“Oscar-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer, writer of the international sensation Arrival, joins forces with Harvey Award-nominated artist Raúl Allén (WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR) for the next electrifying chapter in Valiant’s latest prestige format epic!”

Do you want to know what one of the most exciting new series is this year? Hint: you’re about to read a review about its second issue.

Written by Eric Heissera and with art by Raul Allen (with Patricia Martin)  Secret Weapons  is a book that focuses on the rejects from Toyo Harada’s psiot activation program. For those unfamiliar with what that means in the Valiant Universe psiots are people with latent superhuman powers that require activation, a potentially deadly and very painful process, before the nature of those powers are revealed. You may end up with the ability to fly, talk to and control technology, or make inanimate objects glow. Somewhat brightly.

While books like Harbinger, Imperium, Generation Zero and Harbinger Renegade focus on characters with useful, often powerful abilities, Secret Weapons centers around a group of characters who have some less than useful abilities, to put it politely, and hilariously useless to put it honestly.

But when somebody is hunting those psiots whose “failed” activations have left them with some pretty pointless powers (one guy can generate things from thin air – but has no control over what he generates), then alone they’re basically screwed. Thankfully for them (and us), a saviour in the form of the technopath Livewire, one of the more famous – and powerful – activated psiots who has appeared to help to guide these rejected misfits and help them stay alive long enough to get some answers.

Secret Weapons #2 follows the incredible quality of the first issue with an equally strong offering; Heisserer is able to move the story along at a relatively brisk pace while simultaneously keeping it slow enough for the reader to learn more about the characters involved – although credit should also be given to Raul Allen and Patricia Martin and the way that they bring to life these wonderfully eccentric characters into a story that’s happening in the background of the Valiant Universe.

There’s a brilliant fight scene that showcases the forced inventiveness these characters must have with their abilities that had me genuinely smiling from ear to ear as I read it. That I was also unsure of whether any of the characters involved would end up six feet under is both a testament to Heisserer’s skill and the advantage to using characters there were previously unknown to the reader.

Allen and Martin’s are  work is doubly impressive when Livewire enters a…. different realm…

This is simply a beautifully constructed comic in every way possible.

I said in my previous review that this was shaping up to be another home run for Valiant, and I’ll stand by that. Secret Weapons is without a doubt the best comic with the word Secret in it’s title this summer; whether you’re a Valiant fan or not, make sure you’re reading this.

Story: Eric Heisserer Art: Raul Allen and Patricia Martin
Story: 9.25 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.