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Valiant Comics Relaunched with Former Marvel CEO as Chairman

Which of Valiant's 1,500 characters would you like to see come back to print?

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After nearly ten years without publishing any books, Valiant Comics is preparing for their return to comics. Earlier today Valiant Comics announced their return to publishing as Valiant Entertainment with former Marvel CEO and Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo at the helm as Chairman. The announcement comes at a time where comic markets have stabilized, and non-superhero books seem to be strengthening.

Cuneo first joined Marvel in 2009 as their Chief Executive Officer around the time Marvel first filed for bankruptcy. Cuneo managed to help turn the company around and continued to serve on the company's Board of Directors until Marvel's sale to The Walt Disney Company was finalized in 2009. Following his departure from Marvel, Cuneo has acted as Managing Principal of Cuneo & Company, LLC., the same company that has invested in Valiant Entertainment.

== TEASER ==

Valiant Announces Investment and Expansion of Management Team
New York, NY – June 2, 2011 – Valiant Entertainment, the character-based entertainment company with more than 1,500 characters in its library, announced it will reintroduce the critically acclaimed Valiant Universe in print and digital comics in 2012. Valiant has hired accomplished industry executives and creative talent to expand its management team. The first announcement is that former Marvel CEO and Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo has assumed the role of Chairman of Valiant.

Valiant Entertainment, co-founded by Jason Kothari and Dinesh Shamdasani, has received a capital infusion from private investment company Cuneo & Company, LLC. Peter Cuneo, Managing Principal of Cuneo & Co., recently concluded ten years of leadership at Marvel Entertainment.

Valiant first launched during the comics boom in 1989 and saw success for about ten years, selling over 80 million comics within the first five years of it's inception. The company was eventually purchased by Acclaim Entertainment in 1994, and in 1996 Valiant Comics was renamed to Acclaim Comics and began streamlining their properties to cater to the development of new Acclaim video game franchises; such as Shadowman and Turok the Dinosaur Hunter, for example. Valiant saw it's decline coincide with the decline of the comics industry, and it's parent company Acclaim filed for bankruptcy in 2004. During the years of it's publication, Valiant predominantly published superhero comic books that were grounded by consequence, continuity and the laws of physics. It will be interesting to see if Valiant returns to it's superhero roots, or if they will focus on other, different genres. What do you think of the return of Valiant? Did you read Valiant in the 1990's? Did you have a favorite title? Do you look forward to it's return?

Valiant Director Dinesh Shamdasani plans to announce Valiant Entertainment's 2012 scheduled launch soon.

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Decept-O

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@turoksonofstone: Yes, that is what I am saying. I know Solar is originally from the Silver Age. Manhattan I assume is loosely based off him as well as Captain Atom, I had read many years ago.

I keep forgetting some of these characters and properties were divvied up to Dark Horse. Easy enough mistake to make I think.

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turoksonofstone

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Edited By turoksonofstone
@Decept-O:  
No offense intended. The Dark Horse books are grand.
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Decept-O

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@turoksonofstone: No, not offended at all! Just saying I'd forgotten about that fact. You're right, glad you mentioned it! All Cool Baby!

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cbishop

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@turok son of stone said: Looks like they are headlining with RAI.
 
 
Hey, turok, thanks for the info.  I thought about Rai/Bloodshot, right after I posted my comment, but my opinion's pretty much the same: it was a cool enough book, but I don't think it can carry a comic line.  I don't think a new Valiant can last.  Marvel tried to reintro their New Universe characters several years ago, with Newuniversal, and that tanked - and NU at least had good continuity. 
 
I'd rather see Ultraverse climb out of its legal hindrances, and relaunch.
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turoksonofstone

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Edited By turoksonofstone
@cbishop said:

@turok son of stone said: Looks like they are headlining with RAI.
 
 
Hey, turok, thanks for the info.  I thought about Rai/Bloodshot, right after I posted my comment, but my opinion's pretty much the same: it was a cool enough book, but I don't think it can carry a comic line.  I don't think a new Valiant can last.  Marvel tried to reintro their New Universe characters several years ago, with Newuniversal, and that tanked - and NU at least had good continuity.  I'd rather see Ultraverse climb out of its legal hindrances, and relaunch.

But doesn't Marvel OWN most of the Ultraverse and it's characters?? 
I think they are waiting for the respective creators to die off. Then they have full ownership. 
BTW I was wrong the Valiant relaunch centers on Bloodshot not Rai.  
Also they have 1500 characters because they also have the Acclaim era characters. 
like Quantum and Woody as well as Troublemakers and Punx
 
Jason Kothari: 
"The 2012 relaunch will focus on popular characters including Harbinger, X-O Manowar, and Bloodshot. 
"Some of our central beliefs at Valiant are worth mentioning. We think the comic book industry is the best means to nurture and grow characters that can expand into other mass media channels. We recognize that comic book retailers are the key ingredient for success. They are the blood that runs through the veins of this industry. We believe that this can only be achieved if our content is highly imaginative and is unafraid to explore new creative approaches. We do think film is the best way to promote and create excitement for our characters with consumers worldwide. Most important, we will be focused on aligning Valiant with the best talent, old and new, to accomplish our goals.

Valiant CEO Jason Kothari gave a tease about what characters the planned 2012 launch might involve:

"We are initially focusing on 9 or 10 of Valiant’s A-list characters, such as X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, and Harbinger, and the interactions between them."  

"Valiant was blessed to have an incredible roster of creative talents work on its characters and stories, such as Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Barry Windsor Smith, Joe Quesada, Jim Lee, Frank Miller, Garth Ennis, Warren Ells, Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch, Rags Morales, Bernard Chang and Sean Chen, just to name a few. We would love to have some of them back with Valiant."  
 
" Valiant has a number of major motion picture projects in development with Hollywood’s leading producers and directors. We will provide more details at the appropriate time." 
 
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I understand they recently published Harbinger, X-O Manowar, and Archer & Armstrong HC TPB's each including a newJim Shooter penned tale. So they already have some books out there sort of...
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@turoksonofstone: I am offended that Lapham was not name dropped....
 
I have been interested in this harcovers for a while.
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Edited By rasx

Anyone read X-O Manowar# 1 it was really good and the Spider aliens are now called the vine.

Valiants line up for summer 2012 is:

X-O MANOWAR- MAY

HARBINGER- JUN

BLOODSHOT- JUL

ARCHER AND ARMSTRONG- AUG

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