JustFocus continues to introduce you to the universe of Valiant Entertainment and this time, we take up arms for the Secret Weapons published by Bliss comics.
Failed superheroes
Livewire, a government investigator who can control machines, is sent deep into Oklahoma because an abandoned secret base of psiotics (humans with extraordinary abilities seen in Harbinger but very random) has been discovered. This psiotic training center gathered the second knives that are not interesting enough to go to the main teams. These teenagers have fled because humanity is chasing them. Livewire decides to find them and help them.This story is written by First Contact writer Eric Heisserer who is also in charge of writing the next films adapting the Valiant comics. We feel this influence in the dialogues – references to Hitchcock and Mary Poppins – and a base in an old cinema.
Looking for lost psiotics?
The teens of Secret Weapons are not powerful enough for the Harbinger Foundation – a hologram of Harada, the guru of the Foundation calls them failuresand so they are in a secondary center in Oklahoma – the backwater hole of the United States in fact. This exclusion centre – Le Saule – was originally a foundation to hide single mothers. Secret Weapons is not the Valiant version of the New Mutants at Marvel or the Teen Titans at Marvel.
Heisserer invents very fun names of powers – Nicole Finch is an ornitopath (she talks to birds), Martin Tyus is phosphene (he can make the object he touches luminous), Avichal Malakar is a statufier (he can turn into a statue). Weak separately, these psiotics become strong as a team. This multicultural team – an Asian, a black, a Sikh which is very rare in comics – allows the author to castigate the ignorance and exclusion of minorities.
Each of these characters has an assertive personality. Owen Cho adds a touch of humor to the fight scenes because he can make objects appear but without any control, as if his shyness prevents him from evolving. Nicole, one of the most touching characters in the group, was the autistic of the group at school – it's only at the end that we read what the birds tell her – while Avichal, a snob, studies and listens to Radiohead. Throughout the episodes, these friends gather in times of danger around their new mentor, Livewire. They become very touching – No Avengers gathering here but their rallying cry is a hug. They must fight against the Repairman, an associate of Harada who has become even more psychopathic without Harada's control.
This story also allows you to discover a little more Livewire with interesting powers and increasingly interesting personality in Harbinger. This faithful of a guru emancipates herself and seeks to spare these teenagers the suffering she has suffered.
The four episodes are followed by two episodes about Nicole and Owen's origins. We see the construction of Nicole's costume with gloves and hair in a Riverdale atmosphere but with powers at the end. We change the atmosphere with the very funny about Owen. We start from a flea market and we discover the origin of each object that Owen has made appear by mistake but above all each object is a way to discover his feelings and his past.
A visual shock
Only one creative team is in charge of this limited series that can easily be read if you know nothing about the Valiant universe. In opening the book, what is most striking is the style of Raúl Allén (Hawkeye, Bloodshot Reborn) and Patricia Martín. The page is organized in a grid as in the Franco-Belgian style but the small boxes sometimes show the scenery or the action and sometimes the two are juxtaposed. Every page is different and some are true visual storytelling experiences. Although the action is faster, it reminds Chris Ware by this narrative brilliance and attention to architectures. The colors are not aimed at photographic realism but have a graphic sense in the page. These are often flashy colors that fit well with this story about teenagers. There is a real reflection of this couple in life because the decorations are often of a single color which influences the emotions of the reader while the characters are of another color. These sets of Allén are also very simple while the faces of Martín are expressive – we recognize the influence of Frank Quitely. This contrast allows you to focus on the characters and the action. However, it is never boring because the dominant color varies depending on the box or page.
In a chase box, we follow the action on a square with the movement of Nicole. This action frozen on a square is superb. Allénet Martín manages to get the city through a square. This story is very pleasant to read and by rereading the comic, we realize how this beautiful organization by page is very complex.
Bliss comics gives us a superb edition with a whole creative notebook as a bonus – the initial experiments and the explanation of the character designs by several Valiant creatives, interviews and a text of the writer and cartoonists, the alternative covers, drawings before colorization.
We can therefore say that Secret Weapons is a very good gateway to discover this publishing house that is rising. This allows comic book fans to realize that Valiant has made great efforts on the cartoonists.
