Last September I had a post called Ten Comic Book Thoughts (which now looking back on it is one musing coming into fruition away from being prophetic scripture) and #1 on that list was not so due to any random choosing.
Yesterday over at Valiant.com, the faithful found a nice surprise in Previews, a solicitation for a hardcover bearing the name Harbinger: The Beginning coming from Valiant Entertainment. The rights to the characters has been the subject of an ongoing legal battle, but forget all that - the webmaster of Valiant.com dropped this tidbit at the forum. This book is due to be out in August. 
Why should you care?
VALIANT Comics (as a line) represents my favorite comics ever. From their beginnings up and through to their Unity crossover, it was the standard for a cohesive universe while having a sensibly convoluted premise. The Valiant universe while having a heavy science fiction influence was rooted in reality in a universe that concurrently had titles split in occurring in the 20th century and the 41st century. Every title mattered, it had an actual effect, both as an autonomous issue and in the greater tapestry. It was very much a single linear (occurring in real time at that) yet also a mosaic collection. You could read just the single titles and get a hell of story but if you ventured into another title you were not betrayed - there is no Wolverine in a half a dozen teams doing two dozen conflicting things the same week. If you live in the Valiant Universe and look out the window and see Jack Boniface kicking the shit out of somebody you won’t see them in another title doing the same thing unless you live across the street or indeed able to see out of your black eye being the one getting dealt with.
People ask me about the television show: Heroes. I dig it, I really do - and the reason why is that it’s essentially Valiant-lite, they keep you in reality, revel in it, but understand wonder is a fundamental ingredient, it is not the escape it is the diving into the exploration of, and reestablishment of what can and cannot be real.
Look up in the Sky! It’s a bird! it’s a plane, it’s…
The Valiant citizen looks up: : Holy shit, that crazy Motherfucker is flying!
This sense of wonder was applied even more directly by Valiant in how they introduce characters. Certainly this company would later - rightfully - be the target of scorn due to certain promotional/marketing elements it would use in the 90’s, but one aspect of their books were genius. Characters that would later become significant would appear in books with minimal fanfare as background characters, creating this secondary layer to the story consisting of intelligent gee-whiz speculation in the only that terms (speculation) could be used as a positive regarding comics in that era.
To read the first dozen to 20 Harbinger comics is to read one of the best team books of the last 25 years, it is both the product of its iconic predecessors yet doesn’t fail to be fashionably current and again the differences is perspective: it doesn’t try to bring you to the Valiant Universe, or the Valiant Universe to you as there is no intended difference in the two. According to previews Harbinger: The Beginning is:
This digitally re-colored and re-mastered Valiant special edition collects the full Harbinger origin story from issues #0 – 7 for the first time ever, and includes an all-new “Origin of Harada” story by Jim Shooter! This classic story of Sting’s band of renegade teenagers with extraordinary powers of the mind and their battle against Japanese tycoon Toyo Harada took the comics industry by storm in 1992. It features Eisner award-winner David Lapham’s very first work as a talented teenager and one of legendary creator Jim Shooter’s greatest stories ever!
If you haven’t read Harbinger, what a perfect opportunity to jump on, if you have you already kwow the implications of a new Shooter story! For the faithful - we don’t have to take our Valiant T-shirts out of the closet, we have been flexing those since the 90’s, coveting masked penguins, stacking slabs, searching for centered dragon covers, reminiscing of a time before Wizard Magazine lost its direction and VALIANTS could be seen vying for top monthly honors; we and use code words like CEAR that accompany a gaze that mimic the kid staring out the aforementioned window - we were the children of the 8th day, now adults, and it looks like now we not only have something to look at, but hopefully new adventures to step out into, an LCS trip that isn’t exclusive to back-issue hunts. The door is in sight…
I only hope we are not robbed of our gold key.
Thank you Valiant Entertainment!
9 responses so far ↓
1 douglas // May 24, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Bloodshot > all
2 jaytomio // May 24, 2007 at 3:55 pm
You aren’t going to get me to say anything about Bloodshot. While I consider myself a Valiant purist and revere the first half dozen some odd issues of titles like Solar, Magnus, Rai and Harbinger like sacred texts and while I’d agree the Valiant titles gradually declined due to several factors (the market itself, business practice (and the loss of Shooter) I actually think Bloodshot was the last Valiant title I gave up on, and really I think it’s an instrumental character in terms of a possible relaunch. This type of character can appeal to very base audience and is perhaps one of the more recognizable commodities in the stable considering how huge the first issue sold.
I love the character and my dream team creators would be: Azzarello and Bradstreet.
That said, Harbinger has always been my favorite title.
3 Elio M. García, Jr. // May 24, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Wow, complete news to me. Terrific!
My own favorites would be Archer and Armstrong and Solar, I think; I’m a big fan of BWS. But I think I really enjoyed every single comic in the initial line — X-O Manowar, Magnus, Rai, Harbinger, Shadowman… Eternal Warrior may have been the weakest title, for me, and I still recall the first couple of issues fondly (in part because of the Unity tie-in, of course). Oh, and Ninjak, I enjoyed Quesada’s art, but it did nothing for me. Bloodshot (and #1’s chromium cover) was good fun as well.
Re: Heroes and Valiant-lite, I’ve this crazy theory that Mr. Nakamura may actually be the result of a Harada-type character taking over the “original” Nakamura (aka Takezo Kensei) in the distant past (specifically, I’m suspicious of the the “Dragon” of the Kensei legend).
Has there been any mention as to whether any of the other titles will be recieving the same treatment? *Hopes for BWS goodness*
4 jaytomio // May 24, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Elio,
Even though Eternal Warrior probably had too much of a Highlander feel to it, I really liked the element of the Geomancers and I thought Gilad really started making me feel Highland (which I like) was actually the lesser quantity overtime. If I had to pick the weakest title of the earlier group, I’d go with H.A.R.D. Corps, although I think it has potential as an ensemble-like title that coudl create a lo of great characters now.
Loved Joe Q and Jimmy P. on Ninjak, loved the concept of him and the Weaponer,just didn’t like how it was applied. It should have been bad ass, but was almost destined to fail because of that fact. The bridge between Bloodshot and Rai always that character (Bloodshot) fresh to me even when Rai (and the ridiculous Future Force) was lame.
I constantly see Valiant in HEROES - glad to here I’m not nuts :)I can’t really comment too much though as we are behind on the episodes here.
I’m not sure regarding more product man, most of us have been hoping for a relaunch and just hope this is the teaser/appetizer.
5 More Valiant Goodness... « The Bodhisattva // May 28, 2007 at 3:19 pm
[...] Roundup - « The Bodhisattva on Mistaken Identity - pondering Steven Eriksonjaytomio on TIME IS NOT ABSOLUTE: VALIANT We StandElio M. García, Jr. on TIME IS NOT ABSOLUTE: VALIANT We Standjaytomio on TIME IS NOT ABSOLUTE: [...]
6 Elio M. García, Jr. // May 28, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Oh, the Future Force. Okay, at that point I didn’t care for Rai anymore, I have to admit.
And somewhere around there, I dropped out of comics for awhile, including Valiant. I recall seeing Doctor Mirage or whatever on the shelves of a shop, but never picked it up.
I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled. I’d kill for reprints of Archer & Armstrong, X-O, Shadowman, Solar, Magnus, and … well, just about everything else.
I wonder if there’s any chance they’ll get David Lapham to get involved, like it seems they’ve gotten Bob Hall? That’d be terrific.
7 jaytomio // May 28, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I’d love to see Lapham - one of my favorite contemporary comic creators whether as a writer or artist - at Valiant but I wonder if the fact that he is not doing the Harada story a statement in itself (or not - I’d hate to speculate). I was a big fan of Hall’s Shadowman, however, so I’m certainly not let down by his presence - he is Valiant OG for me as well. Then again, thoughts n a relaunch itself would be preliminary at best still IMHO - although optimism is growing with the stressing of a new character intro!
I love The Tales of Unexpected title by Azzarello and Lapham!
8 RAI review (TPB - from VALIANT Comics) « The Bodhisattva // Oct 24, 2007 at 9:56 am
[...] mainstream and I had to represent. I wanted to review the new Harbinger hardcover (that I mentioned here), that was released recently but for some reason I never got my copies and now I’m waiting [...]
9 Trae K47 // Apr 22, 2008 at 1:47 am
hey,
i have Unity time is not absolute chapter 1 but it’s nothing like that 1 u have!!! Well kinda but not really. It has a Cerificate of Authenticity! It says “It is hereby certified that the Unity #0 comic which accompanies this document has been personally autographed by Jim Shooter. The item was signed under the direct supervision of, and in witness thereto, Catch A Star Collectibles, Inc.” Then it is signed by Jim Shooter on the certific and at the bottom of the page. I havn’t found any1 like it! So i don’t know how much money it costs but it’s so cool!!
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