If you are one of those fancy up-and-coming writer/artist teams I’d suggest you give it a shot.

I want to rip my hair out every time I read something that Dwayne McDuffie has penned something for Fantastic Four.  It isn’t that his writing is bad, he just doesn’t feel suited to write the series.  Everything feels a bit hollow and is relying too heavily on pop-culture references to feel “cutting edge”.

Two examples from Fantastic Four #449:

1. Oh shit, Klaw is back.  How did he come back anyway?

   

   
   Wait, what?  A sample found on BitTorrent?  Really?

2. Guess what, Sue watches a television show you might have heard of:

   

   
   I guess she isn’t all that different from you, now is she?

My gripe with both of these is that they’ll feel dated in even a year.  Replace “BitTorrent” with “KaZaa” and you’ll understand my gripe with mentioning technology.  Replace “Grey’s Anatomy” with “Doogie Howser” and you’ll understand my gripe with mentioning a TV show.

But the main reason I’m not happy with how Fantastic Four is going is because it is doing something DC has already done about 5 times:

The universe is falling apart?  Didn’t DC already do this in… Crisis on Infinite Earths, Final Night, Infinite Crisis, and will probably be doing in Final Crisis?

One of the main gripes I had with Reed being involved in Civil War was that it felt a bit outside of a Fantastic Four storyline.  Fantastic Four deals with things that are “larger”.  I always felt that they would have been a better fit with the entire Annihilation saga.  Why not bring them into the aftermath of Annihilation now?

Amazons Attack was just awful.  It was so bad that it hurts my brain to try to even think about it.  It feels a bit classless to even make fun of it at this point.  Sort of like Countdown.  But this webcomic more or less nailed the entire series:

How does Will Pfeifer keep getting work ?

So it turns out that Valiant is getting raped by Diamond over distribution: 

“After careful review and discussion, Diamond Comics and Valiant Entertainment mutually agreed that Harbinger: The Beginning will be distributed via the ‘Valiant Retailer Direct’ program and not through Diamond Comics Distributors,” reads the release.

“The Valiant Retailer Direct program ensures that Valiant readers receive Harbinger: The Beginning within a few days of its scheduled release date, while removing the unnecessary burden on a third party distributor until a current legal dispute is resolved and giving Valiant Entertainment the opportunity to form relationships directly with valuable retail customers,” said Walter Black, Senior Vice President & Publisher of Valiant Entertainment, in the release.

[…]

The volume will apparently also be available through other retail means and as of Monday evening was available for order on Amazon.com

Source.

Ouch, Diamond basically MAKES the direct market.  Without Diamond the sales for this book are going to tank, hard.  I’m still going to get a copy, but… ouch!  The source of this dispute is probably best explained by Newsarama here and is so insanely complicated that I’m not even going to bother to get into it.

In case you forgot Valiant is coming back and releasing a remastered Harbinger when it does. Well, today they got a new logo:

Valiant Entertainment, owner and manager of the popular Valiant Comics library of characters across all media, today unveiled the new Valiant logo. Designed by world famous corporate identity consultant Henry Steiner, the logo will used in all media and will make its debut on the upcoming Harbinger: The Beginning hardcover featuring a new story by comics legend Jim Shooter.

[…]

Henry Steiner added, “My goal was repositioning the logo while preserving its brand equity. The new mark is both classic and dynamic, vivid and memorable. This was a big challenge and I imagined Valiant’s many devoted fans looking over my shoulder; I believe they’ll appreciate its timeless integrity and distinctive presence. It’s now one of my favorite creations.”

Source.

The logo was designed by Steiner & Co, which feels like an odd choice since Henry Steiner has a history of taking Eastern cultures and mixing them with Western style design.  I’m feeling lukewarm about the new logo.  I feel that it isn’t as “strong” looking as the old logo was.

Then again I might be saying that because Valiant made up a big part of my childhood.  I still remember the time when Valiant and Image were poised to replace DC and Marvel as the Big Two.  And I’m sure both DC and Marvel remember that time also.  If Paramount had managed to buy them out they’d have been one of the most powerful studios out there right now.  Instead, now they are remembered as one of the companies that fueled the speculation markets of the ’90s and almost destroyed the industry.  Acclaim’s attempt at Valiant didn’t feel very Valiant-like but I really hope that this time they make enough money to bring back say… Archer and Armstrong!