Thus far Shadowman is my favorite. Also really dug the first few issues of Eternal Warrior. A&A has been consistently good. Funny how everyone seems to have different favorites. Just goes to show IMO, the quality across all titles and that there is something for everyone. Good stuff. I'm looking forward to Rai.
Great point. I still think Shadowman is the weakest title but can see why some like it. And Shadowman #0 was fantastic.
Oh, that's disappointing to hear. Only reason I was being so chill with it being mostly action was because I thought it was a barbarian book.
It is a barbarian book. The 4001 AD thing is an idea pulled from the original 90's Valiant books. They introduced that time frame in Eternal Warrior #5-8, where Gilad is leader of a tribe of people who are essentially living much like people lived thousands of years ago due to surviving a nuclear holocaust, with the occasional robotic wolf and nuclear radiation aspects thrown in for good measure. The second arc was quite enjoyable, as I said I loved the interaction between Gilad and his granddaughter. The arc ends in an interesting mirror to Gilad's experience with his daughter in the first arc, raising interesting questions about his offspring.
The 4001 AD time period is also shown in the current series Rai, though in the Rai series (which takes place in future Japan) the island of Japan apparently survived the nuclear holocaust and continued with tech and advanced science, eventually leading Japan to build a series of gigantic sectors reaching to space. The artwork by Clayton Crain is beautiful, and the story is interesting, involving Rai (who may or may not be using advanced Bloodshot tech) investigating the first murder in Japan in 1,000 years. It's a beautiful book in terms of the art, and the story is a worthwhile read so far.
I might pass on this. Passing on Harbinger. My big problem with a lot of these is that the main characters aren't likable. I don't care if they have a redemption later on, they need to make me care about them first. I almost quit reading when he used his powers to get laid. Ugh. Loved Shadowman. Might be my favorite so far. I'll pass on Bloodshot and Rai. Alright, looks like the ones I'm going with are Shadowman and Eternal Warrior.
It's short sighted to pass on the books because the characters aren't likable at first. In fact I'd argue that approach severely limits character development and certainly in one of the more interesting ways, which is redemption arcs.
If you keep reading Harbinger you'll see that Peter genuinely feels guilty for his actions with Kris and spends a lot of the later issues trying to atone for that, including risking his life and eventually making a huge personal sacrifice to do so as well as avenge Joe. And in my opinion someone doing something morally questionably doesn't make me not care about them as a character at first. In fact it makes them more relatable and understandable, since everyone has shortcomings. The interesting part is their journey to become better, the sacrifices they make to do so, etc. That's Harbinger in a nutshell. It's also Valiant's best book, critically speaking, and with good reason. The mind control to get laid thing is a true examination of what could happen when people had such powers, and is a far more realistic approach than the Professor X cliche.
Shadowman is your favorite? That's literally the weakest Valiant title there is. It gets better once Milligan starts writing with issue #13, but even then it's a bit late 80's/early 90's supernatural Vertigo for my tastes. And #12 (which is an Anniversary issue made up of short stories) is pretty bad. That's the one Valiant issue they've released that I've disliked. Overall Shadowman is ok, it's just not my cup of tea. It's also the title with the weakest character development and plot advancement overall. However, there are some cool ideas introduced in it. The Deadside in the second and third arcs is interesting, and the Shadowman #0 issue (focusing on the origins of Darque and his sister, and how the Shadowman loa came from them) was fantastic.
If you're skipping Bloodshot and Rai, that's disappointing. I get that you don't like the abundant violence or whatever that's a big part of Bloodshot; but it's overall a great book. Excellent job of examining the experimental aspect of the military industrial complex, and watching the evolution of Bloodshot was really cool. The first couple arcs (issues #1-8) were a bit "meh", but the stuff after was great, including the two #0 issues (Bloodshot #0 and HARD Corps #0).
And Rai is just beautiful. It's violence is quite toned down by modern comic standards, and as I said it's artwork is absolutely beautiful. It'd be worth reading just for Crain's artwork alone, were the story not interesting.
