Welcome to Unifying VALIANT, our celebration of the 25-year anniversary of VALIANT’s companywide crossover ‘Unity.’ A precursor to the now omnipresent annual comic event, ‘Unity’ and VALIANT changed the face of the comic industry in the early ‘90’s. In each entry we’ll be focusing on one of the company’s storylines until culminating at ‘Unity.’ Follow along as we dig deep and rediscover what made VALIANT the innovative and revolutionary company it was.
This week we’re reviewing “Solar, Man of the Atom” #8-11.
It’s Place within VALIANT:
Picking up where we had left off, Solar has returned to Earth after his encounter with the Spider-Aliens. In maintaining the series’ significance, these issues of “Solar” feature the introduction of various new characters. Of worth we have our first interaction with the Geomancer and the Eternal Warrior. However, those are eclipsed by the reintroduction of Dr. Erica Pierce, as well as the introduction of her husband, son, and her godlike newborn. It’s clear that all these individuals will play prominent roles in the series’ upcoming arcs. This is essential as once Solar returned to Earth there was a clear need for new avenues in which his story could progress.
Issues #8-10 would also feature the final three installments of the ‘Alpha & Omega’ storyline. While these would later be reprinted in their entirety, it must had been interesting and frustrating to read the arc in such small morsels. While the ‘Alpha & Omega’ story is riveting, reading it in its individual parts would take most of the suspense away as we would already have a clear understanding of where the series was heading. Nevertheless, they do represent the creative high point for the series.
To commemorate the finale of the storyline, issue #10 featured a matt black cover. Credited to Barry Windsor-Smith, the cover had a deep significance with the ‘Alpha & Omega’ arc as the finale concludes with the destruction of the world. The issue would feature two print runs. The first run would produce 50,000 units and sell out. The second run would produce close to 50,000 additional units and could be identified by a roman numeral “II” located under the VALIANT logo. This is a stark increase over issue #8, 9 & 11, which all saw more typical “Solar” production numbers of between 45,000 and 55,000 units.
Issue #8 & 9 would also feature the return of Jim Shooter’s editor page. Much like previous installments these editor pages offer a thoroughly refreshing insight into the creation of the company and the motivation behind VALIANT’s various endeavors. During this go around Shooter would once again touch on his failed bid to acquire Marvel Comics. He’d also highlight key behind the scenes personal at VALIANT such as Ed Dupré, the company’s financial wizard. Most intriguing of all though was his explanation for an upcoming cover price increase. The increase would push prices from $1.95 to $2.25. To put this into perspective that would by the equivalent of raising prices from $3.40 to $3.92 in today’s market. Given that modern day Valiant Entertainment comics have a cover price of $3.99, it just goes to show that comics have essentially maintained themselves at the same price point throughout the past 25 years.
Storyline Summary:
“Solar, Man of the Atom” #8-11
Publication dates: April 1992 – July 1992
Written by Jim Shooter
Penciled by James Brock, D. David Perlin, Steve Ditko & Ted Halsted
Inked by Gonzalo Mayo, Stan Drake, John Dixon & Paul Autio
Colored by Mike Cavallaro
Lettered by Beth Ann Jenks & Joe Abelo
After taking care of the galactic threat that was the Spider-Aliens, Solar makes his way back to Earth. Lost, it takes him months to return. Once back he finds only one remaining nest. Setting out to destroy it, Solar finds he’s not the only one interested in eliminating the Spider-Alien threat. Toyo Harada is also there with the same purpose. Putting their differences aside they work together and take down the human trafficking hub.
Heading back home, Solar returns to his day-to-day persona as Phil Seleski. Returning to his job and nurturing his relationship with Gayle. He soon discovers though that Dr. Erica Pierce, who had been in the core with him as he had acquired his powers, had gained similar abilities. Erica’s though are being repressed, and slowly killing her. Additionally, Erica is pregnant. The embryo, imbued with the same powers as her mom, is removed by Phil and escapes. Not understanding its purpose and plagued with an insatiable hunger, the embryo goes on an inadvertent rampage for energy, killing thousands of people. As Erica pleads with Solar to help her baby, he can only watch as the child burns itself out and dissipates from existence. The pressure of losing her baby and dealing with her repressed powers soon come to bear. As Erica is besieged by her husband’s abuse, she snaps and kills him.
Continued below
Meanwhile, spurred to action given their recent encounter, Toyo Harada enlists the help of the Eternal Warrior in bringing Solar in. They setup a trap to neutralize Solar, but when the newly reappeared Geomancer stumbles into the way defending Solar, the Eternal Warrior realizes he is on the wrong side of the battle. As the Harbinger agents clash against Solar, the Eternal Warrior holds them at bay while explaining the situation to Harada. Finally, Harada agrees to let it temporarily pass, taking the Eternal Warrior’s advice and calling off the attack.
Finally able to head home, Phil and Gayle are sidetracked by the Geomancer once again. Erica Pierce is dead. Though while it would appear she committed suicide after killing her husband, the Geomancer can sense the truth. Something killed her.
Review:
After two stellar storylines one could almost forgive if “Solar” took a second to recharge with a few fill-in or lower stakes issues. While at first glance the final issue of the ‘First Strike’ storyline would seem to be just that, the series cranks right back into gear and takes off with a couple of intense entries. Before delving into those though, I did find it strange that issue #8 would be collected with the prior ‘First Strike’ arc. While true that the issue does lead Solar after a human trafficking den setup to funnel captives to the Spider-Aliens, issue #7 had such a perfect finale that diluting it with the inclusion of issue #8 seems like a disservice. Nevertheless, given that I have had to go so far as critiquing the nomenclature of the issues in order to find a negative is a clear signal at the quality storytelling found within “Solar” thus far.
As always the writing within the issues is superb. While Shooter falls into some of his dialogue pitfalls in writing such a young character as the Geomancer, it can be forgiven as it is difficult to gauge the authenticity of the dialogue given the passage of time. Regardless, as I continue to read these varying issues it’s clear that Shooter’s goal of providing a homogeneously written universe penned by a single individual was a masterful stroke. The fluidity between stories is an invisible but forceful guide that pulls you through and leaves you waiting for the next installment. I can only imagine how daunting a task it must have been creating such a voluminous amount of work, but it did lead to a truly memorable companywide event.
The true star of this issue is Dr. Erica Pierce. Since the end of the ‘Alpha & Omega’ arc we’ve known that something must be pending regarding her. The twists found within her storyline through these four issues are as riveting as anything we’ve read so far. I’d go a step further actually and wish that Solar hadn’t even been involved with the Geomancer or the Eternal Warrior and devoted more time to Erica. The birth of Erica’s child, its inability to control its power causing the deaths of hundreds, Erica’s beatings at the hands of her husband, and the eventual murders that round everything up are so fascinating that they should have been given more space to breathe. True, the presence of a cosmic child cuts a little close to a similar character in “Miracleman”. Yet, the fact remains that the potential of such a character was immense. I feel that it’s a shame that we weren’t privy to further stories involving Erica and her family.
As comic book readers we know that more often than not the quality of our hero is directly proportional to the quality of his foils. With a being such as Solar, who given his immense power levels can easily fall into the Superman trap of having no real nemesis, it’s good to see that Shooter has continuously provided him with enemies powerful enough to bring real consequences to the table. While both Harada and the Spider-Aliens has proven themselves worthy, the specter of something large closes out issue #11 as we see Erica dead. The significance of this is clear, there is something in this universe that can efficiently kill a person with Solar’s abilities. Having real stakes to a character, even if we know he will survive (this being a ‘90’s superhero comic you know that ninety-nine out of a hundred he will survive), is essential in creating an enthralling read.
Continued below
Coming up Next:
It’s time to catch up with the kids of Harbinger as things are about to get deadly serious. Pick up Harbinger #5 – #7 as we see the kids for the last time before they get pulled into ‘Unity.’
