Magnus #1 Vs X-O Manowar #68: Life After The X-O Bike

[ManofTheAtom]

Listening to the podcast got me thinking...

When Shooter launched VALIANT, he did it with a Magnus story that picked up the character's continuity where it left off after the last issue of the previous Magnus series published by Western Publishing.

This made it so that everything that happened to Magnus prior to that story was still part of his continuity (something that was further explored during Malev War when Ostrander introduced characters from the old Magnus series).

This meant that EVERYTHING that happened to Magnus before the VALIANT relaunch was still part of his continuity even if it was never addressed during the VALIANT stories.

As a 60's comic, it's clear that the series must have had some issues that contained completely ridolous plots and ideas, likeall 60's comic were known to have, yet those things were not used in the VALIANT stories and had no bearing on them.

(I'm sure that more than one person here who read the original Magnus stories can point out at least one single story that was worse than the X-O bike).

The point here is that VEI could do the same thing and pick up the continuity today but just ignore the bad stuff like the X-O bike, or the painter that burns homeless people, Lummox, or anything else.

[Dr. Solar]

I thought of that while I listened to our discussion over and over and over while I was editing.

It is a good example of how to not disregard the old stories, but still move the character in a new direction.

To me, that shows that VEI does not have to tell the kind of stories that were told by the Voyager Valiant. They can take the characters in whatever direction they think will make the best stories.

[magnusr]

Good points, Mike.

(I'm sure that more than one person here who read the original Magnus stories can point out at least one single story that was worse than the X-O bike).

Not sure about this though

/Magnus

[JustCallMeAric]

I dont think they can move on and disregard the characters' backstories. We are all attached to the old stories and I know they would lose some readers if they took the characters in a totally new direction.

[jcdenton]

See Alan Moore's Swamp Thing for another example of being able to take a title in a completely different direction while respecting all pre-established continuity. I think it was ZWH who has commented on this here in the past.

[myron]

See Alan Moore's Swamp Thing for another example of being able to take a title in a completely different direction while respecting all pre-established continuity. I think it was ZWH who has commented on this here in the past.

absolutely. a good writer doesn't have to trash everything that happened prior, in fact they can use it as a base...no matter how poorly done it may have been originally...

[BloodOfHeroes]

Tnis would be *especially* easy for X-O. We saw, with Crescendo, illusions within illusions. So easy to use that as a legitimate "escape clause," should VEI choose to go that way.

[Dr. Solar]

See Alan Moore's Swamp Thing for another example of being able to take a title in a completely different direction while respecting all pre-established continuity. I think it was ZWH who has commented on this here in the past.

absolutely. a good writer doesn't have to trash everything that happened prior, in fact they can use it as a base...no matter how poorly done it may have been originally...

Or no matter how good it was in the past.

[myron]

See Alan Moore's Swamp Thing for another example of being able to take a title in a completely different direction while respecting all pre-established continuity. I think it was ZWH who has commented on this here in the past.

absolutely. a good writer doesn't have to trash everything that happened prior, in fact they can use it as a base...no matter how poorly done it may have been originally...

Or no matter how good it was in the past.

touche

[xodacia81]

Absolutely true, the idea of coming in and building a classic from a garbage heap. An example would be something like, say...a soap opera, which has wallowed near the bottom of the ratings with terrible stories and characters that have never made any sense. Say that this is a show which is 2 or 3 years old. It's about to get the axe from the network, but a new writer and producer come on board to at least try to shut it down with dignity. Maybe they get rid of the stories that do not work but from those, they connect the good parts to what does work and build a base. Things start to make sense. Stories go from sluggish to breakneck, ect ect. Ratings rise, the stench about the series begins to evaporate. The new team has used the previous shoddy material to begin to spin gold. This is sort of what could be done with VALIANT. Of course, despite all this, we'd have to ignore UNITY 2K-sorry, but we would-and we'd also need the end of XO to end up being a dream or virtual reality scenario of some sort.

[ManofTheAtom]

Tnis would be *especially* easy for X-O. We saw, with Crescendo, illusions within illusions. So easy to use that as a legitimate "escape clause," should VEI choose to go that way.

The kind of abilities that Crescendo exhibited were not very VALIANT-esque. Even Solar had problems keeping hard-light constructs stable without having them explode in his face, as seen in Second Death (and there is no way that Crescendo was more powerful than Solar).

There are too many things in the post BQuake issues that contradict the world Aric lived in prior to that, from Crescendo's abilities, to Lauren the stripper and the Map Giver looking completely different than they did in all their other appearances.

Let's just say that Doug Friedman captured Aric and stock him inside a virtual reality scenario, then, when his programmers got bored, they had Aric meet Iron Man.

[BloodOfHeroes]

Let's just say that Doug Friedman captured Aric and stock him inside a virtual reality scenario, then, when his programmers got bored, they had Aric meet Iron Man.

Say what you want. Dismissing VH-2, though, seems to be lazy writing and a poor retcon.

I'm almost positive (unless VEI and Marvel have a new crossover) that no one will ever mention "Iron Man" again in a VALIANT book, unless in jest/parody...

[JustCallMeAric]

Tnis would be *especially* easy for X-O. We saw, with Crescendo, illusions within illusions. So easy to use that as a legitimate "escape clause," should VEI choose to go that way.

The kind of abilities that Crescendo exhibited were not very VALIANT-esque. Even Solar had problems keeping hard-light constructs stable without having them explode in his face, as seen in Second Death (and there is no way that Crescendo was more powerful than Solar).

There are too many things in the post BQuake issues that contradict the world Aric lived in prior to that, from Crescendo's abilities, to Lauren the stripper and the Map Giver looking completely different than they did in all their other appearances.

Let's just say that Doug Friedman captured Aric and stock him inside a virtual reality scenario, then, when his programmers got bored, they had Aric meet Iron Man.

It could work

[ManofTheAtom]

Let's just say that Doug Friedman captured Aric and stock him inside a virtual reality scenario, then, when his programmers got bored, they had Aric meet Iron Man.

Say what you want. Dismissing VH-2, though, seems to be lazy writing and a poor retcon.

I'm almost positive (unless VEI and Marvel have a new crossover) that no one will ever mention "Iron Man" again in a VALIANT book, unless in jest/parody...

VH 2 was a shoddy planned project that contradicted both the VALIANT Universe and itself (how can Tony read a book about Aric on Earth 616 if VH 2 was its own separate universe? Had he taken it out of Dr Strange's library, then maybe it be credible, but he went to a PUBLIC library).