Multiversity’s 2016 Holiday Wishlist for Valiant Comics

[krylox]

http://www.multiversitycomics.com/news- ... t-valiant/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

they have some pretty valid points/wishes, imo.

[nycjadie]

Great summary. I agree.

[Nairbe]

They almost lost me at "Let Faith Reign". Recovered nicely with "More Savage and Britannia".

[ShadowTuga]

They almost lost me at "Let Faith Reign". Recovered nicely with "More Savage and Britannia".

+1

I DO hope that Faith only gets more and more recog from here on. She certainly looks like a 21st century kind of new superperson.
But for me, Valiant is X-O, Ninjak, Shadowman, Gilad, (non-over-the-top-stoopid) A+A, Harbinger, Bloodshot and Joshua Dysart.

[Shadowman99]

They almost lost me at "Let Faith Reign". Recovered nicely with "More Savage and Britannia".

+1

I DO hope that Faith only gets more and more recog from here on. She certainly looks like a 21st century kind of new superperson.
But for me, Valiant is X-O, Ninjak, Shadowman, Gilad, (non-over-the-top-stoopid) A+A, Harbinger, Bloodshot and Joshua Dysart.

I agree - Faith definitely isn't the comic I look forward to reading most every month, but lots of non-hardcore VEI readers out there seem to be enjoying it, so if Valiant can put a comic out there that people enjoy and that gains them new readership then that's gotta be good for everyone.

And hey, if Faith isn't your thing, don't read it - I'm sure Valiant won't sweat it

[Nairbe]

They almost lost me at "Let Faith Reign". Recovered nicely with "More Savage and Britannia".

+1

I DO hope that Faith only gets more and more recog from here on. She certainly looks like a 21st century kind of new superperson.
But for me, Valiant is X-O, Ninjak, Shadowman, Gilad, (non-over-the-top-stoopid) A+A, Harbinger, Bloodshot and Joshua Dysart.

I agree - Faith definitely isn't the comic I look forward to reading most every month, but lots of non-hardcore VEI readers out there seem to be enjoying it, so if Valiant can put a comic out there that people enjoy and that gains them new readership then that's gotta be good for everyone.

And hey, if Faith isn't your thing, don't read it - I'm sure Valiant won't sweat it

I'm not meaning to slam Faith. If she helps Valiant get more mainstream, awesome. I just don't think she should be pushed to be the face of the company. I buy her book every month, but I honestly haven't read anything after the 2nd issue. I'll catch up one of these days.

[Thegreatmagnet]

I've got issuesome with this article.

1) I think the 4001 event with tie-ins was pretty enjoyable, and Divinity III looks great. Agreed that it would be nice to include more titles in an event (a la Armor Hunters) but sometimes events from the big 2 end up way too big with a lot of filler.

2) Agreed that Kindt shouldn't try to write the whole line himself, but I don't like them putting Valiant on blast for lack of diversity. Their artist stable seems pretty damn diverse to me. On the writing side they have a small line, and a stable of talented writers. Do they need to show those writers the door to increase diversity and risk losing the continuity of vision that they've had since 2012? If they expand the line, I'm all for bringing in new writing talent.

3) Make Faith more important because she brings in non comic readers? Non-readers don't really buy books, so I don't think the return on investment would be great there. Personally, I think she's generally a bland character whose best character trait (besides body type) is that she's a reference machine. In a world of intelligent takes on superhero comics, she just wants to be Spiderman, the most cliche kind of street-level hero with none of the complexities of Valiant's other characters. Why not give Livewire her own book instead?

Not to mention, the more places Faith pops up, the more they risk having to explain how she is in 2 or more places at once. The Big 2 suffer from this problem a lot...

[Joshua]

If pushing her is helping with sales in a way that hasn't helped other books, then cool. There does seem to be a bit of a change in the comic culture and Faith is a fairly unique character. There are books I like more than Faith and I ay that because it is so weird how anytime there's a mention of her that all these detractors come out. Not here, but still...I know people can't get over how she looks and it is sad.

[TheeBaldMoose]

I would have to agree with the article regarding 4001AD, it should just have been part of the book series. As it was my first "event" that I partook in regarding Valiant, it just didn't do much for me (now that I look back on it).

I think this writer might be looking at Divinity III as just it's own story, not a continuation of I and II (or should I say, a maturation of a story). Divinity has been an amazing series, very rich in story and art. It has grown in popularity, and has become something quite big. What if Gods decided to take over the world, and re-mold it into something else, like utilizing their own beliefs? Wouldn't we get Divinity III? I don't think the writer sees this. Furthermore, isn't Britannia and Savage just like Divinity I, with the exception that Divinity has 3-4 part series now to its credit? How can you say Britannia and Savage are thinking outside the box, when you just recently introduced a GOD to your entire Valiant Universe? It's already been hinted at that Britannia and Savage will both get a second 4 part series, couldn't we see an evolution like something from the Dead Side as its culmination? Couldn't it be just like Divinity? I tend to think Valiant might do something like that.

OK, enough sorry.

[nycjadie]

Nobody likes *SQUEE* tie ins. The HW tie ins to the regular titles were pretty poor, in my opinion. Event books can hijack titles. The writing and artwork tends to suffer, and it puts a strain on the regular title's flow. Harbinger Wars, Armor Hunters, 4001.

[Thegreatmagnet]

I like the one-shot tie-ins from Book of Death and 4001. I thought the tie-ins were even better than the actual event minis, because they showed so much new stuff that we would never see in the ongoing books. They did a lot of worldbuilding in those one-shots. Agreed that they shouldn't interrupt ongoing series, but I like them as bonus content.

[michael]

If Valiant brought out a dedicated Faith book series with words instead of pictures, because girls read books way more than boys do. Then girls would realize there are Faith comics and start reading those too.

[jmatt]

I like the one-shot tie-ins from Book of Death and 4001. I thought the tie-ins were even better than the actual event minis, because they showed so much new stuff that we would never see in the ongoing books. They did a lot of worldbuilding in those one-shots. Agreed that they shouldn't interrupt ongoing series, but I like them as bonus content.

I'm not sure I'd say the tie-ins were better (although maybe for BoD) but I agree with the rest. It's an opportunity to glimpse the future and the past, the origins and the endings.

[Shadowman99]

3) Make Faith more important because she brings in non comic readers? Non-readers don't really buy books, so I don't think the return on investment would be great there. Personally, I think she's generally a bland character whose best character trait (besides body type) is that she's a reference machine. In a world of intelligent takes on superhero comics, she just wants to be Spiderman, the most cliche kind of street-level hero with none of the complexities of Valiant's other characters. Why not give Livewire her own book instead?

Regardless of anyone's opinion of the character/comic itself, I think it could be easily argued that promoting Faith is a good move. If the comic brings new readers into the Valiant readership and in some cases, non-comic readers into 'the world of comics' then that's got to be a good thing for everyone concerned hasn't it? There's every chance that these readers might want to see what else VEI are producing and expand their readership across the line, which is something Valiant should definitely be aiming to capture at every opportunity.

As for the character itself... It seems to me that it's almost undergone a transformation, but only as a result of the context in which it's placed: when Faith was part of the team in Harbinger she really stuck out because amongst all the moral greyness of the comic, she was like a breath of fresh air as she invariably embodied the sense of 'good' without fail in every context. The reason that stood out and defined the character as well as it did was because every other character around her was acting without the same level of easily defined morality.

Now the character has been taken out of context this same trait exists but is no longer anywhere near as nuanced as there's nothing in the comic to offset it. Now, without the dynamic of keeping a morally questionable team on the straight path the trait of 'maintaining good within the world' comes across very much as an almost immature desire to simply emulate Superman/Spiderman simply because that's what the character believes is the right way to go about things. This isn't helped in any way with the constant pop culture references, which just seem to lend support to the notion that she's just trying to 'be' the characters that she knows from entertainment media.

As I said, the character hasn't really changed, but the context in which the character is operating makes the same trait appear different.

Sadly, your suggestion that the character's best trait currently is that she's a 'reference machine' would seem to be true, as without an attitudinal opposite to interact with the character's desire to be 'good' is rendered somewhat bland, one-dimensional and typical of 'good' comic heroes - there's nothing here that's currently making her stand out other than her atypical physical dimensions.