This week sees a long-awaited superhero universe finally make its way to the big screen with Bloodshot, starring Vin Diesel as a trained killer who gets his blood infused with self-repairing nanobots that allow him to recover from nearly any injury. Bloodshot is a representative of Valiant, an upstart comics company founded in the early 1990s by Marvel refugees and revived by a new slate of creators in 2012. They’ve won a devoted cadre of fans with intelligent, unique superhero stories with high-end art. If you’re looking to dip into the Valiant universe for the first time, here are a few great places to start.
XO Manowar: Soldier, General, Emperor
Matt Kindt is one of the architects of the modern Valiant universe, with great runs on numerous titles. One of his best came over his 26 issues on X) Manowar. If you’re not familiar with the character, he’s an interesting one. Aric of Dacia was a Visigoth barbarian abducted by aliens who managed to free himself and abscond with an incredibly powerful battlesuit. Kindt took over the series with artist Tomas Giorello and established a new status quo for Aric – burned out by conflict, trying to live in peace on an alien planet but realizing that violence is sometimes unavoidable. These three arcs filled a year of his book and flow together brilliantly.
Solar: Man Of The Atom
The original Valiant lineup had some superstar artists, but the top get was the masterful Barry Windsor-Smith, who helmed the 1991 reboot of Gold Key character Dr. Solar. In a metafictional twist, physicist Phil Seleski was a fan of the fictional hero, and when he was exposed to a breached reactor gained nearly godlike powers. This is very obviously a post-Watchmen story of the ethical ramifications of infinite power, but writer Jim Shooter managed to keep it interesting by splitting Phil and Solar into divergent identities. Beautiful art and a clever, well-paced story make this some of the best of 1990s Valiant.
Divinity
The first title from Valiant’s modern reboot that wasn’t based on the company’s existing properties, Divinity showed that they’re not just running on fumes. Abram Adams was a Russian cosmonaut lost in space for 55 years. When he returns to Earth, he’s been forever changed by his experiences, granted incredible power over space and time. When he uses his abilities to grant wishes, it brings the myriad superpowered forces of the Valiant world together to stop him before he destabilizes the world’s economy. This excellent four-issue limited series does what the company excels at: telling a rich, mature, and clever superhero story that examines the concept from a new angle.
Rai: Welcome To New Japan
One of the best of the 2016 reboots, the updated Rai series is a heady blend of cyberpunk and samurai action. Rai is essentially the living immune system of his entire country, which was ejected from the Earth’s surface to now hover in geosynchronous orbit. The benevolent artificial intelligence “Father” controls everything that happens in New Japan, but things start to go south when the first murder in a thousand years happens there and Rai is dispatched to investigate. Really nice art by Clayton Crain helps sell this new introduction to the character.
Faith: Hollywood & Vine
A smart publisher is always looking to expand their market share by reaching out to new audiences, and Valiant captured a wave of press attention in 2016 by giving Faith her own series. Written by Jody Houser, it sees Faith moving to Los Angeles to strike out on her own as a superhero while working a day job at a Buzzfeed-like content farm aggregating cat videos. The book uses a pair of artists, Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage, to illustrate the dual nature of our heroine’s existence as she discovers a plot to kidnap other superpowered beings and a pending alien invasion.
Unity
Jim Shooter was the brain behind Secret Wars, which ushered in the modern era of the endless line-wide crossover, so it’s not surprising that he would eventually unleash one at Valiant. 1992’s Unity, though, was executed brilliantly and spurred a new wave of fan interest in the Valiant line. They released the first issue absolutely free to hook readers, and the story did the rest. When we discover that the accident that created Solar also changed another person, Dr. Erica Pierce, giving her the same godlike powers. Instead of becoming a superhero, she sets out to work behind the scenes to fuse the infinity of time to create a perfect, soulless utopia. The assembled heroes of past, present and future come together to stop her.
Archer & Armstrong: The Michelangelo Code
Another one of the “odd couple” books that Valiant does so well, this one is both funny and action-packed. Obadiah Archer has been raised by birth by a murderous sect to fulfill his destiny and kill the Anti-Christ. When he meets nigh-immortal Sumerian Aram, he thinks the time is at hand, only to find out that his whole upbringing was a lie, as the group was seeking the power of the mysterious Boon that granted Aram eternal life. Great character interactions between the two leads make this one of Valiant’s most immediately approachable book, as even though it’s soaked in conspiracies and lore it moves along at a brisk pace.
Harbinger Wars
Crossovers can be the bane of modern comic book readers, but Valiant has developed a reputation for keeping them tightly plotted, swiftly moving and, most importantly, consequential. One of the most important stories in the fictional universe is the struggle between Toyo Harada and the U.S. government for control of the superhuman telekinetic children known as Harbingers. This series kicks off when Bloodshot frees a group of them from a paramilitary camp, setting off a desperate struggle between the two camps to bring the powerful children in line. At just four issues, this doesn’t waste a lot of time in getting to great action and memorable character beats.
Magnus: Robot Fighter: Steel Nation
One of the most popular Gold Key characters that Valiant picked up for their first wave was Magnus, a tunic-wearing badass who hunted down rogue androids in the far future. As rebooted by Shooter, Magnus lives in a North America served by fifteen billion robots who have taken over nearly all industry. But more and more of them seem to be going rogue and rebelling against their masters, and when a charismatic droid organizes them into a covert army, things go south very fast. It’s a remarkably prescient study of what “sentience” means, housed within a cracking action comic.
Harbinger: Omega Rising
Living among us in the Valiant universe are “psiots,” people with incredible latent powers just waiting to be awakened. Harbinger Foundation head Toyo Harada, a powerful psiot himself, is seeking them out and bringing them together to consolidate control. When he learns about Peter Stanchek, a teenage psychic with the ability to activate others, it brings the pair on a collision course. Peter is an extremely unlikeable protagonist who has not come to terms with the moral ramifications of his abilities, painting this entire story in shades of gray as it unfolds.
The Valiant
Probably the best crossover of the company’s modern era, spectacular art by the gifted Paolo Rivera is one of the huge draws to this book. The Eternal Warrior has one task on this planet: protect the Geomancers from an equally immortal enemy. Only one problem: Gilad has never succeeded, and each time a Geomancer is slain the world is driven into a new dark age. In modern times, the Valiant universe’s heroes come together to fight off the threat, as a new and untrained Geomancer must face her darkest fears and triumph over them or else all will be lost.
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