new valiant vs old valiant

[Rufusharley]

Spider-aliens weren't cheesy

I hear Sven was quite the cheese connoisseur.

[erwinrafael]

I finally read the first two issues of the new Harbinger and didn't enjoy them as much as I did the old Harbinger. Maybe I'm just immature?

It's better if you read the whole five-issue arc. Then it would read really really better.

[KXXX]

Spider-aliens weren't cheesy

Sorry, sir... they were.

When I first started collecting Valiant almost ten years ago I was very much put off by the spider aliens. The worst part is the name. Spider Alien? Really? *SQUEE* what? *SQUEE* Tiger Monsters was taken? Come on.

They were called spider aliens because...well, they looked like spiders that were aliens (plus the way they fed).

If I recall correctly, we didn't ever find out what the alien race called itself, did we?

Chris

I don't believe so, and that's an interesting point. I feel as though they would've been more effective if we had.

[cjv]

Spider-aliens weren't cheesy

Sorry, sir... they were.

When I first started collecting Valiant almost ten years ago I was very much put off by the spider aliens. The worst part is the name. Spider Alien? Really? *SQUEE* what? *SQUEE* Tiger Monsters was taken? Come on.

They were called spider aliens because...well, they looked like spiders that were aliens (plus the way they fed).

If I recall correctly, we didn't ever find out what the alien race called itself, did we?

Chris

I don't believe so, and that's an interesting point. I feel as though they would've been more effective if we had.

On the other hand, it may be more realistic if we don't.

How many times, when speaking, do you refer to "the species", or "we humans", or something like that. Probably not too often.

Chris

[ian_house]

Spider-aliens weren't cheesy

Sorry, sir... they were.

When I first started collecting Valiant almost ten years ago I was very much put off by the spider aliens. The worst part is the name. Spider Alien? Really? *SQUEE* what? *SQUEE* Tiger Monsters was taken? Come on.

They were called spider aliens because...well, they looked like spiders that were aliens (plus the way they fed).

If I recall correctly, we didn't ever find out what the alien race called itself, did we?

Chris

I don't believe so, and that's an interesting point. I feel as though they would've been more effective if we had.

On the other hand, it may be more realistic if we don't.

How many times, when speaking, do you refer to "the species", or "we humans", or something like that. Probably not too often.

Chris

That's how I'd always seen it. We never knew their name so had to name them something similar. It's a pretty reglar sci-fi trope. Eg. 'Bugs', 'toasters' (although Cylons love letting you know who they are), 'greys' etc.

[grendeljd]

Spider-aliens weren't cheesy

Sorry, sir... they were.

When I first started collecting Valiant almost ten years ago I was very much put off by the spider aliens. The worst part is the name. Spider Alien? Really? *SQUEE* what? *SQUEE* Tiger Monsters was taken? Come on.

They were called spider aliens because...well, they looked like spiders that were aliens (plus the way they fed).

If I recall correctly, we didn't ever find out what the alien race called itself, did we?

Chris

I don't believe so, and that's an interesting point. I feel as though they would've been more effective if we had.

On the other hand, it may be more realistic if we don't.

How many times, when speaking, do you refer to "the species", or "we humans", or something like that. Probably not too often.

Chris

Interesting points on the Spider-Aliens... I don't recall them reffering to themselves by their own name either. The name is clearly what humans would call them without knowing that.

I agree with cjv - we don't often refer to ourselves as humans in day to day conversation.

But we do have a tendency to label everything for the sake of reference & comprehension. We differentiate ourselves within our species [whites, blacks, asian, latino etc] and I think in the case of the fictional VH1 or VEI setting, once you introduce an alien race to humanity we would suddenly have another sentient species on par with our own, to compare/contrast against.

We would need to call them something & they would need to call us something.

Thus, I think in VH1, their name would have come up at some point where people could have learned it... though you could argue that they were keeping their presence secret and outside of any top secret governmental agencies [or the VH1 characters that interacted with the aliens], the chances of their real name becoming widely known would be slim.

In the case of the VEI, V-Ditty XO, I think he has written it extremely well. The Vine species is proud of itself and feels superior to humans. Its people naturally refer to themselves quite often out of ingrained arrogance as a means to contrast themselves with what they feel is an inferior species. We are getting many scenes written from the Vine perspective and we get to see what they think of us. Alexander refers to the Vine as his people when he talks to Aric & Ninjak about them, but otherwise people in the VEI universe don't really know anything about them, let alone what they are called. It flows well and feels natural to me.

[GGSAE]

Old books - VALIANT (all caps, all the time)
New books - Valiant





-slym

I thought you said you hadn't read the new books.....

[ian_house]

Old books - VALIANT (all caps, all the time)
New books - Valiant





-slym

I thought you said you hadn't read the new books.....

Doesn't stop Slym from commenting...

[erwinrafael]

On the other hand, it may be more realistic if we don't.

How many times, when speaking, do you refer to "the species", or "we humans", or something like that. Probably not too often.

Chris

Well, it's because we normally speak to fellow humans. I imagine that if you would get to talk to an alien species, you would refer to "we humans" a lot.

[blujay]

I haven't read all of old valiant (I just started 2 years ago), but comparing each series I'd say only A&A and Shadowman have yet to surpass the original. A&A is definitely getting there in my eyes, but when it first launched I didn't think they were even in the same ballpark.

No doubts (for me) that Shadowman will surpass the original after this second arc. I thought the only thing the first arc was missing were the essential horror and voodoo elements that made it so great. I really liked the first arc, but the further we dive into the lore of Shadowman and New Orleans the better this title is going to get.

Also I miss the Spider Aliens, I kinda wanted to see them again.

[slym2none]

Old books - VALIANT (all caps, all the time)
New books - Valiant

I thought you said you hadn't read the new books.....

I have not. I can, however see the covers here on the site, much less I also got the HBs that reprinted the original VALIANT books that VEI put out.





-slym

[slym2none]

Old books - VALIANT (all caps, all the time)
New books - Valiant

I thought you said you hadn't read the new books.....

Doesn't stop Slym from commenting...

-slym (will shut the hell up then)

[mrozisik]

I can't recall a bad pre-Unity Valiant book. Most were great, some were good.

I thought Magnus, X-O, Harbinger, Rai were GREAT. Solar was good. (Alpha & Omega is GREAT). Shadowman was half cooked and really found its voice under Bob Hall.

So Spider-Aliens weren't stupid, sorry.

Having said that, New Valiant vs Old Valiant:

Toyo Harada is a miss for me. Middle Aged Harada in VH1 was a man of incredible gravitas. New Toyo is a miss for me.
Old Sting with gay sub-text and "on a mission" story was great, new Sting is an angry teenager.
New Ninjak is great. With the exception of Quesada issues, Ninjak never found its proper voice.
New Geomancer is GREAT. Why didn't anybody think about this before?
New "Ken" is GREAT. Old Ken again never found its voice.

You can tell by where the list is going that I rate the new X-O and A&A books very highly

It is very difficult to top Shooter & Lapham's Harbinger. They still couldn't do it with Watchmen. So it is a tough act to follow.

Shadowman, the jury is out. I liked both VH1 AND VH2 Master Darque's. Not sure about the new one...yet.

Bloodshot, never did it for me. He is Punisher with a red dot on his chest. Maybe Garth Ennis should give it a try

[Phoenix8008]

I finally read the first two issues of the new Harbinger and didn't enjoy them as much as I did the old Harbinger. Maybe I'm just immature?

It's better if you read the whole five-issue arc. Then it would read really really better.

I would agree with this heartily. The more you read of Harbinger, the better it gets. Seems like every one of the last few issues I've gotten I think to myself "Wow! Last issue was great, but this is awesome. They aren't gonna be able to top this next month!" And then next month I'm saying the same thing again.

[bygranddesign]

The 2nd Harbinger story arc 'the Rise of the Renegades" is absolutely brilliant.

As a person who absolutely loved the original Harbinger - I was gonna be a tough nut to crack. I really wasn't a huge fan of the opening Arc and thought it didn't live up to the original.

But the 2nd arc (including Harbinger #0) was where Josh really shines and clinches him as my favorite writer right now in comics. Great character studies - for all the renegades and Harada - exciting action, smart dialogue, fun humor - characters that really have a unique voice.

Valiant was really smart in locking Dysart up as an exclusive writer.