In a move bound to surprise comic book readers and stand-up comedy fans, Dane Cook has taken to social media to reveal he took some kind of meeting with Valiant Comics. The performer writes in a tweet, “Had a great meeting with @ValiantComics! Tons of wild and wonderful possibilities. Nothing geeks me out more than a killer origin tale!” No further context was given by Cook, or Valiant, who retweeted the message to their followers. Is Cook in line to pen a comic for the publisher? Is he being recruited to develop a movie? Is he set to purchase the publisher outright? We have no idea!
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As readers may recall, the end of 2022 brought news that Valiant’s publishing line wasn’t in a great place. The company laid off several editorial employees in December including former Publisher Fred Pierce, who had acted in the role since 2009 when the company relaunched in a big way. Valiant is the home to characters including X-O Manowar, Quantum & Woody, Harbinger, Faith, Ninjak, Rai, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong, and Bloodshot, and they’ve been a cult favorite ever since.
First arriving on the scene in the 1990s, publishing Gold Key characters like Magnus, Robot Fighter, Turok, and Solar, Valiant quickly built up a following when it began to roll out some of its original characters who were created by the likes of Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith, Joe Quesada, and Christopher Priest, with some of their success in the late 1990s and early 2000s coming from video games based on their characters.
Renewed interest in the characters thanks to the rebooted line in 2012 resulted in feature film and television deals being made over the years. At one point there were plans for a full cinematic universe ala Marvel Studios considered at one point for the Valiant characters, but the only adaptation to make it to the screen was the Vin Diesel-starring Bloodshot, which was released in theaters days before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the country and the world.
In recent years Valiant has continued to publish comics, announcing back in February another new reboot of some titles for 2022. After news of the layoffs at the publisher however only two comics were published by Valiant in the last two months and only one scheduled for the month of February.
