One of their flagship characters has been X-O Manowar.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: X-O Manowar is one of Valiants premier superheroes.
How did you go about reinventing him?
Credit: Lewis LaRosa/Valiant
MATT KINDT:Ive been a fan of the character since the 90s and read all of Robs run.
I was waiting for Rob to be done because I wanted a turn.
That was always what appealed to me about the character, and something we havent tapped into a lot.
Tomas Giorello/Valiant
Thats how I approach all my stories: What would it be like if this really happened?
If this guys in a suit of armor, what would be the psychology of that?
You have this guy whos never seen a cell phone, let alone armor that can fly into space.
Tomas Giorello/Valiant
Also, were making the relationship with his armor more antagonistic.
Rather than being a friend of his, its a threat to him in a lot of ways.
WARREN SIMONS:Aric is a Visigoth warrior who possesses the most powerful weapon in our universe.
Tomas Giorello/Valiant
So theres a great juxtaposition there that goes back to his creation.
Whats his relationship to his armor?
What happens if the suit gets a hold of someone and realizes its essentially bonded to a primate?
Tomas Giorello/Valiant
That doesnt mean that Arics stupid.
Hes not, hes a great leader and warrior, but hes just a man.
Its interesting to see this piece of A.I.
Tomas Giorello/Valiant
look down on him, as it would on anyone.
Thats a theme we havent really explored anywhere else.
The armor sounds like more of its own character this time around.
How would you describe its personality?
It pretty much knows everything, and its bonded to Aric.
Another thing well get into thats interesting about their relationship is how Aric has coped with everything.
If you read the old series, you know that hes been exposed to a lot of things.
Hes fought aliens, hes been all over the place.
Im thinking, how does your mind cope with that?
He was living in 500 AD, how do you go from that to fighting aliens in space?
So now, when the new series starts out, he doesnt even have the armor.
Its kind of like that.
Hes turning it off and trying to get back to who he was.
DINESH SHAMDASANI:This is the potential of X-O Manowar.
Thats one of the revelations hes going to learn on his journey: This is who he is.
Part of him does enjoy the conflict, and I think he hates that he likes it.
The stage just gets bigger and bigger.
You dont need to read whats come before to understand this.
There are plenty of entry points for new readers that also tap into whats come before.
The skys the limit.
I love approaching comics that way.
I plotted out at least a years worth.
I wanted to have these little stepping stone stages on his progression.
SIMONS:Tomas Giorello is starting the series for us with the first arc of issues 1-3, Soldier.
Tomas is one of the finest artists working in comics today.
When the first pages came in, I just replied to Tomas with laughter because they were so genius.
Issues 4-6 is Doug Braithwaite.
After that is issues 7-9, Emperor, by Clayton Crain, a digital painter.
Mico Suayan is gonna finish up the year with the post-Emperor arc, Visigoth, issues 11-13.
I try not to be too hyperbolic, but were loading up all the guns.
KINDT:Taking him off-planet, we were able to make it really big and world-build.
I dont know Ive ever been able to create a world from scratch.
Nothing looks like anything thats in this book, it hasnt existed before.
Can you tease what X-O Manowars absence from Earth will mean for the rest of the Valiant universe?
We want to take it one thing at a time, but well see.
KINDT:There is something in issue 1 thats gonna pay off in a year and a half.
It is a bigger, better story.
