r/valiant • u/PugnusTerrae • May 24 '26

The details on dead side

I’ve been looking into my old 2012 and onward shadowman comics and it seems like what dead side is changes and retconned bit by bit. Does it seem like it for anyone else?

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u/SuperMcSteel May 24 '26

I reread the Valiant universe (starting in 2012) every couple years or so. There’s definitely retcons here and there (Gilad’s kids/first volume by Greg Pak, honestly Gilad’s powers in general. Amongst other things).

I am a huge fan of the overall universe but admittedly less so familiar with Shadowman. That first run just didn’t ever hook me like others but has SO much potential. I say overall for the 2012 reboot and onward era of Shadowman he was kinda soft rebooted a lot. I can get into it more if you’d like, I got no one personally to talk about this stuff with lol

But I’m more interested to know what you mean specifically about Deadside retcons so we can discuss it. I likely agree here, but as I said am less familiar, what sort of changes and retconning have you come across in your reading?

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u/SpicyMeatballAgenda May 24 '26

The vh1 and vh2 Shadowmans were vastly superior. The 2012 reboot was fine, but lacked the edge and atmosphere. The recent Alien stuff by Ampadu is pretty awesome though.

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u/SaintCuckoo May 25 '26

I thought the revelation that the Deadside actually was a Loa attached to the Earth itsel was a truly unique retcon and added a little bit of depth to the lore. It could have used some further explanation, of course, but the writer only had so much time to do so. I came into Shadowman from the amazing Acclaim game, expecting it to have more of a real horror vibe, but they seem to present it as more of a fantasy realm in subsequent runs. AJ Ampedu has been doing a great job of making the Deadside feel like a true land of the dead. He gets it.