In honor of Valiant's 25th Anniversary, we're counting down your picks for the twenty-five greatest Valiant Comics stories.

You all voted, now here are the results!

Enjoy!

NOTE: Sorry for the delay in the results. The blog was going under some maintenance last night, so I wasn't able to post it when I wanted to late last night, so I'm starting with ten today instead of five yesterday and five today.

25. "Time and Space" (Eternal Warrior Vol.1 #6-7)

This two-parter by Barry Windsor-Smith introduced the menacing Master Darque in a tale where Darque kidnaps the previous Geomancer (Geomancers are essentially guardians of the Earth - they pass the role down over the years), Buck McHenry, and tortures him for information. So Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, must essentially make sure that his old friend, Buck, can't give out any more information. Meanwhile, Darque makes his move on the now-unprotected Geoff McHenry, the newest Geomancer.









We all know how great Barry Windsor-Smith can be when it comes to storytelling, but he really outdoes himself in this story, as he wrings every last piece of tension out of the conceit. What a great introduction for Master Darque.

24. "Twilight of the Eighth Day" (Harbinger Vol.1 #23-25)

In this game-changing tragic storyline, Peter Stanchek discovers that Toyo Harada has been toying with his life for years now and, well, he has finally had enough. This leads to a final confrontation between the two adversaries, two of the most powerful beings on the planet. Maurice Fontenot, Howard Simpson and Gonzalo Mayo delivered the tale, which is most famous for the wide-screen battle between Peter and Harada that leads to Harbinger being changed forever. This was one of the bolder "everything you think you know is wrong" stories of the era...









23. "Retribution" (X-O Manowar Vol.1 #1-4)

The concept behind X-O Manowar is really still such a fresh concept. A warrior taken out of his time and held captive until he escapes with a futuristic suit of armor and then finding himself in our time, forced to adapt to a world so unlike his own? That's such a solid concept. This opening arc is also an example of when "creation by committee" actually works out, as there are multiple writers, pencilers and inkers for just the first four issues of X-O Manowar. Steve Englehart has the basic idea and then first Jim Shooter and then Bob Layton distill Englehart's idea, with pencils by Barry Windsor-Smith, Sal Velluto and Mike Manley (and a ton of inkers).

One of the coolest aspects of the warrior Aric, as we get to know him in this opening story, is that he is formidable withOUT the armor. He is kicking alien ass withOUT the armor, as it is being held by a corporation that is directly tied into this spider alien conspiracy. However, when the armor shows up, the whole field of battle is turned up on its ear...









This opening story arc also introduces Ken, the slimy, manipulative but ultimately a good guy. What makes Ken so cool is that he just rolls with the punches, while still willing to make a stand when it matters most. He's the type of guy who finds out that the corporation that he has risen to the top of is being controlled by spider aliens and he says, "Okay, I guess I will work with spider aliens." He's a guy who loses his hand to a laser blast and is cool with it (this really impresses Aric). But he is also a guy who is sent to lead Aric into a trap and he can't do it - he can't let Aric be killed, and instead, the two team-up and they end up taking over the corporation for themselves. Plus, for a 1992 comic book, it is noteworthy that Ken is gay without it being played up like it is a big deal. It's just who he is.

Read on to the next page for #22-19!

22. "The World's Worst Superhero Team" (Quantum and Woody Vol.2 #1-4)

Following in Christopher Priest and M.D. Bright's footsteps on Quantum and Woody was always going to be difficult for James Asmus and Tom Fowler, but they succeeded by taking things juuuuuuuust a little bit further than Priest and Bright. Part of that ties in with Fowler's art style, which is delightfully bizarre - he's the type of guy who you can ask to draw pretty much the weirdest thing that you can think of and he will not only make it look cool, but he'll make it 30% weirder than you had in mind. So with that in mind, the book is bursting to the seam with kinetic and manic energy.

Plot-wise, the major change is that Woody and Eric are now brothers (Woody being adopted) and their scientist father is murdered by some bad guys who want to get a piece of his experiments in energy. The brothers investigate and end up in an explosion which gives them powers but also makes them look like they were responsible for their father's death. They decide to dress up as superheroes to get to the bottom of the mystery, but Woody, of course, forgets to use a codename OR a costume. Right away, they discover that they might have stepped into something much bigger than they expected...









Asmus and Fowler really compliment each other nicely.

21. "The Michelangelo Code" (Archer and Armstrong Vol.2 #1-4)

Armstrong is one of three immortal brothers. Writer Fred Van Lente uses the creation of the brothers’ immortality as the hook that drives the series. You see, the brothers gained their immortality though a device called the Boon. Now, thousands of years later, some bad guys are trying to put together the Boon again. One of the brothers, Aram (now known as Armstrong) hid the pieces of the device around the globe. A young man named Obadiah Archer has been trained to kill Aram and help put the Boon back together.

Their first meeting is a great example of the outstanding comedy work Van Lente does with the book, as his hook on Armstrong is that he is basically the Most Fascinating Man in the World. He’s been everywhere, done everything (and everyone) and has been drunk longer than most people have been alive. Archer, of course, is one of the most experienced people in the world…at training. He has the skills, but Armstrong has the life experience and their combination makes for some great chemistry. Here, then, is their first meeting, as Armstrong is forced to break-up a fight Archer caused by coming to a woman's defense (and then accidentally offending her)...







Once they're both captured, though, Archer realizes that he might be on the wrong side of the whole conflict...



(Isn’t the bit with each of the skills Archer uses gets spelled out cool?)

So when Archer realizes that his parents are evil, he teams up with Armstrong, the oafish lout who is also the best chance that the world has at stopping the various Sects who are intent on conquering/destroying/controlling (sometimes all at once) the world.

Clayton Henry does an excellent job on the work, and Van Lente delivers a complex book about the conflicts within each person. If you believe you are a good person who does good things and your parents are good people who do good things, what do you do if they tell you to do a BAD thing? Archer is not able to bring himself to do these things, but the “sister” that was also raised by his parents (that he is totally in love with) is. It's a great conflict.

20. "By the Sword" (X-O Manowar Vol.3 #1-4)

As I already mentioned, the hook behind X-O Manowar is excellent, but what the latest version of Aric did I think a little bit better is that writer Robert Vendetti spent more time exploring Aric's past BEFORE he gets the armor, therefore giving us a deeper sense of who he is and where he comes from. The artwork by Cary Nord and Stefano Gaudiano is outstanding.

This is one of those instances where spreading out the character's origins makes things work better (it reminds me of Ultimate Spider-Man in that regard, not to mention the fact that both titles launched their respective universe). The first issue spotlights Aric's time on Earth as a Visigoth warrior in 402 AD, while the second issue shows the plight of him and his friends as they work as slaves on the ship of the aliens known as The Vine. Eventually, Aric inspires a mutiny.

Check out Aric and his friends turn on The Vine...





That's some awesome action right there.

But when Aric takes on the armor, it seemingly knocks him out, nipping their rebellion in the bud...or did it?





19. "The Delinquents" (The Delinquents #1-4)

Individually, Archer and Armstrong and Quantum and Woody have had some bizarre, hilarious adventures. So it only makes sense that when they teamed up for a mini-series, that the strangeness would increase exponentially. The goal of this series is to find the fabled Hobo Paradise at Big Rock Candy Mountain. There is a treasure map that was printed on the ass cheeks of the last Hobo King. Initially, both pairs had one half of the map but eventually, they team up while trying to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. The series was written by Fred Van Lente and James Asmus, who clearly try to continually one up each other in crazy plot ideas and artist Kano does a marvelous job of making the whole thing somehow make sense...









It's a wild ride but it's a very FUN ride.

Read on to the next page for #18-16!

18. "Planet Death" (X-O Manowar Vol.3 #9-14)

As already mentioned, the aliens known as the Vine captured Aric and a bunch of his Visigoth people and had them working as slaves for centuries (time works a little different with them). So Aric takes the X-O Manowar armor and escapes and ends up on Earth in modern times. He has some adventures but then the Vine decided to attack Earth (in a two-part prelude drawn by Trevor Hairsine) and destroy the armor if they have to (the armor is a sort of religious relic to them, but better it be destroyed than be in the hands of a human like Aric). Aric stops the invasion but at the end of it, he decides, "Screw this, they came here, I'm going to THEIR planet and destroying THEM!"

And this is what is on his mind when he lands (this part is drawn by Cary Nord)...





But, of course, there is a twist (there is always a twist), as he discovers that his people are still alive on this planet!





This was a real swerve of a story for the book and changed things going forward for the title. I think it was a bold idea by writer Robert Vendetti.

17. "Welcome to New Japan" (Rai Vol.2 #1-4)

The new Rai by Matt Kindt and Clayton Crain takes place on a futuristic version of Japan (New Japan) where a powerful artificial intelligence known as "Father" has expanded Japan past the boundaries of Earth itself. Everything is seemingly awesome as everything is constantly under a state of control. But, as Alan Moore and David Lloyd asked in V for Vendetta, is safety an acceptable state of being if it is achieved through fascism?

Rai is a being who works as Father's soldier, but when the first murder in a thousand years is committed (perhaps by a member of the radical group known as the Raddies), Rai's belief system might be thrown out of whack...









Crain's artwork is inspired and Kindt masterfully balances the murder mystery aspect of the story against Rai's slow discovery about the truth surrounding him. It's a compelling series (there are some intriguing twists, so I'm being purposefully vague on some of the details of the story).

16. "Children of the Eighth Day" (Harbinger Vol.1 #1-4)

You know what Jim Shooter was REALLY good at in the 1990s (he might very well be good at it today, as well, but he just hasn't had the opportunity in a while)? Introducing a bunch of characters all at once and yet make them all compelling and make sense together while also not really duplicating himself. Here, Warriors of Plasm and Good Guys all introduced a team full of characters in a single issue without feeling anyone really got shortchanged, personality-wise, and all three books had some really distinct characters (Shooter's philosophy seemed to be "Wouldn't it be cool if a team was made up with 'real people'?". In two of those books, he was working with the great David Lapham, who is also masterful at that kind of thing, so perhaps Lapham learned from Shooter how to do it, as Lapham is also really, really good at it.

Anyhow, this series (written by Shooter, penciled by Lapham with inks by John Dixon) introduces us to Pete Stanchek, a teen on the run from the Harbinger Foundation. He figures out that the group is collecting potential superpowered individuals. He decides, then, to hijack a few potential applicants to help him on his rebellious pursuit (while activating their powers). Perhaps the most famous new character was Faith, a bold idea by Shooter to have as a superhero a prototypical "fanboy" (in this case, fangirl).









What a charming character Faith was.

Harbinger began its existence as a movie script, and it really would make for a great movie. Very likeable characters with a powerful villain in Toyo Harada, head of the Harbinger Foundation.

Okay, that's the first ten! Come back tomorrow for the next five stories!