Kelly H. writes for comicsheatingup.net
Due to the recent announcement that Valiant secured a $100 million dollar deal to make new superhero movies a giant uptick has occurred for several key Valiant books. Dig up the following books, or check in the back issue bins for a quick flip. Plenty copies are in the wild so don’t hesitate to move them quickly.
From Vulture.com:
The independent comic-book publisher Valiant Entertainment has secured an eight-figure equity investment from Beijing-based DMG Entertainment, plus an additional nine figures for the production of film and TV projects. The publisher has a library of 2,000 characters, including X-O Manowar and Harbinger, and films based on the titles Bloodshot, Shadowman, and Archer & Armstrong were already in the works. Valiant says its partnership with DMG — which co-produced and co-financed Iron Man 3 — will allow it to “begin to establish its cinematic universe in the United States, China and beyond.”
Select Valiant Keys:
Harbinger #1 (First Harbinger and Harbringer Renegades Faith, Torque, Kris, Charlene, Peter)
Harbinger #10 (First H.A.R.D.Corps)
Rai #0 (First full Bloodshot, First new Rai)
Eternal Warrior #4 (First Bloodshot in cameo)
Archer and Armstrong #0 (First Archer and First Armstrong)
Shadowman #1 (First Jack Boniface aka Shadowman)
Shadowman #8(First Master Darque)
Bloodshot #6 (First Colin King aka Ninjak)
X-O Manowar #1 (First X-O Manowar armor, first Aric of Dacia)
X-O Manowar #4 (First Jack Boniface in cameo aka Shadowman)
Archer and Armstrong #8 (First Ivar Anni-Padda AKA Timewalker)
Ive been digging thru my old stuff for two days looking for old valiant stuff
Make sure you get those Gold variants.
Harbinger has really never been a cheap book…
Oops looks like I moved a name or two out of place. Will fix shortly. Thanks for the heads up guys.
No Magnus #5 on the list? I wouldn’t skip that one…
Also, I would focus on the pre-Unity stuff first. It’ll prolly be the hardest to get.
Great points. I am not a Valiant guy so it was Kelly doing some research that came up
With the list. If you have recommendations please send them over.
Yeah, I’m a Valiant dude from wayyyy back. Followed Jim Shooter at the time so I was stoked when he started it. I loved the universe and though post unity brought the overprinting woes, still some of the best stories of the time, IMHO.
Yeah, there are a bunch of books I could suggest. Besides Magnus 5 (1st appearance of Rai), there’s Solar Man of the Atom 3 (1st appearance of Toyo Harada – main villian in valiant universe), Bloodshot 51 (super low PR), etc and some VEI books that have recent events and character relaunches that would be important. Need my note book to remember more. ?
Wouldn’t the smarter money be on the newer Valiant Universe? It was totally rebooted and quite different. I imagine that any new movies or shows would be based off the new series. Also, the print runs will be much smaller. I’m pretty sure that the original Valiant comics averaged over 500,000 copies per issue, especially after Unity.
I don’t think the difference in universes makes a big deal when it comes to first appearances. If the Valiant universe gets hot again, I think there will be a first appearance and a first VEI appearance. If the first appearance happened Pre-Unity or has a gold variant, I think that’s the smart money. With that said, there are many VEI issues that are also smart to pick up. Many with variants that number in the 100s.
Magnus 7 – 1st X-O armor commando class
Solar 10 – 1st Eternal Warrior, 1st Geomancers
Archer&Armstrong/Eternal Warrior 8 – 1st appearance of Timewalker
Bloodshot 7 is the first Ninjak costume I believe. Rai 3,4 are pretty tough to find along with most last issues from the original series.
So far the only thing I would suggest from the new universe is Archer 0 ( first appearance of the One Percent.