairsine did a great job.

Overall, I just wanted a little more from this, probably because of how mind blowing volume I was. It wasn't bad, but not inspiring either.

7/10
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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by tarheelmarine »

otomo wrote: Mon May 29, 2017 5:51:07 pm Well then, I'd have to slow down at some point just because of $ and because that half-price books collection would dwindle. And so I did. Waiting on X-O vol 9 to get into my comic shop (not sure what's taking so long) as they had 10-13, so I'll be wrapping that up as soon as that arrives. For now, I had Rai vols 1-2 and just picked up 3 and got to reading those:

Rai vol 1.

Rai is really refreshingly different. A nice digital-art story and some of the best art I've seen in Valiant so far. I enjoy the whole set up, the whole 4001 universe, everything about new Japan and how it works. Really cool setting that's imaginative and an awesome sci-fi utopia. The character of Rai is cool too.

Kindt's storytelling has a lot of depth and is super fast paced as I've seen in his other work. I love how the perspective of Lula is set up, love the whole thing with the resistance and the like, and how Rai is a conflicted protector -- working for the father, yet seeing something wrong. The whole way he gets set off and triggered to kick off the storyline is beautiful work. There's a huge cast of characters, with a couple of names I recognize -- Dr. Silk, Spylocke, which I'm not sure if they're the same or different as I've come across elsewhere, but it's cool.

The art, as i mentioned before is some of the most beautiful I've seen. I've read Crain's Carnage book before and he is really excellent at making creepy looking things, and with his own style that's perfect for a sci-fi story like this. More creepy stuff the better, as he seems to really take his time detailing all that.

A great kickstart to a series and love the whole set up. The art will be the same quality and consistency all the way through (which I appreciate) so that's all I'm going to talk about there. 10/10

Rai Vol 2.




This volume starts off strong and gets weird with its perspective change as it talks about how the revolution went. I feel like maybe Kindt bit off more than he could chew and a lot of the changes/conclusion was rushed when it could have been extended a couple issues and stuck with the storytelling before. In a lot of ways it felt like a series wrap-up even though I know the series continues for another volume. This is Empire Strikes Back bad guy does his damage if the first volume was A New Hope, but because of that strange perspective shift, I wasn't as enthralled with this volume as the first. I really do like a lot that happened here, however. The history of Rai and predecessors is really interesting, Momo is a great character. Ivar is also really cool, and tying in the Valiant Universe with the Geomancer character are other benefits. Still, it wasn't quite up to what I was wowed about in the first volume. 8/10

Rai Vol 3.

And we get right back to it. This was a fast paced volume again I read in one sitting. The side-characters set up before have formed their own resistance together to take down the Father and New Japan. Rai is cast out to earth with his own adventure, trying to find help, rehabilitate and get back to New Japan. Epic battles ensue, I love all of the cartoon watching in between battles that the characters do, and how those have subliminal messaging that Spylocke encoded into them. There's danger looming and so much more of New Japan to discover. I was a little thrown off that Izak has this whole group of his aliens there that just are there hidden in a section, but I was able to suspend disbelief of that a little bit. Love Rai's adventures on earth and everything he did there. It ends in a nice cliffhanger that gets wrapped up in 4001, which I didn't know, and that's my only gripe that I now have to wait to get another book. About the most exciting Valiant stuff I've read here. The art coloring wise in this issue took a darker turn -- and I feel like some of that dark muted colors stepped on Crain's super-detailed art at points, but it's a minor complaint as that matched the tone of the book. 10/10
I recently read all three TPBs and your reviews are spot on. TPB 3 flew by so quick. I will be reading EW TPB 2, and just ordered 4001 Deluxe to see how it all ends.

What happened to the eight Rai? Did he die or do we see him again?

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Re: Discovering the Valiant (VEI TPB Reviews)

Post by Sunlight on Snow »

tarheelmarine wrote: Tue Dec 13, 2022 3:00:11 pm What happened to the eight Rai? Did he die or do we see him again?
He tried to transfer his energy into the current Rai before he got smashed by X-Eye (on the next page).


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