Make Mine Valiant!

Valiant Entertainment is the little engine that could. Founded by Marvel alumni Jim Shooter and Bob Layton in 1989, the line enjoyed early success. Originally called Voyager Communications, their comics division was called Valiant Comics. They purchased rights for Gold Key/Western character catalog: Magnus-Robot Fighter, Turok-Dinosaur Hunter(the character now sold to Dynamite Comics with his first issue coming out this month) and Solar- Man of the Atom- tweaking and updating the characters to the new generation. Along with these licensed characters, they created their own and quickly populated their newly created universe. The first titles were Harbinger- a group of renegade teenagers on the run from an evil cooperation focused on harnessing mental powers, X-O Manowar-a Visigoth who was abducted by aliens and bonded to an alien uniform. Skip a few centuries and he is a very powerful fish out of water in the 20th century, Shadowman-a New Orleans boy becoming a superhero fueled on the darkness of the underworld, and Rai- the Japanese spirit guardian.

The original Valiant Universe, image credit: Valiant Comics Database

Valiant had a company wide crossover, Unity, which, well, united the line. Lasting 18 issues, including a free promotional first issue. The crossover launched Eternal Warrior- with a self explanatory title- and the fun duo Archer & Armstrong. Ninjack the ninja, Bloodshot the cyborg arsenal,and other accepts of their ever expanding universe.They had their own future timeline (4000 AD) and all together 22 titles were published.


Sold to Acclaim in 1996, the video game developers rebooted the line and added prolific writers to tell the new tales. Warren Ellis wrote Solar. Kurt Busiek wrote Ninjak. Mark Waid opened X-O Manowar. Garth Ennis wrote an arc of Shadowman. New series like Troublemakers, Trinity Angels and Quantam and Woody were introduced. Shadowman, Turok and Armorines translated well to the video game market. In 1999, Unity 2000 saw the return of Jim Shooter to the line, adding an alternate universe filled with his ideas and takes on the characters. The crossover was canceled after 3 issues effectively ending the line and the acclaim universe saga. The Gold Key characters were sold off. Jim Shooter oversaw  Dark Horse Comics’ handling of the Gold Key Characters even returning to write them once more.The characters now reside with Dynamite Entertainment.

In 2005 the Valiant/Acclaim original characters were auctioned off to Valiant Entertainment, owned by Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari. They published some collected reprints in the interim. In 2011, former Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo joined as Chairman. Warren Simons followed as Executive Editor. And the Summer of Valiant 2012 was their reintroduction. Month after month, these classic characters debuted in their own titles: X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot and Archer & Armstrong. The reviews were in and Valiant became synonymous with good writing and great focused characters. Shadowman followed and 2013 brought Quantam & Woody and Eternal Warrior. The year ended with the start of their own Unity series- written by Matt Kindt. Valiant is going strong, winning various awards and appearing on many best of the year reviews. Valiant even helped design the official USA luge uniforms for the Sochi Olympics. They have had successful translations in France, Brazil, Spain and most recently Mexico.

Valiant Entertainment 

They are not slowing down. This week Valiant launched the Valiant First initiative. Starting in May with Rai, they will launch a new series every month. Shamdasani calls the initiative “It’s a chance to jump into the Valiant Universe every month.” Editor Simons reflects on the unique business model: “Just care about every individual issue, care about every page, care about every panel. We want to make sure everything goes out the door with an amazing amount of love in it. We never want to just be mailing in an arc, or even an issue. We’re really trying to focus on consistently putting out great books, every month, with every issue. You won’t always hit the mark you want to, but I like to think that we do more often than not. That’s really the goal we’re trying for here, and I think it’s what the market and the fans have really responded to.”

Valiant Entertainment 

Big things are happening in the universe:Eternal Warrior is currently leading into the 4001 A.D. timeline, Harbinger promises the “Death of a Renegade”, Archer and Armstrong are crossing over with Bloodshot and the H.A.R.D. Corps in Mission: Improbable and Shadowman will have his own miniseries, the ominous ” End Times”. Armor Hunters is coming affecting X-O Manowar, Bloodshot and Harbinger specifically- the story line will develop over 18 issues.

In May, X-O Manowar will be the first series to reach the monumental 25 issues. The 25th issue will feature 48 pages including the start of Armor Wars, an origin story penned by series scribe Robert Venditti and other stories by Peter Milligan, Bryan Hitch, Justin Jordan, Rafer Roberts and other special guests. Keep in mind chief creative officer at Marvel, Joe Quesada got his start writing X-O and other Valiant characters.

I leave you with a quote by Shamdasani:



” We don’t publish anywhere near the quantity of the books Marvel and DC publish. We’re not trying to publish the most books. We’re not trying to publish even the biggest-selling books. We’re trying to publish the best books. It was so motivating for us to hear that our fans were more excited to read our books than anything else anyone was publishing. That’s what we want to do in a broader way.”

Valiant Entertainment