We’ve talked at length here at the Comics Nexus in columns and reviews about our sheer love for Valiant Entertainment. 
The company started launch Valiant Comics a few years ago and several Comics Nexus follow their titles with regular reviews around these parts. My faves remain Archer and Armstrong, Bloodshot and Eternal Warrior plus I’m excited for the soon-to-launch “Unity” team book for Valiant.
Unity in the 1990s was the Valiant 1.0’s first cross-over bringing together its new characters, some were aforementioned, and its stable of Gold Key characters: Solar Man of the Atom and Magnus the Robot Fighter. The company would also achieve success with another Gold Key property in Turok The Dinosaur Hunter in the 1990s.
Acclaim purchased Valiant in the late 1990s and didn’t fare well with the characters. In fact, they had to cancel their Unity 2000 mini-series half-way through despite the original Unity being an early 1990s success.
When Valiant Entertainment acquired the rights to Valiant Comics characters it did not include the Gold Key Licenses.
Yesterday we reported that at New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2013, Dynamite Entertainment acquired four Gold Key licenses. Those include the three characters I just mentioned and Doctor Spektor. They have big names writers on their four Gold Key books two of which also currently work for Valiant. That would be Greg Pak on Valiant’s Eternal Warrior and Dynamite/Gold Key’s Turok Dinosaur Hunter, and Fred Van Lente on Valiant’s Archer and Armstrong as well as Dynamite/Gold Key’s Magnus Robot Fighter.
Naturally, fans and comics media speculated this would open the window for an eventual cross-over between Dynamite and Valiant that would see Solar and Magnus fight alongside Archer, Armstrong, Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot and others. In fact, this was the first question asked at Saturday’s Valiant MUST READ panel at NYCC 2013.
When asked of the potential for a cross-over, Valiant CEO and CCO Dinesh Shamdasani was quoted as closing the door to the idea indicating it didn’t make sense for Valiant to do so “at this time“.
Certainly, Valiant has more than enough characters to focus on and their measured approach tp expanding their publishing line has met with fan support. All Valiant titles are buzz worthy with top industry talent. While Dynamite’s Gold Key venture follows Dark Horse’s less-than-stellar handling of the same licenses – they do some great collected editions of the original Gold Key material – Dynamite needs to provide if it can make the Gold Key heroes profitable. They’ve started well with top talent on their books, including industry icon Mark Waid, but they need time to cultivate the properties.
“At this time” opens the possibility to a down-the-road crossover between Dynamite/Gold Key and Valiant, but both companies should focus in making the properties they have viable before entertaining any cross-over.
Staying Connected
Please also follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr via the below direct links.
Cheers!
