10 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Valiant Comics

It’s never easy to try to compete in the comic book marketplace with powerhouse publishers like DC and Marvel at the top of the heap. And now with indie competition like Image Comics and Dark Horse lighting up sales charts as well, it’s even harder to get your voice heard in an overcrowded industry. But things are a bit different with Valiant Entertainment.

You may remember Valiant from the ‘90s as the publisher of books like X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Turok, Harbinger, and plenty of others. For a while, Valiant was one of the best-selling companies around before financial troubles all but destroyed it. The company has reemerged, however, thanks to businessmen Jason Kothari and Dinesh Shamdasani, who, together, bought the rights to Valiant and began publishing new material earlier this year.

Recently, Complex had the chance to attend a roundtable interview with writers Robert Venditti (X-O Manowar), Joshua Dysart (Harbinger), Duane Swierczynski (Bloodshot), and Fred Van Lente (Archer & Armstrong); Warren Simons, executive editor; Hunter Gorinson, communications manager; Fred Pierce, publisher; and CCO Dinesh Shamdasani. Together, the men behind the scenes discussed the company’s past, present, and future.

After listening to what they had to say and reading all of the material the company has put out thus far, the result is the following list of 10 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading Valiant Comics.

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Written by Jason Serafino (@serafinoj1)

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Whether you remember the original Valiant comics from the ‘90s or not, it doesn’t matter. This new version of the brand is unlike anything that was put out before. By focusing more on stories than flashy art, the company has risen up from bankruptcy and revitalized the cult favorite characters that made it one of the highest-selling comic publishers two decades ago.

“Valiant was such a breath of fresh air during such an important time in the industry that it left an undeniable mark on a whole generation,” says Dinesh Shamdasani, co-founder and CCO. “People started calling it the ‘Valiant era,’” in reference to the company’s success in the ‘90s when many of the books easily outsold Marvel and DC on a monthly basis.

Not only is Valiant back now, but it’s caught up with the modern comic book landscape and has improved on everything the company did in the past. Valiant lover from way back will be familiar with titles like X-O Manowar, Harbinger, and Bloodshot. Though readers may notice a few changes here and there, these titles are still just as cutting-edge and action-packed as before.

High-profile crossovers are both a blessing and a curse for the comic book industry. In the past, examples like Civil War, The Sinestro Corps War, and Blackest Night lit up comic book charts with both critical and commercial acclaim. However, in recent years these large events have been happening far too often, and fans have started to become fatigued by these large-scale stories that can sometimes cost well over $100 to collect.

So far, Valiant is keeping all of its comics separate from the others in its line. This means that you won’t need to collect the upcoming Shadowman to figure out what’s happening in X-O Manowar and vice-versa. “The spirit of the original Valiant was to be a shared universe," says Joshua Dysart. "So we’d be a little dishonest to our mission if we didn’t do that.”

There's no doubt that this will likely happen eventually, but it seems that, for now, Valiant is more concentrated on setting up characters and telling great comic stories rather than throwing all of its characters into one big book for the sake of sales. This makes for a much cheaper and more simplistic reading process for new audiences.

With the recent success of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, as well as the whole Marvel universe, at the box office, the actual comics themselves have begun to resemble their film counterparts more and more. That’s not a bad thing, per se, but for longtime fans, it’s been frustrating to see classic characters fall victim to Hollywood.

That’s where Valiant has the advantage. It’s a safe haven for people who want their comic books to just be comics. There's no pandering to big studios, nor are there any subliminal advertisements to sell movie tickets. Valiant's creators aren’t ashamed of what their comic books are and who they cater to; unfortunately, that’s a rare thing nowadays.

There's no doubt that Valiant is a small publishing company when compared to its competitors, but sometimes that can be an advantage. Without a large corporation's backing, Valiant’s titles are often afforded the creative and editorial freedom necessary to truly put significant marks on the industry.

“The fact that we are such a small company," says Warren Simons, "and the fact that it’s small office with a good group of writers, I think that we are taking chances that other companies are not."

“There are just so few gatekeepers to our creative decision process,” says Harbinger writer Joshua Dysart. “So if I have an idea I want to do, and it may be dicey in the context of the industry and how other people do comics, there is only one person I have to go to for it. It seems like there aren’t that many people we have to go through.”

When Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse all started, they weren't nearly as big as they are now, yet they were still able to pump out gems. That's where Valiant is at right now: The books are exactly how the writers, artists, and editors want them to be, and there's no corporate overlord to please.

Like any worthy comic book publisher, Valiant strives to create stories that echo the events of the real world, albeit with a fantasy twist that allows readers to become engulfed in the tales. By combining social satire and real world politics, their comics read like contemporary folklore, as opposed to throwaway episodic entertainment.

“My book is very satirical, and you can’t do satire unless you’re ripping stuff right from the headlines," says Archer & Armstrong writer Fred Van Lente. “Guys that I grew up reading, like Steve Gerber and a lot of books from the ‘80s, always did stuff that were based on stuff that happened right at that moment. There’s no point in making fun of yesterday’s news.”

Adds Harbinger writer Joshua Dysart, “I’m not writing a satirical book, so it’s a bit of a different attack, but I believe there is such a thing as ethics in storytelling. And I don’t think that it’s a conscious effort, it’s that I don’t know how else to write. I live in the world and I’m engaged in the world; I’m not an escapist by nature. My ideas come from the world, so in that way my social perception is a huge part of my narrative.”

Valiant's comics are taking place in an authentic world with real-life political and social issues; thus, each story feels more important and tangible, despite the obvious sci-fi and fantasy influences.

One thing readers will notice about the modern Valiant universe is that punches are never pulled. Books like X-O Manowar and Bloodshot aren’t written and illustrated with the kids in mind; instead, these are intense, visceral books with an eye towards mature storytelling.

These books will appeal to the adult comic book reader that craves a bit more edge from their titles. For fans of characters like Punisher and Wolverine, Bloodshot, in particular, should appeal to you as it brings that type of violence hard and heavy with each issue.

Valiant’s line of comics is as diverse as the sci-fi/fantasy realm can get, appealing to fans of superhero stories, gory revenge tales, and political/social satires. Titles like X-O Manowar and Harbinger are reminiscent of books like Green Lantern, Thor, and X-Men with their dense mythologies and action-packed tales; also, X-O Manowar and Harbinger are the company’s most accessible titles, bringing us modern mythologies filled with complex heroes, memorable villains, and the wide-screen scope of big-budget blockbusters.

Archer & Armstrong and Bloodshot, on the other hand, have completely different tones. Bloodshot is an incredibly violent tale of revenge as the titular character looks to take down the shady government organization that has been lying to him about his past ever since his creation. It introduces elements of advanced modern technology and the morality that goes into its application. Archer & Armstrong, meanwhile, skewers modern religion and society as the duo squares off against The One-Percent, a crazed cult looking to dominate the global finances.

No two Valiant books are the same, so whatever your taste may be when it comes to fantasy comics, it’s likely that they have something specifically for you.

When a new (or, in this case, a rebooted) comic book publisher launches, it will often take a while to lure in top talent from around the industry. But Valiant has scored some of the best writers and artists from Marvel, DC, and the indie world to work on its new universe right off the bat.

Amongst the company's team of storytellers, you'll find the likes of Robert Venditti (The Surrogates) on X-O Manowar, Joshua Dysart (Unknown Soldier) on Harbinger, Duan Swierczynski (The Immortal Iron Fist, Punisher) on Bloodshot, and Fred Van Lente (Incredible Hercules, Hulk: Season One) on Archer & Armstrong. Plus, artists like Clayton Henry (Uncanny X-Men), Lee Garbett (Batman, Batgirl), and plenty of others that give each title a cinematic quality.

Collectively, Valiant's collaborators have been a part of some of the industry's better comics of the last few years, and they all believe in the company's vision moving forward.

The heroes of Valiant books might not be household names like Spider-Man or Captain America, but they're just as interesting and complex as some of your favorite comic characters. X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, and the super-powered kids at the Harbinger Foundation are all fully fleshed out and real.

For the character of Aric in X-O Manowar, writer Robert Venditti wanted to "give it weight when he gets the armor, and what that would mean for this guy specifically, versus any other person that would get the armor.” It's that kind of thinking that makes the character more believable. The human underneath is just as important as the armor he is wearing.

It’s always intimidating to jump into a new comic universe and get attached to new characters, but all of these are incredibly worth it. Chances are, you'll find yourself getting just as engrossed in their adventures as you are with more mainstream heroes. Maybe even more.

The biggest way in which Valiant separates itself from the main publishers like Marvel and DC is how it’s designed for new fans. Unlike hopping on a Batman or X-Men book in the middle of its run, there's no previous knowledge of the Valiant characters required to truly get the whole experience.

“It’s critically important for us to reach new readers," says Warren Simons. "One of the things that I try to do always as an editor is to try to make the work as accessible as possible to new readers. It’s important to our company; it's important to our industry. That’s one of our primary goals is to be as accessible as possible to new readers, while still tapping into the history of the past.”

Each book manages to tell its own story in a completely fresh and streamlined way. And because most of the titles at the company are only four or five issues into their runs, there's hardly any catching up to do. You can simply open up an issue of Archer & Armstrong or X-O Manowar and concentrate on reading an action-packed comic without worrying about where everything fits into continuity and how it ties into a story that was released decades ago.