BIRTHQUAKE

[mrozisik]

Birthquake: Death or Improvement?

Birthquake is dated July 1995. Acclaim bought Valiant in April 1994.

Arguably there is not a GREAT title in Valiant canon from beginning of 1994. I think they were too focused on selling the company by that point. There are however some remaining GOOD titles, such as Bob Hall's Shadowman. However, by the time of Chaos Effect, there are not even any good titles left, IMHO. Awful, meaningless cross over. The whole VISITOR mess.

I was actually excited about BIRTHQUAKE when it happened. I thought although Ron Marz destroyed the myth, the art improved immensely with X-O Manowar. Bloodshot had a great art team in Breyfogle and Gulacy. Magnus remained Magnus, it was a good read under Ostrander and Bedard anyway. Solar was dead with or without Jurgens at that point, and he chose the wrong storyline to save it from the abyss.

the title that actually improved the most was ETERNAL WARRIOR. I immensely enjoyed ETERNAL WARRIOR from BIRTHQUAKE onwards. The best of the title since BWS IMHO.

Any other people who enjoyed BQ?

[Dallow Spicer1]

Interesting question! From memory (!), Birthquake seemed a good idea at the time and indeed was an improvement on what has just preceded it, especially the art. With hindsight though, Birthquake merely elevated the books to the status of 'ok reads'. I've recently re-read some of the final issues of VH1 and the 'big name' creators just don't deliver eg Dan Jurgens. A trend which unfortunately continued into the Acclaim period, yes you Mark Waid!

[Dallow Spicer1]

Birthquake: Death or Improvement?

Birthquake is dated July 1995. Acclaim bought Valiant in April 1994.

Arguably there is not a GREAT title in Valiant canon from beginning of 1994. I think they were too focused on selling the company by that point. There are however some remaining GOOD titles, such as Bob Hall's Shadowman. However, by the time of Chaos Effect, there are not even any good titles left, IMHO. Awful, meaningless cross over. The whole VISITOR mess.

I was actually excited about BIRTHQUAKE when it happened. I thought although Ron Marz destroyed the myth, the art improved immensely with X-O Manowar. Bloodshot had a great art team in Breyfogle and Gulacy. Magnus remained Magnus, it was a good read under Ostrander and Bedard anyway. Solar was dead with or without Jurgens at that point, and he chose the wrong storyline to save it from the abyss.

the title that actually improved the most was ETERNAL WARRIOR. I immensely enjoyed ETERNAL WARRIOR from BIRTHQUAKE onwards. The best of the title since BWS IMHO.

Any other people who enjoyed BQ?

Ps hello fellow UK Valiant fan!

[BugsySig]

Interesting question! From memory (!), Birthquake seemed a good idea at the time and indeed was an improvement on what has just preceded it, especially the art. With hindsight though, Birthquake merely elevated the books to the status of 'ok reads'. I've recently re-read some of the final issues of VH1 and the 'big name' creators just don't deliver eg Dan Jurgens. A trend which unfortunately continued into the Acclaim period, yes you Mark Waid!

Bull$#!t

[Dallow Spicer1]

Interesting question! From memory (!), Birthquake seemed a good idea at the time and indeed was an improvement on what has just preceded it, especially the art. With hindsight though, Birthquake merely elevated the books to the status of 'ok reads'. I've recently re-read some of the final issues of VH1 and the 'big name' creators just don't deliver eg Dan Jurgens. A trend which unfortunately continued into the Acclaim period, yes you Mark Waid!

Bull$#!t

You agreeing or disagreeing with me Bugsy?

[BugsySig]

Interesting question! From memory (!), Birthquake seemed a good idea at the time and indeed was an improvement on what has just preceded it, especially the art. With hindsight though, Birthquake merely elevated the books to the status of 'ok reads'. I've recently re-read some of the final issues of VH1 and the 'big name' creators just don't deliver eg Dan Jurgens. A trend which unfortunately continued into the Acclaim period, yes you Mark Waid!

Bull$#!t

You agreeing or disagreeing with me Bugsy?

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing...Kurt Busiek is

[betterthanezra]

Birthquake was a Very bad idea. Caused Market confusion among both fans and retailers.

Most Valiant titles went twice a month causing a BIG drop off in quality. ONLY Bob Hall Shadowman & Solar stayed monthly.

Retailer confusion when they have so many titles needing shelf space and orders weren't there for the Valiant titles. I find it hard for retailers to support a title that comes out every 2 weeks.

-Brian

[jmatt]

...although Ron Marz destroyed the myth, ...

I can remember at the time thinking the Waid stuff wasn't all that good, and wasn't he supposed to be some superstar writer from Captain America or something... Bart Sears and Andy Smith and Ominous Color were terrific though. I think Ominous doesn't get its due credit often enough.

[Phoenix8008]

The art was great, but jumping most titles to twice a month was just a slap in the face. For me it was over before that, but not by much. Had a new kid and wife and had to give up my collecting then, but I remember seeing them at a baseball card store in a mall and glancing through them and shaking my head in disappointment. It was too obviously a mad dash to try and be bigger and better than what they were at the time. Birthquake was the last gasp of air before Ack-Lame sank under the waves.