Valiant Comics 1988-2004

I was sixteen or seventeen when I first read Magnus Robot Fighter.  The book had been sitting on my shelf for weeks—on the pull list for that month, I don’t recall who’d recommended it, but I believe it was issue 25 that I started with, due to the collectible cover of that issue:  a page or two in and my mind went white. From the first word I was hooked by Ostrander’s rich characters, his flowing language, his extraordinary ear for dialogue, his effortless ability as a storyteller.  His compassion most of all.  Those two interlocking tales of the Magnus and Rai settled into my cells, into my soul, and left an imprint that remains just as deep, just as true, more than fifteen years later.  Magnus Robot Fighter instantly became one of my Favorite Books of All Time—and it remains so to this day.

I went on to devour the amazing Rai (which introduced “Eternal Warrior”—as perfect a comic run as has ever been written), X-O Manowar (flawed, yes, but absolutely essential) and, of course, the much-acclaimed Harbinger (which, oddly, is my least favorite of Valiant’s books.  Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it; but Harbinger never touched me in the same way Valiant’s other stories did).  Still, Magnus Robot Fighter is the comic I kept returning to; and now, with word of Jim Shooter’s relaunch with the help of Dark Horse Comics, I think I’ll return to it again.  And I think I’ll return to Eternal Warrior, as well:  a story that—much like the Magnus Robot Fighter excerpt I began with—contains as perfect a definition of life, the universe and everything as I’ve ever come across.    

When I was seventeen, it was a very good year.  Well, actually, it was an so-so year—filled with angst, agony and a desperate search for Cosmic Answers—but it did lead me to an experience of the mind—detailed, in anyone of the late night ramblings, in the den of Hubka—that profoundly altered my consciousness and forever changed my perception of myself, the universe and...well, everything.  The story of my discovery of the mind, and the soul-exploding impact it had on my life, will have to wait for another time.  What you need to know right now is that, for me, it changed my life.  


Now let’s jump ahead a few years.  




That would have been enough to sustain me for the rest of my life, but there was one more comic book miracle to come.  While staying close to home during my early college years, I met the owner for the loyal comic shop in Palatine, Fat Dutchies, I can't remember his name, and we quickly became buddies.  (It didn’t hurt that he was a fellow Valiant comic book geek.  He was delighted when, a year or so later, he was able to sell that store before the bottom fell out of comics in the late 90's.)   One look at the Diamond shipping lists for a given period, and it's easy to see how many people read comics on a weekly basis.  Now Marvel and DC can ship 100K of a book, and sell it, but for the little publishers, 25K for a print run is something, and that is nationwide.  So back in the mid 90's, before message boards, online forums, and the Internet became so commonplace in our lives.  We had the underground. We had rapid response.  These kids today with the hair and the clothes.  It's activist vacation, is what it is. Spring break for anarchist wannabes. The black t-shirts, the gas masks as fashion accessories.  Back then if you wanted to find out something from someone else, you had to ask a question, and the likelihood of finding a similar mind in your area was lightning in a bottle when it happened.


The years that followed—and the trips back to local book stores that I’ve known over the years—were filled with that kind of soul-opening enchantment.  I could write a book about those journeys, and maybe one day I will; but the reason I’m writing about this now isn’t to convince anybody to become a follower of me.  I’m writing this to remind you, to remind me, that whether you’re on a hill in Palatine or sitting in your own living room, the line between Storyteller and story, between so-called fantasy and so-called reality, is an illusion.  The borders that separate the possible from the impossible are nothing but a dream.  This life we’re all living is magic:  rich with synchronicity, miracles and, most important of all, love beyond imagining.


I give to you now a Valiant primer, a brief one.

Valiant Universe

• Archer and Armstrong - Archer is the world’s greatest hand-to-hand fighter, an expert marksman and a seeker of righteousness.  Armstrong is a ten-thousand-year old libertine as strong as a battalion, he spends his days drinking, carousing and telling tales of his unbelievable adventures throughout history to anyone who will listen.  A team chosen by fate to face a truly terrible evil that threatens to destroy the world!
• Bloodshot -  Angelo Mortalli has become the ultimate killing machine. His memories were erased and his blood was infused with microscopic computers called nanites.
• Eternal Warrior - Gilad Anni-Padda was born in 3268 BC, one of three natural human immortals, Gilad is the brother of Ivar the Timewalker and Aram the Other (AKA Armstrong). The three brothers are the only naturally immortal humans known to exist
• H.A.R.D. Corps - The acronym stands for Harbinger Active Resistance Division. The title's focus was a corporate strike team (representing Omen Enterprises) dealing with Toyo Harada, and his goal of controlling all Harbingers.
• Harbinger - Toyo Harada is the first Harbinger, and unlike subsequent Harbingers he was able to make his powers manifest at will, or activate the powers of others. Other Harbingers exhibit powers only rarely and this activation is always brought on by severe stress.  Pete Stanchek is a normal teenager until he develops Harbinger abilities. After seeing an advertisement he contacts the Harbinger Foundation. Harada is intrigued by Pete, who is the only other Harbinger to have triggered his own powers and who exhibits multiple abilities.
• Magnus, Robot Fighter - By the year 4000, humanity has become dependent on robots.  Magnus was raised by a robot known as 1A, a firm believer in the Three Laws of Robotics, 1A recognized the threat represented by the dependency of humans on robots in general, trained Magnus as a warrior to protect humans against both rogue robots, and humans who used normal robots for evil purposes.
• Ninjak - Colin King is the wealthy son of a master spy who was employed by the British Government. King was raised in the Orient but was an outcast in that society. When his father was killed by rival agent Iwatsu, King went into training, determined to continue his father's tradition and bring his killers to justice
• Rai - Rai is the spirit guardian that protects the nation of Japan in the 41st century. It is a mantle passed down from father to son through the generations.  In 4001 A.D., a massive machine known as the Host covers the entire island of Japan. Fifty billion Japanese dwell inside this mighty construct, which is, in fact, a single, enormous robot. Rai is the hereditary defender of the Host - its living "immune system." Rai draws weapons from his own body to protect the people of Japan and his creator Grandmother, the sentient AI robot that controls Japan.
• The Second Life of Dr. Mirage - Hwen and Carmen Mirage are parapsychologists who investigate paranormal activity and supernatural mystery. They are hired to investigate two corpses whose vital signs are reading normal. While performing tests, the bodies, which turn out to be charged with necromantic energy, come to life and attack Hwen and Carmen. During the fight they reveal the name Master Darque, a necromantic sorcerer (powered by death energy).
• Shadowman - A jazz musician, Jack Boniface nearly died one night—attacked by something out of a nightmare. By fateful chance, he escaped, since that terrifying experience something has changed. Now, when darkness falls, a feeling comes over him, the urge to find demons who defile the night—his night—and cast them out.  By day, Jack is his old self again. But more and more he lives for the night, longs for the night.
• Solar, Man of the Atom - The new version (now known simply as Solar) was a physicist named Phil Seleski.  One day, Seleski and his colleagues were testing a new type of fusion reactor. When an accidental breach threatened to decimate the entire area, Seleski rushed to shut down the reactor. He succeeded, but he was exposed to lethal doses of radiation in the process. Amazingly, the exposure did not kill him.
• Turok - Turok and Andar are 18th century Native Americans. The isolated valley became The Lost Lands - a land where Demons, Dinosaurs and Aliens flourished and where "Time has no meaning". A cosmic anomaly caused time in The Lost Lands to move in a self-contained loop (which meant that while millions of years passed outside of it, inside it, time barely moved at all).
• Unity - The Unity story comprises eighteen issues and nine comic book series, published by Valiant during August and September 1992. It tells of Erica Pierce, the Mothergod, trying to rewrite reality and restore her original universe.
• X-O Manowar - Alric of Dacia was a Visigoth born in the 5th Century A.D. under Roman rule. As a young boy, Aric witnessed the slaughter of his parents at the hands of Roman soldiers. He henceforth dedicated himself to destroying the Roman oppressors, with the help of his Uncle, Alaric I.  One evening, he saw demons attacking members of his tribe. Aric attacked them, but was quickly subdued and taken aboard their alien spacecraft. For the next seven years, Aric was held prisoner in the slave pens of the spacecraft. At a refuelling station several light years from Earth, he befriended a man known as the "Map Giver. The "Map Giver" used a discarded bone shard to carve a map into Aric’s palm that would lead him to the alien’s armory. Aric fought his way to the X-O Manowar class armor and donned the control ring. It later became clear that the "manufacturing" process of the X-O Manowar armor, which not only self-repaired, but also reproduced, involved the absorption of a sentient intelligence that then became the armor's own sentience. With this living armor he was able to escape from the alien ship and return to Earth.