Valiant Hero Of The Week: Secret Weapons, Psi-Lords, KI:6 and Unity
Every Monday for the next few weeks, Valiant Entertainment is running a poll on their Twitter feed to provide fans with some escapism while new comics are in short supply. The poll allows Valiant fans the opportunity to select the Hero Of The Week from four choices – this week, the poll features teams for the first time; Secret Weapons, Psi-Lords, KI:6 and Unity. That week’s hero will then be the focus of free pdfs featuring the character, videos from Valiant staff, giveaways and more.
At Graphic Policy, we’re going to be running a spotlight on the winning character all week through various features depending on the character, but at the very least you’ll see our favorite covers and stories.
But Valiant has a lot of great characters, and it’d be a shame to not let you know which stories to read to get to know some of them a little more in case they don’t end up winning the fan vote. This week’s characters are a prime example of this, and the exact reason that we wanted to shine a little light on all four ahead of the week.
Below you’ll find a brief snapshot of the character and a trade paperback to check out, including the blurb from Valiant’s website. For fun, I’ll also note who I think is most likely to win (bear in mind this is being written on Sunday).
Secret Weapons
Who are they? A group of desperate psiots with pretty useless powers who are brought together by Livewire because they have nobody and nothing else.
What should you read? Secret Weapons
The government has dispatched Amanda McKee – the technopath codenamed Livewire – to investigate the ruins of a secret facility formerly run by Toyo Harada, the most powerful telepath on Earth and her former mentor. In his quest for world betterment at any cost, Harada sought out and activated many potential psiots like himself. Those who survived, but whose powers he deemed to have no value to his cause, were hidden away at this installation. But Livewire, having studied Harada’s greatest strengths and learned his deepest weaknesses, senses opportunity where he once saw failure. A young girl who can talk to birds… A boy who can make inanimate objects gently glow… To others, these are expensive disappointments. But, to Livewire, they are secret weapons…in need of a leader. Now, as a mechanized killer called Rex-O seeks to draw them out, Livewire and her new team of cadets will be forced to put their powers into action…in ways they never could have imagined…
What should you read? This one of the best stories to come from Valiant, and is worth checking out whenever you get a chance. There’s a lot of powerful statements about self belief, racism and the abuse of power.
Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology
Psi-Lords
Who are they? Four humans awake in outer space with no memory and discover that they have incredible power. And that they’re also prisoners.
What should you read? Psi-Lords #1-8
Who are the cosmic beings known only as the Psi-Lords? And how will they change the course of the Universe in this brand-new ongoing series?
Four astronauts awake in an otherworldly prison with no memory of how they got there! What is their connection to the Psi-Lords? And how will they escape?
Fred Van Lente is crafting a lively sci-fi mystery, and Renato Guedes’ art is (literally) out of this world.
This is the story of how they lost their humanity.
It’s the only thing you can read, currently, so by default it’s your only choice. The art is utterly phenomenal, but you’ll need to track the floppies.
Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology
KI: 6
Who are they? A group of ex MI6 operatives and graduates of the Ninja Programme, the ninjas have been thrust together because of circumstances out of their control. See
What should you read? Killers
Five deadly assassins are recruited into a game of cat and mouse by their former sensei, the mysterious Jonin.
Trained to channel their “ki” to perform superhuman feats in the shadow wars between the secret agencies of the world, these agents of death will team up to compete for the ultimate prize…life itself.
Brought together to find the secret of immortality, these lethal weapons will have to face a murderous gauntlet and each other in order to win what they desire most.
Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology
Unity
Who is they? Valiant’s premier super team comprised of some of the most powerful and effective operatives and heroes you’ll ever meet. And a fifty foot robot.
What should you read?
Book Of Death
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?
This was my introduction to Gilad Anni Padda and the Unity team. It was also what sold me on the Valiant universe as a whole. Book Of Death is technically a sequel to The Valiant, a book that I’ve recommended already in these weekly columns, and will again, I’m sure. But you don’t need to read that story to enjoy this. You get an immediate sense of what an absolute monster the Eternal Warrior is very early in the series, as well as the team’s fractious relationship with each other. This is a great story in general, and one that should be on your reading list.
Purchase: Amazon – Kindle – comiXology – TFAW
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