Before we get to the meat and potatoes of the episode, we also discuss some recent Valiant news (minus yesterday’s exciting announcement), including recent images from Valiant’s Tumblr, the Valiant christmas card, and The Vine.

Some of the greatest hits we cover:

• Lotsa love for Pre-Unity X-O
• X-O #0
• X-O’s Unity arc
• Aric returns to 400 A.D.
• Seed Of Destruction
• Teaming up with Turok
• Destruction of the armor, and the new armor
• Wolfbridge Affair
• The Grand Finale (last three issues)

Also:

• No good guy buttons
• We recap Secret Weapons
• Socrates talks to us about time
• Wyld Stallyns Rule!
• Nobody likes Turok
• Yellow stain of fear
• Buried in Rome, unearthed in the Northeast
• Feel my power!
• Master Darque’s terrible return
• suffering from aBendisitis
• We balance Plato with them not so smarts
• Somehow, more Shadowman controversy
• Some love for Operation Stormbringer
• They all fight nazis, even in the future
• If you like Youngblood, you’ll love the last 20 issues of X-O

We are all pretty darn excited, so of course we discuss this news as much as possible. Listen now!

Also:

• We argue over the efficacy of lightning swords
• homonyms vs. heteronyms, though there’s nothing wrong with that!
• Grandpa tells a story that will “peak” your interest
• Stan Lee principles are applied! You new folks will not be lost!
• Harbinger Hangups, and the lack thereof
• Craigslist, new weapon of the Harbinger foundation
• The fate of the local comic shops
• Comparison of the New Valiant publishing schedule and the Dark Horse Gold Key publishing schedule
• A new “Unity” type crossover? How likely is this?
• Cops love Amarillo
• Mullets – a pretty bad disability
• Is bloodshot without lightning bolts still Bloodshot?
• Aric on the moon! Or in cotton land…
• Obligatory Star Trek reference, and a good alternative
• We introduce a new way to get off track: James Bond
• …then things go Youngblood, and we call it quits

In this episode, we discuss the Eternal Warrior 27 – 50, Wings Special, Fist and Steel, and Yearbook 2. There are some hits, and a few more misses, we discuss our thoughts on these so-so issues about this great character.

In addition:

• We don’t need no stinking intros!
• The Force! Not just for Star Wars anymore
• Your daily dose of decapitation
• All my children… are psychopaths
• Without the Geomancer, things fall apart for Gilad
• Bridges with piles of dead bodies, take the next bridge, Attila
• Back you Dogs! Or I’ll litter the street with your bones!
• Tiny moments of depth. And hoochie dresses.
• Newt Gingrich, radical right terrorist!
• Boba Fett, also radical right terrorist!
• And Jackson Guice, Eternal Warrior penciller, also radical right terrorist!
• First Hand, West Texas encounters with the radical militias
• Gilad misses out on many valuable trademark and copyright oppurtunities
• Meet the pirate Darth Vader, who wields a mighty bat’leth
• Little known fact, Gilad is also Bigby Wolf
• Magic v. Micro-Circuitry
• TUFF
• The REAL secret of Chiclo
• Legacy, and how it defines the Valiant universe

Some notes:

Wiki on the real-life Orval Faubus (as referenced in Eternal Warrior 43).

Sorry for the inconvenience!

The Only The Valiant crew is stranded on a desert island, with nothing but a few comics, and hopefully a Starbucks and internet cafe.

Luckily, we were able to package up a few of our favorite comics before our boat crashed during what was supposed to be just a three hour tour.

The professor quickly put together a podcast recorder out of a couple coconut shells, so we’re able to record this podcast message and bring it to you, straight from the comic-filled desert island

We’ve got our three favorite runs of comics, and one of those runs is a Valiant Comics run. Between the four of us, we’ve got a ton of reading material on this island.

Tune in now to learn what we brought with us, and why! This is a long one, with tons of great comics talk.

We’ve taken a step away from the usual Valiant discussion for this episode, to talk about this event, because it is has been a huge event for the comic book industry.

In addition to our thoughts on this exciting event:

• Each book reviewed with the Official OTV ranking system, Yes/Meh/Sucks
• Throw your hands in the air for the Ladies! Or, was this all just atrociously done and disrespectful to women readers?
• What reading these books tells us about what we like
• Burn out!
• Nobody agrees on ratings, ie. there’s something for everyone
• and 357 other things!

Some notes:

Justice League #1 Edited

DC Comics is bad at Math

Super Friends for the win!

This is another episode in a series of discussions about the comics published by Valiant in the later years of their publishing tenure. Shadowman is one of the gems of the “Birthquake era” of Valiant Comics.

In addition to our overall discussion, we cover:

• The TWO Shadowmans!
• Villains: Blister! Night Monster! Ishmael! Sandria? Where is Master Darque?
• Birthquake – what the heck was it?
• Details that made the book work
• Supporting cast: Nettie, Maxim, Marcia

This episode is a musical jam fest, with musical interludes, including:

• Hard Bop Jazz
• Zydeco Jams
• and the OTV Rap Crew!

Musical notes:

Rap interlude is the OTV Rap Crew, The Shadowman Rap

Jazz interlude is Wayne Shorter, JuJu, from the album JuJu

Zydeco interlude is Boozoo Chavis, Paper in my Shoe

Mobsters! Rampage! Other fake Bloodshots! Deathangel! Guns! Creepy babies! These issues are loaded, but are they loaded with the goods, or do they fall flat? Opinions vary (as always), and we hash out what we liked, and what we didn’t like about these issues.

Pick up your issues, read along, and listen.

• Chiclo has become… Electronic. Supersonic.
• Do you use a “90′s filter”?
• Senseless violence! Or is throwing a man in a trash compactor perfectly reasonable?
• Nothing stands out
• Bimbo? Or competant MI-6 agent?
• Everybody gets a drug lord!
• What books to avoid, unless you want to stab yourself with a pencil
• Once again, Ultraverse leads the way down a path of badness
• Creepy babies (worth mentioning twice)
• Bangs make a book great

Show links/notes:

Zlad: Elektronik Supersonik

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT: Why is Chiclo so happy?

Are you subscribed to the best Valiant Comics podcast on iTunes? Search for “Only The Valiant” on iTunes and subscribe!

We discuss the good and the bad of these Valiant Comics issues, and as always…

• We’re starved for Valiant merchandise
• Valiant Comics kills folks! Says it right here..
• One Valiant comic book hero has the unfortunate nickname of “sloppy seconds”, find out who!
• Code names v. real names – this isn’t the X-Men
• That number is nothing but wood, Butch
• Is Harada the greatest character, or just a run of the mill sociopath? Opinions vary
• Obligatory Star Trek reference
• Sorry about the chaos (effect)! or – when crossovers titles are better as descriptions
• If you go back to junior high to settle your debts, you might be a creep, or this Valiant Comics character
• Listen here Marvel and DC, this crossover shows how to do crossovers right
• Listen here Marvel and DC, this series shows how to do diversity right
• The best zero issues, and our personal favorites

We also discuss listener emails, voicemails, and talk about what we have been reading recently!

We also caught up with the folks from Valiant Entertainment to talk about their plans for new comics, and the relaunch of all your favorite Valiant characters.

And of course, plenty more:

• Don’t tell ‘Veen what to do!
• Twilight fans are dedicated
• The coolest new SDCC bar, the Tr!ckster bar and symposium
• The ups and downs of collecting sketches for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, plus, a Watchmen coup
• Marvel’s monument to Marvel v. DC’s invitation to hang out
• Are video games the big new thing at SDCC?
• Crack, heroin, MMO’s, the most dangerous substances
• Venturing into the small press area
• Everybody loves Jennifer Connelly
• Insider info on the mess that was Acclaim comics
• Always remember, Walking Dead is like printing money
• Once again, we talk about Axe Cop
• The loudmouth gets the chip
• Three of us are all in on DC, the fourth is no-in
• “Great Deals” on Valiant Comics
• It’s not a tumor!

We discuss all things Comic-Con in this episode, the artists we are excited to meet, the panels we want to see, the cool exclusive merchandise that we most want, and everything else about SDCC that we are most excited about. Of course, this leads in to tons of other related comic book discussion, news and happenings.

This episode is a long one, so crank it up on your drive down to San Diego!

In addition to this madness:

• How one co-host combines fun at the convention with charity work for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
• Erik Larsen defies gravity
• Good things always happen at the Gumby booth
• A how-to session on walking through the small press section of Comic-Con (or any other con)
• …and Kang joins the avengers!
• In this modern day and age, gender is a flexible concept, even for the most sinister of villains
• Will First Comics be another First Comics, or are they doomed to be just another Atlas?
• How to ask the best question at a DC panel, and get that black Wayne Casino chip
• What to expect from Valiant at this year’s SDCC
• Learn which former Valiant creators will be attending. Bring your Armorines!
• No auto-correct on this podcast…
• Smut with demons, smut with Vampires, smut with werewolves – or – how to sell anything
• Gleekers are gonna get run over, it’s just the way it is
• Can Robert Kirkman tame the wild stallion?
• …and the rest!