How Valiant Stands Apart From Marvel And DC Comics

Valiant Digital had its big debut at New York Comic Con on Saturday, where the trailer for Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe was released. Set to premiere in 2017, Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe will be Valiants entry in a media landscape that is dominated by superheroes from the Marvel Comics and DC Comics universes. During a visit to the set of Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe, ComicBook.com asked those involved with the project what it is that they think Valiant can offer superhero fans that they’re not already getting from Marvel or DC Comics.

“Valiant is very different. It’s character-centered. It’s grounded. It’s subversive. It’s left of center. It’s quirky,” says Dinesh Shamdasani, CEO and CCO at Valiant Entertainment. “We wanted to include the characters that showcased to a new audience how different and exciting Valiant is and why it’s something equal to Marvel and DC and so these are the characters, our biggest characters and our most exciting characters to showcase the Valiant tonality.

“Our strategy to compete with Marvel and DC is not to compete with Marvel and DC,” Shamdasani continues. “Just like in publishing, if we go head to head, even I’m buying Avengers before I’m buying an Avengers clone at another company, including Valiant. For us, it’s all about, ‘How can we do something that they’re afraid to do, or they haven’t thought of, or their universe doesn’t allow them to do?’ Here what we’re hoping to get across is that our characters are grounded, that they’re character-centric, that they’re the types of characters that you look at them and you say, ‘I can’t believe they made that guy or that girl a hero. I’ve never seen that before.’ That comes from the characterization. It comes from the personality. It comes from the physicality, and it comes from the looks as well.”

“I think it’s fresh,” says Aaron Schoenke, director of Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe. “It’s not so assembly line where you watch a character and you think, ‘I know what I’m going to get.’ With Valiant, you don’t know what you’re going to get. There’s a lot of music out there but there’s a lot of different styles. You could say the popular music out there is rock and pop, but over here we have jazz, and we have classical, and we have different things and some of that’s unique. I think getting that out there and seeing people that are like,’Oh my gosh, that’s so different,’ that’s what we’re excited for.”

Michael Rowe, the actor who will star as Colin King in Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe, has spent some time in another superhero universe as Deadshot on Arrow and The Flash. For him, the difference in Valiant starts with the craft of the comics and rooted in how the Valiant Universe relates to reality.

“Their artwork is very different,” Rowe says. “I like when they do flashbacks. They take a more artistic approach. They’ll even take something of Colin’s childhood and put it in a storybook as sort of visual art for that scene. I find that really refreshing. I think that they’re more in the current world, talking about current world issues and things like that. They’re not whisking you away to an alternate universe. I think people can relate to that a little easier, even with just some pop culture references and things. You feel like these people are in your world rather than you’re getting taken away to theirs. That’s what really attracted me to it.

“Even just from the first page I read from the first book that I read, they were breaking down some of his specific weapons and gear that [Ninjak] uses, and explaining how it worked,” Rowe recalls. “They were also kind of breaking down Colin King’s personality and how he works. It makes you think. It’s got a maturity to it. It’s not just trying to appeal to kids. It’s trying to appeal to everybody. I just found it really refreshing. I couldn’t put them down right from the first one. I knew who Ninjak was. I’d seen his image different places. He was on my radar, but I had never read anything until I realized this was the project that was going to happen. I read them all. It was easy. I just couldn’t stop reading them. I wanted more. After I was done, I’m kind of hooked. Send me another box of comics. I’m jonesing, you know?”

Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe is currently in production and will release online in 2017.