UNIVERSE

HANDBOOK 2014
 DO YOU HAVE
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 HANDBOOK 2014
UNIVERSE
Peter Cuneo
Chairman
CONTENTS
Dinesh Shamdasani
CEO and Chief Creative Officer 2 X-O MANOWAR
Gavin Cuneo Art by Trevor Hairsine, Cary Nord, and Diego Bernard
CFO and Head of Strategic Development
Fred Pierce
4 UNITY
Publisher Art by Clayton Crain and Bryan Hitch
Warren Simons 6 ETERNAL WARRIOR
VP Executive Editor Art by Trevor Hairsine and Lewis LaRosa
Walter Black
VP Operations 8 NINJAK
Hunter Gorinson Art by Mico Suayan and Lee Garbett
Director of Marketing, Communications
& Digital Media 9 LIVEWIRE
Art by Doug Braithwaite and Khari Evans
Atom! Freeman
Sales Manager
10 TOYO HARADA
Travis Escarfullery Art by Clayton Crain & Clayton Henry, Trevor Hairsine, and Barry Kitson
Production and Design Manager
Alejandro Arbona 12 PETER STANCHEK AND THE RENEGADES
Associate Editor Art by Barry Kitson, Clayton Henry, and Khari Evans
Josh Johns
Assistant Editor
14 H.A.R.D. CORPS
Art by Clayton Henry and Emanuela Lupacchino
Peter Stern
Operations Manager 15 GENERATION ZERO
Robert Meyers Art by Clayton Crain and Clayton Henry
Operations Coordinator
Rian Hughes/Device
16 BLOODSHOT
Trade Dress and Book Design Art by Esad Ribic, Manuel García, and Matthew Clark

Russell Brown
18 THE BLEEDING MONK
President, Consumer Products,
Art by Clayton Henry and Mico Suayan
Promotions and Ad Sales
19 GEOMANCER
Jason Kothari Art by Emanuela Lupacchino
Vice Chairman

Hunter Gorinson
20 ARCHER & ARMSTRONG
Handbook Editor
Art by Clayton Henry and Khari Evans
Chris Daniels, Robert Meyers, 22 GENERAL REDACTED
Jordan Nowlin, and Peter Stern Art by Pere Pérez
Writing and Research
Steve Blackwell 23 DR. MIRAGE
Design and Production Art by Patrick Zircher, Miguel Sepúlveda, and Lee Garbett
Special thanks to Michael Sacal
24 SHADOWMAN
FCBD 2014 VALIANT UNIVERSE HANDBOOK #1 Art by Jeff Dekal and Patrick Zircher
MAY 2014 Published by: VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC
Office of publication: 424 West 33rd Street, New York, 26 QUANTUM AND WOODY
NY 10001. Copyright © 2014 Valiant Entertainment, Inc.
All rights reserved. All characters, their distinctive Art by Andrew Robinson and Tom Fowler
likenesses and related indicia featured in this publi-
cation are trademarks of Valiant Entertainment, Inc.. 28 RAI
The stories, characters, and incidents featured in this Art by Clayton Crain
publication are entirely fictional.
Printed in the USA. First printing.
For more information, please visit ValiantUniverse.com
X-O MANOWAR
HISTORY: Born into battle, Aric of
Dacia—heir to the throne of the
Visigoth people—never knew peace.
Raised under the oppressive thumb
of the Roman Empire in fifth-century
Europe, his entire life was a never-
ending series of campaigns against
Rome, until a far more terrifying
enemy came into play: the brutal
race of alien colonizers known as
the Vine. Abducted during a midnight
scouting raid and taken to the far
reaches of space, Aric and his
fellow Visigoth captives lived their
lives as slaves to the Vine, with no
hope of escape.
After several years of captivity
aboard a Vine colony ship, Aric led
a revolt against his alien captors,
storming the hallowed temple of the
Vine and stealing their most powerful
relic—Shanhara, the sentient X-O
Manowar armor. Aric bonded with
the armor—the first being in living
memory to survive the process—and
turned the Vine’s most powerful
weapon against them. But a crushing
counterattack by the Vine left many
of Aric’s allies dead or dying. Inexpe-
rienced with the armor himself, Aric
barely escaped the Vine fleet before
rocketing back to Earth.
Upon his return, Aric learned
that—due to the effects of time dila-
tion—1,600 years had passed since
his abduction, and he was now
stranded in the 21st century. Dis-
traught by the loss of his family and
people, Aric secluded himself in the
Peruvian jungle—but the Vine were
unwilling to leave their most sacred
relic in human hands. Vine legend
told that their greatest champion
would one day wear the armor;
news of a human controlling the suit
could spell massive civil unrest for
their empire.
To recover it, covert Vine agents
called “plantings”—left on Earth
hundreds of years ago and modified
to appear human—recruited the
super-spy Ninjak to kill Aric and
return the armor. But with the help
of a Vine planting traitor named
Alexander Dorian, Aric turned Ninjak

X-O MANOWAR against his alien masters and led

an attack on the Vine’s secret
headquarters inside Britain’s MI-6,
REAL NAME: Aric of Dacia virtually eliminating the plantings’
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Nebraska, United States of America operations in England.
KNOWN ALLIES: Alexander Dorian; Eternal Warrior; Livewire; Ninjak The Vine, however, responded with
ENEMIES: The Armor Hunters; Toyo Harada; The Roman Empire; The Vine a full force invasion—one that proved
FIRST APPEARANCE: X-O MANOWAR #1 to be no match for the X-O Manowar
KNOWN ABILITIES: A highly-skilled swordsman and experienced battlefield commander; when armor. However, Aric realized that
there would no peace with the Vine…
wearing the X-O Manowar armor, Aric has enhanced strength, flight, accelerated healing and
until they were destroyed. Comman-
access to the armor’s full weaponry, including energy blasts, wrist-mounted missiles, and
deering a Vine ship, Aric mounted
energy constructs such as a lightning sword; the sentient armor can also translate languages a one-man invasion of the alien
and intercept electronically transmitted communications for the wearer. race’s homeworld, Loam, toppling the
2
 X-O MANOWAR
empire and freeing thousands in the
process—including a population of
enslaved Visigoths descended from
Aric’s own people.
Returning to Earth with his new
kinsmen in tow, Aric decided to
reestablish the ancestral Visigoth
homeland in its present-day location
within Romania—a decision which
quickly drew the ire of the neigh-
boring Russian government. After
warding off a series of coordinated
military strikes, Aric was faced with
his greatest threat yet—the super-
team known as Unity.
Aric’s defense of Dacia did not go
to plan. He was beaten by Toyo Hara-
da, stripped of his armor, and taken
into custody by the United States
Military Reconnaissance Outpost
(M.E.R.O.)—the covert government
agency that monitors and engages
alien threats. In exchange for asylum
for him and his people, Aric—since
SHANHARA (X-O Manowar Armor)
reunited with the X-O Manowar armor According to Vine legend, the sentient X-O Manowar armor, known as Shan-
—now works as an agent of M.E.R.O., hara, grew from a sacred plant eons ago on the alien empire’s homeworld of
protecting American interests on and Loam. During the Vine’s persecution at the hands of a mysterious race known
above the Earth. as the Torment, it bonded with its first Vine host, who went on to use its might
However, Aric is about to face his to single-handedly repel the invasion force and win freedom for his people.
most formidable adversary yet…a The armor is living, composed of organics and exotic metals—a mutualistic
foe first encountered in the wreckage symbiote, bonded to its host. For centuries, the Vine high priests searched
of the Vine fleet encircling the Earth… for a wearer that could bear the power of Shanhara, but all such candidates
an enemy that heralds the coming of were killed in the process. When Aric of Dacia attempted to escape Vine cap-
the beings known as the tivity, he bonded with Shanhara as a last resort...and was deemed worthy.
Armor Hunters. Q Aric and Shanhara share a unique relationship—one that continues
even when they are separated. Shanhara can translate foreign and alien
RECOMMENDED READING: languages, tap into a world’s historical and geographical records, interface
X-O MANOWAR DELUXE EDITION with complex forms of technology, and even heal life-threatening injuries
BOOK ONE HC and illnesses. Even though the bond between Aric and the armor is strong,
it can be severed. Recently, the Harbinger Foundation teletechnopath
Livewire was able to override the armor’s connection to Aric and wear
Following the Vine’s attempt to invade Earth, Shanhara for a limited period. Despite its impact in earthly affairs, the
the planet is now encircled by a field of ruined armor’s true origin and purpose remain a mystery–one that the beings
alien debris—which X-O Manowar protects on known as the Armor Hunters will soon expose...
behalf of M.E.R.O..

3
UNITY
HISTORY: Brought together by Toyo
Harada—the world’s most power-
ful telekinetic and the billionaire
visionary behind the secretive
Harbinger Foundation—the elite team
of extraordinary individuals called
Unity was assembled for one pur-
pose: to stop X-O Manowar before
his invasion of Romania triggered
a world war. Armed with the alien
X-O Manowar armor, Aric of Dacia
liberated the last remnants of his
people from the alien empire of the
Vine and resettled them on Earth.
However, the land that Aric chose
for the new Visigoth homeland hap-
pened to be situated in modern-day
Eastern Europe—an aggressive show
of war that sent the world into high
alert. Hoping to prevent Russia from
retaliating with nuclear weapons,
Harada sent his most elite combat
unit, codenamed Unity, into Roma-
nia to preemptively eliminate Aric…
and claim the X-O Manowar armor
for himself.
Originally comprised of Harada’s
most powerful super-psiots—Bomb,
Mirror, Ether, and the Captain—the
first Unity team was quickly ex-
terminated within minutes of their
opening attack on X-O Manowar.
With his alpha team lost, Harada
had no choice but to recruit a far
more lethal and unpredictable team
to carry out his operations on the
ground in Europe.
The second team selected by
Harada to complete Unity’s mission
included not only himself, but the
Eternal Warrior, an immortal who has
dedicated his existence to serving
the Earth for over 10,000 years;
Ninjak, a freelance secret agent and
weapons expert of unparalleled skill
and cunning; and Harada’s former
pupil Livewire, a fearsome teletech-
nopath with the power to control
machinery and computers whose
loyalty to Harada came into question
after she helped his star pupil, Peter
Stanchek, escape from the Founda-
tion. Sent back into Romania, the new
and untested team stormed Aric’s
command center aboard an alien
battlecruiser. But, having anticipated
their brazen assault, Aric launched
the spacecraft into the stratosphere,
gaining a massive tactical advan-
tage. Despite this, Livewire was able
to interface with the ship’s computer
and sever Aric’s connection to the
UNITY
CURRENTLY ACTIVE MEMBERS: Eternal Warrior; Livewire; Ninjak; X-O Manowar
X-O Manowar armor, seizing control
of Shanhara for herself.
However, even without the hugely
PREVIOUS MEMBERS: Anchor; Bomb; the Captain; Ether; Mirror
powerful armor at his command,
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Mobile Aric and his people refused to yield.
ENEMIES: The Armor Hunters; Toyo Harada; Dr. Silk; Webnet As their ship plummeted back to
FIRST APPEARANCE: UNITY #1 Earth and sank to the bottom of the
4
 ACTIVE MEMBERS

UNITY
ocean, Harada decided to eliminate their threat once
and for all, drowning as many survivors as he could.
But, Livewire—now in full control of the X-O Manowar ar-
mor—defied her master’s will yet again and saved Aric’s
people, while also managing to repel a nuclear attack
from two nearby submarines.
The armor now in hand, Harada brokered peace
between the world governments with which Aric had
clashed, and turned the Visigoth and his followers over
to U.S. custody. But Livewire’s connection to the armor—
now under Harada’s control—gave her a secret insight
into his true motivations and secret agenda. Convinced
of Harada’s duplicity and lust for power, Ninjak, the
Eternal Warrior, and Livewire turned against him,
and stole the armor back to return to Aric, who—after
acknowledging the short-sightedness of his invasion
attempt—pledged to work under the auspices of Unity to X-O MANOWAR NINJAK
secure a better world. ALIEN-ARMORED WARRIOR SUPER-SPY
Now an independent team under the direction of
Ninjak, Unity undertook its next mission against the
mysterious Dr. Silk and his high-tech terror cell Webnet.
After Webnet unleashed a designer virus, the Unity
team’s mettle is tested on a global scale when they are
forced to prevent worldwide disaster and the deaths of
millions. However, Dr. Silk’s connection to the shadowy
past of Unity’s members might threaten their fragile
alliance yet again. Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
UNITY VOL. 1: TO KILL A KING TPB
X-O MANOWAR VOL. 5: AT WAR WITH UNITY TPB

Recruited by the Harbinger Foundation’s Toyo Harada, the second Unity ETERNAL WARRIOR LIVEWIRE
team—consisting of Ninjak, the Eternal Warrior, and Livewire—met X-O MASTER TACTICIAN TELETECHNOPATH
Manowar on the field of battle in the middle of Bucharest, Romania.

5
ETERNAL WARRIOR
HISTORY: Granted the gift of immortal-
ity, Gilad Anni-Padda is a master
tactician and one of the greatest
warriors on the planet. When in
danger, the Earth calls on her Eternal
Warrior to prevent calamities and
mete out justice. For countless cen-
turies, these messages have been
relayed to Gilad by the Geomancers,
an unbroken line of mystics in tune
with the voice of the planet. The
Geomancer of a given era and Gilad
work together to do the bidding of
the Earth.
The Eternal Warrior’s journey be-
gan millennia ago in the ancient city-
state of Ur when young Gilad—then
a flesh-and-blood mortal—was killed
during an adventure in the mythical
land of the Faraway with his brothers
Aram and Ivar.
As grief curdled Ivar’s mind, Gilad’s
brother convinced himself that a
mysterious machine captured in the
Faraway could restore his brother to
life. However, when activated, this
device—known as “the Boon”—
annihilated ancient Ur, draining the
life force from thousands and ruining
the city.
By 6000 B.C., Gilad had fully
matured and begun his service as
the Eternal Warrior—the Fist and Steel
of the Earth. Locked in battle with
the forces of Nergal, a death god op-
posed by the Earth, Gilad lost his son
Mitu at the hands of his own daugh-
ter, Xaran. In the wake of his loss,
Gilad continued to fight for the Earth,
but with grave misgivings. Eventu-
ally, after centuries of doubt, Gilad
abdicated his post as the Earth’s
defender, electing to instead deliver
justice on his own terms. It was only
when Xaran, long thought dead,
returned that Gilad was called back
into the service of the Earth—a call he
rejected by destroying the House of
the Earth’s California headquarters.
However, he soon learned that his at-
tack had unintended consequences…
and that he will have no choice but
to return to the Earth’s service if the
world is to stand any chance against
the return of Nergal in two thousand
years’ time...
After teaming with his long-
estranged brother Armstrong to
ETERNAL WARRIOR
REAL NAME: Gilad Anni-Padda
stop the nihilistic cult called the
Null, Gilad then traveled to Romania,
KNOWN ALLIES: Archer & Armstrong; Geomancer; Livewire; Ninjak; X-O Manowar seeking to change the dangerous
ENEMIES: The House of the Wheel; The House of the Dead; any and all enemies of the Earth course being set by his old friend
from centuries ago, Aric of Dacia—
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Mobile
better known to the modern world
FIRST APPEARANCE: X-O MANOWAR #1 as X-O Manowar. Failing to convince
KNOWN SUPERHUMAN POWERS: An immortal with exceptional strength, durability, endurance, Aric that his occupation of Roma-
and healing, Gilad is a veteran of countless battles and possesses thousands of years of fight- nia would only lead to suffering for
ing experience. He is versed in nearly ever combat style and fighting strategy known to man, his people, Gilad reluctantly joined
and all manner of weapons from throughout the history of civilization. forces with Toyo Harada and the
6
 THROUGH THE AGES

ETERNAL WARRIOR
CIRCA 10,000 B.C. CIRCA 4000 B.C. 212 B.C. 210 B.C. 402 A.D. 1130 A.D.

1718 A.D. 1805 A.D. 1942 A.D. 1963 A.D. 2014 A.D. 4001 A.D.

superhuman strike force called
Unity to disarm X-O Manowar by any
means necessary.
Meanwhile, however, the threat of
Nergal continued to grow for nearly
two thousand years. In the distant
future of 4001 A.D., Gilad—now known
as the Eternal Emperor—stands guard
over a small agricultural village
situated atop the ruins of Little Rock,
Arkansas. Struggling to keep his
charges alive—and his young grand-
daughter Caroline along with them—
the peace of his small kingdom is
shattered when a a centuries-old
weapon explodes, saturating the
area with radioactivity.
Gilad is forced to set out into the
wider world to find a cure, but is
soon confronted with the grim reality
of what the world has become in the
41st century. Q
RECOMMENDED READING:
ETERNAL WARRIOR VOL. 1:
SWORD OF THE WILD TPB

In the year 4001, a bearded and seemingly aged

Gilad leads a small community in the ruins of Little
Rock, Arkansas as the self-styled “Eternal Emperor.”
What brought about this drastic change is
not yet known.

7
NINJAK

Equipped with a cutting-edge assortment of gadgets and weaponry, Ninjak

also commanded a high-speed aircraft capable of intercontinental travel—
until it was destroyed by X-O Manowar.

HISTORY: When Aric of Dacia returned to Earth with the

X-O Manowar armor, the alien Vine dispatched their earthly
agents in human form—called “plantings”—to recover the
armor from their former Visigoth slave. After a failed as-
sault by their own special team, the Vine’s agents inside
the British intelligence agency MI-6 hired the weapons
specialist known as Ninjak to finally finish the job.
Ninjak tracked Aric to the Peruvian rainforest where
Aric managed to capture Alexander Dorian, the Vine
planting that led the initial assault to reclaim the armor.
Ninjak quickly outsmarted Aric, drugging him and strip-
ping him of the armor. Ninjak then took Aric and Alexan-
der captive aboard his jet, planning to turn them over to
MI-6. But, learning of the Vine’s plans to eradicate all life
on Earth, Alexander betrayed his people and freed Aric,
quickly convincing Ninjak to aid them in their fight and
stop the incoming Vine invasion.
Together, they executed a full frontal assualt on the
Vine-controlled headquarters of MI-6 in London. Ninjak
and Aric parted as uneasy allies with Ninjak agreeing to
pursue the remaining Vine sleeper agents with help from
MI-6’s Neville Alcott—one of the agency’s few remaining
uncompromised agents.
Ninjak and Aric met once again soon after when
X-O Manowar returned to Earth—this time as the leader
of a Visigoth horde newly freed from bondage on the
Vine homeworld of Loam. When Aric and his people then
claimed a portion of Romania as their ancestral homeland
and began inching the world toward the brink of disaster,
Ninjak—under assignment by the secret leader of the
Harbinger Foundation, Toyo Harada—infiltrated Aric’s com-
mand center during an assault and disarmed the
X-O Manowar armor. But when the strike team sent by
Harada to retrieve it was quickly slaughtered by Aric,
Ninjak was taken captive by his one-time ally.

NINJAK
REAL NAME: Colin King
Ninjak managed to make an escape and join Harada, the
Eternal Warrior, and Livewire in defeating X-O Manowar. But
Ninjak and the newly formed Unity team quickly realized
KNOWN ALLIES: Neville Alcott; Eternal Warrior; Livewire; X-O Manowar that Harada represented an even greater danger, forcing
ENEMIES: Dr. Silk; The Vine; Webnet them to retrieve the armor once again and form a strategic
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Unknown allegiance with Aric against Harada.
FIRST APPEARANCE: X-O MANOWAR #5 Now with the support of the Unity team under his lead-
KNOWN SKILLS: In addition to being a skilled clandestine operative, Ninjak ership, Ninjak turns to face Dr. Silk, a mysterious figure
from his past whose high-tech terror cell Webnet plans to
is also one of its most skilled and lethal hand-to-hand combatants, and
unleash a viral epidemic of untold proportions... Q
is one of MI-6’s leading weapons experts; though possessing no known
superhuman abilities Ninjak is also a genius technologist and an RECOMMENDED READING:
Olympic-level athlete. X-O MANOWAR VOL 2: ENTER NINJAK TPB
8
 LIVEWIRE
HISTORY: A psionic teletechnopath, able to control
machines with force of will alone, Amanda McKee was
orphaned at a young age, and sent to live in a group
home. It was there that billionaire visionary and founder
of the Harbinger Foundation, Toyo Harada, discovered her
and took her into his care, rescuing her from the abusive
environments of her early life. For this Amanda became
unfailingly devoted to Harada and his mission. Assuming
the name Livewire, Amanda became a star pupil of the
Harbinger Foundation, eventually becoming one of
Harada’s most trusted aides.
All that changed, however, when Peter Stanchek joined
the Harbinger Foundation. Faced with a power that nearly
equaled his own, Harada’s façade of control began to fray
and his domineering tendencies became clearer and clearer
to Livewire. Still faithful to Harada’s vision, but believing that
Peter could help balance his immense power, Livewire aided
Harada’s wayward student in his escape from the Harbinger
Foundation and sent herself into exile following her betrayal.
Months later, when Aric of Dacia returned from space
as the leader of a freed legion of Vine slaves and claimed
Romania as the homeland of his new people, Harada reac-
tivated Livewire and asked her to join his elite strike team,
Unity. Utlizing her power to control machines, Livewire
was able to strip the X-O Manowar armor from Aric and
don it herself—with the intent of handing it over to Harada
in turn. With the most powerful weapon in the universe at
her command, Livewire easily subdued Aric’s people and
quickly defused a nuclear strike by rival nations bent on
annihilating X-O Manowar.
Bonding with the armor, however, unlocked the full
potential of Livewire’s abilities, giving her full access to
the records of the Harbinger Foundation. With all of Hara-
da’s darkest secrets now exposed to her, Livewire at last
realized the true extent of his evil and quickly marshaled
the Unity team against her former mentor.
Now fully expelled from the Harbinger empire, Livewire
joined Ninjak in the service of England’s MI-6, and trav-
eled to Taiwan to investigate strange happenings related
to the mysterious Dr. Silk… Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
UNITY VOL. 1: TO KILL A KING TPB

Livewire was one of Peter Stanchek’s first mentors within the Harbinger
Foundation—and, following the murder of Peter’s friend Joe Irons, helped
facilitate his escape from the facility.

LIVEWIRE
REAL NAME: Amanda McKee
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Unknown
KNOWN ALLIES: Eternal Warrior; Ninjak; Stronghold; X-O Manowar
ENEMIES: Toyo Harada; Dr. Silk; Webnet
FIRST APPEARANCE: HARBINGER #3
KNOWN ABILITIES: Ability to interface with and control electrical
machines; limited energy projection; and an advanced knowledge of
martial arts technique.
9
TOYO HARADA
HISTORY: Toyo Harada, CEO of
Harada Global Conglomerates and
the most powerful telekinetic in the
world, has a vision for a perfect
future. Guided for decades by the
visions of the mysterious Bleed-
ing Monk, Harada has used his
seemingly limitless powers to build
his public-facing company into a
force that is seen to provide food
and medicine to the world’s poor.
Behind the scenes, however, he’s
assembled a private army in the
form of the Harbinger Foundation,
a secret academy built to activate
and train young telekinetics called
“psiots” that, like himself, exhibit
an array of abilities with extraordi-
nary potential.
For decades, Harada’s Harbin-
ger Foundation and paramilitary
contractor Project Rising Spirit have
waged a secret war over these
psiots, and, over the years, each col-
lected a small army of empowered
children as they sought to inflict
their agendas on the world.
The consequences of their
actions were put on full display
when a group of these children
escaped from P.R.S. and took refuge
in Las Vegas. With a new band of
psiots now in play, a war quickly
erupted between Harada’s team,
P.R.S., Bloodshot, and Harada’s
former pupil Peter Stanchek, as
they battled to claim the children
for themselves. In the end, Harada
emerged triumphant, capturing
the children, as well as Bloodshot
and the entirety of Peter’s team.
However, the victory only added to
the mounting responsibilities on
Harada’s shoulders.
In Harada’s eyes, the world will
only survive if he is able to enact
his vision of the future. That vision
was threatened, however, when
X-O Manowar invaded Romania and
pushed Europe to the brink of war.
Harada responded by assembling
a team of the world’s most deadly
individuals to kill the self-proclaimed
king and avert nuclear war, while also
attempting to claim Aric of Dacia’s
ultra-powerful armor for himself.
However, Harada was betrayed by

TOYO HARADA
REAL NAME: Toyo Harada
his own team and brutally defeated
by X-O Manowar. In the aftermath,
the combined stress of managing
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Harada Global Conglomerates headquarters in El Segundo, CA the Harbinger Foundation, psychi-
ENEMIES: Bloodshot; H.A.R.D. Corps; Simon Oreck; Project Rising Spirit; Peter Stanchek and the cally supressing Peter Stanchek, and
Renegades tending to his many responsibilities
FIRST APPEARANCE: HARBINGER #1 around the world became too much
for Harada. He suffered a terrifying
KNOWN ABILITIES: An “omega-level” psiot with near-limitless powers of telekinesis and telepathy,
“mind squall”—a massive psychic
the true extent of Harada’s abilities may never be known; Harada also possesses a high level of
eruption that severely devastated
intellect that he has employed to great effect as a billionaire industrialist, businessman, every mind in the immediate area. In
philanthropist, and Nobel laureate. the wake of the event, the Ren-
10
 TOYO HARADA
During the 1960s, young Harada recruited a
small team of newly discovered psiots to help
wage a secret war of sabotage and corporate
espionage against Rising Spirit Securities.

egades escaped, and Harada’s

Harbinger Foundation was staggered
by substantial losses.
As Harada’s grip further weak-
ened, he encountered a new threat in
the form of Ax—a young hacker who
leaked classified Project Rising Spirit
files to the world, revealing the true
nature of Harada’s powers and the
existence of the Harbinger Founda-
tion in the process. With his mask of
respectability ripped away, he publicly
declared that he would now use his
powers to bend the world to his
will, forcing Peter Stanchek and the
Renegades into an all-out, public war
against the now exposed and newly
unhinged Harada. Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
HARBINGER DELUXE EDITION
BOOK ONE HC

As a unique by-product of his abilities, Harada only

requires 24 hours of sleep every 30 days. However,
in an effort to keep the aftermath of the Harbinger
Wars contained, he surpassed his normal limit—
resulting in an uncontrolled “mind squall” that
killed dozens and seriously damaged Harada Global
Conglomerates’ El Segundo offices.
11
THE RENEGADES
HISTORY: An immensely powerful
psiot with the ability to read minds
and manipulate matter, Peter
Stanchek was confined to a mental
institution, along with his friend Joe
Irons, until both escaped. Self-med-
icating to keep his powers in check,
Peter was caught after a pharmacy
robbery in Pittsburgh. Salvation came
in the form of Toyo Harada, head of
the Harbinger Foundation—an orga-
nization that helps empowered indi-
viduals like Peter shape the future.
Harada offered Peter a place inside
the Foundation...but first he had to
agree to leave his friend Joe behind.
Realizing the danger he represented
to himself and those around him,
Peter accepted, hoping Harada could
bring him peace and an understand-
ing of his unique abilities.
Adjusting to the rigid world of
the institution proved to be difficult.
When Peter responded to the taunts
of fellow students by inciting a
super-powered brawl, the divisions
only deepened. In a final attempt to
control Peter, Harada ordered the
murder of Joe, disguising it as an
accidental overdose. Upon discover-
ing the truth, Peter turned on Harada,
fleeing the Foundation with the help
of Faith Herbert, a young woman
whose psiot ability of flight was
telepathically activated by Peter.
On the run again, Faith and Peter
connected with Kris Hathaway, a
friend from Peter’s childhood. Togeth-
er they headed out in search of latent
psiots to recruit in their campaign
against the Harbinger Foundation.
Upon finding the immensely strong
Torque and the fiery Flamingo, Peter
guided the team to Las Vegas in
search of answers from the mysteri-
ous Bleeding Monk, Harada’s secret
confidant and a mysterious source
of information for Peter. Caught in a
war between Project Rising Spirit,
Bloodshot, and Harada, Peter and
his Renegades joined forces with a
group of escaped psiots called Gen-

PETE STANCHEK eration Zero. The battle between Toyo

Harada, Bloodshot, Generation Zero,

AND THE RENEGADES

CURRENTLY ACTIVE MEMBERS: Peter Stanchek (Sting); Kris Hathaway; Faith Herbert (Zephyr);
and the newly reactivated H.A.R.D.
Corps in Las Vegas, and its immedi-
ate aftermath, changed everything
Charlene Dupre (Flamingo); John Torkelson (Torque) for Peter and the Renegades.
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Mobile Following the devastating events
ENEMIES: Toyo Harada; the Harbinger Foundation; Project Rising Spirit; Mr. Tull of the Harbinger Wars, Peter and the
FIRST APPEARANCE: HARBINGER #1 Renegades fled to Los Angeles for a
KNOWN ABILITIES: well-deserved vacation. In the end,
though, this vacation turned out to be
STING: Telekinesis; telepathy; mind control; thought-transference, and many
more untapped abilities
OPPOSITE: Following the revelation that Toyo
KRIS: Team strategist; human, but incredibly smart and resourceful Harada had secretly ordered the murder of his best
ZEPHYR: Flight and the ability to confer weightlessness to others friend Joe, Peter led a devastating attack on Harada
FLAMINGO: Pyrokinesis and his senior staff before fleeing the Harbinger
TORQUE: Solid psionic projection that provides strength and durability Foundation once and for all.
12
 RENEGADE ROLL CALL

THE RENEGADES
nothing but a psychic prison created
by Harada. In reality the Renegades
had been Harada’s captives ever since
the end of the Harbinger Wars.
However, an overextended and ex-
hausted Harada was unable to keep
the artificial constructs in place and
suffered a severe “mind squall”—an
extreme, uncontrolled psychic erup-
tion that had a devastating effect on
every mind within its immediate ra-
dius. In the ensuing chaos, Peter and PETER STANCHEK KRIS HATHAWAY FAITH HERBERT
the Renegades broke free of their “STING” “KRIS” “ZEPHYR”
Telepathy and telekinesis Team strategist Flight
virtual prisons. After a full year of
being on the run, unrelenting attacks
from the Harbinger Foundation, and
the violation of psychic imprisonment
by Harada, the Renegades decided
to take the fight to the Harbinger
Foundation and end their war once
and for all.
To that end, they located Octavio
González, otherwise known as Ax CHARLENE DUPRE JOHN TORKELSON
—a young hacker bent on exposing “FLAMINGO” “TORQUE”
Pyrokinesis Strength and durability
both the Harbinger Foundation and
Project Rising Spirit. With the help of
this young tech whiz, the Renegades
believe they finally have Harada
cornered. But the most dangerous
kind of man is one who has nothing
left to lose. And when the Renegades
and the Harbinger Foundation face
off one final time, it’s hard to say
who will win, who will lose, and more
importantly, who will survive… Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
HARBINGER DELUXE EDITION
BOOK ONE HC

RIGHT: The Renegades recently rescued a teenage

hacker named Ax in Venice Beach, CA—shortly after
he leaked a massive cache of Project Rising Spirit
files on Toyo Harada and the Harbinger Foundation.

13
H.A.R.D. CORPS
H.A.R.D. CORPS
(HARBINGER ACTIVE RESISTANCE DIVISION)
CURRENTLY ACTIVE MEMBERS: Charlie Palmer (Gunslinger);
Erica Connelly (Granite); Aaron Frey (Disciple); Flatline; Vagabond;
Genius; Carol Jardine (Director, Lifeline Department)
BASE OF OPERATIONS: P.R.S. Research Facility Theta, NV
ENEMIES: Toyo Harada; the Harbinger Foundation; Simon Oreck;
the Specialists
FIRST APPEARANCE: HARBINGER WARS #3
KNOWN ABILITIES: Wetware cybernetic implants allow members of the
H.A.R.D. Corps to download and use a single psionic ability at a time.
Known powers include shield, flight, arc charge, strength,
intangibility, and more.
HISTORY: Using cybernetic devices installed directly into
the brain, H.A.R.D. Corps implants give ordinary humans the
ability to remotely “download” a limited range of psiot abil-
ities. First developed during the Vietnam War using stolen
Harbinger Foundation technology, the earliest H.A.R.D. Corps
modifications were bulky, requiring a large amount of heavy
external equipment. Additionally, the implants’ unnatural
activation of psiot abilities in ordinary human brains caused
serious long-term side effects, eventually crippling and/or
killing most H.A.R.D. Corps test subjects.
By the 1990s, however, the technology had been
miniaturized sufficiently to fit entirely within the human
skull, and perfected to offer users the ability to change
powers on the fly via the then-new cellular communi-
cations network. However, both then and now, only a
small percentage of the population were compatible
subjects for the H.A.R.D. Corps process and a smaller
number still survived the invasive surgical procedure
needed to install the implants. That fact alone made
reliable and effective test subjects hard to come by,
so much so that the H.A.R.D. Corps was overtaken by
Project Rising Spirit’s Bloodshot program and disband-
ed in the mid-1990s.
Years later, however, the surviving members of the
GUNSLINGER DISCIPLE FLATLINE
14
H.A.R.D. Corps–Gunslinger, Hammerhead, Maniac, and
Shakespeare—found themselves suddenly reactivated
when a group of young Project Rising Spirit psiots es-
caped from captivity and took over a Las Vegas casino.
During this encounter with the group called Generation
Zero, both Hammerhead and Shakespeare were killed in
action. Despite this, Project Rising Spirit still considered
their mission a success, and returned H.A.R.D. Corps to
fully operational status for the first time in decades, ap-
pointing Gunslinger—Major Charlie Palmer—as the unit’s
new commander for the duration.
After activating a new crop of rookies—including
Superstar, Granite, and Disciple—veteran Corps members
Gunslinger and Maniac’s first assignment was to infiltrate
Harada Global Conglomerates to recapture the rogue
P.R.S. asset called Bloodshot, who was also compromised
during the Harbinger Wars in Las Vegas. The mission
succeeded, but at the cost of Maniac and Superstar’s
lives. Faced with two brand new openings in the ranks,
P.R.S. CEO Morris Kozol offered Bloodshot the one thing
he desired—the truth behind his identity—in exchange for
joining the H.A.R.D. Corps team.
Bloodshot accepted, just in time for Kozol to be
kidnapped by his former colleague, ex-P.R.S. director
Simon Oreck, while on a business development mission
in central Africa. Together with a unit of super-powered
P.R.S. veterans called the Specialists, Oreck and his team
had taken to selling their muscle as enforcers for Nigerian
oil interests. Hoping to ransom Kozol back to P.R.S. and
acquire a working H.A.R.D. Corps implant, the Specialists
were defeated by Gunslinger’s team–but not before Oreck
made his escape…
Back in the United States and reunited with Kozol,
the team was then tasked with eliminating an assas-
sin-turned-fundamentalist cell leader and his supposedly
“immortal” bodyguard—two homegrown terror suspects
that just happen to be named Archer & Armstrong… Q
RECOMMENDED READING:
HARBINGER WARS DELUXE EDITION HC
VAGABOND GENIUS GRANITE
 GENERATION ZERO
HISTORY: Specializing in superhuman study and exper-
imentation, the nefarious private military contractor
Project Rising Spirit has spent years kidnapping and
GENERATION ZERO
REAL NAMES: Christian (Cronus); Tara (Telic); Monica Jim (Animalia);
imprisoning children that exhibit an extraordinary array
Katherine and James Zygos (Zygos Twins); Wee Mad Mac (Traveler);
of “psiot” capabilities. A group of these special children—
codenamed Generation Zero—was specially trained to be
Isiah (Little Castle); Eliphas; Howl; Pier (Hive); Jess (Astral); Jillian
P.R.S.’s premier psiot strike team, acting to fulfill covert (Shadow); Simon (Atomus)
operations on behalf of P.R.S. around the world. To keep BASE OF OPERATIONS: The Harbinger Foundation
the members of Generation Zero on task, each child had ENEMIES: Bloodshot; H.A.R.D. Corps; Project Rising Spirit; Toyo Harada
a bundle of micro-shrapnel implanted in their brain which FIRST APPEARANCE: HARBINGER WARS #1
will detonate should they attempt escape. KNOWN ABILITIES: Various
When Bloodshot attacked a top-secret P.R.S. facility
outside Las Vegas, Generation Zero and a number of oth- when Project Rising Spirit finally made their move, sending
er psiot children fled into the desert. Cronus—Generation in the reactivated H.A.R.D. Corps—a vicious commando unit
Zero’s de facto leader—instructed the team to comman- enhanced with artificial and desperately unstable super-
deer a P.R.S. aircraft, which they then crash-landed on powers. Several members of Generation Zero were killed or
the Vegas strip. Stolen from their families, raised in iso- severely injured during the ensuing melee.
lation, and forced to both edure and inflict violence on an With Las Vegas in ruins following the epic clash, and no
almost daily basis, the members of Generation Zero then seeming end in sight, Generation Zero found themselves
and there decided to make a dramatic and public last with limited options. It was then that Harbinger Foundation
stand against the wrongs of the world as they perceived leader and ultra-powerful psiot Toyo Harada emerged to
them. Aware that the world was watching and that P.R.S. offer the children a choice: cease their violence and join
retaliation would soon arrive, Generation Zero occupied a him, or face the consequences of their actions. Cronus
prominent Las Vegas casino, taking hundreds of hostag- conceded to Harada, and Generation Zero was taken to
es in the process, and issued a list of demands. their new home...the Harbinger Foundation. Q
Soon afterwards, they were joined by Peter Stanchek
and the Renegades—a team of fellow psiots sympathetic to RECOMMENDED READING:
the plight of Generation Zero’s traumatized and inexperi- HARBINGER WARS DELUXE EDITION HC
enced members. As Stanchek attempted to negotiate
a peaceful resolution to
Generation Zero’s violent
casino stand-off, the ex-
”psiot killer” called Bloodshot
also appeared in Vegas with
another band of P.R.S. escap-
ees, triggering a three-way
confrontation between the
rival factions. Matters were
only complicated further

Raised in isolation, the young Genera-

tion Zero psiot codenamed Animalia has
the ability to change into any animal
with which she is familiar —but years
of prolonged captivity with only televi-
sion to entertain her left Animalia with
a distorted and cartoon-ish under-
standing of animal characteristics.
15
BLOODSHOT
HISTORY: Project Rising Spirit’s program
to create the ultimate soldier stretches
back decades, and reached critical
mass in the depths of World War II.
Though the initial products of the pro-
gram were crudely enhanced and high-
ly expendable foot soldiers suitable
only for the simplest scenarios, these
early subjects were able to complete
high-intensity missions regardless
of any obstacles. Over the decades,
these results ensured that the
“Bloodshot” program was consistently
earmarked for further development
and continued to break new ground.
Throughout the 1970s, ‘80s, and
‘90s, P.R.S. refined the nanotech-
nology that would power Bloodshot,
and developed a new artificial
intelligence system that allowed
him to be deployed in a wider array
of off-the-battlefield counterintel-
ligence and espionage missions.
While Bloodshot was self-aware to a
degree, the human-machine hybrid
was still deemed to inflict unaccept-
ably high levels of collateral damage–
civilians, women, children…whatever
it took to get the job done.
In 2007, another P.R.S. scientist,
Dr. Emmanuel Kuretich, discovered
his employers’ intention to redirect
the Bloodshot program into a new
area—the targeting and capture
of the extremely rare, psionically
powered children called “psiots.”
Alarmed, Kuretich fled P.R.S. for Toyo
Harada’s Harbinger Foundation,
where he secretly began forging a
plan to undo P.R.S. once and for all…
Several years later, while on a
routine mission in Afghanistan,
Bloodshot was captured by Kuretich,
who forcibly extracted the records of
Bloodshot’s missions with the intent
of exposing Project Rising Spirit to
the world. The process, however,
also unlocked all of Bloodshot’s false
memories—used to motivate him in
war zones throughout the world—at
once. Was he ever really a soldier
named Ray Garrison? Or was it all an
elaborate fiction?
In the meantime, P.R.S.—fearing that
Bloodshot had finally gone rogue—de-
cided to rein in their most danger-

BLOODSHOT
REAL NAME: Unknown
ous asset with extreme prejudice.
Bloodshot escaped capture with the
aid of an ambulance driver named
BASE OF OPERATIONS: P.R.S. Research Facility Theta, NV Kara Murphy before finally returning
KNOWN ALLIES: H.A.R.D. Corps; Kara Murphy; Pulse to P.R.S. to uncover the truth behind
ENEMIES: Chainsaw; Gamma; Toyo Harada; the Harbinger Foundation; Emmanuel Kuretich; his identity. Tipped off by Kuretich,
Simon Oreck; the Specialists Bloodshot stormed a P.R.S. facility in
FIRST APPEARANCE: BLOODSHOT #1 Nevada, but didn’t find any answers—
only the disturbing sub-basement
KNOWN ABILITIES: Enhanced strength, speed, and endurance; accelerated healing; short term
facility known as the Nursery. Built to
alteration of physical appearance; Bloodshot’s nanites can interface with and control electron-
house the empowered psiot children
ics, and can download new skills and knowledge directly into his mind; Bloodshot’s nanites captured by Bloodshot, freeing the
require a constant supply of protein to sustain all these abilities. Nursery’s captives had been Kuretich
16

and Harada’s true objective all along.
In the ensuing firefight, Bloodshot
was forced to combat the Nursery’s
sadistic psiot jailer Gamma and P.R.S.’s
outdated cyborg hit squad Chainsaw.
In the end, Bloodshot did manage
to free the captive children, includ-
ing Generation Zero—an action that
inadvertently set off a chain reaction
of events that would culminate in the
Harbinger Wars on the Las Vegas strip.
Confronted by Toyo Harada in
the aftermath of the P.R.S. break-
out, Bloodshot’s capacity for free
will was overridden by the “Harada
Protocol”—a piece of hidden P.R.S.
programming in his software that
compelled him to terminate Harada,
even if it meant destroying himself in
the process. A vicious battle ensued,
which left Harada seriously wound-
ed, and Bloodshot with a depleted
and damaged nanite count.
In the closing moments of the
Harbinger Wars, Bloodshot would
once again fall into Harada’s clutch-
es, and spent several weeks as a
prisoner of the Harbinger Foundation.
During this time, Harada subjected
Bloodshot to cruel and painful ex-
periments as he attempted to solve
the secret behind the incredibly rare
nanites in Bloodshot’s bloodstream.
However, Project Rising Spirit—
acutely aware of Bloodshot’s value
and the danger posed by Harada’s
use of the nanites—quickly expedited
a rescue mission led by H.A.R.D. Corps.
After storming Harada’s El Segundo
facility, they successfully extracted
Bloodshot, who shortly thereafter
accepted a spot on the H.A.R.D. Corps
roster. In exchange, Bloodshot was re-
warded with a hard copy of the P.R.S.
file on his true identity—the contents
of which he has not yet shared…
BLOODSHOT
The protein-fueled nanobots in Bloodshot’s blood-
stream can repair even the most catastrophic of
injuries in mere minutes, including burns, broken
bones, severe trauma, and more.
Recently, Bloodshot has been
deployed across the globe on various
missions alongside the H.A.R.D. Corps,
including an assignment to retrieve a
former P.R.S. test subject codenamed
Prodigal—believed to be the leader
of a homegrown terror cell—and his
supposedly “immortal” bodyguard. Or,
as they are better known to the world
at large…Archer & Armstrong! Q
RECOMMENDED READING:
BLOODSHOT DELUXE EDITION
BOOK ONE HC
Bloodshot’s nanites also allow him to modify his fa-
cial features and skin pigmentation, making him an
ideal operative for stealth and infiltration missions.
17
BLEEDING MONK

one psiot whose incredible abilities could rival his own—a

BLEEDING MONK
REAL NAME: Kyros
young Toyo Harada, then scavenging among the irradi-
ated ruins of Hiroshima, Japan.
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Mobile After spending years as a cryptic seer for Harada and
KNOWN ALLIES: Toyo Harada; Peter Stanchek his Harbinger Foundation, the Bleeding Monk ultimately
decided to end his mentorship when Harada explicitly
FIRST APPEARANCE: HARBINGER #1
ignored advice he gave him regarding the Foundation’s
KNOWN ABILITIES: Prophecy and visions of the future; continuously bleeds newest member, Peter Stanchek. Biding his time, the
from a massive chest wound but does not die, and is functionally immortal. Monk stood idly by as Peter and Harada engaged in a
brutal confrontation that leveled the Foundation’s Pitts-
HISTORY: Perhaps the most puzzling and longest-lived burgh headquarters. In the wake of the battle, the Monk
“psiot” ever recorded, the mysterious, seemingly omnis- suddenly disappeared, shunning any psychic contact
cient Bleeding Monk possesses unparalleled precogni- with Harada from that point forward. However, the Monk
tive abilities that allow him to perceive multiple possible later made contact with Harada’s wayward pupil, inform-
futures. A secret confidant of Harbinger Foundation ing him of the coming events of the Harbinger Wars and
leader Toyo Harada for more than six decades, no living the danger posed by the renegade Project Rising Spirit
person knows the full story of the Monk’s origins…or his assassin called Bloodshot.
true motivations. Since the conclusion of the Harbinger Wars and a
Although he has long since forsaken his name, the fleeting confrontation with Harada shortly thereafter, the
Bleeding Monk was once known as Kyros, a venerated Bleeding Monk has been neither seen nor heard from. His
and beloved philosopher who traveled with the caravan whereabouts remain unknown. Q
of Alexander the Great during his conquest of the ancient
world. While traveling through the land now known as RECOMMENDED READING:
Pakistan, Kyros met a mysterious ascetic whose unparal- HARBINGER VOL. 1: OMEGA RISING TPB
leled sense of enlightenment forever changed the young
thinker’s life. Forsaking his allegiance to the greatest con-
queror the world has ever known, Kyros chose instead to
conquer the landscape of his own mind. Through years
of training, meditation, and lessons from his master, the
Naked Lover of Wisdom, Kyros eventually surpassed his
master, gaining fame and renown along the way.
Unbeknownst to Kyros, the source of his fantastic
abilities came not from his extensive training, but rather
from his innate psiot abilities. Harnessing these amazing
powers, Kyros gained a respected following until a fearful
Chinese emperor sent his armies to silence what he saw
as an “unnatural” evil. The entirety of the monk’s followers
were brutally murdered, leaving Kyros the lone survivor.
Pierced through his sternum with the lance of a Chinese
soldier, Kyros’s psionic abilities were all released at once,
causing him to experience the span of 4,000 years in
one instant. This is where Kyros changed; this is where
he gained his wound that will never heal. This is where he
became the Bleeding Monk.
From there, the Bleeding Monk managed to escape
the massacre, but lapsed into a state of deep meditation, The Bleeding Monk appeared to the orphaned and destitute Toyo Harada
in which he would remain for almost a century. During in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, beginning Harada’s life-long
this period, he subconsciously made contact with the obsession with the Monk and the truth of his prophecies.
18
 GEOMANCER
HISTORY: Selected to serve by the
planet itself, Geomancers have exist-
ed for centuries as messengers for
the Earth and all the life that resides
on it. Always observing and ready to
alert the Earth’s “Fist and Steel”—Gi-
lad Anni-Padda, the Eternal Warrior—
to potential sources of danger, the
life of a Geomancer comes with great
difficulty and sacrifice. When decid-
ing who shall live and who shall die,
there is no why…there is only
the will of the Earth.
The previous Geomancer, Buck
McHenry, served the Earth for over
100 years. Even when a disagreement
with the Eternal Warrior led Gilad to
temporarily retire, Buck recruited the
Warrior’s long-lost daughter, Xaran,
to play a key role in a violent and
tumultuous shadow war between
the enigmatic and powerful houses
that rival the Earth for influence in
humanity’s affairs.
After Buck was captured by a fun-
damentalist Sect faction, the Domin-
ion, in a bid to locate the pieces of the
fabled Boon, the Geomancer was killed
in battle between Sect forces and the
adventurers known as Archer &
Armstrong. But shortly following
Buck’s death, the Earth found its
new voice in Kay McHenry—a distant
McHenry relative then employed as
a media relations officer for Zorn
Capital, an international conglom-
erate with a long track record of
environmentally detrimental behavior.
Shell-shocked by the discovery of her
newfound powers over the Earth itself,
Kay had little time to adjust to her new
role as the latest Geomancer before
GEOMANCER
REAL NAMES: Kay McHenry
realizing that her boss—Elliot Zorn— BASE OF OPERATIONS: New York, NY
secretly headed a zero-worshipping KNOWN ALLIES: Archer & Armstrong; Eternal Warrior
Sect cult called the Null that had ded-
ENEMIES: The Sect
icated itself to returning the universe
to a state of nothingness.
FIRST APPEARANCE: ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #6
Aided by Archer & Armstrong and KNOWN ABILITIES: Communication with the Earth and all living things; control over nature and
the Eternal Warrior, Kay used her the elements; the ability to convince objects to accede to her will (locks, doors, etc.); telepathy
abilities to spiritually consult with all of a limited scope.
the Geomancers who preceded her,
before resetting the planet’s default
language settings to unwrite the
Null’s doomsday code.
With her first task as the latest in
a long line of Geomancers complete,
Kay set off alongside Gilad to begin
the Earth’s next sacred mission…but
where it has taken them remains to
be revealed… Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 2: WRATH
OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR TPB

RIGHT: During her first adventure alongside Archer

& Armstrong, Kay McHenry (center) journeyed to
the spiritual plane to converse with a congress of
deceased Geomancers.
19
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG
HISTORY: Millennia ago in the ancient
Sumerian state of Ur, the three Anni-
Padda brothers—Ivar, Gilad and Aram—
stole an immensely powerful device
called the Boon from a mysterious
land known as the Faraway. Though
successful, their thievery came at a
tremendous price: the death of Gilad.
Driven to desperation by his brother’s
death, Ivar activated “the Boon, ”re-
sulting in an explosion that rendered
Aram immortal and left him to wander
the Earth for all of recorded history...as
a hedonistic, pleasure-seeking drunk
and hard-living adventurer.
But, after ten millennia of poetry,
wine, and women, Aram—calling
himself Armstrong in the modern
day—would not have to go it alone
forever. Enter youthful idealist
Obadiah Archer. Although he didn’t
know it himself, Archer had been
adopted and raised by the evil Sect,
a secret coalition of conspiracies
and cults that for centuries has had
but one mission: kill Armstrong and
retrieve the shattered pieces of the
Boon. Sent to assassinate Arm-
strong in New York City, things did
not go as planned and Archer soon
discovered that it was the Sect, and
not Armstrong, that was truly evil.
Archer subsequently turned on his
parents’ order and joined forces with
Armstrong to destroy the Boon once
and for all. While the new partners
succeeded in crushing the Sect’s

The brothers Anni-Padda —Ivar (left), Aram

(center) and Gilad (right)—were the protectors
of the kingdom of Ur thousands of years ago in
ancient Sumeria.

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG

REAL NAMES: Obadiah Archer and Aram Anni-Padda
KNOWN ALLIES: Mary-Maria Archer; Ambrose Bierce; Amelia Earhart; Eternal Warrior; Geomancer;
Timewalker
ENEMIES: All known factions of the Sect (the One Percent, the Sisters of Perpetual Darkness, et al);
General Redacted
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Mobile
FIRST APPEARANCE: ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #1
KNOWN SKILLS: Archer is believed to be a genetically gifted “psiot” with the ability to instantly
master any ability, fighting style, language, or weapon he encounters. Armstrong is functionally
immortal with enhanced healing capabilities, incredible strength, and durability.
20
 SECT FACTIONS

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG

plan, Archer lost his family—including his beloved sister
Mary-Maria—to a mountaintop explosion in Tibet.
Now alone in the world, Archer joined Armstrong
full-time and the adventurers soon teamed up with the
new Geomancer, Kay McHenry, and Armstrong’s long-lost
brother Gilad (now known as the Eternal Warrior) in order
to stop a cult called the Null from erasing existence.
Shortly thereafter, after retiring for some downtime on
the Vegas strip, Archer & Armstrong went looking for
clues about Archer’s hazy past, only to find themselves
breaking into Area 51 in search of Archer’s classified
Project Rising Spirit files. While Archer was unable to
find the answers he sought, he did discover that his The One Percent The Sisters of Perpetual Darkness
thought-dead sister, Mary-Maria, was indeed alive, and
found a portal to the Faraway, the time-lost origin place
of the Boon! Transported to an alien land full of dinosaurs,
strange peoples, and futuristic technology, Archer,
Armstrong, and Mary-Maria found themselves locked into
a war for control of the Faraway against the fiery General
Redacted. Emerging victorious, the trio was only able to
escape to Earth with the aid of Armstrong’s brother, Ivar
the Timewalker…but things were even worse than they
had left them.
After holding a shaky alliance through the ages, the Church of Retrology The Null
Sect had begun to splinter. A secret cell of disgruntled
Sect henchmen, calling themselves the Black Bloc,
had begun fomenting discontent between all the Sect
factions, culminating in a terrible Sect Civil War. Project
Rising Spirit, the mysterious government contractor with
ties to Archer’s past, hired Archer to uncover a lost relic
called the Wheel of Aten, which was rumored to give
its possessor complete control of the Sect. Though the
Wheel was never found, Archer managed to win control of
the very organization he had vowed to destroy—a position
from which he is determined to change the world for
Green Dragon Lamas Hashish-Eaters
good, but which has also put him on the hit list of
Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps… Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG DELUXE EDITION BOOK ONE HC

The Vine The Black Bloc

Master Builders The Dominion

Gnomes of Zürich Project Rising Spirit

21
GENERAL REDACTED HISTORY: Born and raised in [XXXXXXXXXXXXX], young
Alphonse Redacted showed [XXXXXXXXXXX] for [XXXXXX]
at an early age, joining [askjadskljakldjsalkjdsajkdksa-
jdaskljdks] and [jdklsajdklsajdlkasjdklsajdkasljdklsajd-
kjdsaals;ldl] In [adss], he was [asjaskjdkasjdksa;lkdjls],
elevating him to the rank of general. It was during this
time that Redacted’s prolific use of censoring internal
documents and memoranda with heavy black lines came
into favor. The terms “redacted” and “redaction” were
coined soon thereafter in his honor.
In 1955, General Redacted, [xxxxxxxxxx] as the
[xxxxxxxx] of a top secret Air Force division tasked with
investigating unusual and unidentified [xxxxxxxxx],
including but not limited to [XXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxx],
acquisition of [Xxxxxxxxx] and [XXXXXXXXXX] power,
took interest in a local landmark called the “Mystery
Hole” in the desert town of Groom Lake, NV.
Investigating the site, Redacted found himself
transported to the timeless dimension known as the
Faraway—a realm seemingly outside of known time and
space where dinosaurs, native peoples, futuristic tech-
nology, and alien beings coexist, and all known laws of
physics cease to function.
Not long after blundering into the Faraway, Redacted
was attacked by dinosaurs—a savage mauling that left
him with only one eye. On the verge of death, the general
was then abducted by some of the Faraway’s resident
grey “aliens.” After countless probings at the hands of
his captors, Redacted was able to convince the greys—
who he discovered to be highly evolved humans from
hundreds of thousands of years in the future—to begin ex-
changing their technology with his military allies back on
Earth, and to allow him to take control of their operations
in the Faraway.
Years later, while on a mission inside Area 51, the pair
of adventurers known as Archer & Armstrong found
themselves transported back to the Faraway via the
same portal that Redacted had initially discovered. The
pair, however, were quickly separated, with Archer being
taken aboard Redacted’s grey “mothership” and Arm-

GENERAL REDACTED
REAL NAME: Alphonse Redacted
BASE OF OPERATIONS: The Faraway
KNOWN ALLIES: Xxxxxxxxx xxx; xxxxxx; xxxxxxxxxxx; xxxxxxxxxxxxx
ENEMIES: Archer & Armstrong; [XXXX]; [XXXXXXXXXXXX]; [XXXXXXX];
Communism, [XXXXXXXXx]
FIRST APPEARANCE: ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #10
KNOWN ABILITIES: [XXXXXXXXx]; [XXXXXXXXx]; [XXXXXXXXx]; [XXXXXXXXx]
strong finding shelter amongst the native Roanoke people
that also call the Faraway home.
Distressed by Archer’s news that a “Muslim socialist”
has assumed the presidency back in the United States,
Redacted decided to eradicate all traces of Bolshevik
socialism in the Faraway—beginning with the “collectiv-
ist” “dirt-worshippers” of the Roanoke tribe. Thus, a war
for control of the Faraway and its resources began with
Archer & Armstrong, Archer’s sister Mary-Maria, and
many surprise residents of the time-lost realm—including
Ambrose Bierce and Amelia Earhart—joining the fight to
end Redacted’s UFO-led air assaults.
After several key strategic defeats, Redacted’s con-
quest of the Faraway ended when Archer piloted a torpe-
do-laden fighter jet into the grey mothership, destroying
it entirely. It is not yet known if Redacted survived the
explosion, but [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX] point to
[BBBSKJSKJSKJSKJSKJSKSJ] the possibility of [jhjakdhs-
jkhajdhasjhdjhsadjkhsajkdh;aSIQWISPWIPOWIQPOIQSAK-
SLaks] fighting [kjdkjsadjksajd] American freedoms. Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 3: FAR FARAWAY TPB

The mysterious portal to the Faraway, first utilized by Redacted in 1955, as it

appears today inside Area 51.
22
 DR. MIRAGE
HISTORY: A well-known former television personality by
day and a paranormal investigator by night, Dr. Shan
Fong—better known by her stage name, Dr. Mirage—uses
her fame and wealth to support her true passion: helping
others, specifically those in need of assistance with mat-
ters of a supernatural nature. Recently, she assisted the
L.A.P.D. with an investigation into the disappearance of
a missing girl. Using her ability to communicate with the
deceased, Dr. Mirage was able to summon one of the girls’
spirits from the Deadside, who then identified her killer.
But the girl also mentioned someone else, a darker entity
responsible for terrorizing other wayward souls trapped in
the Deadside: Master Darque.
Knowing Darque to be a grave threat, Mirage then
traveled to New Orleans to warn an old friend—Dox, a
member of an occult society called the Abettors, and
the mentor of the newly appointed Shadowman, Jack
Boniface. Through her contacts in the spirit world, Mirage
was able to provide key advice to Dox about Darque’s
actions in the Deadside. Shadowman was eventually able
to rid the Deadside of Master Darque’s influence, but Dox
lost his life in the battle. Meanwhile, Mirage disappeared
as quickly as she had arrived, seemingly back to her life
in Los Angeles...
Then, on Halloween, Dr. Mirage finally met the new
Shadowman in the middle of a parade in which she was
the main attraction. As Shadowman pursued two trouble-
making spirits through the revelry, Mirage managed to take
control of the situation, exorcising the demons, and assist-
ing Shadowman in destroying them permanently. Q

RECOMMENDED READING:
SHADOWMAN VOL. 2: DARQUE RECKONING TPB

BELOW: During a recent Halloween parade in New Orleans, Mirage was forced
into a public display of her abilities in order to assist Shadowman in the
defeat of two out-of-control demonic entities.

DR. MIRAGE
REAL NAME: Shan Fong
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Los Angeles, CA
KNOWN ALLIES: The Abettors; Hwen Fong; Shadowman
ENEMIES: The Brethren; Master Darque; Baron Samedi
FIRST APPEARANCE: SHADOWMAN #5
KNOWN ABILITIES: Mirage is one of the world’s foremost paranormal
investigators and possesses the ability to communicate with the dead.

After being contacted by frightened spirits, Mirage quickly notified the Abettor,
Dox, that Master Darque was marshaling power in the Deadside.
SHADOWMAN
HISTORY: The Shadowman legacy
began on a Louisiana plantation in
1812 with the birth of albino twin
siblings Nicodemo and Sandria
Darque. Their mother did not survive
the ordeal. However, bonded by
their affection for each other, the
twins grew up in the care of their
doting father, who trained them in
“the art”…a dark magic that gave
them power over the forces of life
and death. As their skills in the art
grew, the bond between brother and
sister only became stronger.
But their father, obsessed
with crossing over into a magical
dimension called Lyceum, turned his
children into conduits for necroman-
tic energy on their 18th birthdays,
attempting to sacrifice Sandria’s life
in the process to complete his spell.
Refusing to lose his sister, Nico-
demo drew on powers far stronger
than his father ever imagined, and
killed him to save her.
Nicodemo healed Sandria and de-
stroyed the plantation, and together
the twins walked out into the world.
Sandria knew that Nicodemo pos-
sessed a dark and destructive pow-
er, but she stayed with her brother
until fear finally drove her away. In
the fall of 1864, Sandria fell in love
with an African-American soldier
named Marius Boniface. Jealous
of his departed sister, Nicodemo
tracked the lovers back to Lousiana,
where he found Sandria pregnant
and on the edge of childbirth.
Rather than allow Nicodemo to
kill her beloved Marius, Sandria sac-
rificed her own child to summon the
power of a voodoo loa and bound it
to Marius, creating the only weapon
capable of opposing her brother’s
colossal power—a weapon called
the Shadowman. The power of the
loa would become a legacy passed
through the Boniface line
for centuries.
Jack Boniface, however, never
met his father. When Jack was 10
years old, his mother Helena
LeBreton died in a car accident,
leaving him at the mercy of the
state. Before Helena’s death, howev-
er, she gave Jack a special amulet,
making him promise to always keep
it on his person. Years later, Jack

SHADOWMAN
REAL NAME: Jack Boniface
returned to his childhood home of
New Orleans to learn the truth about
his parents. When Jack discovered
BASE OF OPERATIONS: New Orleans, LA that his parents both possessed
ENEMIES: The Brethren; Master Darque; Baron Samedi; Tremble; Mr. Twist lengthy and violent criminal records,
he threw the amulet away, rejecting
FIRST APPEARANCE: SHADOWMAN #1
his mother’s final wishes.
KNOWN ABILITIES: The Shadowman loa grants Jack superhuman physical capabilities—
What Jack couldn’t have known
enhanced speed, strength, and endurance—and allows him to pass freely from the living world was that his father, Josiah Boni-
to the Deadside. His scythe is especially effective against demonic entities. face, was the previous Shadowman,
24
 SHADOWMAN
the last line of defense between our
world and the horrors of the night-
marish plane of existence known as
the Deadside. With the amulet gone,
Jack suddenly bonded with the
Shadowman loa—and was attacked
by creatures from the Deadside.
Confused and disoriented, Jack
was contacted by Dox and Alyssa,
agents of an order sworn to train
and aid the Shadowman, the Abet-
tors. Jack’s first test arrived in the
form of Mr. Twist, a demon sent to
drain souls on behalf of Nicodemo
Darque—now called Master Darque
and trapped against his will in the
Deadside. Jack, with little training
and less experience, then traveled
to the Deadside to confront Darque
head on, coming face to face with
his past and future before fully
accepting his mantle as protector of
the living world.
But Master Darque would not be
dissuaded and continued to search
for a way back to Earth. In the battle
that followed, Jack was unable to
protect Dox from Darque’s wrath
and the Abettor lost his life. Without
the aid of Dox, the Shadowman loa
began to take its toll on Jack. He
began waking up in alleyways cov-
ered in blood, surrounded by uncon-
scious victims of his beatings, with
no memory of what had transpired.
There are secrets and mysteries
MASTER DARQUE
REAL NAME: Nicodemo Darque
behind the loa, and even behind
BASE OF OPERATIONS: The Deadside
Jack himself. Raised as an orphan
by the state, Jack has a history of
KNOWN ALLIES: The Brethren; Sandria Darque; Jaunty; Baron Samedi
violence that he had kept secret, ENEMIES: The Abettors; Dr. Mirage; Shadowman
even from himself. FIRST APPEARANCE: SHADOWMAN #1
Desperate to help, Alyssa sent KNOWN ABILITIES: Through a combination of inborn ability and intensive training in the dark arts,
Jack to see a backwater bayou Darque can manipulate necromantic energy to traverse dimensions, conjure the dead, and more.
priestess called Punk Mambo—a
raffish voodoo witch with a taste for Born and bred to serve as nothing more than a vehicle for his father’s pride
mohawks and bobby-pinned leather. and power, Master Darque pursues an absolute and bitterly destructive
Mambo performed a magical rite to agenda against life itself. Following his father’s death and his sister’s
separate Jack from the loa inside abandonment, Darque sought a path to the dimension of mystical enlight-
him, but the rite failed, revealing the enment called Lyceum. But where his father sought Lyceum for his own
spirit to be something far darker glorification, Darque served a more destructively nihilistic purpose: the
and more terrible than Jack or power to destroy all existence.
Punk Mambo could have ever After more than a century of struggle with the Shadowman and his
imagined. As Jack grows increas- Abettors, Darque discovered that the path to Lyceum lay through his neme-
ingly unpredictable, the surviving sis. In a final climactic battle with Josiah Boniface, father to Jack Boniface
Abettors begin to consider drastic and the previous bearer of the loa, Darque used the power of the Shadow-
action—kill Jack and find a new man to cross into the Deadside and, from there, into Lyceum. Twenty years
Shadowman, before the new later, Darque made his return from Lyceum, leaving the transcendent realm
Shadowman kills them... Q little more than blood and ashes in his wake.
Using a demon called Mr. Twist and aided by New Orleans’s cult of the
RECOMMENDED READING: Brethren, Darque attempted to channel necromantic energies back to
SHADOWMAN VOL. 1: BIRTH RITES TPB Earth and return at last to his home dimension. But the intervention of
the newly appointed Shadowman, Jack Boniface, left him trapped in the
Deadside, halfway between the realms of the living and the dead. It was
there that Darque enlisted the help of another near-forgotten voodoo loa,
Baron Samedi, to help in the construction of a soul-spire capable of tearing
a hole in the Deadside itself and opening a passage back to Earth.
Jack intervened yet again, turning the accumulated power of the spire
against Darque—a move that left the necromancer to be consumed and
apparently destroyed by his own focused power. Q
25
 HISTORY: Straitlaced and earnest Eric
QUANTUM AND WOODY
Henderson always strove for a life of
disciplined achievement—in school,
in the Army, and in his career. His
irresponsible yet charming foster
brother, Woody, on the other hand,
was anything but disciplined—living
on the streets, sleeping around, and
stealing credit cards to get by. After
their father Derek was killed in his
top-secret experimental energy
lab, the guys reconnected for the
funeral—which was immediately fol-
lowed by a fistfight and a quick trip
to the slammer.
Distraught, suspected of murder,
and determined to bring the real
killers to justice, Eric and Woody
decided to investigate the crime
themselves—despite having zero
qualifications for doing so. The pair
broke into their father’s lab to gather
clues, but accidentally set off a mys-
terious reactor that engulfed them
in strange energy before causing a
massive explosion. In its wake, the
brothers found themselves alive—but
imbued with the ability to shoot
energy and generate shields of pure
power. However, as a side effect of
their transformation, they were also
each bound by a metal wristband,
which they must “klang” together
every 24 hours...or else watch help-
lessly as they dissolve into atoms.
Utilizing their fantastic yet unsta-
ble energy powers, Eric and Woody
narrowly escaped arrest, only to dis-
cover that a mysterious group called
Edison’s Radical Acquisitions had
been after Dr. Henderson’s research.
Woody convinced Eric that they
could find out more about Derek’s
secret science by snooping around
in superhero equipment stolen
from Eric’s job at private security
contractor Magnum Security—and
thus the world’s worst superhero
team was born.
Newly rechristened as Quantum
and Woody, the duo were able to in-
filtrate an E.R.A. gathering in a Wash-
ington, D.C. area high-rise—where-
upon Woody was quickly subdued
and taken hostage. Meanwhile, Eric,
suiting up in full superhero mode,
managed to follow the signal from a
GPS tracker he had secretly planted

QUANTUM
AND WOODY
REAL NAMES: Eric and Woody Henderson
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Washington, D.C.
KNOWN ALLIES: The Goat; Sixty-Nine
ENEMIES: The Crone; Edison’s Radical Acquisitions; Terrence Magnum
FIRST APPEARANCE: QUANTUM AND WOODY #1
KNOWN ABILITIES: Energy projection, manifesting in both defensive and offensive forms.
26
 QUANTUM AND WOODY
on the E.R.A.’s agents to an island
base brimming with all of the group’s
pilfered scientific secrets—mad
scientists, 1980s robots, and armies
of genetic experiments.
The decrepit matriarch of the
E.R.A.—a geneticist known only as
the Crone, who had prolonged her
life for decades through the harvest-
ing of parts from clones—began a
series of experiments on Woody in
an attempt to unlock the secrets
of his power. But after Eric located
and freed his brother, Quantum
and Woody (accidentally) killed the
Crone, (unwittingly) blew up the is-
land, and (barely) made it out alive...
with a mysteriously powerful goat
and a teenage Crone-clone named
Sixty-Nine by their side.
Realizing their power bands left
them no option but to remain in close
contact, the formerly estranged
brothers made amends...and moved
into Eric’s junior two-bedroom apart-
ment. Soon after, Eric was enlisted by
his boss, Mr. Terrence Magnum, to act
as Magnum Security’s own private
superhero. Magnum sent Quantum
on a suicide mission to destabilize a
white supremacist, separatist (and
possibly other -ists) movement in
Montana, and because the brothers
need to “klang” their power bands to
stay alive, Woody came along for the
THE GOAT
REAL NAME: Derek Henderson
ride. Discovering that Magnum was BASE OF OPERATIONS: Washington, D.C.
only using Eric as a pawn to start a KNOWN ALLIES: Quantum and Woody; Sixty-Nine
profitable domestic war, Quantum
ENEMIES: Edison’s Radical Acquisitions, tin cans
and Woody teamed up with the
FIRST APPEARANCE: QUANTUM AND WOODY #4
separatists to wage a little war of
their own. KNOWN ABILITIES: Heightened intelligence; heat vision; super-strength; and limited flight; plus
Since resettling in Washington, an as-yet-unrevealed battery of other enhancements
D.C., Quantum and Woody have
noticed a sizable increase in the The Henderson brothers haven’t realized it yet, but this curious crea-
amount of robo-crimes reported in ture—nicknamed “Vincent Van Goat” by Woody—has a history with their
the District—a trend that may portend family that goes back many years, back to the days when their father
the coming return of the E.R.A…. Q was a humble lab assistant to the bombastic Dr. Platzhalter. Platzhalter’s
work aimed to develop a device capable of backing up and restoring the
RECOMMENDED READING: full mind and thought patterns of any chosen subject, a possible cure for
QUANTUM AND WOODY VOL. 1: THE Alzheimer’s or the key to smarter A.I.. During an impromptu demonstra-
WORLD’S WORST SUPERHERO TEAM TPB tion for representatives of Edison’s Radical Acquisitions, an accidental lab
accident resulted in the transfer of a copy of Henderson’s mind into the
Goat. The E.R.A., unaware of what had truly transpired, took the animal into
Eric and Woody Henderson now each possess one their care and spent the next several years performing unethical scientific
control band apiece, which they must “klang” upgrades on the Goat. Over time, these experiments entirely changed
together every 24 hours to reset their atoms—or the Goat’s physiology to the point where the true extent of the animal’s
else they will disperse into energy and abilities—including heat vision, enhanced strength, and limited flight—may
be lost forever. never be known…
Years later, as Quantum and Woody desperately tried to escape the
E.R.A.’s secret island headquarters, the Goat—recognizing the “heroes”
as his “own” wayward “sons”—came to the rescue, deploying a truly
terrifying array of combat abilities to wreak havoc throughout the E.R.A.
compound. In the end, the Goat itself initiated the island’s self-destruct
sequence, and was taken in by Quantum and Woody to live in Eric’s
Washington, D.C. apartment.
Despite repeated and non-subtle attempts to let Quantum and Woody
know that he is actually their father (kind of), the Goat has yet to break
through to his stubborn-headed progenies, but continues to assist them
as the real powerhouse behind the world’s worst superhero team. Q
27
RAI
HISTORY: By the year 4001, industrialization in Japan
had begun to consume every square inch of free space
within the island nation’s borders. To house and feed
its growing population, the country had built upon its
own infrastructure centuries before, turning the whole
of Japan into a towering pillar, hundreds of miles wide.
Eventually, the nation detached from Earth entirely, and
now orbits the planet.
Governed by a mysterious yet benevolent artificial
intelligence named Father, the Japan of 4001 is divided
into various sectors, with names derived from the time
of founding, and generally separated among lines of
economic status and social class. Where a citizen’s sector
falls in the literal hierarchy of Japan’s many sectors also
directly affirms their social ranking; the closer you are to
the Earth, the less essential you are.
While the higher classes of Japanese society rely on
advanced technology, including sophisticated, human-
looking robots—or PTs, for Positronic Minds—on every level
of their daily lives, discontent has brewed for centuries
on Japan’s middle and lower levels, resulting in the
formation of an extremist anti-technology sect called
Raddies, who have vowed to overthrow Father and every
symbol of his technologically enabled reign.
Standing solitary guard at the top of Japan’s miles-
high structure is Rai—the lead enforcer of Father’s justice
and a figure of near-mythic stature to Japanese citizens
of all ages. To some he is the ghost of Japan’s past
personified, to others a “spirit guardian” and folk hero.
They say that he can appear out of nowhere, and pos-
sesses a near-universal sight over Father’s people. But
few have ever seen him…until the first murder in nearly a
millennium brings Rai to the forgotten sectors of Father’s
empire, and threatens to topple a Japan that has taken
nearly two thousand years to erect. Q

BELOW: In the year 4001, Japan has become a towering spire, orbiting the Earth.
To shelter its millions of citizens, society is now divided into physical “sectors”

RAI
REAL NAME: Unknown
of varying luxury and comfort, such as Sector 3001 (pictured here), also known
as the “War Corridor.”

BASE OF OPERATIONS: Japan

KNOWN RELATIVES: Unknown
ENEMIES: Members of the “Raddie” neo-Luddite sect; criminals of all
kinds; defilers of Father’s order
FIRST APPEARANCE: RAI #1
KNOWN ABILITIES: Enhanced speed, strength, and agility; mastery of
martial arts, hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and armed combat.

Rai leads a solitary existence in Japan’s uppermost sector—a tranquil

sanctuary far removed from the hyper-urbanization of the towering
nation’s lower quadrants.
28
X-O MANOWAR DELUXE EDITION BOOK 1
Writer: Robert Venditti | Artists: Cary Nord, Lee Garbett, and Trevor Hairsine
ISBN: 9781939346100 | Diamond Code: AUG131497 | Price: $39.99 |
Format: Oversized HC

Aric of Dacia, a fifth-century Visigoth armed with the universe’s most pow-
erful weapon, is all that stands between the Earth and all-out annihilation at
the hands of the alien race that abducted him from his own time. Stranded
in the modern day, X-O Manowar’s battle against the Vine will take him into
the shadows with the lethal operative known as Ninjak—and launch a quest
for vengeance that will bring an alien empire to its knees. The Vine destroyed
Aric’s world. Now he will give them war.

DELUXE HARDCOVERS
Collecting X-O MANOWAR #1-14 and more than 20 pages of bonus materials!

HARBINGER DELUXE EDITION BOOK 1

Writer: Joshua Dysart | Artists: Khari Evans, Trevor Hairsine,
Barry Kitson, and Lee Garbett
ISBN: 9781939346131 | Diamond Code: SEP131373 | Price: $39.99 | Format:
Oversized HC
Outside the law. Inside your head. You’ve never met a team of super-pow-
ered teenagers quite like the Renegades. Skipping across the country in a
desperate attempt to stay one step ahead of the authorities, psionically
powered teenager Peter Stanchek only has one option left—run. But he won’t
have to go it alone. As the shadowy corporation known as the Harbinger
Foundation draws close on all sides, Peter will have to find and recruit other
unique individuals like himself…other troubled, immensely powerful youths
with abilities beyond their control. Their mission? Bring the fight back to
the Harbinger Foundation’s founder Toyo Harada—and dismantle his global
empire brick by brick…

Collecting HARBINGER #0-14 and more than 20 pages of bonus materials!

BLOODSHOT DELUXE EDITION BOOK 1

Writer: Duane Swierczynski | Artists: Manuel García, Barry Kitson, Matthew
Clark, and Arturo Lozzi
ISBN: 9781939346216 | Diamond Code: JAN141376 | Price: $39.99 | Format:
Oversized HC
You have no name, just a project designation. They call you Bloodshot, but
the voices inside your head call you “daddy, “sir,” “commander,” “comrade”—
whatever it takes to motivate you to get the job done. But after so many
missions and so many lives, you’re finally ready to confront your handlers at
Project Rising Spirit and find out who you really are. You’d better move quick-
ly, though, because your former masters don’t like it when a billion-dollar
weapons project goes rogue. And wherever you go, all hell is sure to follow...

Collecting BLOODSHOT #1-13 and more than 20 pages of bonus materials!

 ARCHER & ARMSTRONG DELUXE EDITION
BOOK 1
Writer: Fred Van Lente | Artists: Clayton Henry, Emanuela Lupacchino, Pere Pérez,
and Álvaro Martínez
ISBN: 9781939346223 | Diamond Code: FEB141484 | Price: $39.99 | Format:
Oversized HC
Join one of the most acclaimed adventures in comics as naive teenage
assassin Obadiah Archer and the fun-loving, hard-drinking immortal called
Armstrong unite to stop a plot ten thousand years in the making! From the lost
temples of ancient Sumeria to modern-day Wall Street, Area 51, and beyond,
Valiant’s conspiracy-smashing adventurers are going on a globe-trotting
DELUXE HARDCOVERS

quest to bring down the unholy coalition of cultists known as the Sect—and
stop each of history’s most notorious conspiracies from remaking the world in
their own insane image.

Collecting ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #0-13 and more than 20 pages of

bonus materials!

HARBINGER WARS DELUXE EDITION

Writer: Joshua Dysart & Duane Swierczynski | Artists: Clayton Henry, Pere Pérez,
Barry Kitson, Khari Evans, Trevor Hairsine, Mico Suayan, and Clayton Crain
ISBN: 9781939346322 | Diamond Code: MAR141422 | Price: $39.99 |
Format: Oversized HC
Re-presenting Valiant’s best-selling crossover event in complete chronological order!

When an untrained and undisciplined team of super-powered test subjects

escapes from Project Rising Spirit and onto the Vegas Strip, Bloodshot and the
Harbinger Renegades will find themselves locked in battle against a deadly
succession of opponents—and each other. As the combined forces of the
H.A.R.D. Corps, Bloodshot, and omega-level telekinetic Toyo Harada all descend
on Las Vegas to vie for control of Rising Spirit’s deadliest assets, the world is
about to discover the shocking price of an all-out superhuman conflict…and no
one will escape unscathed. Who will survive the Harbinger Wars?

Collecting HARBINGER WARS #1-4, HARBINGER #11-14, BLOODSHOT #10-13,

material from the HARBINGER WARS SKETCHBOOK, and more than 20 pages of
bonus materials!

SHADOWMAN DELUXE EDITION BOOK 1

Writers: Justin Jordan and Patrick Zircher | Artists: Patrick Zircher, Neil
Edwards, Lee Garbett, Diego Bernard, Roberto de la Torre, Mico Suayan,
and Lewis LaRosa
ISBN: 9781939346438 | Price: $39.99 | Format: Oversized HC | COMING SOON
There are a million dreams in the Big Easy. But now its worst nightmare is about
to come true. As the forces of darkness prepare to claim New Orleans as their
own, Jack Boniface must accept the legacy he was born to uphold. As Shad-
owman, Jack is about to become the only thing that stands between his city
and an army of unspeakable monstrosities from beyond the night. But what is
the true cost of the Shadowman’s otherworldly power? And can Jack master
his new abilities before Master Darque brings down the wall between reality
and the otherwordly dimension known only as the Deadside?

Collecting SHADOWMAN #0-10 and more than 20 pages of bonus materials!

UNITY VOL. 1: TO KILL A KING
ISBN: 9781939346261 | Diamond Code: JAN141356 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
UNITY VOL. 2: TRAPPED BY WEBNET
ISBN: 9781939346346| Price: $14.99 | Format: TP | COMING SOON

TRADE PAPERBACKS
X-O MANOWAR VOL. 1: BY THE SWORD
ISBN: 9780979640995 | Diamond Code: OCT121241 | Price: $9.99 | Format: TP
X-O MANOWAR VOL. 2: ENTER NINJAK
ISBN: 9780979640940 | Diamond Code: JAN131306 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
X-O MANOWAR VOL. 3: PLANET DEATH
ISBN: 9781939346087 | Diamond Code: JUN131325 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
X-O MANOWAR VOL. 4: HOMECOMING
ISBN: 9781939346179 | Diamond Code: OCT131347 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
X-O MANOWAR VOL. 5: AT WAR WITH UNITY
ISBN: 9781939346247 | Diamond Code: FEB141472 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP

BLOODSHOT VOL. 1: SETTING THE WORLD ON FIRE

ISBN: 9780979640964 | Diamond Code: DEC121274 | Price: $9.99 | Format: TP
BLOODSHOT VOL. 2: THE RISE AND THE FALL
ISBN: 9781939346032| Diamond Code: APR131280 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
BLOODSHOT VOL. 3: HARBINGER WARS
ISBN: 9781939346124 | Diamond Code: AUG131494 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
BLOODSHOT VOL. 4: H.A.R.D. CORPS
ISBN: 9781939346193 | Diamond Code: NOV131275 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
BLOODSHOT VOL. 5: GET SOME
ISBN: 9781939346315 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP | COMING SOON

ETERNAL WARRIOR VOL. 1: SWORD OF THE WILD

ISBN: 9781939346209 | Diamond Code: NOV131271 | Price: $9.99 | Format: TP
ETERNAL WARRIOR VOL. 2: ETERNAL EMPEROR
ISBN: 9781939346292 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP | COMING SOON
 HARBINGER VOL. 1: OMEGA RISING
ISBN: 9780979640957 | Diamond Code: NOV121345 | Price: $9.99 | Format: TP
HARBINGER VOL. 2: RENEGADES
ISBN: 9781939346025 | Diamond Code: MAR131332 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
HARBINGER WARS (MINI-SERIES)
ISBN: 9781939346094 | Diamond Code: JUL131325 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
HARBINGER VOL. 3: HARBINGER WARS
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HARBINGER VOL. 4: PERFECT DAY
ISBN: 9781939346155 | Diamond Code: DEC131331 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
TRADE PAPERBACKS

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 1: THE MICHELANGELO CODE

ISBN: 9780979640988 | Diamond Code: JAN131309 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 2: WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR
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ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 3: FAR FARAWAY
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ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 4: SECT CIVIL WAR
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ARCHER & ARMSTRONG VOL. 5: MISSION: IMPROBABLE
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SHADOWMAN VOL. 1: BIRTH RITES

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SHADOWMAN VOL. 2: DARQUE RECKONING
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SHADOWMAN VOL. 3: DEADSIDE BLUES
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SHADOWMAN VOL. 4: FEAR, BLOOD, AND SHADOWS
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QUANTUM AND WOODY VOL. 1:

THE WORLD’S WORST SUPERHERO TEAM
ISBN: 9781939346186 | Diamond Code: SEP131374 | Price: $9.99 | Format: TP
QUANTUM AND WOODY VOL. 2: IN SECURITY
ISBN: 9781939346230 | Diamond Code: JAN141365 | Price: $14.99 | Format: TP
 EVERY WEDNESDAY IS
NEW COMIC BOOK DAY!
SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY
DAY WED
WEDNESDAY
DNES
ESDAY THURSDAY
THUR FRIDAY SATURDAY

NEW
COMIC
DAY!

“The only place to be on Wednesdays is at your local comic shop”

– Dan M. Boston, Mass.

“Free Comic Book Day is amazing, but my comic shop does

so many other great things all year long.”
– Jason B. Orlando, FL

“My comic shop is the center of pop-culture in our community”

– Emily T. Lima, OH

VISIT YOUR FRIENDLY LOCAL

COMIC SHOP WEEKLY FOR THE
BEST IN COMICS & POP CULTURE!
 THIS SUMMER…
EARTH WILL BE THE
GREATEST HUNT OF ALL
A LANDMARK
18-PART CROSSOVER EVENT
JUNE
ARMOR HUNTERS #1
UNITY #8
X-O MANOWAR #26

JULY
ARMOR HUNTERS #2
ARMOR HUNTERS: BLOODSHOT #1
ARMOR HUNTERS: HARBINGER #1
UNITY #9
X-O MANOWAR #27

AUGUST
ARMOR HUNTERS #3
ARMOR HUNTERS: BLOODSHOT #2
ARMOR HUNTERS: HARBINGER #2
UNITY #10
X-O MANOWAR #28

SEPTEMBER
ARMOR HUNTERS: BLOODSHOT #3
ARMOR HUNTERS: HARBINGER #3
UNITY #11
X-O MANOWAR #29
ARMOR HUNTERS #4

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