Valiant 101: BOOK OF DEATH

When we last left the Valiant universe, (spoilers for The Valiant:) the Eternal Warrior had took a time-displaced geomancer under his wings. Safeguarding the world’s geomancer is sort of what he does. This time around, however, he has gone AWOL leaving behind Unity and the MI-6. They soon catch up to him, though, for reasons that are revealed in a haunting double page spread brought to life by Robert Gill and David Baron.

Robert Venditti writes this ominously titled story. At regular interval, with the assistance of Doug Braithwaite and Brian Reber, he presents flashes of Valiant universe’s future. Much to Braithwaite and Reber’s credit, they do not stick with a particular character for long, making these flashes of the future exactly that. It’s interesting to see is what has become or rather, what will become of characters like Archer and Faith in these sequences. At the same time, it is interesting to see characters we are not acquainted with yet and guess how they might impact the Valiant universe.

The rest of Venditti’s script is pretty simple, though, and at times lack dimensions. Eternal Warrior’s dedication towards Tama’s protection seems rather obsessive. He seems all too dismissive to the massacres that seem to be the effects of her presence in this timeline. When Unity, more specifically, when X-O Manowar confronts him, Gilad’s words come across hollow. This obviously leads to dissension between Unity and a huge fight erupts.

After making quick work of Unity, Gilad and Tama continue their journey, reading and deciphering from Tama’s book. This eventually leads them to David, a young boy who was supposed to be the geomancer of this timeline, and prima facie Tama’s presence here and now seems to be the cause. The actual cause is soon revealed as a popular villain from the pre-Valiant, VALIANT, days makes his debut in the new universe.

When Valiant first announced Book of Death, they promised that the tie-ins will showcase how all of their major characters die. It may sound like a cheap publicity stunt to sell their books, but it’s not. The tie-ins offer exactly what Valiant promised. Every book is titled Book of Death: The Fall of (insert character’s name here), and they showcase how years from now, the eponymous character, well, falls.

The Harbinger book in particular is amazing. The psychedelic artwork of Kano elevates Joshua Dysart’s tale of one final epic battle between two of the most powerful psiots in the Valiant universe, Toyo Harada and Peter Stanchek. Kano not only captures the bright details of futuristic cities but also renders what is -- and I’m not out of words here, it is what it is – indescribable with such exquisite detail, it’s unbelievable. Every page on that comic is joy to behold.

Except Fall of Bloodshot, all tie-ins are fun. I found Bloodshot too clichéd: typical lone wolf tough guy story. Doug Braithwaite’s art is great, though.

Unlike its pessimist title, Book of Death wraps up with a hopeful denouement. The moments after the battle, especially the one immediately after, between Gilad and Tama, is wonderful and makes up for any shortcomings the book may have had.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, we wrap up this little experiment/project of mine. Thank you for joining me. This has been Valiant 101.

Valiant 101: DIVINITY

I'll be completely frank with you here. The only reason I read Divinity was because it sorta rhymed with Unity, and I thought this had something to do with that book.

Well! Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I must also mention that I am so glad I chose to read this because it is so good.

The book is written by Matt Kindt who, by now, I feel like is Valiant Comics' Jim Shooter 2.0 in the sense he has shaped much of their universe with important arcs and stories for quite some time now. He has built a legacy, is what I am trying to say, I guess. The story follows Abram Adams, an orphan, who is moulded by Mother Russia during the Cold War to be one of its finest... to be sent on a suicide mission to the very edge of the galaxy. Because, you know, Russia.

Although one of the reasons Abram is chosen for the mission is because he has no one to come back to -- what a sad thing to say, and in what cruel way have I written that! -- it turns out he does have someone. It is this desire of his to go back home that saves him when he is blessed by the Unknown.

Arriving back to Earth, where years have passed since his absence, Abrams uses his new powers to give people what they need, rather than what they want and starts his own cult religion. Not his intention, though. Humans are drawn to fellow charismatic humans. The MI-6 soon learns of Abram's presence and decides, in its infinite wisdom, that it would be best to confront Abram head on, who is pretty much Space Jesus.

Obviously, that does not go well for Unity, or Divinity.

Kindt not only crafts an excellent comic, but he explores a lot of themes that although rooted in the world of men and women in tights go beyond just that. At its core, Divinity is an emotional story about love, isolation and longing. At the same time, it is also a case study, an experiment or much more precisely, an investigation, if you will, of what's the weakness of an overpowered character. That is more of a writer challenge. What would bend a, what is essentially, a superman. And needless to say, I'm pretty confident Matt Kindt would write a great Superman story. Not because he could find some weakness for him (there are plenty), but because he would involve Superman in stories of emotions like Divinity.

The art on the book is by Trevor Hairsine, whose work I remembered from the action-filled Armor Hunters: Bloodshot. He is accompanied by Ryan Winn on inks and David Baron on colours. Like every Valiant book, Divinity is gorgeous. Hairsine's art is perfect for action-filled story, so seeing him take on sombre character moments was interesting. He offers incredible range here. There is a scene in the book -- and I apologise for spoiling this a bit -- where Abram slows down time for Unity members as they begin their attack on him and makes them prisoner of their own mind. That was incredibly well done. Kudos to everyone involved.

I had the digital copies of Divinity and they offer a lot of behind-the-scenes shots of the book. If you are a process monkey like me or are just mildly curious, I would recommend getting them. (I'm not sure if the hard copies also offer the same, or if the tpbs do. Be nice if they do, though.)

As I finished Divinity I learnt that the team is coming up with a follow-up, simply titled Divinity II, which needless to say, I'll be looking forward to.

Valiant 101: THE VALIANT

Fun fact before we begin: I had actually read this book when it first came out, as Valiant Comics had pushed this as the definite introduction to their characters. So, this is my second time reading it, and just like the first, OH MY GOD LOOK AT PAOLO RIVERA'S ART!

Like I mentioned, Valiant Comics had promoted this book as an excellent starting point for new readers. They got Jeff Lemire, who at that time was (and still is) the go-to-guy for both Marvel and DC, to co-write the book with their in-house veteran Matt Kindt. They got Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera, the tag-team artist colourist duo of the first half of Mark Waid's excellent Daredevil run, to make sure this looks the prettiest book on the stands. All the four issues for this story were published in "prestige format". They named it The Valiant for instant associative identification with Valiant Comics. In short, they went all out. The result was phenomenal. Not only did the critics loved the book, it brought in the numbers. It sold well, it got them new readers, it was huge success.

Even though The Valiant goes out and achieves what it set out to do, I cannot help but feel it does just that and nothing more. It introduces a threat big enough to bring together all the heroes; introduces a central character who does not survive till the conclusion; does all the big action sequences that make an event, with some somber character moments thrown in; and sets the stage for the next year or so of stories. I realise that is pretty much the complete package. I mean, what more could I ask for? I honestly do not know. I was left a little conflicted in the end. The Valiant does a lot; but in the end it does nothing at all.

I read the issues digitally so every chapter included a lot of backups, which was great. They detailed how Lemire and Kindt split work, but even without knowing that, by now, I can tell Kindt wrote the following page.

The man loves Ninjak.

Lemire was supposed to write the Bloodshot: Reborn series after this book so he concentrates on Bloodshot. There is an excellent sequence where when Bloodshot and Kay are stuck in a departmental store in a mall à la Dawn of the Dead. They move around the store in pages of nine-panels grid, bringing out this domestic life that could have been for them had things been different. That was a subtle touch.

However as great as the script for those pages may have been, they simply wouldn't have worked if the art was not able to bring out the emotions of the characters. That's were Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera come in. Paolo's characters... act. They are not drawings on a paper. I mean, they are, obviously. But the characters look and move and talk in a way that they feel much more than just two-dimensional figures. There is a page in the first issue where when we are introduced to Kay, she opens up and tells everything about herself to us in (again,) a nine-panels grid. Every panel is just a shot of Kay, but the way Paolo makes her act is incredible. You feel her conveying real emotions. You start to care about. Which is paramount to a story like this where we are, out of the blue, introduced to a character who is central to the entire saga. Why should the readers care about her? Lemire and Kindt give a back story to give her character some spine but it Paolo's graceful art that does all the wonders.

I have been asking myself since I read this book would I recommended this to someone who does not know anything about Valiant Comics but is interested in their stuff. Or would I hand them some other book? Harbinger Wars, perhaps? On somedays, I think I would recommend The Valiant. It is, after all, a standalone story that is both an excellent introduction to the Valiant universe and a gateway to their ongoings. On others, I think it does not have that... I don't know... kick?  to make the reader head out and find more of the Valiant stuff. Or maybe it does? Like I said, I'm conflicted.

Valiant 101: THE DEATH-DEFYING DOCTOR MIRAGE

My immediate reaction as I opened The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage was surprise as I awed over the art. It is stunningly different than not only anything Valiant had put out yet, but it's unconventional for superhero comics in general. The story itself is unconventional for superhero comics. In fact, it's barely superhero-y.

The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage follows Shan-Fong Mirage, paranormal investigator of some kind. Devastated and hallowed after the death of her husband, she takes up odd jobs to make ends meet and keep herself busy, shielding herself from the pain of the loss. In a cruel twist of irony, although Shan can conjure and speak to mostly any spirit, it is the spirit of her husband that eludes her. She cannot seem to find him. Until she comes across any even odder job.

Valiant Comics' "moneyball" formula has meant for me is that most of the books I've read in this experiment/project were by creators (writers, artists, colourists etc) whose work I hadn't read before. Jen Van Meter writes this tale of a journey to hell and back (literally). She crafts a dense story of loss and separation and longing and closure, and tells it in five issues. This, perhaps more than anything else, left me the most impressed. She has a very Brian Michael Bendis style of writing. By which I mean that she barely does any monologues, although she is not so dialogue-heavy as Bendis is. And still her characters feel chiselled out with precision. She does not require a panels of monologues to convey Shan's emptiness to the reader when she can do that with one.

My only quibble is that perhaps due to the story being so dense, a few details are missed out. Or rather, not explicitly told. I found myself twice at a point where, while reading over the recap before beginning an issue, I went "ah, so that's why--"

Roberto de la Torre and David Baron handle the art department for this offbeat story, with de la Torre doing the illustrations and Baron the colours, and the result is as offbeat as the story itself. de la Torre's scratchy lines are complemented by Baron's somber palette, together creating a very lugubrious atmosphere that is perfect for this story about death and demons and ghosts and monsters, but still, at its core, is a grief laden story about the pain of separation.

I could not but think of the old Vertigo books, specifically Hellblazer, as I read this. While it lacks the cynicism and the self loathing and the general lack of punk rock, The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage does have similar structure. And finally, no, I have no idea of how the Valiant version of these characters stand against the VALIANT version, and I didn't really need to know.

Valiant 101: THE DELINQUENTS

When I started doing this, my goal was to read through all of Valiant Comics' big stories, and get a general idea of their universe and characters. As I read more, the goal gradually grew, and I started considering alternatives. By alternatives, I mean books and stories that are not necessarily "earth-shattering", but either involve characters I had not come across yet or stories that have been critically lauded. I chose The Delinquents predominantly because of the former, but for all intent and purposes, it should be the latter as well.

The Delinquents bring together two of Valiant's top tag teams, Quantum & Woody and Archer & Armstrong. I knew a little bit about Acher and Armstrong from Unity (pre Valiant, VALIANT, era) but I knew nothing about Quantum and Woody, except the praises I had read for James Asmus' writing on Quantum & Woody. This book not only serves as an excellent introduction (which has become the staple of all Valiant Comics books) to both the dysfunctional teams but also justifies all those praises for Asmus. That guy writes laugh-out-loud comedies.

The story is credited to Fred Van Lente and James Asmus, but it is Asmus who does the scripting. Throughout the four-part saga, Asmus avoids making any obvious connection to both the duos ongoing adventures and rather dives right in by sending them off on the adventure of their lifetimes in search of a treasure. And oh, in case I forget to mention, the map to the treasure is drawn in "hobo code" on and skinned off a man's buttocks.

Asmus mixes dark humor with slapstick in this tale that is some parts buddy cop flick and some parts adventure quest to give one of the most jam-packed comic I've read in a long, long time. And I mean that both in terms of the amount of story in every issue and the number of panels per page. Consider the following page. There are like, six jokes on this one page of twenty-four panels, if you don't count the inserts. That is, as my friend would say, completely bananas.

Kano does all of the heavy lifting in the art department for this book. He draws, inks, and colors every page himself. As ridiculous Van Lente and Asmus' story is, and as funny as Asmus' writing is, it is Kano's art that makes it all work. His execution of those gags and jokes make this book actually a laugh-out-loud riot. As an example, consider the below page. It is a simple gag, but the facial expression that Kano drew for Armstrong in panel four is what does the wonders.

What Kano does really well and what made this book different than, not only all the other Valiant books I had read yet but also half the comic books on the shelves, is that rather than cramming each page with panels and information and in a certain sense, showing off, Kano's pages use a certain design aesthetic to convey the story. Sure, there are pages loaded with panels, but it never obstructs the story. In comic book storytelling, the reader's eye should float across the page between the panels and Kano manages to do that, and more.

Valiant Comics has offered me a lot of great comics ever seen I began this little project/experiment, but with The Delinquents they offered the most fun comic book I've read in quite some time. Hungry for more, I guess I am going to pick up Asmus' complete run on Quantum & Woody, and everything Kano does for now on.

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.

Valiant 101: "Unity"

Before we begin, I feel like I should mention that I actually read Unity after I had read the next big story in the new Valiant canon after Harbinger Wars. After I was done with Harbinger Wars, I naturally moved on to the next event; but since Armor Hunters regularly brought about how the Valiant superheroes came together after a geopolitical snafu, I realised I had missed something big. I dug around and found that I had jumped over the first volume of Unity and its tie-ins with X-O Manowar.

Although Unity shares its name with VALIANT's biggest and most popular event, it is neither a remake nor a throwback to that story. I suppose the reason it's called Unity is perhaps because the creators wanted to do some sort of homage or tribute to that book. And also maybe because Unity is such a good name for a superhero team.

With Unity, Valiant attempts to build its own version of the Justice League or the Avengers. The story follow ups from what Robert Venditti had been building over his run at X-O Manowar. Rather than simply following the adventures of Aric of Dacia after he gets the extra terrestrial armor, Vendetti's run had been cleverly exploring slavery, revolt, and the price of freedom. After rescuing his people from the Vine and arriving back on Earth, Aric decides to restore and re-establish the Visigoths in the present day location of Romania, a decision that Aric soon learns does not go well with the governments of the world. Due to time dilatation, the Visigoths, who lived during the 5th century have been thrown into the 21st century, and this, as you can imagine, causes all kinds of cultural and political differences. Russia retaliates to Aric's "invasion" of Romania in typical Russian fashion: with an all out assault. That does not go well for Russia simply because Aric of Dacia, with the Shanhara, is the most powerful being on the planet. Humiliated, Russia decides to go through with the next option: nuclear. Which is where Toyo Harada comes in. Toyo Harada, even though is an asshole, has issues with nuclear weapons.

After an initial failed attempt to stop Aric, he enlists Ninjak, Livewire, and the Eternal Warrior. Livewire, as it turns out, is obviously a badass. Although I have to say Ninjak is certainly the coolest. Which I suppose is because Matt Kindt enjoys writing him so much.

Like I mentioned, the story is told over the first volume of Unity and its tie-ins with X-O Manowar. Matt Kindt explores how Harada brings together this team of unique individuals in Unity, while Robert Venditti continues to concentrate on the Aric side of the story in X-O Manowar. And although you could simply read Unity vol. 1 and be done with this story, I would highly recommend reading the X-O Manowar tie-ins as well. While Unity brings out how Harada is justified in thinking Aric, with the Shanhara, is a threat to the world, X-O Manowar explores how burdened Aric is with the responsibilities as the leader of the Visigoths. Moreover, and what I thoroughly enjoyed, is how it subtly takes a critical look at the geopolitical issues of the world.

The stand character for me in this story was Colonel Jaime Capshaw, the Commanding Officer of M.E.R.O. (Think of, but not limit to, M.E.R.O. as Valiant Comics version of S.H.I.E.L.D.) She's an absolute badass. If Kindt enjoys writing Ninjak, Vendetti clearly enjoys writing Capshaw.

Some artists are meant for big superhero action book.  Doug Braithwaite is one of those artists. His artwork is incredible and I can see why the executives went with him to take the lead on their next big story, Armor Hunters. He's really good. Cary Nord draws the X-O Manowar part of the story. When I looked over the first issue of that book here, I was really impressed because the pages were so different. Sadly though, they went back to generic superhero comic book colouring in the next issue. Goes to show how important the colors are to not just the art but to the story itself.

Valiant 101: HARBINGER WARS

Last week we took a look at what I have begun to call as the pre-Valiant, VALIANT, era of Valiant Comics. This week we officially kick things off in the new era in the form of Harbinger Wars.

Harbinger Wars, like all crossover events, involves a lot of parties or set of cast of characters. If I had to break it down, the story involves five: Toyo Harada and the Harbinger Foundation, the Renegades, Project Rising Spirit, Generation Zero, and of course, Bloodshot. All the parties involved have their own ambitions and motives, which overlap and intertwine with each other's, causing conflict among them. I could detail for you who's fighting whom over what and all, and bore, or perhaps more likely, confuse you, or I could simply show you this:

This is the first page of the 12-part story (including the tie-ins) and it does an excellent job in setting up the stage. As a new reader, with absolutely no knowledge of these characters, this was really helpful. Even if you choose to skip this page (But why would you? Not only is it a recap page, but look at it! It's masterfully designed! It is stunning.), the book is written so exquisitely that the story provides ample history, motivations, attributes for pretty much all of the major players. You get that Bloodshot is a douche, a one-man army on a mission. And you get that Toyo Harada is a dick. Obviously, having read the entire catalogue of Valiant Comics would certainly help, but it's not explicitly required; which is great for new readers like me.

Speaking of the story, writers Joshua Dysart and Duane Swierczynski split the writing duties here, with Dysart writing the Harbinger tie-ins, Swierczynski writing the Bloodshot tie-ins, and both co-writing the main Harbinger Wars book. I am so glad I chose to read the tie-ins here because they are fantastic, especially Harbinger. It's a period story, set in the 60s, and takes a look at the business dealings and the tense relationship between Toyo Harada's Harbinger Foundation and the government's Project Rising Spirits. This arc does exactly those things which are why I don't read the tie-ins to any event in the first place, but it does it so well that I was hooked.

Just like the writing duties, the art duties are split precisely: Clayton Henry draws Harbinger Wars, with Clayton Crain coming in from time to time to draw the flashback scenes; Khari Evans and Stefano Gaudiano team up for the Harbinger tie-ins; and Barry Kitson does the Bloodshot tie-ins. This avoids any rushed artworks or tons of inkers filling in to keep the book on schedule, but more importantly, this gives everyone a chance to shine. And boy do they shine. Harbinger Wars and its tie-ins are one of the most gorgeous superhero books in recent memory. Finally, if I may say so, Khari Evans is a monster and every major publisher should be fighting over him.

This may be nitpicking, but my only quibble with this book is slight lettering issues. I ran across a lot of instances where the word balloon did not coincide with the panel box, and it made me... uneasy. What can I say. I'm a perfectionist, I guess.

In the end, Harbinger Wars is not only a excellent introduction to the post-VALIANT, Valiant, era of Valiant Comics, it is, hands down, one of the best big superhero crossover stories. I had fun and isn't that what comics are supposed to be?

Valiant 101: UNITY

When I decided to check out the current state of Valiant Comics, I was pointed to their ongoings and some miniseries. I dug around some more and found out their biggest stories: Harbinger Wars, Armor Hunters, etc. But as I learnt more, I found out about the pre-Valiant, VALIANT, stories. Fascinated, I wanted to read something from that era to get a better idea of what Valiant was and what it has become today; which is what prompted me to read Unity.

Although Unity is written by a number of writers, it clearly is a Jim Shooter story. This is not to dismiss the efforts of the legends involved with this tale. Bob Layton, Roger Stern, David Lapham are all masters of their crafts; but Shooter's imprint is hard to escape. Structurally, Unity reminded me of Secret Wars, another event, that Shooter wrote for Marvel. In Secret Wars, heroes and villains are pulled from different parts of the Marvel universe to fight, and perhaps work together, in order to defeat a bigger threat. Unity follows a similar formula. But instead of just bringing characters together from different parts of the VALIANT universe, Shooter takes it one step further and brings in characters from across time and space.

Solar, "the cornerstone of the VALIANT universe" (which is basically just a fancier way of saying he was their big guy) and the geomancer, Geoff McHenry, arrive at what prima facie looks to be a murder-suicide scene. Solar identifies the body as that of Erica Pierce, who was caught in the same explosion that gave Solar his powers. Geoff, however, thinks something bigger is at play. He believes Erica not only survived that explosion but is also onto something sinister. Although a little hesitant, Solar later agrees with Geoff's analysis and takes him to a land "beyond space and time and known reality".

Turns out not only did Erica survive the explosion, she blames Solar for all her misfortunes since the accident. She now wants to wipe away all parallel timelines -- creating a unity -- and rewrite reality. Geoff realises this a threat too big for Solar to take on alone. He jumps back to the regular timeline -- which happens to be 1992 -- to gather forces that include Harbingers, the Eternal Warrior, X-O Manowar, Archer and Armstrong.

The year 4001 is significant to Valiant universe for various reasons. Many of its biggest characters are billed to either be from the future or operate in the future. Unity cleverly involves those characters as well. Since every era in the Valiant universe has to have a geomancer, there must be a geomancer in the year 4001 as well. And thus, we are introduced to Rokland Tate. Like his counterpart from 1992, Rokland also realises that, well, it's about to go down. He gathers Rai, Magnus, and the Eternal Warrior to help Solar. (Yes, Eternal Warrior again. He's eternal.)

The heroes from the year 4001 join those from year 1992 to take on Erica, but as it turns out it's not so easy. This land "beyond space and time and known reality" where they are, was built by Erica herself. Here she is the "Mothergod". Everybody worships her with unshakable faith, and her forces, which include but are not limited to cyborg dinosaurs, are innumerable. Which is why I guess it takes 19 issues to defeat her.

One of the things that, in my opinion, makes Unity so good is how Shooter and Co. manage to bring in every Valiant character for this story. And by 'every' I do mean every. They find clever ways to involve characters like Turok or Shadowman: characters who do not necessarily translate directly into the story are brought in using some innovative methods. Also, the story is not told chronologically. This makes it both interesting (since you need to pay close attention to everything because you never know when one plotline would impact or influence some other plotline down the road) and repetitive (because every issue spoon feeds; the first few pages drag).

But what really impressed me is the colours on the books throughout. The palette on these books is not what we have generally come to expect in comic books. Colouring on this event is unconventional. Almost reminded me of old kindergarten books. And I mean that absolutely as a compliment.

My only quibble with this book are (what I found to be) unnecessary plotlines like Erica having "daddy issues" and the incest relationship between two characters. I understand the objective here. As I have come to learn, VALIANT Comics were known to weave their superheroes in "real world" scenarios and make them face "real world" challenges. (A common example is how characters that died in the VALIANT universe stayed dead.) But for me that didn't work. The "real world" drama that did work for me though, were the complexities of relationships that were explored when Kris gets pregnant with Torque's child and Pete thinks it's his. That, in my opinion, was done much better than this:

In the end, Unity manages to achieve what it set out to do. It pulled off a big spectacle of a crossover event. But more importantly, for me, as a first time reader, Unity provided excellent introduction to the VALIANT characters. If I had to pick, my favourite character was X-O Manowar. A complete douche, he didn't give a shit about other heroes' plan to defeat the "Mothergod". Rather, he built his own private army to plunder her off her riches. That was completely bonkers.

Valiant 101: A Brief History

Over the last few years, Valiant Comics has grown from just an "indie alternative" to the superhero universes of Marvel and DC to their legitimate competition. I was too young back when Valiant-- no wait... --back when VALIANT was at its zenith and I completely missed out when they relaunched their line a couple of years ago and got to where they are now. Last year, I attended a panel by Dinesh Shamdasani (CEO & Chief Creative Officer at Valiant Entertainment) at the Delhi Comic Con. Hearing him talk with such enthusiasm about his characters motivated me to go check out the buzz surrounding their comics. Over the next few weeks, I would be reading some their best stories, would be going through all of their "tipping points": stories that shaped their current universe, and hopefully, I would be sharing my thoughts here. But before I go read the stories, I wanted to know the backstory of this publisher. I have come to realise studying the history of a comic book publisher helps in understanding their stories better: why it is they do the story that they do. (Quick example: the reason the Justice League, in every origin story, comes together by accident is that the DC Universe was never cohesive to begin with. Batman existed in his own bubble, Superman existed in his own; except an odd story together. Marvel, on the other hand, was planned from the beginning by creators such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and more. And thus, the Avengers are always brought together.)

The more I read, the more I realised that the history of Valiant Comics could be broken into three chapters. Or in simpler terms: things were great, then stuff happened, now it's all good again.

Chapter One: VALIANT Comics

In the late 80s, Jim Shooter took over as the editor-in-chief at Marvel after Stan Lee left for Los Angeles to oversee the then embryonic Marvel TV, animation, live action movies division. Although he brought out some of Marvel's best books during his tenure, including Frank Miller's Daredevil, Chris Claremont and John Bryne's Uncanny X-Men, and written by himself, and what is considered to be Marvel's first major crossover (or "event"), Secret Wars, Shooter also had a reputation for being a bully. He was known to hammer his way into every creative decision. Over time the voices of disapproval grew strong enough and Shooter was fired from Marvel in 1987.

Shooter decided to form his own company and launched Voyager Communications with Steve Massarsky (a small time artist manager), Winston Fowlkes (publishing veteran from Time Inc.), and Michael Nugent and Melanie Okun (investors from Triumph Capital). He gathered his pals from Marvel, which included Bob Layton (creator of some of the best Iron Man stories, including Demon in a Bottle) and Barry Windsor-Smith (one of the greatest illustrators of all time). Together they formed the creative force behind VALIANT Comics.

Shooter wanted to write superhero comics, both create new and use the characters he bought from Gold Key Comics. Massarsky, however, wanted to enter the mass media market and brokered a deal with Nintendo. Although he was dissatisfied, Shooter liked the idea of directly entering mass media market.

Things did not work out, though. Turned out no one wanted to read stories about Mario, everybody wanted to experience a story about Mario through a video game. Reportedly, VALIANT lost 3.3 million dollars in two and a half years.

After a few more failed ventures, Shooter finally convinced Massarsky to go back to publishing superheroes. It was the right decision. In 1992, the company returned to profit. Half year down the line, VALIANT was voted by retailers at a Diamond convention as the publisher of the year and Jim Shooter won the Diamond Gemmi award for lifetime achievement alongside Stan Lee. At the same convention next year, VALIANT beat DC and Marvel and won the Best Publisher over 5% Market Share. A feat that stands till date.

It did so by making both smart creative and business decisions. Unity, VALIANT's eighteen-part crossover, officially began with Unity #0, which was given away free at comic book stores. This, and the event in general, drew in thousands of new readers, with sales rivalling the biggest books by Marvel and DC. These new readers wanted to know more about the pre-Unity VALIANT books, but since VALIANT Comics had relatively small print runs, getting those books was difficult, which in turn made them "collectables". VALIANT Comics also came up with the idea of the #0 -- zero issue or origin story -- which is now a popular industry concept.

Things weren't so great behind-the-scenes, though. Triumph Capital LP, the money behind Voyager Communications, was beginning to see a return on their initial investment, and saw a chance to make a lot of money by selling the company. This made sense. Triumph was, after all, a venture company, not a comics publisher. Once the sheer profit of a sale became apparent to Triumph, it was time to get their money and go. They planned on selling their share to investors Charles Lazarus of Toys "R" Us, Michael Ovitz and Wayne Huizenga from Blockbuster Video. Shooter would have no creative control in this deal and was offered an employment contract.

He left.

Fortunately for the readers, Bob Layton and Co. kept the comic book side of the company running and put out great stories every month. This is not to say that the behind-the-scenes drama did no damage to the machine.

In early 1994, VALIANT teamed up with Image Comics to do an inter-company crossover called Deathmate. Image has a similar "origin story" as VALIANT. It was also formed by former Marvel creators, but unlike VALIANT, it did not have a cohesive universe but rather, similar to Dark Horse Comics, it had smaller studios publishing their own stories under the bigger Image Comics umbrella. Deathmate was marred by scheduling and production delays, particularly from Image's side. Retailers who had ordered in bulk suffered heavy losses. At the same time, the comic book boom imploded and the magic that was VALIANT seemed to have died down.

Chapter Two: Acclaim Entertainment

In late 1994 / early 1995, Massarsky sold VALIANT to Acclaim Entertainment for $65 million. Acclaim began reshaping the VALIANT characters into properties more suited for video games, which was Acclaim's bread and butter. Some characters like Turok made smooth transition to the new media. Others, however, very not so lucky. (Like X-O Manowar, who was teamed up with Iron Man in a game called Heavy Metal.)

This is not to say that Acclaim were not committed to making comic books. They got heavy hitters like Mark Waid, Garth Ennis, and more, to write their biggest characters. However, these characters were simply too much changed to suit Acclaim's vision for their video games that fans barely recognized them any more. The characters they had come to love over the years were gone. The books performed poorly both financially and critically. Quantum and Woody, though, was very well received.

Acclaim even got Jim Shooter back to do Unity 2000, a miniseries that was supposed to bridge the old VALIANT universe and the then-current Acclaim universe. Sadly, only three of the scheduled six books were published as Acclaim got into deep financial troubles, and by 2004, Acclaim Entertainment filed for bankruptcy.

Chapter Three: Valiant Entertainment

Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari, entrepreneurs and fans of VALIANT comics, learned that the entire VALIANT comics characters library is up for auction at a rather obtainable price. Dinesh gathered some investors and made a bid for it.

Although Dinesh and Co. lost, the company that did win the auction pulled out after they found that another company had filed for intent-to-use on several VALIANT characters. The group that claimed the right to the names of these characters called themselves Valiant Intellectual Properties while Dinesh named his group Valiant Entertainment. Valiant v Valiant, in court.

Reportedly, Valiant Intellectual Properties hired a big shot lawyer, one well versed with cases associated with comic book IPs, who ended up costing them a fortune. Two years later and thousands of dollars down, VIP were forced into a settlement.

In 2008, Valiant Entertainment did their first announcement after procuring the rights. They announced the return of Jim Shooter (Although it didn't really work out. More on that in a bit.). They hired Warren Simons as Editor-in-Chief. They got an investment from Peter Cuneo, former Marvel CEO, who came on as Valiant's chairman with his son, Gavin Cuneo, an experienced investment banker, as CFO.

(Jim Shooter was fired for a breach of contract after he went out to work for Dark Horse Comics relaunch of Gold Key Comics characters -- characters, who were part of the original VALIANT universe.)

Valiant Entertainment gradually went out to rebuild their fanbase. Rather than building their brand on nostalgia, Valiant rebuilt them on accessibility: anybody should pick up the books and get instantly hooked up. They "broke down characters and redesigned them". In a good way. They started "Summer of Valiant," that announced new books with great creative teams annually, signalling new directions that kept things fresh.

To their credit, Dinesh and Co. realized that they can't compete with the Big 2 when it came to hiring big names for their books. So, they went "moneyball". They hired people who, for the lack of a better term, were cheap, but were very good at what they did. They got Robert Venditti, who at that time was relatively unknown but had made the right noises with The Surrogates, to write X-O Manowar. They got Justin Jordon, who at that time was relatively unknown but had made the right noises with The Legend of Luthor Strode, for Shadowman. They got Joshua Dysart, who at that time was relatively unknown but had made the right noises with The Unknown Soldier, for Harbinger. And so on.

It paid off wonderfully. In just three to four years, Valiant Comics grew exponentially. Consider this: their latest crossover, Book of Death, topped 200,000 in sales and became “the most successful independent crossover event of the decade”. Sony has optioned Bloodshot and Harbinger for a shared universe set of films similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In short, things are looking great.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we are done with the history lesson. Next, we take a look at the very first event of this publisher. We take a look at Unity.

The Playlist Zone: ANANSI BOYS

For readers of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Anansi Boys automatically becomes the next recommendation. It's also about old gods, dysfunctional families, forgotten magic, but also, music.

I did this exercise with American Gods, and it sort of involuntarily moved on with Anansi Boys, too.



PS: I should mention that Anansi Boys is not a sequel or prequel to American Gods. We learn more about one of the characters from American Gods in Anansi Boys and that's pretty much it. You do not need to read American Gods before Anansi Boys, or vice versa.

The Playlist Zone: AMERICAN GODS

While reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods last year, I kept a list of the songs mentioned in the book, purely for my own amusement. I made a Spotify playlist sometime later and totally forgot about it. Now that they are finally adapting the book into a TV series, this seems to be a good time to revisit the playlist, and the book.