Should I read these next ....

[kinggirlfriend]

... Or should I skip them altogether?

So I jumped on the NuValiant bandwagon sometime last year and I'm essentially caught up except for a few trades and series. Below is the list of what I have yet to read. But reading reviews and opinions and considering my own personal preferences I'm not sure they're worth my time and money. That being said I've loved everything else I've read from Valiant and want to read more (!) so there's a big chance I might end up liking them.

So please give me your opinion, sell me on these titles or tell me why I shouldn't bother.

A+A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong (I love the Van Lente series, LOVE IT!)
Dead Drop (Never heard a good thing said about it.)
Faith (all series) (I like Faith in Harbinger, not sure if I want to read a whole series devoted to her. Especially with the day job angle.)
Shadowman #11-16 (1-9 were super generic, IMO, but #0 & 10 were phenomenal. I also loved the Ninjak Deadside arc and Rapture. Which surprised me, I was prepared to hate it)
Shadowman: End Times (Like Dead Drop, never heard a good thing said about it.)

Older Stuff:
Shadowman by Ennis (Looks neat.)
Q&A by Priest and Bright (Love the recent series. Never read any of the original series.)

Also I trade wait (mostly) and I'm on the fence about these:
War Mother (Looks, uh, not well thought out. The whole angle looks odd to me. I hate saying this because I like Fred so much, even liked GEN ZERO. But this looks so clunky.)
Faith & Future Force (Just seems a little too, I dunno, slight.)

[geocarr]

Q&W by Priest and Bright (Love the recent series. Never read any of the original series.)

Definitely read this!! Sooo Good!!

[jeremycoe]

Q&W by Priest and Bright (Love the recent series. Never read any of the original series.)

Definitely read this!! Sooo Good!!

Agreed, although don't expect Priest and Bright's run to be quite as wacky as the VEI version. It's a lot more nuanced.

[kinggirlfriend]

Thanks, guys! I will definitely check it out.

[possumgrease]

A+A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong (I love the Van Lente series, LOVE IT!)
Dead Drop (Never heard a good thing said about it.)
Faith (all series) (I like Faith in Harbinger, not sure if I want to read a whole series devoted to her. Especially with the day job angle.)
Shadowman #11-16 (1-9 were super generic, IMO, but #0 & 10 were phenomenal. I also loved the Ninjak Deadside arc and Rapture. Which surprised me, I was prepared to hate it)
Shadowman: End Times (Like Dead Drop, never heard a good thing said about it.)

It's like you made a perfect list of what to avoid.

[kinggirlfriend]

LOL! I guess so far I've made the right decision then. Still I'd love to hear from anyone that thought there was something worthwhile in there.

[possumgrease]

I may have been a little unfair.

The Faith miniseries was good. It was lighthearted which may or may not have appealed to you. I personally did not care for the "ongoing."

The Shadowman main series, while somewhat forgettable, introduces Punk Mambo. The miniseries shows you what poor choices Jack made that lead him to the state he's in. You could read wiki or you could read the mini and get the same value.

Dead Drop contained adventures of characters who share the appearances and names of actual Valiant characters, but don't be fooled--these are not those characters. If hold your nose and pretend it's a parallel version, you may enjoy it.

A&A was not my cup of tea. I thoroughly enjoyed Van Lente's run. Maybe A&A is just too intellectual for me, but Gib Gub, the talking fish, the magic satchel being a physical location...quite frankly, it made me a bit nauseous. Or is nauseated? See. Further proof I may not have the brainpower to grasp the author's genius.

[kinggirlfriend]

Thanks! I appreciate your candor.

[nycjadie]

I've enjoyed the War Mother series so far. It reminds me of some of the early 80s Heavy Metal stories, but updated and better.

If that's the only stuff you haven't read yet, well done!

[kinggirlfriend]

Thanks! It was a fun ride, but now I want more! MORE!

[geocarr]

Seems like quite a few people liked the Faith mini.

Faith #1 Discussion
Faith #2 Discussion
Faith #3 Discussion
Faith #4 Discussion

[Zhuge1]

I enjoyed the Shadowman by Ennis trade quite a bit. It's from the Acclaim days of the book and is *very* different from what you've read so far in Shadowman.

If you're looking to be careful with your money, I'd avoid Shadowman 11-16 and End Times. End Times in particular is just terrible (terrible story and just horrendous art).

[kinggirlfriend]

Different's good, I like different.

That's such a shame about the second half of Shadowman. 9 issues is a long time in Valiant years. A big part of it is just me jonesing for more Shadowman. Looking forward to whatever they do with the new series in 2018.

Lighthearted is ok, it all depends on the quality, and expectations too I guess. A&A can be a little goofy, but for me the sense of adventure and discovery is the big draw. It needs to feel real and grounded. I loved the IMMORTAL BROS one-shot, it felt like proper A&A.

Thanks for the FAITH links. I guess I should at least try the mini series. I didn't realize @x and Torque show up. And I do like the artist.

[Dr. Solar]

Faith is great.

I am never particularly excited for it ahead of time, but once I am reading it, I always enjoy it and have fun.

[slack]

The Faith ongoing is a bunch of 2 issue arcs that combine into a light hearted trope-y super-hero/super-villain story that is ultimately a fun read. Faith and the Future Force carries right on from there.

When you're caught up with the super serious stuff, you should check out Faith.

A&A had it's moments. What kept me interested was the fact that it largely focused on Armstrong. It built a bit more of his personality and motivations. The art was hard to look at (for me). But I think if this same story had been published with similar art to the original series, it would've been a little better received.

Shadowman, that's definitely where it started to go off the rails. It was not terrible... Time will tell if any of it is important.

Dead Drop will probably just *SQUEE* you off. Characterizations are almost ALL completely off. That's sad because the art was pretty decent.

[kinggirlfriend]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

I went ahead and ordered the first trade of FAITH. When I get more funds I'll check out the original Q&W and possibly the Shadowman by Ennis.

[tell]

A&A had it's moments. What kept me interested was the fact that it largely focused on Armstrong. It built a bit more of his personality and motivations. The art was hard to look at (for me). But I think if this same story had been published with similar art to the original series, it would've been a little better received.

In my opinion the art improved a lot in the second half of A&A. I'm not sure Mike Norton won many fans because a lot of people had given up by the time he jumped on, but his art was great and I hope we see more of his work. Also in the final arc with Andromeda they started to get into some really interesting cosmic stuff that I wanted to know a lot more about.

[Dallow Spicer1]

A+A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong (I love the Van Lente series, LOVE IT!)
Dead Drop (Never heard a good thing said about it.)
Faith (all series) (I like Faith in Harbinger, not sure if I want to read a whole series devoted to her. Especially with the day job angle.)
Shadowman #11-16 (1-9 were super generic, IMO, but #0 & 10 were phenomenal. I also loved the Ninjak Deadside arc and Rapture. Which surprised me, I was prepared to hate it)
Shadowman: End Times (Like Dead Drop, never heard a good thing said about it.)

It's like you made a perfect list of what to avoid.

Exactly what I was thinking! Avoid the books listed, there’s so much more better books to read.

[TheFerg714]

A+A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong (I love the Van Lente series, LOVE IT!)

Nope. But if you do, I'd recommend issue 5. It's Faith and Archer's first date and it's adorable and hilarious.

Dead Drop (Never heard a good thing said about it.)

Just read the first issue... I dare you.

Faith (all series) (I like Faith in Harbinger, not sure if I want to read a whole series devoted to her. Especially with the day job angle.)

Although Faith isn't nearly as... incompetent/offensive as A+A, it's definitely not something I would openly recommend to people. It's just a very solid "yea, that $4 was money well spent," and nothing more. Personally, I think the first trade of the ongoing (vol. 2) is probably the best option if you're vaguely interested.

Shadowman #11-16 (1-9 were super generic, IMO, but #0 & 10 were phenomenal. I also loved the Ninjak Deadside arc and Rapture. Which surprised me, I was prepared to hate it)

This is tough... Well first of all, issues 11 & 12 suck pretty hard. Secondly, 13-16 (Milligan's first arc) definitely isn't great, but it's really quite unique in a way that, if you're already interested in Shadowman, you'll probably at least enjoy yourself. The art is pretty incredible.

Shadowman: End Times (Like Dead Drop, never heard a good thing said about it.)

End Times is probably my favorite Shadowman arc, besides the 0/10 origin. Like Milligan's other arc, it's just not very good, but it is wholly original. Can't say I've ever read anything like it before. Personally, I thought the art in here was pretty great too.

Also I trade wait (mostly) and I'm on the fence about these:
War Mother (Looks, uh, not well thought out. The whole angle looks odd to me. I hate saying this because I like Fred so much, even liked GEN ZERO. But this looks so clunky.)

I'm partially in agreement. It doesn't look like it has the laser-focused world-building that A&A had (which War Mother desparately needs), but now that issue 3 is out, I think I can safely say that it's a solid read. If nothing else, Ana and Flaco are really interesting characters.

Faith & Future Force (Just seems a little too, I dunno, slight.)

Issue 1- Hey, that was pretty good, but I'm not totally sold. Let's see what happens next.
Issue 2- Okay, more of the same, but I get it. I'm down. Don't let me down Jody.
Issue 3- Oh man, this art isn't very good. And more of the same.. This has a lot of explaining to do in the next issue.
Issue 4- Oh... So this is what it's all been building towards? Seriously? Okay, you did not sell me on Faith being the one and only savior of the universe. And WOW this art sucks. Cary Nord, what are you doing?

So yea, I didn't like it.

[kinggirlfriend]

Thanks Ferg, I always appreciate your responses.

[kinggirlfriend]

Well I read FAITH Vol 1 over the weekend. I liked it, liked the art and liked that the story involved the Vine. Ever since X-O went away it seems like the Vine's been forgotten. So that was nice. I think this volume is enough Faith for me for right now tho', and I will probably skip The Future Force.

Thanks again everybody for the suggestions!

[kinggirlfriend]

So a few months later and I've decided to read EVERYTHING. Here are my thoughts on the rest:

FAITH (Ongoing series) - I like that this was more of it's own thing than the mini, focused more on Faith and her job with a secret identity. The two-issue arcs are quick to digest and it's all a bunch of fun. Faith makes me want to root for her. After all the death and destruction in most of the other Valiant titles this is a nice escape.

FAITH AND THE FUTURE FORCE - More of a Faith meets Neela story than the company-wide crossover it was alluded to being. Sure everyone is here but they are mostly wallpaper. But I am a sucker for this stuff and it's neat seeing the giant Shadowoman of 4001 AD again and the world of Britannia even if they are there with little to no context. I LOVE that this makes good on the last page of Faith's mini when she says she wants to go on a time travel adventure. It actually made me like Chris Chriswell as a character. I appreciated that it tied all we've seen from Faith's solo comics together. She's more interesting in this than in RENEGADE.

FAITH'S WINTER WONDERLAND - I liked it. And I usually hate holiday stuff. But I do like Alice in Wonderland so there's that. I also like Francis Portela's work and thought that this book-ended nicely with Faith's mini. But I do wish Marguerite Sauvage would've done the art as originally touted.

SHADOWMAN DELUXE VOL 2 - I didn't hate this. In fact I quite like a lot of it. I do think END TIMES was just mind boggling bad in concept and execution. A real turd, IMO and some of the worst I've seen from Valiant. It just made no sense. In spots the art was nice but on the whole it mostly looked rushed and sloppy. Issues 11 & 12 were mostly filler, the kind of stuff we've seen in Anniversary issues and Annuals. I didn't find it bad but there's nothing there to get too excited about except for the story with CAFU on art. I very much enjoyed issues #13-16. Along with #0 and 10 those are my favorite Shadowman issues so far and would make a nice collection on their own, IMO. I don't understand the hate those got?

A+A ADVENTURES (VOL 1-3) - Again I thought this was pretty fun. Definitely not a patch on Fred Van Lente's issues but fun enough if a bit too wacky in spots. Some of it feels like it would be more in place in James Asmus Q&W. A bit too sophomoric in spots and the villains were a little too zany. But still I enjoyed it. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't really, really enjoy Davey the Mackerel. I'd buy a Davey the Mackerel solo series. The first arc with art by Lafuente put off a lot of people and I understand why but I absolutely loved it! The last two arcs with art by Mike Norton was more in line with the art we expect from A&A but it never really sang for me. Still, I like the road trip across the country vibe and meeting Andromeda was fun. I found the Sisters of Mercy storyline to be more interesting than the main story. I hope Mary Maria isn't forgotten. I did like the date issue with Faith but felt like it would have made more sense in Faith's series.

I went even crazier for Valiant! I even picked up:

A+A BOOTLEG #1 & 2 (just found out these were a thing!) - These were hilarious.
FAITH SPECIAL EDITION: KEEP A BREAST - One of the better PSA comics I've ever read.

Part of it is I'm afraid Valiant will change and I want to have all the pre-change comics I can get. Weird, I know. This DMG buyout thing has really lit a fire under my *SQUEE*. It's made me really appreciate everything Valiant has done.

[TheFerg714]

You forgot Dead Drop.

[Phoenix8008]

You forgot Dead Drop.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're referring to.

[kinggirlfriend]

You forgot Dead Drop.

Y'know, I'm considering it.

I just need to find a copy for almost free. But I figured I've read everything else. Might as well .....