Valiant 101: ARMOR HUNTERS

Two years after they relaunched their entire catalogue, Valiant Comics debuted their biggest story in the form of Armor Hunters. Spread over eighteen issues and tying in with pretty much all of their books, it kicks off after the Earth is invaded by, well, armor hunters, looking for the Shanhara, or the sentient armor of Aric of Darcia, the X-O Manowar. The armor hunters believe, with such unwavering faith, that the armor is evil and should be destroyed. The United States government, for whom X-O Manowar virtually works for following the events of Unity, believes however, that the armor is... 'Murican.

I haven't read Robert Vendetti's entire run on X-O Manowar but one of the things that have drawn me towards it and is pretty much calling me to read it full (man I hope I find the time) is how human the stories are. Unity, like I mentioned earlier as well, is a big superhero team action book, but at its heart, it is a story of the struggle of a leader trying to rebuild and re-establish his people, which is what Vendetti explores in his tie-ins books for Unity. In Armor Hunters as well, although the core book is everything it promised to be, in X-O Manowar, Vendetti does a brilliant job justifying the hunters' action by providing them with a rich backstory.

Matt Kindt, however, continues to have the time of his life writing Ninjak and giving him such cool pages:

Not that I'm complaining.

The art on the books is spectacular. Doug Braithwaite, in my opinion, has become as important to Valiant as Bryan Hitch was to Marvel. His big action pages are obviously fantastic, but it's the pages were the action slows down and we are left with intense character moments that he really shines. And speaking of big action pages, Trevor Hairsine on the Bloodshot tie-in knocks it out of the park.

Armor Hunters: Bloodshot is unapologetically an all-out action book, and arguably the most fun tie-in to a crossover event in recent years. I wish the Harbinger tie-in was also that fun.

I mentioned on the Harbinger Wars post that I came across quite a few lettering issues there, but look at this beauty from Armor Hunters:

One of the (many) things that makes Armor Hunters a successful event on my list is how the creators managed to properly use all the characters. In my opinion, if you are going to do an epic crossover event and advertise that every character you own will be a part of that event, at least give them all certain moments to shine. Armor Hunters manages to do that and more.

Also, I have come to think that the Valiant books are designed in a way that they can be excellent starting points for new readers. I had accidentally read Armor Hunters before Unity, and even though I could make out that I had missed something big, it was not as if I couldn't make sense of half the stuff here because of skipping something important to the canon. This has really elevated Valiant's value for me. These are smart people. They know that their characters are not as universal as Batman or Spider-Man (yet), so they treat every reader as a new reader.

And now for something completely different, I am going to end this with the following panel, only because I can.