INTERVIEW: Time to enroll at ‘Valiant High’
The superheroes of the Valiant universe have become household names among comic book aficionados and newbies alike. Whether it’s Archer & Armstrong, Dr. Mirage, the Eternal Warrior or Kris Hathaway, the characters are mainstays on bookshelves and at comic cons.
Now they are traveling back in time to high school. Valiant High, which releases its third issue Wednesday, April 26, follows the superheroes as they navigate the ups and downs of teenage life, including big proms, romantic text messages and dodgeball. The stories are not set in the regular Valiant continuity, and this means there’s more freedom for the creative team, which includes writer Daniel Kibblesmith (The Late Show With Steven Colbert) and artists Derek Charm (Jughead) and David Baron (Bloodshoot Reborn). David Lafuente has drawn the covers.
The comic series, which will run four issues, is available exclusively on comiXology and Kindle.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Kibblesmith about the new series. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
From a writer’s perspective, what do you find interesting and engaging in the Valiant universe?
I’ve been a big fan of Valiant for a while and written some shorts for them previously, so I was already sold. But what appealed to me about this idea was that the characters had now been fully-realized enough that you could start thinking of them in terms of archetypes and map them onto other archetype-based stories — in this case, a high school soap opera.
Where did the idea come from to set these characters in high school?
Valiant and comiXology had both been thinking about this idea for a while, so it was natural to come out of their partnership on this comiXology exclusive title. I was approached by then-Valiant editor Tom Brennan who asked if I had any interest in doing a teen soap opera before he fully revealed what it was. Then he DID reveal what it was, and I couldn’t have been more excited.
Do you feel that the Valiant High books allow an easy entry point for new fans?
Absolutely. Our biggest goal was that a brand-new reader could pick up Valiant High and get an introduction to the core personalities and relationships in the Valiant universe and then move on to the ‘prime’ stories with feeling more oriented than picking them up cold. At the same time, I’m a big Valiant fan, so I wanted all the hardcore Valiant fans to feel like they were being rewarded with tons of easter eggs and surprise cameos.
There are so many iconic characters in these pages. Is there one or two who stand out as particularly fun to write?
I barely got to touch them, but Quantum (Eric Henderson) as the wannabe over-achiever Hall Monitor was really fun. There’s something so funny about a totally square guy who does everything by-the-book and gets punished for it — and then tries again, totally undeterred. That, and the perpetually exhausted Dr. Mirage, who was like my “hindsight is 20/20” avatar as my adult mind revisited what it was like to experience high school drama.
Did writing about high school experiences bring you down memory lane? Did you have to get back into the mind of a high school student?
Definitely. To capture the inner-lives of our two focal characters, Amanda “Livewire” McKee and Peter “Not Cool Enough For A Codename” Stanchek, I definitely tried to remember what it was like to be on the cusp of adulthood, having so much power in theory and so little power over your daily lives. Of course, in the case of these characters, they also have ACTUAL powers they’re not allowed to use, so the metaphor is pretty perfect. But like Dr. Mirage says in #3: ‘You could not pay me to be a teenager again.’
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Valiant High #3 will be available on comiXology and Kindle Wednesday, April 26. Click here for more information.
