Questions about the Acclaim Universe

[jephyork]

Hey, folks. New poster here, with some questions about the VH2 universe that I'm hoping you could help me out with.

I never read the original Valiant comics in the early 90s. I came on board with the Acclaim reboot, since I was a fan of Fabian Nicieza and Chris Priest. As you might guess, I collected Turok, Troublemakers and Quantum & Woody -- plus the Solar event issues and miniseries.

I was re-reading them recently, and I had a few questions. I know you guys are more fans of the original universe than the Acclaim one, but hopefully there'll be some VH2 scholars that can help me out...

First: how did the Acclaim universe start? According to the Man of the Atom and Revelations event issues, there was some sort of time-travel incident in VH1, involving X-O going back to 410 AD, and this created a divergent universe. Solar viewed the divergence, and altered the new universe, hoping to create a universe where his love Gayle didn't die. He didn't get it quite right, and VH2 was created.

So -- what was the "time travel incident"? Presumably the book Helena Seleski was reading in the Vatican was from VH1, and it said that X-O's career in the 20th century ended abruptly as he was thrown back in time and never seen again.

I read X-O's Wikipedia entry, and at first this seemed to be a reference to the Unity crossover -- but from what I can tell, X-O returned to the present after Unity, so saying he was "never seen again" isn't accurate. Also, according to Man of the Atom, the divergence was in 410 AD, and according to every source I can find, X-O was thrown back to 408 AD in the Unity storyline.

So -- was it referring to Unity, and they just messed up the details? Was it another storyline that I just plain don't know about? Or was it an unseen, off-panel adventure?

Also -- this may make people groan, but I'm wondering if the X-O/Iron Man crossover issues tie in at all. I know, I know, they're a video game tie-in comic, but they were written by Acclaim EIC Fabian Nicieza, around the time that Acclaim was starting up -- and in them, X-O and Iron Man use the cosmic cube to remake reality, to fix the damage caused by Baron Zemo and Crescendo. At the end, X-O says something cryptic about making everything "the way it should always have been". I'm wonderinf if Fabian was trying to indicate that THIS was the "time-travel adventure" that caused X-O to vanish from the present, and resulted in the creation of the VH2 universe.

I saw two other little bits of evidence for this. In the "merged" Valiant/Marvel universe, Tony Stark mentions the Nazi X-O -- who, I believe, was an Acclaim creation. Also, once reality has been "restored" and Tony Stark looks Aric of Dacia up in the history books, he sees mention of "thunder coming from his sword" or something. Now, in the Man of the Atom special, it's pointedly shown that the VH2 universe's history has Aric possessing "a sword that can split mountains", while the VH1 universe has no mention of such a thing.

Are these just goofy details thrown in by Fabian -- or was he seriously trying to imply that the events of the X-O/Iron Man crossover was the "time-travel incident" that Solar viewed and changed to create the Acclaim universe?

Heh. Okay, if you're still with me, question #2 is simpler: does anyone have a general chronology of the Acclaim universe? I'm trying to determine a good reading order for my books, and if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

Question #3 is similar to #2 -- has anyone ever compiled a list of every Acclaim characters' *appearances*? I'd like to know if any of the main, or supporting, characters of my favorite books ever appeared anywhere else. (For example, I see Turok, Quantum and Woody carrying a coffin on the cover of X-O #21. Do they appear in the issue?)

For the purposes of this question, I also mean appearances up through 2000 (the timeline that you folks sometimes refer to as "VH3").

#4 -- does the "Turok: Evolution" comic have any appearances from anyone from Fabian's Turok series? Or is it purely a prequel, featuring Tal'Set?

#5 -- Did the Turok Dot Comic ever get finished? I downloaded all the panels I could find, but it kind of just stopped mid-story from what I can tell.

#6 -- same with Quantum and Woody. Has anything post-#21 been leaked? I've got four preview panels from "future issues" that ran on the website, the script for #24 from Priest's website, a single page that ran in Previews magazine, and tiny thumbnails of the covers to #22-23. Has any more material ever filtered out?

Thanks, folks ... I eagerly await the wisdom of the Valiant gurus...

-Jeph!

[IanAlexavier]

Weclome to the boards Jeph! You've come to the right place for your answers. Unfortuantly, Im not the one who can help with these LOL But rest assured, someone here can and will help you out.

I can help a little I guess:

At the end of UNITY, Solar sent everyone back to their 'home'. Aric ended up going back to his original home. After experiencing some difficulties there he ended up burrying himself and 'sleeping' until current time. Im not sure of what the dates are as I dont have the issues in from of me.

Im not a VH2 reader so I dont know much about VH2.

[Slashes-With-Claws]

I have not read any Acclaim’s Valiant Heroes either. But, from the description is does not sound like unity. As IanAlexavier stated, Aric did return to the modern time after Unity by the suit putting him into stasis. While Aric was sleeping the suit also did some upgrades to itself, one of these was to fashion a sword. However, this sword was just a
very high quality sword, and not some super powered sword.

[Elveen]

I am a fan of VH2 and VH3.

I have not read it all, so I can not completly answer your question.

But I do believe that it does have something to do with XO/Iron.

Also the Solar books (MotA, Rev. and #1-#4) address your questions (I think)

We need someone like BTE to chime in here..... I know he is a VH2/3 dude from the begining.


I would love to see a chron reading list, if one is availble or even necessary.

[jephyork]

Thanks for all the answers so far, folks. Can't wait to hear the rest of you chime in...

Hey, here's another question I forgot -- during "Goat Month", when Vincent popped up in everyone else's books -- did he just wander in and out like any normal goat could, or did he "pop" in and out thanks to the Fold Map he'd eaten?

(I'm trying to figure out if the Eternal Warriors issue where he ate the map came *before* his other Goat Month appearances or not.)

-Jeph!

[Chiclo]

The events you describe happen in the X-O Manowar/Iron Man crossover.

It was a 2 issue crossover between Marvel and Valiant. I don't remember which came first and which came second (the names switch - one part is X-O Manowar/Iron Man, the other is Iron Man/X-O Manowar). It served as the bridge between the Valiant and the Acclaim Heroes universes.

The Goat was a fun concept but not as universally loved as one would think. He's clearly a tongue-in-cheek character but a sore spot for a particularly vocal handful.

I am not one of that handful, but I don't think I've got all the Goat issues just yet.

TimeWillTell would be a good guy to fill in some of the blanks about the Quantum and Woody issues. He was the last employee to leave the Acclaim comics division. He's a cool dude.

[Zero]

Hey, folks. New poster here, with some questions about the VH2 universe that I'm hoping you could help me out with.

I never read the original Valiant comics in the early 90s. I came on board with the Acclaim reboot, since I was a fan of Fabian Nicieza and Chris Priest. As you might guess, I collected Turok, Troublemakers and Quantum & Woody -- plus the Solar event issues and miniseries.

I was re-reading them recently, and I had a few questions. I know you guys are more fans of the original universe than the Acclaim one, but hopefully there'll be some VH2 scholars that can help me out...

First: how did the Acclaim universe start? According to the Man of the Atom and Revelations event issues, there was some sort of time-travel incident in VH1, involving X-O going back to 410 AD, and this created a divergent universe. Solar viewed the divergence, and altered the new universe, hoping to create a universe where his love Gayle didn't die. He didn't get it quite right, and VH2 was created.

So -- what was the "time travel incident"? Presumably the book Helena Seleski was reading in the Vatican was from VH1, and it said that X-O's career in the 20th century ended abruptly as he was thrown back in time and never seen again.

I read X-O's Wikipedia entry, and at first this seemed to be a reference to the Unity crossover -- but from what I can tell, X-O returned to the present after Unity, so saying he was "never seen again" isn't accurate. Also, according to Man of the Atom, the divergence was in 410 AD, and according to every source I can find, X-O was thrown back to 408 AD in the Unity storyline.

So -- was it referring to Unity, and they just messed up the details? Was it another storyline that I just plain don't know about? Or was it an unseen, off-panel adventure?

Also -- this may make people groan, but I'm wondering if the X-O/Iron Man crossover issues tie in at all. I know, I know, they're a video game tie-in comic, but they were written by Acclaim EIC Fabian Nicieza, around the time that Acclaim was starting up -- and in them, X-O and Iron Man use the cosmic cube to remake reality, to fix the damage caused by Baron Zemo and Crescendo. At the end, X-O says something cryptic about making everything "the way it should always have been". I'm wonderinf if Fabian was trying to indicate that THIS was the "time-travel adventure" that caused X-O to vanish from the present, and resulted in the creation of the VH2 universe.

I saw two other little bits of evidence for this. In the "merged" Valiant/Marvel universe, Tony Stark mentions the Nazi X-O -- who, I believe, was an Acclaim creation. Also, once reality has been "restored" and Tony Stark looks Aric of Dacia up in the history books, he sees mention of "thunder coming from his sword" or something. Now, in the Man of the Atom special, it's pointedly shown that the VH2 universe's history has Aric possessing "a sword that can split mountains", while the VH1 universe has no mention of such a thing.

Are these just goofy details thrown in by Fabian -- or was he seriously trying to imply that the events of the X-O/Iron Man crossover was the "time-travel incident" that Solar viewed and changed to create the Acclaim universe?

Heh. Okay, if you're still with me, question #2 is simpler: does anyone have a general chronology of the Acclaim universe? I'm trying to determine a good reading order for my books, and if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

Question #3 is similar to #2 -- has anyone ever compiled a list of every Acclaim characters' *appearances*? I'd like to know if any of the main, or supporting, characters of my favorite books ever appeared anywhere else. (For example, I see Turok, Quantum and Woody carrying a coffin on the cover of X-O #21. Do they appear in the issue?)

For the purposes of this question, I also mean appearances up through 2000 (the timeline that you folks sometimes refer to as "VH3").

#4 -- does the "Turok: Evolution" comic have any appearances from anyone from Fabian's Turok series? Or is it purely a prequel, featuring Tal'Set?

#5 -- Did the Turok Dot Comic ever get finished? I downloaded all the panels I could find, but it kind of just stopped mid-story from what I can tell.

#6 -- same with Quantum and Woody. Has anything post-#21 been leaked? I've got four preview panels from "future issues" that ran on the website, the script for #24 from Priest's website, a single page that ran in Previews magazine, and tiny thumbnails of the covers to #22-23. Has any more material ever filtered out?

Thanks, folks ... I eagerly await the wisdom of the Valiant gurus...

-Jeph!

Any way we can get you to post the pics of the unreleased material you have?

I'd like to see the panels they put on-line & the Q&W covers.

...Oh, & welcome to the board!

[dino]

Hey, folks. New poster here, with some questions about the VH2 universe that I'm hoping you could help me out with.

I never read the original Valiant comics in the early 90s.

You should! Not to take anything away from the Acclaim books but the original Valiant books are much better!!

I came on board with the Acclaim reboot, since I was a fan of Fabian Nicieza and Chris Priest. As you might guess, I collected Turok, Troublemakers and Quantum & Woody -- plus the Solar event issues and miniseries.

#5 -- Did the Turok Dot Comic ever get finished? I downloaded all the panels I could find, but it kind of just stopped mid-story from what I can tell.

I think have some photocopies of that. I'll try and get the posted for you.

#6 -- same with Quantum and Woody. Has anything post-#21 been leaked? I've got four preview panels from "future issues" that ran on the website, the script for #24 from Priest's website, a single page that ran in Previews magazine, and tiny thumbnails of the covers to #22-23. Has any more material ever filtered out?

[Steve Topper]

re: the VH-1 stuff. Do you want me to bring some of my bound VH-1 books to the New York Comic Con? Since I can't kidnap Doug and bring himon the airplane, I have room for some extra books?

Steve

[jephyork]

Steve-O! I didn't know you posted over here too! Yes, please, I'd love to see an example of DPBanks' self-bound comics -- one of the reasons I started re-reading my old Acclaims was because I wanted to bind up the remaining Q&W material...

As for the Quantum and Woody panels, Zero ... here's the four I downloaded from the site years ago:










I'll see if I can scan the stuff I clipped from Previews later on.

DINO I SAW THAT EVIL SMILEYFACE!!! What are you hiding up your sleeve?!

Thanks for all the replies, gang! I'm glad to hear that I'm not insane for thinking that the X-O/IM issues were the secret origin of the VH2 universe...

-Jeph!

[jephyork]

PS - and here's the last Turok Dot Comic panel I ever managed to find. It's "page 29" -- it's followed, in my image folder, by a "To be Continued" slide, but I never saw any more material. Does anyone know if the story continued anywhere else?



-Jeph!

[Zero]

#6 -- same with Quantum and Woody. Has anything post-#21 been leaked? I've got four preview panels from "future issues" that ran on the website, the script for #24 from Priest's website, a single page that ran in Previews magazine, and tiny thumbnails of the covers to #22-23. Has any more material ever filtered out?

There will be a lot of fanboy love for you if we get to read that unreleased material.

[sonicdan]

#5 -- Did the Turok Dot Comic ever get finished? I downloaded all the panels I could find, but it kind of just stopped mid-story from what I can tell.

At the time I was downloading them too. I believe it was abruptly stopped.
I think some original artwork from it surfaced later on. Including this one?
It features the different versions of Turok all together:



DAN

[jephyork]

Hey, Dan. Yep, that's page 7 of the DotComic.

Hmm. Should I post all the panels I have?

-Jeph!

[sonicdan]

Hey, Dan. Yep, that's page 7 of the DotComic.

Hmm. Should I post all the panels I have?

-Jeph!

Cool, yeah post 'em. I have more of the original art scans, but can't find
the DotComic scans.
DAN

[Daniel Jackson]

Yes, post them all.

[myron]

Yes, post them all.

Yes, post them all. <hive mind>

[svair]

I believe Fabian is working over at DC..Mark Sparacio and Fabian just finished a radio interview with comiczone.com?..I believe...about there work together...

any questions...write them up and I'll try to get answers directly from Fabian..

I do know, during the radio interview, Fabian was asked about his time at Acclaim...He apparently said that was his past and he did not want to talk about it...

[svair]

just remembered...

last I spoke to Fabian, Joe Rubinstein was with us...they were working on a comic project together from an arabic company...

called 99...Tashkeel was the company...its in previews...thats where i just got the company name from...

[Valiant_1]

#4 -- does the "Turok: Evolution" comic have any appearances from anyone from Fabian's Turok series? Or is it purely a prequel, featuring Tal'Set?


Thanks, folks ... I eagerly await the wisdom of the Valiant gurus...

-Jeph!

The "Turok: Evolution" one-shot seemed to be a beast pretty much all it's own. Tal'Set's name is mentioned as is the Saquin Nation, but best to my knowledge, that's the only reference that connects it with anything out of the Acclaim stuff.

[svair]

here is a response I just rcvd from Jeff...

Hey John!

To both Fabian's and my own best recollection there were plans to put a good amount of material online at a Valiant Heroes web site, but the site was never completed or opened for business. There WAS one bit of comic book material put on Acclaim.net (which no longer exists online): It was the miniature comic book enclosed in the TUROK video game. I'm sure it exists somewhere out there, but our own copies are long lost. Good to hear from you!

Jeff

[ncameron]

I believe Fabian is working over at DC..

I believe I read he is working on the backup stuff for the new kurt busiek/mark bagley weekly book post 52/countdown/Final Crisis.

-Neil

[jephyork]

Bump.

Anyone else know any answers to my original questions ... or have a link to an Acclaim chronology or appearances list?

(For example, I could have sworn that I read a post saying that Turok appeared in an issue of Armorines. True?)

-Jeph!

[ManofTheAtom]

Bump.

Anyone else know any answers to my original questions ... or have a link to an Acclaim chronology or appearances list?

(For example, I could have sworn that I read a post saying that Turok appeared in an issue of Armorines. True?)

-Jeph!

Issue 2 or 3. In one or two panels. He is there to recruit his friend Barry to take part of Unity 2000.

[jephyork]

Thanks! Does that mean that he appears in Unity 2000?

-Jeph!