Written by: Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt
Art by: Paolo Rivera
Publisher: Valiant
If this comic doesn’t immediately make you a Valiant fan, I don’t know what will. You should probably take up another hobby.
The Valiant #3 (and the entire publisher as a whole) is a much needed shot of adrenaline in the arm of the stagnant nature of traditional superhero comics. Here we have a nanotechnology infused cyborg, a futurist earth defending sorceress, and an immortal evil that takes the form of it’s audience’s greatest fear (one of which being a terrifying cockney british gentlemen) and The Valiant is all the better for it. Seriously, I cannot stress this enough dear readers, buy this book.
Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt’s greatest feat was introducing this strange and already developed (wonderful) world of Valiant Comics to a mainstream audience that maybe unfamiliar without having it be ham-fisted and exposition heavy and they have pulled off said feat incredibly. As more and more characters get introduced in the pages of The Valiant (especially in this issue) it could have very easily become overwhelming for prospective readers to pick up on these characters and their alignments/base interactions. However, this is not the case. By crafting a simple (but effective) penultimate evil for everyone to unite against, myriads of characters are introduced excellently without having to waste pages upon pages of exposition to explain their backstories. All of their interactions make sense and feel organic and the presence of these characters, such as Gilad from XO-Manowar or Archer and Armstrong, is entirely welcome and should help to sway more readers into being devoted fans of Valiant’s bullpen.
This instantly recognizable uniqueness present in this book is greatly indebted to the wonderful pencils of Paolo Rivera. He depicts every characters motivations and personalities simply through their body language. One doesn’t need to have read 30 issues of XO-Manowar to know that a time-traveling space viking is instantly cool and completely welcome in this title. Gratefully, Paolo Rivera (and the writers) understand this, too.
The Valiant has been a perfect series and this issue is no exception. Valiant deserves your money, support this series.
