And they average less than 1% of the marketshare in units and dollars each month, only #1 issues sell over 20K units (and that barely for high profile stuff like The Valiant and Ninjak, lesser profile books average 10-12K debut issues and they see about a 40% dropoff in orders by #3 on most series if not more. That's physical sales through Diamond. Trade sales through Diamond are at the same marketshare. Not sure how well they do digitally. But that doesn't look like a longterm viable business model to me. Not if they keep bringing in name talent that costs more and gets the same results. If they expect the movies to bring an influx of readers, well Marvel's been expecting that since 2000 and it hasn't happened yet, so I doubt Valiant will see it either. 

I don't dislike Valiant, I didn't like it enough to keep reading when I sampled their initial offerings, but I don't dislike it. The new owners seem to have a lot of ambition without a sound foundation to build on and seem to take a lot of fiscal risks, having faith that if you build it they will come, just like Valiant generation 1 and Acclaim did, and well, neither of those ventures had enough people come to what they built to sustain them long term, and took a bath when they tied up their capital in other media hoping it would bring readers. I see the same pattern in decision making with the current Valiant ownership. I hope I am wrong, but they seem to be repeating a lot of the mistakes of previous regimes at Valiant. 

-M

However, even if all that happens-can people find copies of the books...anecdotal here but, of the 6 stores in the area, 4 of them carry Valiant for pull lists only, meaning no shelf copies except for the occasional #1, though 2 of those still have copies of the $1 sampler issues floating around that people still haven't bought since they came out 2 years ago. The other 2 shops get maybe 1 or 2 shelf copies because they get 1 or 2 shelf copies of everything. At 5000 Diamond accounts and 25K copies of their best seller, that's an average of 5 per account, but if you factor in the big accounts that do mail order too (DCBS, TFAW, Midtown, Westfield, etc.) that get more than 5 copies, that means the average shop likely gets 1 or 2 copies if any at all of the best selling Valiant titles. Can't expand your readership if your books are not on the shelf, and retailers are not taking risks on books that they can't get guaranteed sales on. So there can be no casual reader influx. However, you can still buy copies of 1st generation Valiant from their initial orders (20 + years ago if they were in business then) that hare still sitting unsold in the shops in their bargain bins, not a small factor in how retailers order current Valiant by any means. So where is the product to fill any demand that the movies create-if there is any. Even if someone likes the movies and wants to read more, if it's not easy and cheap to try (so likely not going to try a full trade, too much initial investment) they won't become readers. Digital may help that, but it still hard to expand your customer base when they can't get your product easily. 

-M

The only thing depressing is that they didn't just say...Hey!  This is the new Nick Fury.  The other one got old.  

And many would contend that modern Superhero comics' (huge distinction) real problem is a slavish devotion to history and continuity. 

DE Sinclair mentionned turning Nick Fury into Samuel Jackson, as in the Ultimates Universe. There is also Tony Stark having been injured in Afghanistan instead of Vietnam (His goatee has been around for a long time, as far back as Heroes Reborn.). There is Star-Lord dressing like his movie counterpart, which is just a cosmetic change and doesn't really matter, but there's also his strange getting along with Gamora... and the completely new dynamics of the Guardians, much closer to the movie than to their previous series. There is J.A.R.V.I.S. being a computer program instead of a butler.  There is Tony Stark having a glowing thingie in the chest to save his life, once again. The aligning with the cinematic universe is quite obvious, methinks.

It doesn't mean the comics will be bad, because a good writer can write a good story no matter what. But when it comes to continuity changes, I prefer the motivation to come from the comics themselves, and not from the derived products. (Personal choice, here; I realize that Disney is a business and will do whatever it feels is the best way to generate more profits).

As a reader, though, while I thought replacing old Fury by Maria Hill was cool, I think replacing him by another guy who also happens to be named Nick Fury just so he can look like his movie counterpart stretches credibility. 

Those weren't additions that radically altered the mythos of Superman though. They simply enhanced the character's world without detracting from any pre-existing concepts.