By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/26/2015
After restoring our collective brain patterns from last week’s insane Podcorn visitation, the men and women hand selected by the government to write the world’s premiere comic book news website, The Beat, sought a nap. A new member of the team known as Frank Oliver aligned himself amongst our ranks, and after some comic book […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/20/2015
Writer: Robert Venditti Artists: Robert Gill Doug Braithwaite Colors: David Baron Allen Passalaqua Brian Reber Letters: Dave Lanphear Convinced the unnatural disasters tearing our world apart are a direct result of the new Geomancer’s arrival, the combined forces of the Valiant Universe are forced to confront the Eternal Warrior about his new charge. But to […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/19/2015
After an arduous week scraping gum off The Stately Beat Manor ceiling and cleaning crushed PBR cans out of the infinity pool, the Beat Staffers were ready for a week long nap when suddenly, Lobo blew the hinges off the long-locked bathroom door, howling with anger and flexing his arm hairs threateningly. His bushy locks trailed in […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/15/2015
Writer:
Robert Venditti
Pencils:
Doug Braithwaite
Robert Gill
Colors:
David Baron
Brian Reber
Letters:
Dave Lanphear
The blockbuster Valiant event of 2015 starts here as New York Times best-selling writer Robert Venditti (X-O MANOWAR) joins superstar-in-the-making Robert Gill (ARMOR HUNTERS: HARBINGER) and visionary artist Doug Braithwaite (ARMOR HUNTERS) to begin a thousand-year journey into the future of the Valiant Universe…and rain, fire, blood and war on the heroes of today.
This week, Valiant decided to open the Book of Death, the publisher’s upcoming event series featuring various established characters in a shared Universe. To really get a grasp on the Book of Death is to understand Valiant’s last event mini-series known as The Valiant, where Bloodshot, a man-turned-robot attempted to save the being known as the Geomancer (Earth savior) from The Eternal Enemy. Just in case you were wondering, The Eternal Enemy is a really bad dude and The Eternal Warrior is the person tasked with protecting the Geomancer from harm. Unfortunately, the latest Geomancer, Kay McHenry fell to the clutches of The Eternal Enemy when the monster took the shape of Mr. Flay — one of McHenry’s greatest fears. Since then, Tama, the next Geomancer was introduced in the climax of The Valiant as the young heroine contained a special item: the Book of the Geomancer. The book can see into the future of the Valiant world, but only Tama can read it. The Eternal Warrior has gone rogue with Tama and the Book of the Geomancer — abandoning his friends on the Valiant superteam Unity. Drama ensues.
This first installment of the comic does an admirable job of trying to suck new readers into the mythology of Valiant, but it’s hard for new readers to absorb everything needed to read the story based off of one issue. The first issue of The Valiant did a much better job easing in those readers, giving fans a surface level understanding of each character going into the event series. In Book of Death, each character has a small black box perched next to their first appearance as well as a character bio on the opening cover of the comic — the tactic is great for the uninitiated briefing them on what’s next for the Valiant world. This issue starts out slow, but fans don’t get a great read on the individual characters populating the event within this issue. Character relationships and dynamics aren’t going to seem clear until diving deeper in the Universe.
As per our interview with Valiant creator Robert Venditti, there is a lot of really complicated character work happening behind-the-scenes of the story. Relationships are directly being paid off within the course of the this issue get even more layers of intrigue. Without the added color represented within the lineage of X-O Manowar and Unity, readers likely aren’t going to find the nuanced character trait offered within this upcoming series. Much of this comic contains information that has been already released other places. The solicitation holds much of the plot threads in this issue — it’s really hard to piece together exactly where this story is headed going forward. It’s also incredibly hard to judge the revelation on the last page of the issue without understanding the full scope of where this crossover is headed. It’s this uncertain path that leads fans to question what the Valiant Universe that could be like following this story. The issue almost reads like a chess match in some respects, where pieces are moving around the board are being strategically placed.
In the flash forward sequence from the Book of the Geomancer, the title really shined. Seeing Doug Braithwaite’s artwork in the sequence was spellbinding. Also, the assortment of characters teased was a really interesting mix that should excite newer fans of the franchise from newer titles like Ninjak. The horror twist bookends that segment with a really striking sequence where Robert Gill starts to excel in conveying an emotion. Author Robert Venditti seems to have a good handle on writing prose for Braithwaite with a more regal sensibility to his work in these moments. Gill is an interesting choice for the event series, the way that the illustrator depicts the story is visually striking and noticeably horrific. The very first splash page is wonderfully evoked in the black-and-white teasers from the preview pages. Also, the reveal sequence shrouded in shadows was another really strong moment for the art team. The two pencillers on the comic don’t detract from the title either, making the juxtaposition a moment that helps differentiate the story from the multiple writers. A very specific kind of art is needed to depict some of the horror elements of the comic.
When the end of a story makes me curious enough to purchase the next, the tale is doing something right. While this isn’t a first issue chock full of massive revelations, it does pose interesting mysteries and an ending sequence that merits attention from longtime Valiant readers. However, this isn’t a title recommended to hand to someone who has no idea about the extended Valiant cannon.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/14/2015
With the immanent release of Valiant’s Book of Death crossover story this week and the announcement of the Wrath of the Eternal Warrior series set for November, author Robert Venditti is one of the busiest writers in comics (not to mention that he’s also cooking multiple titles in the DC Universe). The Eternal Warrior, one of Valiant’s strongest and most weathered characters in the publishing slate is set to star in the latter series. Venditti initially chose between X-O Manowar and The Eternal Warrior to get ready to launch the Valiant Universe way back in 2012’s Summer of Valiant, but now the author has the opportunity to go back and chronicle the ongoing adventures of The Eternal Warrior. The hero is a key piece of Valiant at the center of Unity, the publisher’s premiere superteam, he is also the protector of the Geomancer — another important player in the landscape of the Valiant world. The Beat sat down with Venditti to get briefed on our mission assignment with Wrath of the Eternal Warrior and to congratulate the author on the first completed issue of Book of Death.
The whole thing isn’t done, I’m still working on the last issue of it. The comic has been a lot of fun to work on. It’s definitely unlike any story I have ever done before, not just in terms of characters, but also the content. It has much more of a horror bend to it than anything I have done, which is part of the reason why I wanted take on the project. With everything that I take on, I try and do something different than what I have done before, so hopefully I am always growing and challenging myself. It’s just been a lot of fun because there are a lot of surprises coming up in the story. The nature of the event has allowed me to introduce a lot of concepts into the Valiant Universe and show a lot of characters from the previous Valiant Universe for the first time. You don’t get opportunities to do that kind of stuff too often.
To me, the great fun of working in a shared Universe with Valiant or DC is the idea that you can sort of become part of the tapestry because there is a line of writers that will come before you and a line of writers that will come after you. You know the extent to which you could contribute to it — it’s kinda like bringing some toys to the party and leaving some of the toys in the toybox so somebody else can play with them later. No matter what happens, I will have always put those toys in the box, and in some senses you are leaving a legacy behind.
I didn’t actually pitch Eternal Warrior, what you probably heard is that when Valiant reached out to me about pitching for their characters back in 2011, they sent me Bibles on all the main characters. The two that appealed to me were X-O Manowar and The Eternal Warrior. I could only pitch on one, but have always wanted to pitch on The Eternal Warrior. I never put anything down on paper, but he’s certainly someone that I have thought a lot about. He showed up briefly in X-O Manowar for a couple of issues and I wrote him a little bit in Armor Hunters. This is something that I have been talking to Valiant about for a really long time. A lot of that stuff is definitely making it into Wrath of the Eternal Warrior series.
Gilad the Eternal Warrior is immortal. This is going to be a different take on that concept. The series is about what he has to endure and what he has to sacrifice in order to be immortal. I think that we live in what can be a lot of times a really pessimistic world, but I don’t think Gilad would get out of the grave and fight for us if he didn’t believe that we were inherently good and worth fighting for. If he thought that the world was inherently evil, he would just stay dead and let us all fall to our own devices. What appeals to me about him is despite the millennia that he’s been alive, and despite the things that he’s seen, he still remains an eternal optimist in some ways — which I find fascinating.
That’s certainly one aspect of it. I also love the aspect that because of his age, he hasn’t read about history. He’s lived it…you know. That sets him apart from the rest of the Valiant Universe, just the way that he views the world is different from everybody else. One example of that that I always use is his axe. A lot of people would say he’s supposed to be a master tactician and he’s a great warrior, why would he carry around something primitive like an axe? That’s because to us an axe is just a blade and just a weapon. To him, seeing what the axe is capable of, it’s an extremely versatile tool. He can turn it over and use the heel as a hammer, he can heat the blade in a campfire and fry an egg on it, he can polish it and use it as a signal mirror, he can use it to chop down trees and make shelter. There’s all these uses and even the way he fights with it. He uses not just the blade, but the sharp edge, the curve of the blade and the heel. Whereas today, we think the gun is the more obvious choice because we know that the gun can shoot a bullet, but that’s all it’s gonna do for you — you’re not going to build a shelter with a gun!
Yeah, I would say that there are things we would perceive from our modern view and certainly the rest of the Valiant Universe as something that would be primitive or wild, but for him they are actually extremely cultured. That’s the inversion that makes it so interesting, we might think that he’s primitive, but really that’s because we are too primitive to discover how cultured he actually is.
Yeah, I think that those are different books and that those are different roles. I don’t know…in a way it would just make sense in whom it would be. It’s his mission to be at the center of everything, and that’s why he gets down out of the grave and he keeps doing what he does, because he’s at the center of things. It would be a harder book to write convincingly to have him be someone who wasn’t in the middle of everything, because why else would he do what he does? It’s just part of his DNA.
I have certainly read all that stuff, as well as the original Valiant run on the character as well. Much like X-O, we are really building on those things, trying to do it in a way that’s really different for the reader so it doesn’t seem like it’s anything that they haven’t seen before. He’s still gonna stay true to who his roots are as a concept — it’s going be a completely different take on those things.
That’s a tough one, that gets a little spoilery. Book of Death definitely sets up a lot of what we are going to be doing in Wrath of the Eternal Warrior, but Book of Death is completely self contained. If you pick up Wrath of the Eternal Warrior you can see how the foundation was laid in Book of Death, but it’s not going be a requirement to read Wrath of the Eternal Warrior.
Is there a way for you to communicate my smile? (Robert Venditti smiles.) I am super excited about it, he is a really talented guy. My first interaction with his work was when he was doing the covers for X-O Manowar, you just immediately see how he’s such an outside the box thinker. Not in a way that’s complex or alienating, but in a way that’s wholly unique.
They have a long history with each other. Aric didn’t know Gilad was The Eternal Warrior. Gilad was his mentor in a lot of ways when he was a child. He taught him how to fight with a sword, and was sort of a male role model for him as a Visigoth. At the surface, I think what people will find similar with them is that they have a man out of time aspect. They are actually polar opposites. Aric was actually someone who freed himself from the captivity of the Vine, the alien race that took him, then he came back to Earth from the modern day. Gilad has lived every single day. Aric has no constant in ethics and culture, while Gilad has witnessed all of that. So that’s obviously a big strain on their relationship in the modern day. There’s also a deep bond between them– a mentor and student bond. They have known each other and can relate to each other in ways that nobody on else can. They can become very antagonistic with each other as well — which I think is true of a lot of really deep friendships or brotherly bonds or things like that. They are inextricably bound to each other.
Yes, a lot of what I was just discussing is going to be in the second issue in Book of Death #2. They are also things covered in X-O Manowar and in Wrath of the Eternal Warrior as well.
BOOK OF DEATH #1 (of 4)
Written by ROBERT VENDITTI
Art by ROBERT GILL & DOUG BRAITHWAITE
Cover A by ROBERT GILL (MAY151586)
Cover B by CARY NORD (MAY151587)
Cover C by CLAYTON CRAIN (MAY151588)
Cover D by JELENA KEVIC-DJURDJEVIC (MAY151589)
Character Design Variant by PAOLO RIVERA (MAY151591)
Valiant Icons Variant by PERE PEREZ (MAY151592)
Artist Variant by PAOLO RIVERA (MAY151593)
Blank Cover also available (MAY151590)“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.”
The Valiant heroes. X-O Manowar. Bloodshot. Ninjak. The Harbinger Renegades. Unity. This is how they lived. This is how they died.
Now we know. The Book of the Geomancer has recorded it all. But only a young girl – the last in a line of the enigmatic mystics who protect the Earth known as Geomancers – has seen this future come to pass, from the coming cataclysm to the dawn of the 41st century. Alone with her sworn protector, the Eternal Warrior – a soldier battle-forged across five thousand years of combat – the duo must defy their allies to stop the Dark Age that now threatens to eclipse our world.
Together, they are the number one target of every hero and villain on Earth. Either the Eternal Warrior hands her over…or they take him down. But can even he single-handedly protect one child when the entire Valiant Universe wages war against him?
The blockbuster Valiant event of 2015 starts here as New York Times best-selling writer Robert Venditti (X-O MANOWAR) joins superstar-in-the-making Robert Gill (ARMOR HUNTERS: HARBINGER) and visionary artist Doug Braithwaite (ARMOR HUNTERS) to begin a thousand-year journey into the future of the Valiant Universe…and rain, fire, blood and war on the heroes of today.
$3.99 | 40 pages | T+ | On sale JULY 15
WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR #1
Written by ROBERT VENDITTI
Art by RAUL ALLEN
Wraparound Cover by DAVID LAFUENTE
$3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | ONGOING SERIES | ON SALE IN NOVEMBER!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/14/2015
The Valiant, Valiant’s own massive event series shifted everything in the publisher’s shared universe around to bring forth a new era in the history of the company. Now the publisher is trying to evoke a new direction for the Valiant Universe via the Book of Death. This title is the next big Valiant event crafted by the first author to ever create material in the 2012 relaunch of Valiant: Robert Venditti, who’s working alongside illustrators Doug Braithwaite and Robert Gill. Here, the author is set to take on more characters, concepts, and ideas than ever before (almost every character from the new Valiant world was featured on that previous teaser poster seen below!) We sat down with Robert Venditti to pick his brain about the upcoming event before the first issue goes on sale.
Here’s a SPOILER warning for The Valiant before we dive into our conversation below:
Comics Beat: Can you give fans a primer for the Book of Death in the wake of The Valiant?
Robert Venditti: Yes, the Book of Death is about the new Geomancer, Tama, who we met at the end of The Valiant. Tama is a Geomancer that has come back from the the present. She is a young child, Tama was sent back by Gilad: the Eternal Warrior. He’s meeting her for the first time. He knows she’s a Geomancer, but he doesn’t know her on any personal level. Meanwhile all these things are going on in the Valiant Universe that I am almost hesitant to describe as natural disasters because they are far more horrific than that, but they are driven by nature and the environment. Gilad and Tama are wondering why now? What is the cause of it? Is the Earth acting out? What is the story? Meanwhile, Unity is wondering on some level if Tama is going to be causing this voluntary, or involuntary, or if she maybe the key to stopping it all. They want it back but Gilad doesn’t trust all of them because Geomancers have been killed before, most recently Kay McHenry in The Valiant. It’s his responsibility to protect Tama and find a solution for the problem.
I’m almost curious structurally if this story is almost the inverse of The Valiant, with the Geomancer character dying at the beginning — it seems as if Gilad has a completely different perspective now?
I think perspective is a great way of looking at it — perspective is what’s driving the entire story. You know, Gilad is someone who has been around for ten thousand years. He’s seen dark ages come and go — he’s seen all manner of things. He’s viewing the current events though this very long-term perspective that he has in the background of history, and of the planet, and of the Geomancers. Where the rest of the Valiant Universe is looking at this through the normal lifespan of the short-term perspective — I think the difference of those two perspectives is at the heart of the conflict. Whether you look at things from sort of a long term or short term point of view. In terms of picking up from The Valiant, or how it’s structured differently, I guess on some level The Valiant was the end of the relationship with Gilad and the Geomancer being Kay McHenry who we see dead at the end of that series. Spoilers! (Laughs.)
This is more the beginning of the relationship between Gilad and Tama, so I would say that they are opposites in that regard.
Can you elaborate on the themes and concepts of death in the Book of Death?
Let me think about that for a minute, I don’t want to give anything away! With the concept of death and the natural course of life, you might want to call it the circle of life? Obviously, death, life, and rebirth are the kinds of things that we have established with Kay McHenry dying at the end of The Valiant. Now you have a new child Geomancer, in terms of how nature is acting out the specific force that Gilad and Tama are fighting adjacent are all heavy themes that are playing into it. These are all themes that are much larger in how it plays a role in the event with some of the tie-in stories we are going to see. We’re going to see a lot of what the future of the Valiant Universe holds and births of characters. There’s going to be a lot of new concept and old concepts. There is also going to be a ton of content in every single issue, this is the most content heavy story that I have ever written.
How does the concept of death work in this shared Universe that Valiant has established?
In terms of the Valiant Universe as far as the DNA that the company was built on, you know there’s a maxim that goes back to the old the original 90’s incarnation of the Valiant Universe that dead means dead. That means when a character dies in the Valiant Universe, that means a character is dead. In that regard, Valiant is sort of a pioneer in that storytelling approach.
“That means when a character dies in the Valiant Universe, that means a character is dead.”
With all the characters featured on the teaser with Robert Gill, is it safe to assume that there is going to be a very large roster of characters in this event?
Oh man, I cannot even…I honestly don’t even know the amount of characters that are going to be in this event. You’re going to have all the characters that readers want to see, you’re going to have X-O and Eternal Warrior, and all these characters that readers are already familiar with. Their will be a ton of ‘new’ characters ‘new’ ideas, as well as a lot of mystery surrounding these ‘new’ things. We’re hoping to whet the appetite of the readers and give them that perfect balance of everything that they know and are familiar with. We want to give them a lot of new things to really peak their interest — and want to read Valiant books for a long time to come. Soon, they can see how those concepts and characters play out in future stories.
Hopefully this is another question that isn’t too spoilery, but along with some of those new concepts can we expect to be returning from the previous Universe that we haven’t seen yet.
Yes, (laughs.)
Yes, that’s all I want to know on that topic.
I also was wondering if you could elaborate on the inception of the event and how it came to be. For instance, did the creative team plan this story immediately following The Valiant?
It’s something that has been in the works for a very long time. Eternal Warrior is a character that has always been very interesting to me back in the original pitch phase, when Valiant first approached me about writing for the company with the two characters. I had to decide if I was going to put all my energy in writing a pitch for between Eternal Warrior and X-O. I chose X-O just because I felt that he was so unique, that blend of sci-fi, history, Visigoths, aliens and all this kind of stuff. I have always had an affinity for Gilad, and always wanted to write him. I got a chance to do him for a couple of issues in X-O, which are some of favorite issues that I have written. He’s a character that I have talked about for a really long time and always wanted to do a story with him. A lot of this has been in the works for a while. Now in terms of how it dovetailed in the end of The Valiant, that certainly informed the story and made it feel like the right time to turn this story in place. So it isn’t like Jeff and Matt were working for anything that I did, they totally came up with The Valiant on their own, but it seemed like a nice springboard to tell this story with Eternal Warrior in the lead.
I was also smitten with the idea of you sort of kicking off the Valiant Universe with X-O Manowar #1, and wondered if there was any correlation with Book of Death: The Fall of X-O Manowar #1 being the last tie-in issue to launch in October.
It’s not coincidence necessarily — I’m the current writer of X-O — it was my title to do in the same way that Jeff Lemire is writing Bloodshot, (Joshua) Dysart will be writing Harbinger, and (Matt) Kindt will be writing Ninjak. They are the writers of those titles. Those (Book of Death) tie-in issues are additional titles, so there will be a regular issue of X-O Manowar that will also launch that month in addition to ‘The Fall of’ issues for each of the characters. They are not replacing the issues that are regularly shipping in that month, they are additional content on top of that, but I think it’s more of a matter of the current writers on those characters handling these issues as opposed to: I wrote the very first issue of the Valiant Universe, and I’m going to murder the Valiant Universe (laughs.) I don’t think I’m the alpha and omega or anything along those lines.
I really take a lot of pride in the fact that by the time that October issue comes out, I will probably be on X-O Manowar #42 or #43 at that point. When I took this book, I didn’t know how long I would be on it. I hoped it would be a year, I really hoped it would be for two years. Now I’m going on four, and that’s a really long run for something that is my first monthly series. It could very easily be someone else writing the X-O Manowar tie-in issue.
*It was brought to our attention during the interview that Robert Venditti has written more issues of X-O Manowar more than any other writer in the history of Valiant.*
That’s incredible and with the shape of the market the way it is, it’s great for you to be able to really sink your teeth into a character like that.
It’s always a push and pull, you always want to make sure that you have long term plans with your character, but that you have more short term planning — because you don’t know if you are going to be around for the long term plans. This is the first monthly series I ever took on, so it’s almost like beginners luck or I got spoiled. This being my first experience, I feel very fortunate about it.
Can you compare the differences and similarities with working with both Doug Braithwaite and Robert Gill on the series?
This is my first time working with Robert Gill. In terms of similarities, they are both great professionals, they are both great collaborators. They are the kind of people that have a lot of great ideas, and are both excellent storytellers. I trust both of them implicitly. I trust them to deviate from my scripts where they see fit. I rely on them and know whatever they come up with will be an improvement upon how the page is layed out or any of those things. In terms of differences, I don’t know. Robert just has such a great grounded grittier down-in-the-mud style that is great for this horror type story than what we are doing. It’s much different than Armor Hunters, which had a cosmic-type background, and space settings, and giant robots and aliens — it was much more science fiction fantastical if you will. Gill is really able to dig all around that, with things like the emotions of characters. Doug is amazing at design. A lot of stuff that he is doing is similar to what he drew in Armor Hunters, but in Book of Death he’s working with some of the designs for the new concepts that we were talking about. He’s also an amazing storyteller, and he’s great with emotions. He turned in a double-page spread with Eternal Warrior upfront and with the expression on the Eternal Warrior’s face, you can feel the 10,000 years Gilad has fought through. I really feel super fortunate to work with the people from Valiant.
You hinted at a new status quota shift for Unity before, but could you tease anything else about the new developments for the team?
That’s really one of the central concepts of the story, it’s Gilad against the Valiant Universe. He’s one of the founding members against the team. If you go back to X-O Manowar in the ‘Homecoming’ arc, he’s actually the one that tried to talk to Aric in order to speak reason. The result of that conversation is what actually led to Unity in some ways. In some aspects, he even predates the Unity team. He’s been there for a very long time. It’s not a casual decision to break from that team and go off on his own direction. As much as he has friends and has fought alongside of the other Unity members — they still have a job to do. They still have other things that they have to consider beyond their friendship. It is a status quota change — and it’s nothing that anybody looks forward to with the possible exception of Ninjak. It’s a different mindset for all of them.
Would it be safe to assume that the relationship between Ninjak and the Eternal Warrior might have a special bond within the pages of Unity?
They certainly have spent a lot of time together in the Unity series. They have what Ninjak would classify with as a friendship — which is more like: we’re on the same side until we’re not anymore. That is how I sort of look at their relationship. Matt Kindt is really developing that a lot more than I have.
With Eternal Warrior going ‘rogue’ per see, could that effectively compromise their close relationship?
Oh, absolutely, we are going to see that for sure.
Thanks to Robert Venditti and Valiant for letting me to interrogate their team for 30+ minutes. For more on Valiant and the Book of Death stay tuned to The Beat!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/9/2015
Valiant has just announced the first plot details to the upcoming crossover known as Book of Death. Earlier this week, the publisher ran some teasers from the event, but Valiant finally has the big reveals. Of course, with the nature of comic books being as they currently are, we can’t really talk about this crossover without spoiling the one previous.
THE VALIANT SPOILERS COMING 3….2…1…..
The (last) Geomancer was The Valiant, and she has the book of the future of the Valiant Universe. While the Eternal Warrior sought to protect her, the Book of Death is going to be hard to shelter for very long. There are a lot of teases for this crossover included in the short press email delivered from Valiant. Ninjak dead? A new person within the X-O Armor? The redemption of Toyo Harada? A fate beyond death for Bloodshot? These are the questions that are asked in the one-shot issues riffing on the ending for the upcoming series in the Summer months.
Whew! This is set to be a big four issue crossover written by Robert Venditti containing art from Robert Gill and Doug Braithwaite. The first issue ships in July. Take a look at the tie-in series for the event that are all one-shots teasing upcoming events.
BOOK OF DEATH #1 (of 4)
Written by ROBERT VENDITTI
Art by ROBERT GILL & DOUG BRAITHWAITE
Cover A by ROBERT GILL
Cover B by CARY NORD
Cover C by CLAYTON CRAIN
Cover D by JELENA KEVIC-DJURDJEVIC
Character Design Variant by PAOLO RIVERA
Valiant Icons Variant by PERE PEREZ
Artist Variant by PAOLO RIVERA
Blank Cover also available
$3.99 | 40 pgs. | T+ | COMING IN JULY!
BOOK OF DEATH: THE FALL OF BLOODSHOT #1 (ONE-SHOT)
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by DOUG BRAITHWAITE
Cover A by RAFA SANDOVAL
Cover B by JEFTE PALO
Variant Cover by DAVID YARDIN
Variant Cover by TOM FOWLER
$3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | COMING IN JULY!
BOOK OF DEATH: THE FALL OF NINJAK #1 (ONE-SHOT)
Written by MATT KINDT
Art by TREVOR HAIRSINE
Cover by KANO
$3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | COMING IN AUGUST!
BOOK OF DEATH: THE FALL OF HARBINGER #1 (ONE-SHOT)
Written by JOSHUA DYSART
Art by KANO
Cover by RAUL ALLEN
$3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | COMING IN SEPTEMBER!
BOOK OF DEATH: THE FALL OF X-O MANOWAR #1 (ONE-SHOT)
Written by ROBERT VENDITTI
Art by CLAYTON HENRY
Cover by CARY NORD
$3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | COMING IN OCTOBER!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/28/2015
Valiant has just revealed a brand new event at Emerald City Comic Con following up Armor Hunters entitled Book of Death. The following image drawn by Robert Gill was sent as a press release. With a 25th Anniversary, the publisher is looking to celebrate their line including the old and new versions of the company. The image teases a July 2015 release and popular characters like Quantum and Woody, Archer & Armstrong, X-O Manowar, Vincent Van Goat, Ninjak, Rai, Punk Mambo, Bloodshot, Dr. Mirage, Divinity, The Eternal Warrior, Shadowman, Faith, Peter Stanchek, and more hidden in the background. The heroes lurk below what seems to be a representation of Death in the Valiant Universe.
Could we see some characters from the old Valiant line come back in this story? Is this the Blackest Night of Valiant?
Picked up Fall of Ninjak, Ant-Man and Hellboy. Hope they’re good reads!