Carlos Morales
Building a larger Valiant universe with the upcoming new title “Final Witness”
Coming in early of 2020, Valiant comics first foray into the murder mystery and crime noir genre is heavy on the crime and even heavier on the mystery. Thanks to an exclusively Syfy Wire interview with the publisher, readers now know that the story of Final Witness starts with four main characters who come together to crack the case of a new murder. The cast consist of a detective (see next image, between Quantum & Woody and Bloodshot) with a police force that is front and center, an investigative journalist looking for the truth who realizes that what we see might not be real, an arsonist and a brand new superhero, whose origin will be tied to the arrival of a villain.
Taking this opportunity to grow the time tested and true Valiant brand into new spaces with a wealth of stories and scenes that will entice even the most hardcore superhero fan. “Final Witness” is debuting with a five-issue mini-series with all intentions of bringing readers more of this series and the provocative turf it inhabits in the future. The publisher has kept the identities of the creators a secret and is keeping an even tighter lip on who our murder victim might be. But thanks to the cover image above readers can see a missing clue ahead of the book’s premiere.
Heather Antos editor at Valiant is the main culprit behind this new dimension of the Valiant-verse and a passion project she has been putting together for a while, which is described as Zodiac meets True Detective with superheroes. “This was a perfect opportunity to do that, meet new characters and different types of people and see how they cope with superheroed crime in a grounded way. San Francisco is a city we haven’t explored much in Valiant and for anyone who has knowledge in true crime, knows that it’s a city with a colorful past.” said editor Antos.
It’s easy to tell that Valiant is being less than forthcoming on who the creators of the new series are. This has been done to add another layer of mystery to this murder mystery. Additionally, Antos tells that she has been searching for the right mystery writer and artist for some time now and said “I wanted someone who had a strong understanding of pacing and tension, which make murder mysteries work, and we want the art to capture that gritty, real-world vibe. If you’re a fan of the stories that happen in Gotham, then you’ll be interested in what we’re doing here.”
Driven by the question of “I want readers to ask, who is the final witness?” said Antos. Valiant wants to inspire readers with each issue filled with new clues and new characters to help solve the mystery. They will also publish special variants that unlocks a specific clue. Plus with every pre-order Valiant bundle variant (where you must tell your retailer that you want to pre-order the entire series), there will be supplemental behind-the-scenes pages. The inserted bonus pages for the Final Witness pre-order variant will open up more of the crime and investigative world of Valiant.
With a great new title coming out in the early months of 2020 Antos reminded readers she is well aware of the universe “Final Witness” will be taking place in when she said, “I want to keep this feeling fresh but also retain that Valiant feel without a Bloodshot and Ninjak carrying the line. A lot of the themes in the Valiant core titles are brotherhood and the responsibility of power and Final Witness will have that, but it’s important that our new cast of characters are able to stand on their own before we introduce our bigger characters from the line. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t plans for very prominent forces in the greater Valiant universe later in the story.”