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Valiant Comics
HistoryIn 1988, Jim Shooter attempted to purchase Marvel Comics. He managed to raise enough money to place a substantial bet. Ultimately, investor/entrepreneur Ronald Perelman wound up purchasing the company. Jim Shooter decided that since he already had the available funds, he might as well use it to found his own comic book company. With the help of Bob Layton, he founded Voyager Communications Inc. and its comic-book publishing imprint, Valiant Comics. The two made licensing deals with Nintendo and World Wrestling Federation, hoping that comic books that featured those popular properties would earn them enough money to get the company off the ground. The result was a huge flop. To compensate Jim Shooter and Bob Layton searched for comic book properties that other companies were not using. After considering MLJ's superhero properties and Harvey Comics characters, they finally settled on Gold Key Comics properties. They obtained the rights to three of its classic characters: Magnus, Robot Fighter; Doctor Solar; and Turok. Jim Shooter used slightly modified versions of those characters, along with several original characters to launch a new shared universe. Originally, only some titles shared a tight continuity. Titles such as Magnus, Robot Fighter and Turok, Dinosaur Hunter were virtually unaffected by the events in other titles. In mid-1992, the company published a line-wide crossover called Unity. It altered many elements of Valiant Universe, effectively integrating all titles into a more tightly interconnected shared universe. The crossover also sparked an interest in the company among comic book buyers and speculators. Within months, it became one of the leading North American comic book publishers. Shortly after Unity crossover was completed, Jim Shooter was fired from the company due to an internal power struggle. Following his departure, the new heads of Valiant Comics decided to take full advantage of the speculator boom that was going on in the comics industry at the time. Jim Shooter became an unperson within the company. His role in development of Valiant Comics was either downplayed or ignored altogether. While Valiant Comics made immense profits from the speculator boom, it ultimately proved to be the company's undoing. After the speculator bubble burst, Valiant Comics found itself buried in debt. Shortly afterwards, Voyager Communications Inc., Valiant's parent company, was sold to the video game company Acclaim Entertainment. The line was renamed Acclaim Comics. The new owners attempted to completely reboot the Valiant properties. Their primary motivation was to make them more suitable for use in video game development. Most characters and concepts were started from scratch. While Turok went on to become a fairly successful video game franchise, most of the new concepts flopped. The comic book industry's implosion from 1995 to 1997 took a significant chunk out of the company's sales. The company plummeted into decline as a result. In 1999, Acclaim attempted to remedy the situation. It began publishing Unity 2000, a company-wide crossover that was supposed to integrate the old Valiant universe and new Acclaim Universe. However, the crossover failed to generate enough interest, forcing the company to cease all publication two months later, before Unity 2000 could be completed. In 2004, Acclaim filed for bankruptcy and shut down its offices. The company has been defunct since then. UniverseValiant Universe (VH-1) Pre-Unity (VH-0) In the beginning, Valiant Universe was a reflection of Jim Shooter's vision for an ideal comic book universe: character-driven strong continuity with emphasis on science fiction, long-reaching consequinces and internal consistancy. It was the first 90's company to attempt to follow a real-world timeline , where events in the comics occurred at the pace simular to their publication schedule. The company writers attempted to abhere to real-world science as much as they possibly could. No matter how powerful it's characters got, they were still affected by friction, Newton's Laws of Motion, Einstein's laws of relativity, etc. While Valiant Universe had its share of aliens, they never used popular sci-fi conventions such as universal translators and faster-then-light travel. All Valiant Unvierse superheores had powers that were derived from psionic awareness (the "power of the mind"), energy manipulation and/or technology. Valiant Comics' writers tried to emphasize the human aspect of super-powers, as well as how the actions of various super-powered individuals affected average human beings. Most Valiant heroes were not superheroes in the strict sense of the word. Some had more in common with the old-style pulp adventurers then traditional superheroes. Finally, Valiant Comics had tight, carefully integrated continuity, where events in one title had indirect effects on other titles. In many cases, major characters deputed in previously established titles before their own titles premiered (Most notably in Solar #10). Valiant Universe was created by Solar as the result of his attempt to recreate his universe after he accidentally destroyed it. As the result, something simular, but not quite identical, emerged. It was eventually discovered that several times during Valiant Universe's history, Earth was menaced by Spider-Aliens, who sought to use the human race for slave labor and food. Their efforts were indirectly responsible for creation of several superheroes (Most notably X-O Manowar and Shadowman). The early 1990s saw the rise of psionically empowered humans: Harbingers. They were led by Toyo Harada, a powerful psionic businessman. While on the surface, he operated in the manner similar to Professor Xavier of X-Men, he actually sought to use Harbingers "save the world from itself". The history of Valiant Universe's super-powered community was greatly influenced by Geomancers, human beings who had an ability to listen to psychic impressions left on most everyday objects. From the begining, all Valiant Comics titles could be divided into two groups - titles that were set in the late 1990s and titles that were set in the 41st century (beginning with 4000 A.D.)The heroes from the present weren't aware of the heroes of the future (and vice-versa) until the Unity conflict. Since then, heroes from the future made a few visits to the late 90s. It should be noted that Solar and Gilad the Eternal Warrior survived into the 41st century, but, in many respects, they were different from their more contemporary counterparts. Post-Unity (VH-1) After Jim Shooter was outsted, Valiant Universe experienced a few changes that contradicted previously established continuity. At first, the changes were minor, but over time, they grew more and more significant. Writers began to neglect the scientific aspects of Valiant Universe. In efforts to attract sales, Valiant Comics introduced a number of radical changes to Valiant Universe. By the time Valiant Comics shut down, several titles decided to write off the entire Valiant Universe as a dream rather then explain all the contradictions. Acclaim Universe (VH-2) When Acclaim Entertainment bought Valiant Comics, the universe was started completely from scratch. A vast majority of Valiant Universe characters were altered and rebooted. Originally, it appeared to have little to do with original Valiant Universe. Later crossovers revealed that Acclaim Universe was the result of a time paradox caused by Solar. Acclaim Universe was similar to other superhero-based universes. It wasn't nearly as interconnected as Valiant Universe. While towards the end, Valiant Comic writers began to move away from real-world science and "realistic" superheroes, Acclaim Universe writers tended to ignore it altogether. Jim Shooter's Valiant Universe (VH-0) During the Unity 2000 crossover, Jim Shooter introduced yet another alternate universe. In essence, it was his vision of what Valiant Universe would have been like if he had been allowed to stay with the company. According to Jim Shooter's plot, at the end of the crossover, VH-0 was destroyed and most of its characters were killed. VH-1 and VH-2 fused together into a new universe. However, since Unity 2000 was canceled at the third issue, none of that actually showed up in print. Throughout all the re-imaginings and alteration of Valiant Universe, the only thing that remained consistant was real-time approach to continuity. Characters
Valiant UniverseAIs and Robots
Technologically Empowered Humans
Mystics
Immortals
Non-Powered Humans
Acclaim ComicsWhile most characters that appeared in Acclaim Comics were altered versions of previous characters, some were created specifically for Acclaim Universe (VH-2) Technologically Enhanced Humans:
Magic Users
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