valiant tagged posts

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Colors: Elmer Santos
Publisher: Valiant Comics

In the post-apocalyptic future of 4001 A.D., Ana a.k.a War Mother has freed her people of The Grove from a tyrant named Sylvan. Once just the protector of The Grove, she is now its leader and must find a new home for her people before they starve.

The world of War Mother is an interesting one. Nature has retaken the world, and cyborg creatures of organic and artificial materials wander to trade their wares, preyed upon by reptilian monsters. Segovia’s illustrations bring this world to life with bombastic action accompanied by Elmer Santos’ vibrant colors.

The dialogue is light and snappy, with a slight leaning towards bits of melodrama...

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Renato Guedes
Publisher: Valiant

In the 1960’s, Abram, a Soviet Astronaut, was launched into space, and years later returned with incredible powers. After thwarting the plans of one of his friends to create a mass hallucination in which Russia rules the world, he checks in on those who remain from the hallucination world seeming due to an anomaly of time and space.

Divinity starts off strong, with Abram reflecting on the sense of wonder and adventure he used to get from reading comic books as a child. How the world was simpler and seemed to stand still. It’s a little cliche, yes, but it’s earnest and heartfelt, and paired with Renato Guedes’ beautiful watercolor illustrations, it transcends cliche and is actually quite touching… for the first few pages...

Writer: Jody Houser
Artists: Stephen Segovia and Barry Kitson
Colors: Ulises Arreola

Faith Herbert is a superhero in hiding after she was framed for murder, but now she’s been recruited by a time-traveler and her dinosaur-women partner to help save all of time. Unfortunately, it may take more than just one hero to stop the killer robot that’s threatening all of reality.

Faith and the Future Force confuses me as a first issue to a series. The concept is pretty simple: time-traveller recruits superhero to save reality, so you’d imagine you don’t really need to spend much time on the concept, and instead you’d establish the characters, especially since the title seems to suggest this comic will follow a team of heroes. Weirdly enough, Faith and the Future Force does pretty much the...

Writer: Rafer Roberts
Artist: Darick Robertson
Inks: Richard Clark
Colors: Diego Rodriguez
Publisher: Valiant

Detroit has been taken over by a group of super-powered children called Generation Zero, and renamed as the Free City of Rook. A group of mercenary soldiers are sent in free the city from “terrorists”, and a bloodbath with casualties on both sides ensues.

Issue #5 of Harbinger Renegade is the first part in the Massacre story arc, and it delivers on its namesake, with deaths left and right on both sides. Unfortunately, and this doubles as a disclaimer, I haven’t read any of the previous 4 issues, so these deaths meant nothing to me...

Writer: Eliot Rahal
Artist: Khari Evans
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Publisher: Valiant

Two soldiers out of time, kept alive as part of a secret project that turned them into weapons of mass destruction, have finally earned a day off after decades of service.

There are two major problems I have with Valiant as a whole. It’s very confusing and unwelcoming to newcomers, and attempts to explain backstory come off as poorly written exposition dumps. It’s also all very silly, which in theory is fine, but it’s all played straight and there’s usually nothing to anchor it and for the most part, the silliness all gets to be too much. Blood Shot’s Day Off is needlessly confusing, and incredibly silly, but it does manage to find an emotional anchor that makes those two issues easier to deal wit...