(Image Source: Valiant Comics / Bernard Chang)
Like The Little Engine That Could, Valiant Comics has slowly, but surely, succeeded. Their characters are not the most famous, and their comics have rarely been best-sellers. Despite this, they have endured, earning a position of high respect within the industry, even as their ownership changed.
Valiant Comics was established in 1989 by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and businessman Steven Massarsky. The two met while working on a script for a live-action Spider-Man show and decided to try and buy Marvel outright. When their bid failed, they decided to start their own comic company. Shooter left Valiant in 1992, but the universe he had curated continued.
Video game publisher Acclaim Entertainment bought Valiant Comics shortly thereafter in 1994. This saw many of the company’s heroes being adapted into video games. Unfortunately, when Acclaim went bust, so did Valiant. A new company, Valiant Entertainment, was established in 2005 after acquiring the character rights. In 2012, they began publishing new monthly comics based on the original Valiant Comics characters. In 2018, Valiant Entertainment was purchased by DMG Entertainment, which continues to manage the line today.
Best Valiant Comics as of November 2025
Unlike many American comic book publishers, Valiant Comics did not focus exclusively on one genre. Their line includes superhero comics, as well as fantasy and science fiction works. This diversity of quality won the publisher many awards and built up cult followings for their titles.
Archer & Armstrong
One is a spiritual idealist, who trained himself to become the ultimate warrior. The other is an immortal hard-drinking hedonist, with super-strength and a bag of holding. Together, they fight crime and the machinations of various cults across the Valiant Universe.
Archer & Armstrong has endured through three reboots thus far. While the backgrounds of the titular heroes has changed, the core idea of an unlikely duo of vigilantes has not. Nor has the series’ continual dark comedy in the face of intense action.
The original Valiant Comic series by Barry Windsor-Smith set the often anti-climactic tone of Archer & Armstrong perfectly. In that incarnation, Obadiah Archer was nearly killed by his evangelist parents after discovering they were trafficking children into sexual slavery. He escaped, fled to a monastery, and trained himself for several years so he could bring them to justice. When he returned, however, he discovered that his parents’ crimes were already exposed and they had been in prison for years. This made him into a warrior without a war, though he decided to help other innocents.
The 2012 Valiant Entertainment series changes this somewhat, with Archer now being raised as an assassin by his parents in a religious order called The Sect. He is dispatched to kill Armstrong, who he is told is a demon in human guise. However, Archer soon figures out that The Sect which raised him is in the service of devil-worshipping businessmen. This leads him to join with Armstrong to try and bring down The Sect.
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Bloodshot
A man without a past. A super-soldier empowered by nanites. A desire for redemption. These are the three factors that have come to define the character of Bloodshot. It is a concept that proved popular, despite having the single most convoluted history of any Valiant Comics series
The original 1992 comic centered around mob hitman Angelo Mortalli. After trying to turn state’s Evidence on his boss, Angelo is handed over to a corrupt scientist. They transform him into a living weapon, giving him enhanced physicality, technopathy, and camouflage powers. Unfortunately, the process also erases his memory. This sets off a quest as the newly named Bloodshot seeks to learn who he was, and, after finding out what a bad guy he was, trying to be better.
The 1997 Acclaim Comics revamp changed this, with Bloodshot now being a federal agent named Raymond Garrison. Angelo Mortalli was the alias Garrison used while infiltrating the mob. He is still transformed and render amnesiac by nanites, but this time it was the result of a government operation called Project Lazarus.
The 2012 Valiant Entertainment revamp changed this again. This time, there were several Bloodshot agents, created by Project Rising Spirit (PRS) since World War II. The latest Bloodshot, designated Every Man, is given multiple false identities to counteract his amnesia. This series centers around Bloodshot attempting to bring down the PRS after learning of the atrocities they sponsored.
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Quantum & Woody
Eric Henderson and Woody Van Chelton were best friends as children, but drifted apart as teenagers. Eric grew into a decorated US Army tactical officer. Woody grew into a slacker who wants to be a rock star but can’t get a band together. The two are reunited after their fathers’ suspicious deaths, which they agree to investigate together.
This leads to an industrial accident that give the old friends energy powers, but requires them to slam the metal bands fused to their wrists together once a day to survive. Like it or not (and Eric does not) the two of them are stuck with each other. Eric, wishing to work covertly, takes on the alias of Quantum and dons a costume. Woody, who thinks the whole secret identity thing is stupid, continues to go by Woody.
The initial idea for Quantum & Woody was an effort to modernize the Power Man and Iron Fist duo at Valiant Comics. However, they were also inspired by the characters played by Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in the movie White Man Can’t Jump. The end result was a comedy superhero series that defied most of the genre cliches.
The 2012 Valiant Entertainment reboot made Eric and Woody brothers by adoption. This gave them an additional reason to tolerate each other, despite their conflicting personalities. The new series also gave them a new enemy in the form of a mad geneticist known as The Crone.
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Shadowman
For many years, evil powers have sought to invade the world of the living. For just as long, a hero known as the Shadowman has used the power of a Shadow Loa to keep this evil at bay. New Orleans native Jack Boniface has become the latest to uphold this legacy. But can he master his powers in time to thwart the necromancers and demons that seek to take over his town?
Shadowman is perhaps most famous for the video games it inspired when Acclaim owned Valiant Comics. However, the comics have also inspired a web series and a heavy metal concept album, Tales From The Deadside. The comics themselves hold an impressive legacy, with legendary creators ranging from Steve Ditko to Garth Ennis having worked on the series.
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X-O Manowar
Like Bloodshot, X-O Manowar is a Valiant Comics property that was as varied as it was long-running. The series stayed true to its base idea of a hero who protected Earth while wearing advanced armor. However, the man and the nature of his armor changed with every revamp.
The first X-O Manowar was a Visgoth named Aric of Dacia, who was abducted by aliens in 5th century AD. He escaped from their ship after stealing an advanced armored suit. The Acclaim Comics revamp changed this considerably. This time the man inside the armor was scientist Donovan Wylie. Contrastingly, the X-O Manowar armor was an ancient artifact,
The 2012 Valiant Entertainment revamp merged both ideas, with the X-O Manowar armor now being an ancient artifact of an alien race known as The Vine. Aric of Dacia once again dons the armor. This time, however, he goes on to lead an intergalactic war to overthrow the Vine and free every race they enslaved.
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How we chose the best Valiant Comics
Originality and longevity were our watchwords in determining the best Valiant Comics. The main reason the company’s comics have stood the test of time is how they defied convention. However, series were also selected based on how they continued to be published throughout changes in ownership and line-wide revamps.
