Valiant comics

Valiant comics

Back in the early 90s a new company was created. This was Valiant comics. At first they started off small. Publishing a free give away comics. Then they got a deal,so they were publishing comics based on various Nintendo properties. And they also published a handful of comics based on the World Wrestling Federation. Well neither the video game based or wrestling based comics sold that well. But they did a deal with Gold Key. In this deal they got the rights to a handful of the Gold Key heroes. These heroes are Solar man of the atom,Magnus Robot Fighter,and Turok Son of Stone. The first of these properties to get published was Magnus. This is considered the start of the Valiant universe. Now Magnus didn't sell that well,but cause it was a property that some comic fans were familiar with it sold better than the previous stuff. Next they put out Solar. And this title again wasn't a huge seller but it sold well. Not long after this Valiant added the titles Rai,Harbinger,X-O manowar and Shadowman. About 8 months into the start of the Valiant universe,people started noticing how all the issues were well written and had good art. And the speculators found out that the print runs on these early Valiant comics were super low. And it seemed over night prices tripled for back issues of Valiant. Then the comic magazine Wizard started talking about Valiant. This just added fuel to the fire. Pretty soon back issues of Valiant were the hottest things in comic shops. At the time the first Valiant comic I bought was X-O manowar issue 4. I got it a few months after it came out for cover price. But in a few months people discovered this issue had the first appearance of Shadowman. So the issue quickly went from cover price to $30. Now I enjoyed what I had read. But cause of the escalating prices couldn't afford to buy the back issues. So I gave up on reading Valiant comics.

Now fast forward to summer of 2008. I was in Biloxi and talking to one of my cousins. I was telling him about my new job. And since I had huge amount of downtime at work,I had started bringing some comics with me to read. He mentioned that he still had a bunch of his old comics. It seems back in the early 90's he was speculating on comics. He told me to come by his house before I headed back home. I could have all his old comics for free. Well I will never turn down free comics so I went by. I get there and he has 2 short boxes and a small stack of comics. Well he had been one of the people in the early 90's speculating on Valiant comics. Once I got home I went through the comics. And saw he had about 200 various issues of Valiant. And over the next few weeks at work I read them. This reignited my love of Valiant.

Now I had heard back in 2005 about a website dedicated to collectors of Valiant comics. So now owning about 200 issues I went to the website. Looking around I found out that there was about 700 or so total comics in the Valiant universe. And about 80% of them are now super cheap. So I have been slowly buying the issues I need to get a complete run. Usually I have managed to get these issues for a buck an issue or less.

One of the things that I love about Valiant is so far everything from them I have read has been very well written. Plus they seemed to have a book for everyone. If you love action and the Punisher,they have Bloodshot. If you like the X-men or the 80's era Teen Titians ,Valiant has Harbingers.If you like more sci fi based stuff ,there is Magnus or Solar.

So far outta the Valiant stuff I have read the stand outs are. Turok, this is the story of a American Indian who for years lived in a land outside time. But thanks to the first big crossover event in the Valiant universe,Turok gets sent to the present day. And so does his main enemy. This is a series of bionic dinosaurs. Yeah I know an American Indian fighting bionic dinosaurs sounds incredibly stupid. But the various writers of the Turok title make it work. Then you have Bloodshot. Bloodshot is a former mafia hitman. Who is infused with nanites. These are tiny robots that live in his blood and can repair almost any damage. And also keep him at peak shape. The title started off as a super powered version of the Punisher. But quickly morphed into something entirely different. I must assume my cousin also really liked this title cause it was the one he owned the most issues of. Shadowman is a book set in New Orleans. Jack is a jazz saxophone player. But one night he is bit by what we later find out is a Spider-Alien. And after this every night he loses all fear and his strength,agility and stamina become the best a human can have. This title has a very dark feel to it. Magnus robot fighter is set in the future. In this future mankind has come to depend on robots for most normal things. And some robots have gained what is called "freewill". This means these robots aren't happy being man's servants. And at first Magnus is happy going out and destroying the freewill robots. Well early on in the title he realized that not all the freewill robots are evil. And the title becomes about how Magnus becomes a hero to the lower class and a champion of the freewill robots. There are more Valiant titles I love but I feel I have ranted way too long now. So in closing if you are tired of the comics that DC and Marvel are putting out. And you want something different that doesn't cost much,go digging through your local comic shops cheap bins and try out some Valiant.