I’ll admit that I wasn’t a voracious Valiant reader back in the ’90s – In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve ever read a Valiant book, now that I think about it – but today’s news that the publisher is back seems especially odd to me when you consider that the Gold Key characters are still being published by Dark Horse. I know that there were all new characters like XO Manowar and Archer & Armstrong and all, but… weren’t Solar, Turok and Magnus, Robot Fighter kind of the basis for the entire line? The defensiveness with which the new publishing team’s Jason Kothari addressed the issue over at CBR suggests that the loss is still being felt:

Valiant has a huge library of characters, and we have the Valiant Universe which is larger than any one character as it plays an invaluable role in supporting and strengthening all the characters within it. The Gold Key characters are part of our past, but they are not important to our future.

It’ll be interesting to see what these books look like when they launch next year. I’m nervous that, despite the David Aja preview art, no creator names have been linked to the relaunch in any of the press yet, but if there’s one thing that the new Valiant is already known for, it’s caution – They’ve owned these characters for three years before getting around to announcing the relaunch, after all, so what’s another year or so of waiting around to find out who’s working on the books?

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