Book of the Month - April 2015

[Keith]

Last month, Imperium #2 beat The Valiant #4 by 6 votes to win March.

Which book was the best for April?

Feel free to rank this month's books in your post.

You are allowed two votes, so ring in your top 2 books this month. This should help determine which books were best.

[BugsySig]

Bloodshot and Imperium, no doubt.

[David_Cody]

Imperium for me.

[SJS4]

Bloodshot and Divinity for me.

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

I went against my usual Josh Dysart loving ways and voted for Ivar #4 and X-O #35. Both of which I thought were surprisingly excellent books.

[mateo107]

Ivar, Timewalker #4 was one of my favorite Valiant stories this year, perhaps even ever.
Bloodshot Reborn #1
Imperium #3
X-O Manowar #35
Rai #8
Divinity #3
Quantum & Woody Must Die #4
Unity #17
Ninjak #2

[jmatt]

Ivar and Imperium for me.

It's too bad we can't do a weighted poll, where people can rank, say, 3 issues where their first pick gets 3 points, 2nd two, and third one point. That could be a little more dynamic.

[sonicdan]

My top 3:
Imperium #3 -Dysart has me hooked. Best book in the line.
Ivar, Timewalker #4
Bloodshot Reborn #1

These four all tie pretty much. Really good reads.
Rai #8
Ninjak #2
Divinity #3
Unity #17

Not feeling X-O lately as much. Q&W I need to catch up on. Kinda lost me after Q2.
X-O Manowar #35
Quantum & Woody Must Die #4

[FormerReader]

I didn't think there was a bad book in the whole group, but for me the best book was Bloodshot:Reborn #1.

[agent_graves]

Divinity #3 and Unity #17

[Tim]

Timewalker #4 - This is shaping up to be one of my favorite VEI series ever. So much going on in each issue. Van Lente is liek the anti-Hickman, and if you know anything about my taste in comics you'll know what high praise that is. A damned fun read too!

X-O Manowar #35 - Crazy awesome action aside, I think this is some of the best character development for Aric in a while. His loyalty to the promise he made to protect the Vine really shows what kind of a man he is. I LOVE the idea of the Vine not being just these monsters that serve as bad guys for the title, but that they are also capable of love, loyalty and kindness. Sure, they've done sh!tty things, but how much crap have humans perpetuated over their existence? I'll echo whoever said in another thread that the Vine and the priest especially need at least their own mini. Love where Venditti is taking this series and I don;t feel like there's been a single misstep since the title began.

Ninjak #2 - AWESOME issue! As hard as it is for me to admit I'm digging a Kindt book after all the crap I gave him for the Valiant, I'm glad to be able to say that. Colin King is such a bad-*SQUEE* that it makes ME feel like a bad-*SQUEE* just for reading it! Loving pretty much everything that has happened so far and the general tone of the series.

Unity #17 - I guess this is the last "character spotlight" issue of Unity (everyone else has gotten an issue, right?) and it's by far the best one. I'm a Livewire fan and this issue has only make my connection with her as a character even deeper. Kindt is proving to be so much better at handling character stuff than stories with larger scope, which would explain his failure with The Valiant. If he can continue managing these characters as a team as well as he manages them on their own, I can see Unity being one of my favorite monthly reads.

Imperium #3 - Good solid issue, but not as good as the previous two issues. Sunlight in Snow is pretty interesting as a character, but I'm not feeling Lord Vine-99. I think Harada would be more cautious than to allow something like that loose and hope to control it.

Bloodshot Reborn #1 - I have to give props for such a bold change of direction, but I'm not feeling it yet. Maybe it'll get better. Pretty impressive that Lemire already has it planned out so far, so I'll keep hope that it picks up for me.

Divinity #3 - Gah...I am having such a hard time caring anything about this character and series in general. This issue was beyond boring and I can't wait until it's over.

Not reading Quantum and Woody or Rai. Will probably read Rai all at once at some point, but it just wasn't working for me when read monthly.

[Keith]

Bloodshot, Reborn #1 has snuck past Ivar, Timewalker#4 to take the lead! Still anyone's game, though. What say you?

[leonmallett]

Imperium then Ivar for me. Great book, both.

My ranking of the month:

1. Imperium #3
2. Ivar, Timewalker #4
3. X-O Manowar #35
4. Unity #17
5. Ninjak #2
6. Divinity #3
7. Rai #8
8. Bloodshot, Reborn #1
9. Quantum & Woody Must Die #4

[Peter]

I've gone Ninjak and Ivar this month.

Ninjak has really hit a chord with me that I didn't expect, and I am really enjoying this arc.

This latest issue of Ivar was another pleasant surprise, I really feel for that bartender, great issue.

1. Ninjak #2
2. Ivar, Timewalker #4
3. Rai #8
4. X-O Manowar #35
5. Imperium #3
6. Unity #17
7. Bloodshot Reborn #1
8. Divinity #3
9. Quantum & Woody Must Die #4

[erwinrafael]

Ivar beaten by Bloodshot Reborn? Bloodshot is great this month, but Ivar #4 is one of those special issues of pure creativity that come only a few times.

[Brapbrap]

Bloodshot Reborn for me

Ivar had a cool concept but I still don't think Neela is a good character

Imperium is great as always but this issue was a not on the same level as #1 and #2

[Keith]

Bloodshot Reborn continues to hold the lead, with Timewalker and Imperium slugging it out for 2nd place.

[grendeljd]

I didn't post my list yet! I'm losing my list now. Here's my list;

1] Imperium 3 - Sunlight On Snow! LordVine99!! Another fantastic issue. Love this book.

2] Bloodshot Reborn 2 - loving the kick-off to this re-invention of Bloodshot. Great art, great writing.

3] Ivar, Timewalker 4 - fascinating conclusion to the story arc. Looking forward to more!

4] Divinty 3 - great issue, only barely edged out of my top three fav's this month.

5] Unity 17 - loved Livewires Day Off issue

6] Ninjak 2 - particularly loved the storybook pages & their parallel to the young Colin tale.

7] RAI 8 - nice finish to the arc, but not stellar.

8] XO 35 - Dead Hand is a fun sci-fi adventure story for Aric, but not cracking the other top quality books this month

9] Quantum & Woody Must Die 4 - an entertaining finish to the story arc, but spends a bunch of time ambling along tying up threads.

[jeremycoe]

This was a great month of Valiant books. Everything, even my last place pick, was great!

1) Bloodshot Reborn #1
2) Ivar, Timewalker #4
3) Imperium #3
4) Divinity #3
5) X-O #35
6) Ninjak #2
7) Quantum & Woody Must Die #4
8) Rai #8
9) Unity #17

[Dallow Spicer1]

Outstanding month, probably one of the best since the VEI relaunch!

1) Bloodshot Reborn #1 - great first issue, got me hooked!
2) Imperium #3 - packed with interesting concepts!
3) Ninjak #2 - much better than I'd anticipated, Kindt has done a great job in getting this B level character to have such an interesting solo book (proved me wrong!)
4) XO #35 - Vditti continues to weave a masterpiece with XO!
=5) Divinity #3 / Rai#8 / Unity #17 - all good reads, couldn't split them!!

Don't read Q&W or Ivar.

[bygranddesign]

I love what VEI is doing right now - they are really upping the ante for profound, brilliantly conceived character driven storytelling - inventive and stylish.

1) Imperium #3 - Imperium is Dysart's best work with VEI. Nuff said.

2) Bloodshot Reborn #1 - Lemire and Mico are producing a dark, moody, psychological thrill ride.

3) Ivar #4 -- Time travel gives me a paradoxical headache .. but FVL does a great job of creating a fun and ultimately tragic time travel story.

4) Ninjak #2 -- This is Ninjak at his best - superspy fun with exciting action and intrigue.

5) Divinity #3 -- Another great Divinity issue ... but Unity is distracting to me. I enjoy the story more when its focused on Divinity.

6) Rai #8 --- some good moments ... but doesn't satisfy the way I hope it would - the storytelling feels a bit clumsy to me ... with missed moments and undefined plot objectives.

7) Unity #17 --- good, solid issue but feels small in comparison to the rest of the issues this month. Which is Ok. Purely character driven stories are needed ... and could create huge payoff down the line

**haven't read Q&W**

[Keith]

Imperium and Timewalker tied for second as we enter the home stretch. Let's see what the next week brings!