This news blurb was taken from Newsarama so that I could selectively edit portions of it, but if you want to see the original article, head over there and read it for yourself (I couldn't get the link to work)."Dark Horse Comics has announced that Jim Shooter, formerly of Marvel Comics and Valiant Comics, has joined their company to relaunch a batch of new monthly titles based on the disused Gold Key characters made famous most recently by 1990s relaunches at Valiant. Dark Horse has recently collected a number of Gold Key stories featuring these characters in hardcover archive editions."
"Given the time lapse between the most recent publications of the titles, I have to wonder whether some of the younger audience, or those who came aboard during the comics boom of the ’90s, will respond more to this announcement than they did to convention-shaking news of the Marvelman acquisition by Marvel. While Marvelman is undoubtedly a more historically-relevant character, the Gold Key characters are a little fresher in the minds of casual fans, I should think; I remember being 13 and Valiant’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 being the most sought-after book at my first-ever convention."
In my opinion, Newsarama (like Wizard magazine) suffers from toadyism towards the bigger publishers. I also wonder from time-to-time whether the gang over there smokes crack. After reading this item, I wondered whether the writer covering this news item suffered a certain degree of favoritism towards Marvel, or if he was just high at the time he penned his remarks. Which "younger" readers does he refer to? Invoking the Valiant-era relaunch of the Gold Key heroes, by referencing the historically relevant Marvelman, without mentioning that that British character was a blatant knock off of Fawcett's earlier golden age Captain Marvel (the Shazam version) seems terribly offbase to me. No, what Mr. Burlingame might actually be alluding to as "historically relevant" is the late 1980's/early 1990's Alan Moore/Miracleman version of "Marvelman". Given the context of when the Valiant books were running, and the timeframe when Neil Gaiman succeeded Moore on Miracleman, I would think that they probably shared some rack space back in the day. "Younger fans", if they even exist, may check these books out today, but make no mistake, these will be marketed, trumpeted and hawked by Dark Horse, to the same aging fan boys who bought the Valiant stuff in the first place.
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They also don't really ask the obvious questions. Again, the article is talking about the ORIGINAL series and then references Shooter and Valiant without actually asking if it's just a relaunch of the Gold Key properties or based on the Valiant ones? Valiant's Solar was a completely different character from that of Gold Key's "Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom" and was probably my least favorite of the revamps. Will we see Eternal Warrior, X-O and other Valiant properties? Or is Shooter going back to the well and try new directions. Frankly, as much as I liked Magnus, he really seems to be a one-trick pony, that there is only so much new stuff to bring there.
Will we see Dagar meet up with Conan if they are both at Dark Horse?
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