Comments on: Valiant Comic Book Alphabet of Cool - U

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:31:44 +0000

Oh man, yeah, I can't believe how annoyed I was when I read the Janus Directive. It was like, "Seriously? SERIOUSLY?"

By: Ryan Day

Ryan Day — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:28:45 +0000

Marvel & DC haven't even done a great job with smaller-scale crossovers. The Janus Directive was a pretty decent storyline running through Checkmate and Suicide Squad, but it also involved Firestorm and Captain Atom - the Firstorm issue had nothing to do with the story other than a phone call at the very end saying "Hey, those guys need help!", and the Captain Atom issue was set after the whole thing was done and one of the characters was on vacation.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:39:41 +0000

I remember that I hadnâ€™t read any Valiant books but read about the free Unity #0 in (I believe) Comic Shop News. So I went to the comic store to get this cool sounding book (previously I had been strictly a Marvel kid) and they told me I needed to commit to buying all 18 parts of the crossover sight unseen to get the free #0. I was like 14 years old at the time with a paper route and these books were very expensive for me compared to the $1.50 at most Marvels were going for. Anyways, I agreed to buy the future issues and they turned out to be so good I never regretted it but, thinking back, what an idiot move that was of the comic book store to pull on a new reader and loyal customer.

Yeah, that is a pretty ballsy move they did. But back in the early 90s, I guess comic stores were cocky due to high comic sales due to the speculator market.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:38:29 +0000

And it was neat that all the books maintained their tone - Magnus, Solar, and Eternal Warrior were doing heroic stuff, but Archer & Armstrong and the Harbinger kids spent most of the time running away and hiding.

Yeah, Shooter was good at highlighting characterizations like that.

Early Valiant was so well-thought out.

Almost as ill-thought-out late Valiant was.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:37:31 +0000

Speaking of uncoordinated crossovers, remember Our World at War? Where Dixon and PAD just used their tie-ins for whatever they felt like.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:36:39 +0000

I was recently able to find some Unity stuff on the super-cheap, which was very awesome. From the covers to the structure to the general feeling of the crossover, it was truly astounding. The Big Two would do well to dissect this one and see what makes it work in order to avoid losing readers to â€œbig event fatigueâ€.

I think both DC and Marvel do understand that the fewer cooks in the kitchen, the stronger the crossover - they just have so many titles, it's almost impossible.

Coordinating eight titles? Very difficult, but not impossible.

Coordinating thirty titles? Maybe impossible, although, as noted, Morrison came the closest.

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:37:48 +0000

Easily one of of the better crossovers ever. And it did impact the Valiant Universe. Well, the future Valiant Universe, anyway.

By: Ryan Day

Ryan Day — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:26:04 +0000

Unity was pretty awesome. Everyone got to fight dinosaurs and robots - how can you go wrong? And it was neat that all the books maintained their tone - Magnus, Solar, and Eternal Warrior were doing heroic stuff, but Archer & Armstrong and the Harbinger kids spent most of the time running away and hiding.

And Frank Miller and Walt Simonson covers? Awesome. I don't think I knew much about those guys when I was reading this, but I knew they were cool, particularly the Miller ones.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:37:26 +0000

I was recently able to find some Unity stuff on the super-cheap, which was very awesome. From the covers to the structure to the general feeling of the crossover, it was truly astounding. The Big Two would do well to dissect this one and see what makes it work in order to avoid losing readers to "big event fatigue".

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:53:35 +0000

I remember that I hadn't read any Valiant books but read about the free Unity #0 in (I believe) Comic Shop News. So I went to the comic store to get this cool sounding book (previously I had been strictly a Marvel kid) and they told me I needed to commit to buying all 18 parts of the crossover sight unseen to get the free #0. I was like 14 years old at the time with a paper route and these books were very expensive for me compared to the $1.50 at most Marvels were going for. Anyways, I agreed to buy the future issues and they turned out to be so good I never regretted it but, thinking back, what an idiot move that was of the comic book store to pull on a new reader and loyal customer.

Unity was basically the perfect crossover.

By: Jeff Ryan

Jeff Ryan — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:22:39 +0000

If this was Marvel, I'd be upset Unus the Untouchable didn't get a shout-out. If DC, then 'umberto Ramos, my Cockney cousin's favorite Impulse artist. But this is well wroth cheering, even without the letter-a-day convention.