Once again, Valiant Entertainment requests your attention. Last month, for Free Comic Book Day, the company led with a story pulled from Matt Kindt and Tomas Giorello’s outstanding X-O Manowar relaunch. That book also contained a preview of this week’s Secret Weapons by Eric Heisserer, Raul Allen, and Patricia Martin. This isn’t the same Valiant super-team from the 90’s, however. And, as such, much like the new X-O, it serves as a great jumping-on point for readers looking to find out what the fuss is all about.
Amanda McKee, AKA Livewire, is the lone carry-over from the original crossover series. After learning that her former employer, Toyo Harada, has been disposing of powered psiots whose abilities are considered less than useful, Livewire takes it upon herself to track down and protect as many of these scared young kids as she can. Together, this new Secret Weapons team prepares to fight off a deadly power-absorbing cyborg codenamed Rex-O, armed with not-so-devastating skills like talking to birds, conjuring umbrellas, and making random shit glow. The result is an engaging getting-the-band-together adventure that sits somewhere between Warren Ellis’s Wildstorm and virtually every one of Marvel’s young mutant books.
Heisserer’s track record includes an Academy Award nomination for the Arrival screenplay, and current writing credits on a number of other film projects, including several for Valiant. This accomplished ability to develop a plot and script effective dialogue is partnered with the comic book experience of Allen and Martin, allowing this book to achieve far more than the “storyboard style” that plagues too many would-be movie pitches and television pilots. If the relaunched Valiant universe continues to develop under the care and direction of these first-rate creators, then the greater comic book community — and Hollywood — will most certainly be paying attention.
The Institute of Idle Time 