THE SUMMER YEAR OF VALIANT
Or The reason Why I Kept Bugging People About a Comics Publisher On a Daily Basis
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| The result of the best trip to the comic store in 2012! |
INTRO
I started reading comics well, before I even knew how to read properly. There are childhood pictures of me reading and being completely awestruck by this type of, alow me, literature, way before I entered pre-school. My Dad was a book enthusiast himself: Dostoievsky, Tolstoi, the classic greek philosophers, Karl Marx, just to name a few of the heavy stuff. But, to me, the most intriguing books of his HUGE collection were a book about swords and the hundreds, of crime/detective stories and western novellas.
I didn't read them, but I thought those covers were really cool, even if a bit “dark”.
This to say that my father was the one that got me into reading at a very early age: first it was Felix, the Cat, the Disney almanaks, Beetle Bailey and an assortment of Brazilian properties like “A Turma da Monica”. He would buy me comics frequently, knowing that my interest in other type of books would eventually strike. He was right, since at the age of 6 I read both Treasure Island and Around the World in 80 days. And Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were just about to arrive... :D
Then, one day, I came across a different type of book: these were no funny animals or army rejects and their silly adventures- these books were about people that could fly and shoot fire from their eyes!
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| My very first comic book reading experience! |
That was my introduction to superhero in comic form. The book in question was an issue of a Marvel (Brazilian published) series that highlighted a lot of different characters. The book that I first read cover-to-cover was called “GRANDES HEROIS MARVEL” and it was an origins issue: in my first Marvel read, I learned the back stories of Iron Fist, Silver Surfer, Thor and The Master of Kung Fu.
I was blown away, and started collecting every single Marvel book I could find, even if I was also a HUGE Batman fan; thing is, until Burton's movie, Batman was kinda dead when it came to comics being regularly published in Portugal. So, there were not that much Bat.books available, as much as there were Marvel ones. I also collected the NEW TEEN TITANS by Wolfman/Perez, which I remember was the firt big hit from DC among the exclusively Marvel kids around here (basically, everyone who read comics). It was the DC book that Marvel fans could like (and that crossover with Darkseid and the Phoenix was great, also).
My collection (made mostly of 2nd hand copies of Bronze and Modern Age stories) was now in the hundreds by 1990. My favourites were the X-Men (and although Wolveine was my fav character, I was already becoming annoyed by how may times he appeared per month). To this day, they still are.
I also liked Daredevil (Frank Miller's run!), Iron Man (I even proudly wore a IM sweat shirt to school, when that WAS NOT COOL AT ALL), the Avengers, Captain America, Spidey, (the smart) Hulk, Black Panther and Moon-Knight. Yeah, Moon-Knight.
A couple of years later and I'm starting to learn guitar. Everything else (comics, gamebooks, action figures, videogames, skateboarding, Karate, etc) took the back seat; and so, I was out of the hobbie for the first time in my life.
Comics-wise, I missed a lot of stuff in the 90s, some good, some bad and some really bad. This was the age of many poor stories, flashy art, and gimmick covers, some facts I (fortunately) only discovered way after.
Marvel almost vanished in this period, so you can see how bad it was.
Let's take a jump to 2011.
The New52 comes. I'm excited and pick all of the Bat-Bruce books and later the 2 flagship books for the X-Men franchise post-schism. I also was dumb enought to fall for that AvX crap-fest.
And I'm back to collecting monthlies.
I. THE HISTORY OF VALIANT
One of the good things that happened in the 90s in comics, was the birth of a publisher that could defy the “Big 2” (thats Marvel and DC, just in case you don't know), both in sales, but more importantly, in quality.
The name of that company was VALIANT.
Since I wasn't there to witness the period of Valiant's rise to stardom, I'll just leave you with the basic facts.
You can find tons of more info on the Valiant Wikipedia page and if you're that interested in the rise and fall of VALIANT and comics in general during the dark age of comics, you should definitely read VALIANT DAYS AND VALIANT NIGHTS: A LOOK BACK AT THE RISE AND FALL OF VALIANT , a very interesting article by Ryan McLelland
I also strongly, strongly suggest that you pay a visit to VALIANTFAN.COM, an excellent fansite complete with all the info you can imagine; join the messageboards there and meet a lot of cool, friendly people who will tell you “a thing or twenty” about old and new Valiant and who are always glad and ready to help a new fan, like me :)
And last but not least, you should listen to the ONLY THE VALIANT Podcasts, available on their site: they are fun, informative and you get to delve a lot more into the books with their amazing Commentary Tracks for special issues. Links at the end of the article.
1. VALIANT was a company owned by Jim Shooter (former Marvel “superstar”), who started it after a failing bid to buy the House of Ideas.
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| Cover for Magnus, Robot Fighter #0 |
FACT: The guy who won the bid led Marvel to financial ruin,
2. They started publishing Nintendo and Wrestling licensed comics in the late 80s.
FACT: These are a pile of crap, according to everyone who read them.
3. They managed to get the rights to publish 3 Gold Key properties: Magnus, Turok and Solar. Magnus was the first to come out in 1991.
FUN FACT: Solar looks just like Cyclops. Or is it ithe other way?
4. Soon after, VALIANT started to publish original characters and it was more and more apparent that these characters all lived in the same world and shared the same continuity. Oh, and all of the titles they published were considered awesome AND were outselling the BIG 2.
TRUE FACT: VALIANT Editors were good.
5. They got so good and made so much greenies, that eventualy, someone tried to buy the publisher. And after a while, ACCLAIM, a videogame company, was the new owner. They revamped the wole line of books, and pretty much killed all the interst in them. In the beginnig of the 21st century, the last Valiant books were out and ACCLAIM was bankrupt in 2005.
PROBABLE FACT: ACCLAIM sucks at publishing comics.
II. THE NEW VALIANT (VEI)
I've told you all of this because I want to emphasize the fact that I've NEVER read a Valiant book before this year, so I don't have any emotional attachments when it comes to the publisher's past: I'm just speaking as someone who is genuinely awestruck by the quality of the current books and hopes that his words may reach other comics' fans who are out there craving for good stories.
So, May 2012.
VALIANT comics are back, bringing fresh, brand-new stories that are coming out from Valiant Entertainment Incorporated, a (also) brand-new company headed by Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari- two fans of the old Valiant, who aquired the intelectual properties that Acclaim had killed; together with Editor-in-Chief Warren Simons and publisher Fred Pierce (among a lot of other dedicated people) they prepared the pavement for the company's return. Their purpose is to take the best elements of the first Valiant incarnation (e.g. same universe/continuity, intelligent storytelling, top-notch artwork, and the close relashionship with the fandom, to name but a few) and update'em to a new generation of readers and old fans alike.
That includes hiring the best artists/writers for each book and making sure that these same books are on the stands on time, every month.
The SUMMER OF VALIANT was the name of the event that would give birth to this new powerhouse of comics; between May and August, one new series was published every month, making it a total of four initial books for the company, coming the end of the Summer (Shadowman, the 5th title, had it's debut in November).
So, lt's take a quick look at the new series.
X-O Manowar
story by Rober Venditti; art by Cary Nord (1-4) and Lee Garbett (5-8)
The main character is Aric, a 4th century Visigoth warrior who was kidnapped by Aliens, stole their most precious relic while escaping captivity and somehow ended up on today's Earth. Despite the whacky concept, it's a wonderfully written book with great action and genuinely touching character moments.
Also, Grenade in The Gut was one of the best moments in my comic reading this year.
Harbinger
story by Joshua Dysart; art by Khari Evans (1-5)
Think “X-Men” but with the deep substance, clever writing and character-driven plot that a book by one of the Big 2 could never have. About a group of people with special powers, callled Psiots. By people I mean real people, not cardboard models in tights or metal bikinis. The main characer is Peter Stanchek, a lost soul who drifts away from town to town, living a life of self-destructive behaviour until he meets Toyo Harada, the world's most powerful Psiot and owner of an empire that spreads it's tentacles around...well, everything you can think of.
I said it before and I will say it again: people must read Harbinger. This is my favourite comic on stands in 2012. Simply amazing.
Bloodshot
story by Dwayne Swierczynski; art by Arturo Lozzi / Manuel Garcia
About a guy (code-named Bloodshot) who was an experiment in a top-secret U.S. agency and ended up being this indestructible-like soldier with nanotechnology that wires him to any electronic device. They also messed his mind so bad, that he has no friggin' idea about his true self; I guess that's the problem with constant mind-wiping and memory implants.
Now he broke free from his former employees and is looking for answers, kicking ass in gargantuan quantities every month.
Violent and very heavy on the military/sci-fi aspect, this is a book that may not be for everyone, but I'm still amazed on how much I'm enjoying it.
Archer & Armstrong
story by Fred Van Lente; art by Clayton Henry (1-5)
Armstrong is an immortal dude. He has been around for thousands of years, lived among the greatest minds and mightiest warriors but lately (hundreds of years, perhaps?..) is nothing more than a wyno (too depressed by the fact that everyone he knows ends up dying on him?) that doesn't give a f*** about anything that doesn't involve drinking and/or womanizing.
Archer was a child raised by- very evil - people who taught him that Armstrong was the Devil in human form and Archer was the one to kill him, for the sake of the entire world. Or something like that. When they finally meet, Archer discovers how wrong – and evil - his parents were and teams up with Armstrong, hoping to stop'em from getting the same device that granted Armstrong his immortality.
A fun-ridden, globetrottin' adventure, filled with real-life references and crazy characters/situations: you can't forget stuff like the Green Dragon Lamas.
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| Next... |
These are the first 4 series: as I said earlier, Shadowman (Justin Jordan & Patrick Zircher) has come out in November (I will publish a review when the first couple of issues are out).
All in all, It took'em 5 years to plan this relaunch, but it was well worth the wait, according to some of the older fans. And their success is now a fact: every single title has been higly praised both by fans and the press. Just search the web for the books' reviews or check out the most known comic fan forums, if you doubt me. Every. Single. Title. If I had to guess what's the secret of their success I would break it down to these these two simple reasons:
a) Their characters feel “real” despite having superpowers and whatnot; their reactions and conversations are much more relatable than what you get in any of the Big 2's titles. As a result, the stories are a thousand times more engaging and you get the feeling that you're reading a story, not a script.
b) Each book has it's own personality and tone: you have the adventure/buddy-comedy style of Archer & Armstrong, the blockbuster epic action of X-O Manowar, the character-driven and “out-of-your-comfort-zone” storytelling of Harbinger or the “weird” sci-fi bloodfest that goes by the name of Bloodshot; and as of November, you can add the “voodooish” horror/superhero combo of Shadowman to the mix.
As I finish writing this, the trade paperbacks collecting the first story arcs are just coming out (“X-O Manowar 01: By The Sword” hits the stores early in December) and at a very, very friendly price- for $9.99 you get the first 4 issues; after that, every month will bring a newValiant TPB, for those of you who prefer their comics in the graphic novel format. It's cheap and easily accessible for a new reader who doesn't want to learn decades of continuity in order to enjoy a story. And have I mentioned how good are these?
I strongly advise you to get a copy of these collections then jump on the bandwagon, if you haven't yet.
Why? Simply put, these are the best comics that have come out in a long time, in my honest opinion.
Links:
VALIANT WIKI PAGE:
VALIANTFAN:
(…) A LOOK BACK AT THE RISE AND FALL OF VALIANT:
OTV:
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