“Another reboot? Now I know how the Legion Of Super-Heroes feel.”
Valiant Beyond–Preview Edition
Valiant Comics/Alien Books (July, 2025)
FLATS: Ludwig Olimba
LETTERER: Ezequiel Inverni
EDITORS: Lysa Hawkins & Clara Bartolozzi
From the Drive Thru Comics description because they know more than I do about this:
If you missed this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and are a Valiant fan? Well, then you missed picking up the Valiant Beyond San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Ashcan.
But what if you didn’t? Because we have the full, 32-page preview issue!
Featuring looks at what’s coming for new takes on Bloodshot, Shadowman, X-O Manowar, and Harbinger, you’ve got some lettered pages, some black and white pages, and even some other teases of what’s next for the storied imprint.
I believe this is the third or fourth version of the Valiant Universe. The first was created by Jim Shooter, whose investors basically stole it from him. Then Acclaim bought it for their Acclaim Comics/Valiant Heroes re-imagine of most of the characters. Someone else brought back in the early 2000s, and now it’s owned by Alien Books. A lot of acquisitions for someone outside the big two, and I might be missing one. This is an anthology of stories so let’s take a look.
Bloodshot
WRITER: Mauro Mantella | ARTIST: Fernando Heinz Furukawa, assisted by Juan Pablo Massa | COLORISTS: Rocio Zucchi & Brushu Studio
Note that it says “letters not final”, so who knows what made it to the actual Bloodshot #1, which this is a snippet from. The same concept continue here. Roy Harrison has been turned into a nanite-powered soldier whose memories are zapped when his mission is over. That mission is to kill everything he’s supposed to. This time he’s in Japan dealing with a street gang who has members with nanites of their own. This is not the comic for me. Very gory. While we don’t get a complete story, ending as two of the gang members have the same type of nanites he does, we get a splash page introduction to the character’s backstory and a good sample of the comic’s tone. Again, not my kind of comic but as a promo it serves the job and the art is good.
Tales Of The Shadowman
WRITER: AJ Ampaduaj | ARTIST: Sergio Mones | COLORIST: Jon Amarillo
Again, letters not final. This doesn’t tell us as much, and it another snippet from the first issue. There’s a field that’s supposed to keep demons out of New Orleans, but Shadowman has no trouble getting through it, finding the woman who summoned him, saving her life, and going after the demon that caused the strangling spell. We do learn his powers but not much else, and I’m not a fan of the redesign. Then again, this is the Valiant character I know the least about.
The X-O Manowar
WRITER: Steve Orlando | ARTIST: Guillermo Fajardo | COLORIST: Lautard Ftuli
Again, lettering not finalized. Not sure what the reason is behind this. Maybe they were running out of time before San Diego Comic Con? Now this is the character I know the most about, being a fan of armored superheroes and all. This…is neither of the versions I know. It doesn’t look like Aric, the barbarian who returned to Earth centuries later with the X-O armor, nor is it the kid who was part of a legacy of people wearing the armor that could turn part of it into a computer and communication center for his allies. This is some post-apocalypse story with mutants that Maybe-Aric kills for food, a punk gang in the desert, and the armor looks nothing like any version I’ve ever seen. And I don’t really care for the new design. It doesn’t look bad but I prefer the blue with cool accents to this jumpsuit-looking orange thing.
All-New Harbinger
WRITER: Fred Van Lente | ARTIST: Erik Tamayo | COLORING: Brushu Studio
This one doesn’t just need finished lettering, but finished art. A few pages aren’t even colored yet. I don’t know what they did with this version, but I only know slightly more about Valiant’s version of mutants/metahumans than I do Shadowman. Now we get a high-tech future, so the shared universe is apparently gone from this version of Valiant. Van Lente also seems to be leaning into the Marvel Studios humor, which I’m surprised about and he’s still better at it than a lot of others. A group calling themselves the Human League decides to attack the Foundation Center. Their leader, Black Sheep (who needs to look up her music history–yes, older readers, they make the connection) seems to be trying to draw out the heroes. Why? I don’t know. The sample of the first issue ends here. We do learn this world suffered some kind of war and she’s interrupting a moment of silence and she’s a radicalized teenager. This almost looks interesting, but fans of the previous incarnations are seeing namesakes in action.
overall
I think that’s the problem here. If you hated the changes Acclaim made, these are only slightly better. The shared Valiant universe is gone. It feels more like modern Marvel Studios in which they slapped original names on completely new concepts and called it a reboot. That’s becoming annoying. While All-New Harbinger is the only one that looks interesting to me personally, and I was a fan of Acclaim’s reimagined Ninjak even though it was totally different from the original which I wasn’t into, I don’t know how die hard fans will accept these new takes. I never need “my version” of properties I’m not interested in. On the other hand this may find an audience with those who weren’t into or never heard of the prior takes on these characters.
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