Via PR and an interview with CBR, the much-argued over Valiant comics characters are coming back, this time under a group led by former Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo, his brother, Gavin, CEO Jason Kothari and director Dinesh Shamdasani.
This morning, Valiant Entertainment – the company which purchased the rights to the ’90s comics powerhouse’s original properties in 2007 – announced that it will begin publishing new comics in both print and digitally formats in 2012 featuring heroes like XO Manowar and Bloodshot. The move comes in part thanks to a capital infusion from Cueno & Company, LCC – an investment firm headed by former Marvel CEO and Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo and his brother Gavin. Cuneo left Marvel in 2010 as a result of the Disney buyout of that company and will serve as Chairman of Valiant, rounding out a management team that already included CEO Jason Kothari and Director Dinesh Shamdasani (the full press release can be read here).
Valiant Comics was a ’90s comics powerhouse, with astounding sales for books that relied on strong stories and characters over flashy art. The company foundered, as many did, in the wasteland of the Distributor Wars, and the characters have been at the center of several lawsuits since then, most recently when the FORMER e-i-c-, and chief world builder of the Valiant-verse, Jim Shooter, wrote several of the Gold Key characters — like Turok — at Dark Horse. Valiant had licensed these characters to great success in the 90s, but they are not part of the line moving forward:
Kothari: Valiant has a huge library of characters, and we have the Valiant Universe which is larger than any one character as it plays an invaluable role in supporting and strengthening all the characters within it. The Gold Key characters are part of our past, but they are not important to our future. Within the Valiant Universe framework, we are initially focusing on 9 or 10 of Valiant’s A-list characters, such as X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, and Harbinger, and the interactions between them.
The last time we had a public encounter with people claiming to be rebooting Valiant was a couple of years ago when Fred Pierce, formerly of Wizard, and Mark Frangos, formerly of Virgin, were going around the Diamond summit talking about relaunching the line. Neither they, nor Bill Jemas, another potential publishing figure who attempted to orchestrate a Valiant comeback, seems to be involved with this go round. Heck, the silhouetted figure with the smoking gun in the promo art (below) ight as well stand in for the Mystery Valiant Investor who has been lurking on the edges of the comics biz for the last few years.
As mentioned in the piece, the Valiant line aims to hit the racks and tablets in 2012 — we can imagine many freelancers have already sent in their portfolios this very morning.
The “mysterious” character in silhouette is obviously Bloodshot, the non-Gold Key character most talked about for movies/TV/etc.
Hey Heidi!
Gavin Cuneo is actually Peter’s son. That’s all my bad. Did a lot more typing than sleeping last night.
– KP
zzzzzzz…
Seriously, the Dark Horse versions of the other Valiant legacy characters tanked here, and judging by the ICV@ numbers, everywhere else. Why will this batch be any better received?
And speaking of questions Valiant needs to ask themselves…
WHO is the target audience?
WHERE will they be drawn from?
HOW will they be reached?
What I want:
A Quantum and Woody collection.
An Archer and Armstrong collection.
Maybe reprints of the Acclaim-era titles, featuring well-known talent?
New comics? Meh. But good luck!
yeah, I get the image now, if it’s who I think it is. Then yeah, the image works.
it’s looking back and forward as well.
I’ll believe it when I see these books on the stands and not a second before.
I hope they reprint the old Valiant stuff as well. One wonder’s if they also have the rights to do that…
I always thought Valiant fell apart due to all the chromium poisoning.
But boy howdy did I ever love me some A&A and Magnus back in the day.
I really hope they try and follow Shooter’s successful model from the early years: strong stories, and a long-term vision integrating the whole line into a common universe and history. They just need a creative type to orchestrate it, as Shooter did back in the day.
It could be amazing to have new Archer & Armstrong, Shadowman, X-O Manowar, Rai, etc. Provided they’re good, of course.
Now, with DH apparently laying down the Solar and Magnus comics, IIRC… those two characters were so integral to the Valiant universe, I hope the new Valiant licenses them, finances and plans permitting, to keep them a part of it all.
FWIW, the cover appears to be riffing off of Rai #0 (which completely blew my mind, back in the day), where the silhouette was that of Bloodshot. The sleeker look here is a bit more like Rai, but yeah, probably Bloodshot.
I find this timing odd, and their dismissing the Gold Key characters as being unimportant, when Dark Horse recently announced that they’ve cancelled the Gold Key character line due to the expense of the license and interference from the license holder. So in other words, all those characters will soon be at liberty again. Maybe someone could pick them up and call the line Acclaim Comics.
I remember Valiant tanking long before the distributor wars when the speculator market started collapsing. That was about the only segment that showed much interest in Valiant titles after the initial launch.
If that silhouetted figure represents the Mystery Valient Investor, I think he should be taller… ( Just a guess. )
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