X-O Manowar and the Fall of Valiant Comics

Matt Kindt’s run on Valiant Comics flagship X-O Manowar limped to the finish line this week. The Kindt led series started excellent but lost momentum halfway through the run, coinciding with the Harbinger Wars 2 event. Artist Tomas Giorello recently joined the creative team for the Hero story arc and appeared to rejuvenate the title. In the end it was just window dressing. Aric of Dacia and Valiant readers deserve so much more than what the series and publisher devolved in to.

Matt Kindt followed Robert Venditti’s masterful X-O run in exciting fashion. His first three story arcs; Soldier, General and Emperor are as good as anything Venditti produced outside his first 3 story arcs and the Armor Hunters event. Aric of Dacia ascending the ranks during the civil wars on Gorin were first rate. Changing the setting from Earth to a foreign planet invigorated the series and character. Kindt was poised to challenge Venditti for title of best run in modern Valiant Comics.

After the disaster of Acclaim’s acquisition and destruction of Valiant Comics in the 90’s the characters lied dormant. Valiant and its character lineup were later purchased by a group led by Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari. Shamdasani served as chief-executive officer and chief-creative officer. Warren Simmons came aboard as executive editor after a seven year run at Marvel Comics. He ascended to Editor-in-Chief in 2014 and under their leadership Valiant sported the best connected universe in all of comics. They have a great eye for talent and Robert Venditti, Matt Kindt, Jeff Lemire, Clayton Crain, Cary Nord, Tomas Giorello and Stephen Segovia all elevated Valiant Comics.

X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Ninja-K, Shadowman and Unity were all consistently great. They led amazing crossover events Harbinger Wars, Armor Hunters, Book of Death and 4001 A.D. (my personal favorite led by the underrated Rai character). If comic publishers were rated by expected future quality, Valiant Comics would have been trip..