Quantum & Woody #4
Writer: Christopher Hastings, Artist: Ryan Browne, Colorist: Ruth Redmond, Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Publisher: Valiant
I respect the plucky temerity of the Valiant Universe. It’s this scrappy little underdog of a publisher, quietly churning out a small bumper crop of superhero books in a world where the Big Two exists, with just enough history that your average comics fan is at least AWARE of it.
That said, there’s only one corner of that universe I’ve spent any real time in.
Originally created by writer Christopher Priest and artist M.D. Bright, “Quantum & Woody” tells the story of the Valiant-proclaimed world’s worst superheroes — two adoptive brothers who, by a trick of superscience, are bonded together by the metal wristbands they must “klang” together once every 24 hours or they’ll dissipate into nothingness. Eric “Quantum” Henderson is a straight-laced ex-military man. Woody is an asshole. Also, there’s a goat.
The melding of comedy and science gone bad speaks loudly to the “Venture Bros.” fan in me. And, just like “The Venture Bros.,” it keeps coming back for bursts that feel entirely too short, with long gaps between them.
Case in point, the most recent go-round, by Christopher Hastings (“Unbelievable Gwenpool”) and Ryan Browne (“Curse Words”), wrapped after four issues, the shortest run yet for the duo. This week’s finale closes the door on the book’s central mystery — someone has been sending Woody notes from the future, which Woody has been using to feign precognitive powers, making Quantum jealous that he doesn’t have new powers, but also suspicious because, dude, it’s Woody — and clearly leaves the door open for either a second arc or another creative team to come along and pick up the thread.
But, given the current state of Valiant, I worry that’s not going to happen.
Sure, most publishers have cut back on product since the Diamond shutdown, and the post-resurrection iteration of Valiant has never been a big publisher, but its current lineup feels downright anemic. From June through the end of August, it’s publishing seven books total, and its September solicitations feature a whopping three — an issue of “Bloodshot,” an issue of “Rai” and the collection of the just-wrapped “Quantum & Woody.” MIA are the second issue of its debuted-right-before-the-shutdown “X-O Manowar” revival – a book that should have been a modest seller for the publisher – and all the other debuts it had initially promised this year, such as “The Final Witness,” “Savage” and “Shadowman.”
It’s a shame for a lot of reasons. It’s a shame because Valiant has a cult following and some people really love characters like Faith, Archer & Armstrong and the Eternal Warrior. It’s a shame because when Valiant was resurrected in 2012, it had a great narrative in being brought back from bankruptcy by guys like Dinesh Shamdasani and Warren Simons who truly seemed like they believed in the potential of Valiant’s IP. It’s a shame because those same guys were about to try to capture lightning twice in Bad Idea Comics, but COVID-19 seems to have driven that plan underground. It’s a shame because Valiant’s one of the few publishers with women on top of editorial – in senior editors Heather Antos and Lysa Hawkins — and in our current era of outing male comics creeps, it’s nice to see a bullpen walk the walk on change.
All that said, Valiant does provide its parent company, California-based media firm DMG Entertainment, with IP for possible future film and television adaptations, so maybe that’s enough to keep the publisher operating at a bare minimum to keep it alive.
Then again, well, the “Bloodshot” movie.
In a June interview with The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald, Valiant execs said they were taking a slow-and-steady approach to resuming publication, not looking to flood a hesitant market with product, watching Marvel and DC to see what moves they’re making, and perhaps wishing they’d gotten a couple more weekends of box office receipts out of “Bloodshot” that they could leverage into marketing for the comics.
(Man, it is wild that the last movie some people ever saw in a theater was “Bloodshot.”)
Anyway, this was supposed to be a review of “Quantum & Woody” #4. Hastings does exactly what you want Hastings to do on a Quantum & Woody book — it’s a funny, self-contained story that doesn’t bog itself down in what sparse continuity the duo have. Each issue begins with a simplified, “All-Star Superman” version of their origin story, giving you the bare facts in an attractive presentation.
Browne’s panels are busy. He’s not one for splash pages, but he gives you lots of detail on a book another artist might phone in by not bothering with backgrounds.
Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou remains a letterer’s letterer, deploying choices like different-colored word balloons, typeface caption boxes and, my personal favorite, layering balloons behind gutters or stray beams of energy to bleep out swears without resorting to Q-bert symbols.
And that’s the thing. If you’re a creator looking to experiment, “Quantum & Woody” is a book you can go nuts on with little risk of breaking it. Priest used it to explore race relations in the era of “White Men Can’t Jump.” Kano used it to draw layouts that made you have to rotate the book in your hands (frustrating digital readers, but oh well). Eliot Rahal actually succeeded in toning down the comedy and exploring what was on the other side of Q&W’s dissipation and how it affected them. And Hastings … Hastings made them fight a disembodied brain named Doctor Toilet.
At its peak in the early to mid-’90s, Valiant was a top-five publisher, comprising more than 5% of the market and boasting a bullpen that included former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, “Weapon X” artist Barry Windsor-Smith and “Iron Man” writer Bob Layton. It was popular enough that it teamed up with Image for a 1993 intercompany crossover called “Deathmate.” It was bad.
But maybe, in these desperate times, it’s just what Valiant needs. Vin Diesel isn’t going to get more people reading Valiant comics. But Spawn, Savage Dragon and the zombies of “The Walking Dead” just might. And with Image’s recent teasing of a crossover, who knows, maybe something’s already in the works.
And if it gets me a little more Quantum & Woody, well, let’s get “klang”-ing!
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom.
