In recent years, the Valiant Comics have grown to become one of comics' biggest superhero universes outside of DC and Marvel. Originally created in the '90s, the Valiant Universe relaunched in 2012 with four new titles, each of which explored different aspects of its world. Bloodshot functioned as a cyberpunk technothriller, while the buddy comedy Archer and Armstrong delved into secret societies and lost histories. Elements introduced in each of these titles would later become important in 2014 when the publisher introduced horror into the universe with the appropriately-titled event book The Valiant.
This four-part miniseries was written by Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt with art by Paolo Rivera, serving as a jumping-on point for new readers. It opens in the distant past as Gilad Anni-Pada, the Eternal Warrior, faces off against a hideous monstrosity. Gilad is an immortal soldier tasked with protecting the Earth’s protector, the Geomancer, but this new abomination is the Immortal Enemy, an unstoppable shapeshifting manifestation of entropy and fear. The monster overpowers Gilad, slashing his face and killing the Geomancer.
But every time one Geomancer dies, they are replaced by another, for the Earth must always have a guardian. Gilad fights Immortal Enemy two more times, and he loses both battles, earning a new scar across his face for his troubles.
In the present, two separate stories begin to converge, building upon this initial opening. The current Geomancer, Kay McHenry, suffers from guilt over her previous career as a professional climate denier. To atone, she dismantles a fracking operation run by her former employer when she is suddenly attacked by the Immortal Enemy. Meanwhile, the hero Bloodshot is on a mission to retrieve a mysterious package before a private military contractor can get their hands on it. Even as he is exfiltrated with the parcel, his handler sends to protect Kay from the Immortal Enemy.
As it turns out, Gilad has used his contacts to gather all of the Valiant heroes together. A few major characters such as Ninjak and Gilad attack the Immortal Enemy, allowing Kay to escape. A handful of small skirmishes lead into a massive battle where all the Valiant heroes converge on one Immortal Enemy, brandishing weapons and unleashing their superpowers in a unified assault. For the first time, there is a force of Valiant heroes who can stand with Gilad against the ancient monster. Despite this, they still fail, as each character is defeated by physical manifestations of their greatest fears.
The superhero genre is about hope, but horror stories explore the despair that comes from facing things that can neither be understood nor overcome. Not only must the superhuman characters face their all-too-human fears, but they are confronted by their own powerlessness in the face of this threat.
One hero is not among the others: Bloodshot. He accompanies Kay as she flees from the Immortal Enemy. The two characters could not be further apart in their abilities. While Kay can connect directly to the Earth, Bloodshot's very humanity was stripped from him when he was infused with nanites that turned him a living weapon. But even he cannot help when the Immortal Enemy catches up to them. Kay is mortally wounded, dying in Bloodshot's arms. With her last breath, she uses her powers to remove the nanites from his blood, restoring his humanity.
At the exact moment of Kay's death, the package that Bloodshot had retrieved earlier finally opens. It is a box that has traveled from the future to arrive in the present, containing the future Geomancer. With the introduction of this new Geomancer, removed from the usual linear flow of time, the traditional cycle of events are broken, suggesting that there might be a reason for hope.