[REVIEW] Psi-Lords #1: Valiant offers another Stellar Reboot

Valiant Continues Grow

Valiant continues to grow from strength to strength, with yet another stellar title resurrected from the 1990’s . It begins with a simple yet captivating hook – four strangers, seemingly with no connection to one another, awaken on a prison ship in deep space. As they plot and execute an escape, their latent meta human abilities rise to the surface as a truth surfaces – they are in a prison designed to hold Gods.

With just the right amount of action, drama, and mystery woven into these 32 pages, and it does the job that every first issue should do – it left me wanting to know what happens next. On that note, I will endeavor to keep this review as spoiler-free as I can.

Valiant mainstay Fred Van Lente presents a story that is up to the usually high Valiant standard. I myself have not read the original runs of Psi-Lords, but am now definitely keen to check them out. That’s the beauty of getting hooked on a new Valiant title; there is usually an older run of the same story (such as the fantastic XO Manowar or Ninjak) that acts as a nice time capsule of sorts. It allows us to revisit familiar characters as they were presented for the first time, showing us how far the medium of comics has come.

Psy-Lords Art In Top Form

Artist Renato Guedes is in top form here, giving us his usual form of washed out, almost renassance style of pencils. It really works with this story – usually Guedes has a darker tone to his work, and while this is a dark(ish) story, the setting is actually quite bright and shiny. The resulting effect is grand and regal, and would not look out of place in an old school issue of 2000AD.

Color plays a huge part in setting up these characters, as each one has their own assigned color, a la Power Rangers, tied into their individual power sets. For example, the character Hazard explodes with the color red as she uses her rage powers to violently destroy prison guards. There is a 2 page sequence where the characters debut their teamwork with minimal panels and movement, but maximum use of color. Artist and writer are very much in sync on this book.

Classic Valiant Aesthetic

As someone who really fell into comics in the 90’s, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has a classic Valiant aesthetic, while still presenting itself as fresh and mysterious. That’s the hook of this book – for readers like myself, it feels both familiar and brand new at the same time. Psi-Lords is shaping up to be yet another phenomenal Valiant relaunch, joining their pantheon of fantastic, interwoven titles. I am very keen to see how the Psi – Lords will effect the rest of the Valiant universe.

You can grab your copy of Psi-Lords #1 from June 19th at your local comic book store or via Comixology.

How did we rate Psi-Lords #1?4 Sodas
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