90s Valiant Comics

Covert Nerd Podcast

Matt and Lee talk about Deathmate Image/Valiant crossover and some of their favorite Valiant Comics from the 90's. ----more---- Images from the show are HERE Deathmate notes: Designated by color rather than issue numbers (namely Yellow, Blue, Black, and Red) plus two book-end issues, Deathmate Prologue and Deathmate Epilogue, as well as Preview issues collected with comic products, the four main issues were written so they could be read in any order. Created at the peak of the comic book speculator boom, the project was heavily promoted and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but was beset with production delays. The Image half (Black, Red, and Epilogue) came out severely behind schedule and out of sequence. Deathmate Red shipped after the epilogue issue, and despite cover dates of September 1993 to February 1994, the actual publication lag was far longer than six months. The plot evolved around a chance interdimensional meeting of two characters, Solar from Valiant and Void from Image's WildC.A.T.s. The two became lovers, but their joining would mean the destruction of both comic book universes. It is notable that only half of the Image founding members chose to take part. Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Todd McFarlane were not involved, although McFarlane's character Al Simmons makes a brief appearance in Deathmate Red. In my personal opinion yellow, blue and the prologue had a more cohesive story. Where the image characters had a better integration into the valiant universe's history. Case in point brigade's characters worked for Harada Industries, an X men derived group. Besides being delayed black and red's stories definitely had a rushed feel to the story. In black we see the Top Cow studio take front and center with ties to Wildcats and Gen 13. X O makes an appearance, but he is used more like a power hungry military general than a visigoth with an alien suit of armor. Union , an energy based alien creature is the one character from black that allows this story to connect to the epilogue. Red's story, sadly for me, is just a Rob Liefeld sketchbook. The story is about Youngblood in this new universe the biggest addition is that Bloodshot is a member. While the Prophet is poorly used as a plot point to let the heroes know what is wrong with this amalgamation of a world. Red was so far delayed that it was released after the epilogue issue. Epilogue centers more around the events from blue with Solar, supreme, and Darque. This series had a great germ of an idea, but it missed the boat with the creative teams. If it had some editorial oversight for both companies it might have had a chance at being a success. However, with egos, missed deadlines, and perhaps the lack of experience from portions of the owners with the business side of things it went down as a failure. For me , I liked parts of the story and going back and rereading the story with a more mature eye I can see what drew me to the story. 1 The crossover was something rarely seen between two independent comic groups. 2 Deathmate had the rock and roll comic artists 3 Although Valiant at the beginning wasn't flashy, they had a good set of storytellers and a well thought-out and connected universe. I was hoping that it would influence the Image books. 4 Finally the book introduced me to more “up and coming'' creators. Like Joe Q and Jeff Matsuda. Facts about publication sales: The Valiant Deathmate books (Prologue, Blue, and Yellow) had print runs of over 700,000 copies, but by the time Deathmate Red was released, it had a print run of 250,000, although retailers were nonetheless left with many unsold copies. At the time, comic book distributors would only allow unsold books to be returned if they were six months late. Valiant Comics Notes: In 1988, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics Jim Shooter, Steven J. Massarsky and a group of investors attempted to purchase Marvel Entertainment. They submitted the second-highest bid, with financier Ron