MEANWHILE IN VALIANT (September 2013)

Hi, everyone.
September is already being hauled as the best month this year in terms of comic sales for DC, and by extent, the rest of the market. I will tell you right away that of all the 16 books by DC that I could get this month I opted to pick, well, ZERO.

That's right, I'm skipping everything DC in this Villain's Speculators Month.

Why? Because I'm mostly interested in story, not gimmicks. Because I want to read Snyder's Year Zero not FOUR (!!!!) comics about Batman's nemesis(es?!). I am chewing (Hah!) Layman's take on 'Tec, so YTF interrup it with FOUR Villain books?! Same thing on Batman and someoneelse and The Dark Knight titles, with the disadvantage of these 2 books being on my pull box for the last month. 

Which leaves more budget for my favourite publisher today who deserves every cent it earns- VALIANT, who else. Starting this month I will (try my best to) faithfully record my "every-30/31-days" batch of good comics. I went for this instead of regular single issue reviews because a) I AM NOT A PROPER REVIEWER, and b) I get my comics late. Like "one-month after" late.

My choice of "Best widely available" covers for September's batch of VALIANT books. 

Anyway, I started this post talking about how "strong" DC  is claiming to be right now because I want you, dear reader of this God forsaken blog, to know that September 2013 in comics was completely owned by VALIANT.
What I mean is, in my humble and fanboyish opinion, this was the best month so far for VALIANT comics, and if you are remotely familiar with this blogger's tastes, that's saying a whole lot.

First, there's never been as much VALIANT in the stores as right now. We are seeing the company reaching it's seventh title, and I can only thank them as a reader for taking their time building the line. Second, ALL of their series had stellar issues this month. I had my favourites like everyone else, but thinking on what was the best book was really hard, not because usual darlings were weaker (quite the contrary) but books like Bloodshot and Quantum & Woody for just 2 examples, were fantastic comics. 

  *TRAIL OF SPOILERS BELOW*

DINO. ALIENS. SEX. DRAMA. 

ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG #13

Story by Fred Van Lente
Art by Pere Pérez
Colors by David Baron
This was the culmination of the Faraway Arc and although it wasn't the mindblowing fun that #12 was (one of the best comics VEI put so far, imho), it was a joyride as always, leading to a SEX! BETRAYAL! moment that has got to have some serious implications for the pair. If they are still a "thing", that is. I can not shake the memory of Mary Maria repeating her last name to someone. 

Ivar is a great addition to the book- and quite the bomb dropper, apparently. Again he tells something that only makes sense to him (so far) and we are left open-mouthed. This time, is Aram's body. It's apparently a nanite replica.

Yeah. 

I'd give this comic a four-an-'a-half-outta-five (4.5/5) review if I were some reviewer guy, which I'm not.

QUANTUM & WOODY #3

Story by James Asmus
Art by Tom Fowler
Colors by Jordie Bellaire

Of Spiders, Needles and Clowns.

I waited for 3 issues to finally speak about this book, because I wanted to have a good grip of the characters before I typed anything. You got to give creators that room, if you're willing to be critic about it. It's fair, imho.

Quantum and Woody are a couple of brothers (Woody was adopted) that are caught in the midst of a conspiracy that involves an Evil Organization and the murder of their father. As a result of the obvious predicaments that such setting provides, they both end up with superpowers. So, yeah, it's a comedy-actiony book. 

But...

It's so good, I'd be an a-hole if I wouldn't stop to praise it's creators.

I am a huge fan of these characters already. They have so many potential for comedy, no wonder VALIANT wanted to bring these guys back asap. I found myself laughing many times, but it's not a "silly" story- James Asmus puts in these really heart warming scenes from "back in the day" between the guys and good ol' Mr. Anderson which add weight to the ongoing craziness. You can see how the relationship between the brothers is built around the common love they obviously had for their dad, and how their personalities came to clash later. Or Klang. 

And artwise, Tom Fowler just nails it. Completely fits the tone and is the first VALIANT book which I will associate with an artist style, immediately. Be it action bits or character moments, the art is amazing and so full of life. You see it, you get what I'm saying.

Issue #3 showed us how spiders, needles and clowns can be combined to be the Ultimate Weapon of Fear. If you read comics and this doesn't excite you, choose another hobby right now, friend.  

Quantum gets fed up with all the crap Woody puts up (and it's a lot, shown in the most hilarious ways) and decides to go solo, while Woody ends up being caught up by apparently-working-for-Evil Police officer Cejudo. All because he had to go and order thai.

5/5. I laughed, got lost in great art and action scenes, and want to know what happens to the characters. I think the Perfect comic book should always be like this, no? 

X-O MANOWAR #17

Story by Robert Venditti 
Art by Lee Garbett
Colors by Moose Baumann

This is a hard time for X-O Manowar as a series, one outsider could guess. It's tangled between two BIG events (Planet Death and the forthcoming Unity) so nothing really important is goin' to happen, right? 

PAFFFFFT!!!!!! 

Wrong. 

This is VALIANT comics we are talking about.

Aric, having arrived in Romania with his entourage of former slaves, thinks he has made it. 

Dacia - the true real-life homeland of his people- now ruled by a true Visigoth king, Aric. 

He settles in, tells everyone to farm the lands and gets laid- I guess- on a regular basis.

It's good to be the king. 

He just forgot the supermarkets.

It just happens that while he was being busy with his lady, Volo (one of the former slaves) has enough of this farming s***- the dude's been at it for a few years since he was kidnapped/enslaved by aliens to farm fruit, don't forget- and decides to GTFO/explore the lands Aric "gave" them. 

He finds a supermarket (read: FOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!), robs the place and distributes the spoils between the rest of the farmers. Of course this will certainly lead to a "You farm those fields yourself, a-hole" moment and Aric loosing his grip/temper over Europe. 

The art by Lee Garbett is awesome, as always. Been a fan since X-O #5, and was never let down. 

I particularly like the opening pages in 380 AD, with Aric's family. One can almost read the story without reading, that's the feeling I get from Garbett's art. He's on that "cinematic" category of artists, comic critics might call. Be sure to follow the man's work on Marvel, if you want to see more of his work in the near future; I just hope he can come back to the best comics publisher soon.
4/5.

SHADOWMAN #10

Story by Justin Jordan
Art by Diego Bernard and Andrea Cuneo with Mico Suayan, Lewis LaRosa and Carmen Nuñez
Colors by David Baron and Matt Milla

Since I went digital on release day- aside: Comixology is a great invention- and was reaaaaally anticipating it, I already talked about this comic in length. See here: 

http://templeofthenerd.blogspot.pt/2013/09/comic-review-shadowman-0.html

Behind that mask hides a terrible blogger

After a re-read of my physical copy (nothing like holding a book in your hands) the feelings I expressed in that review  post, are the same, multiplied twice. As I type this, Jim Zub's Halloween issue is already out so go and grab it (if you're on U.S. territory, that is). 

Did I mention you can get an awesome SHADOWMAN mask with the variant version of that comic? Some folks are really digging that mask thing, from what I hear :P 

ETERNAL WARRIOR #1
Story by Greg Pak
Art by Trevor Hairsine
Colors by Brian Reber 

Regular cover for EW #1

Well, I'm going to break the rule I made for Quantum & Woody and get ahead of myself and try to be critic about a book that has ONE single issue out.

But first, introductions: Eternal Warrior (birthname Gilad) is one of VALIANT's most iconic character, right there with SHADOWMAN, X-O MANOWAR, NINJAK or BLOODSHOT, to name but a few.

He's one of the Anni-Padda brothers (along with Ivar and Aram/Armstrong) that gained immortality thanks to the magical properties of the Boon, as we saw in Archer & Armstrong #1.
Also: quite probaly the best fighter/warrior/war strategist in the VALIANT-verse and one who is normally associated with the Geomancer's legacy, since he's the Fist and Steel (bodyguard) of Earth.

In the debut issue of this character's new series, we get a glimpse of early Mesopotamia where we see Gilad take down sume drug-induced men/monster bozos that follow some sort of Death cult. It's an action fest, superbly handled by Hairsine, AND wonderfuly colored by Brian "I color everythig you drew at me and it will be really great" Reber. In these scenes we are introduced to the Eternal Warrior's family, namely his son Mitu and bloodlusted daugher Xaran.

After that initial sequence, and being devastated by one of his kids' poor decisions, we find Gilad 6,000 years later.
He's now fighting hyenas in Africa and giving us cool Milleresque inner dialogue, saying how he walked away from the eternal fight (what?????) between Earth and the powers (called Houses) that make its enemies. Then his crazy daughter reappears and she's apparently in the company of the Walking/Backhorse Riding Dead.
Pak does an excellent job in presenting us new characters and concepts for the VALIANT universe. Nothing seems out of the blue, yet it's a fairly new ground for VEI. I have big hopes for this book.

This a GREAT FRIGGIN' COMIC and a stupendous debut for Gilad's corner of the world. 4.9/5

TOMORROW'S POSTS:  

- BLOODSHOT and H.A.R.D. Corps #14
  The best BLOODSHOT issue so far?

- HARBINGER #16
  You. Won't. Believe. This. Book.
  Grab your hats, because as Dysart himself said: let the f*****y begin!

(post will be updated during the weekend)