RESURGENCE OF THE VALIANT UNIVERSE: FINALE, by Valiant Comics on 1/22/25, concludes the massive crossover event with a desperate battle in the Faraway to stop Silk’s plan to destroy the galaxy.
Credits:
- Writer: Fred Van Lente
- Artist: Diego Giribaldi, Tomas Aira, Julio Azamor
- Colorist: Lautaro Ftuli, Ludwig Olimba
- Letterer: Ezequiel Inverni
- Cover Artist: Guillermo Fajardo
- Publisher: Valiant Comics
- Release Date: January 22, 2025
- Comic Rating: Teen
- Cover Price: $4.99
- Page Count: 48
- Format: Oversized One-Shot
Covers:
Analysis of RESURGENCE OF THE VALIANT UNIVERSE: FINALE:
Recap:
When last we left the newly-reformed Unity in Resurgence #4, all forces converged on an ancient pyramid in the Faraway where clones of Dr. Silk orchestrated his master takeover. The issue concluded with Livewire accidentally putting out a distress call after interfacing with the alien shuttle and young Tama putting out a Faraway-powered distress call of her own.
Plot Analysis:
In Resurgence of the Valiant Universe: Finale, we begin with Master Darque preparing to kill Punk Mambo… again. With each death, he summons off more of her power, and Silk’s immortality portal revives her to start the cycle again. Suddenly, Shadowman and Sandria, Darque’s sister, arrive to put a stop to the killing. Dargue quickly escapes through a portal and lands in the middle of the battle in the Faraway.
The battle escalates now that X-O Manowar and the Psi-Lords have arrived from deep space to join the fight. The Psi-Lords outmatch every opponent, but Darque turns the tables when he possesses Shanhara to turn Manowar into a killing machine. Meanwhile, the Silk clones clarify how, what, when, and what was the plan all along.
Hang on to your hats for this one. Silk is the daughter of Salome, a woman who was Ivar’s lover during the 1880s. In other words, Silk is Ivar’s son, and he’s worked tirelessly to chase his father’s legacy and gain his approval. The final step in granting immortality to Earth is the power source. Silk promptly shoves Flamingo into an extraction chamber, using her mystical flames to power his device. What Silk hadn’t divulged until now is that immortality works by siphoning life force from the Faraway, and in turn, the Faraway siphons life force from worlds around the galaxy.
In other words, Silk’s plan to give Earth immortality will kill dozens of worlds. Did you get all that?
The rest happens in quick succession. Ninjak kills the Silk clones, Faith smashes the power chamber to free Flamingo and stop the power transfer, Old Silk shoots Chris to stop him from pushing the button in Kansas that reverses the power flow, the reversal begins to destroy the Faraway, Darque makes a portal to escape, the rest of the heroes follow since it’s the only exit, but Armstrong and Tama choose to stay behind to protect what’s left in the Faraway.
What’s the big whoop for what Valiant promised to be the game-changer? The heroes don’t make it back home and end up in someplace called the Undeadside. The name should tip you off.
First Impressions:
Well, if nothing else, Resurgence of the Valiant Universe: Finale is as fast-paced and jam-packed a finale as you could expect without injecting caffeine into your veins. Fred Van Lente strips every thread and individual scene to its most basic molecules to get the point across and work every moment into the conclusion. That said, several scenes turn into exposition dumps that reference past storylines, so it’s impossible to feel like this finale wasn’t rushed.
Artwork and Presentation:
The art is decent enough, considering the multitude of artists tap to bring the visuals together. There’s no narrative reason for the scenes involving Chris or Faith’s last-minute dive through a multiverse tunnel to be drawn by different artists, so again, the finale looks pieced together due to a lack of time.
Art Samples:
Story Positives & Negatives:
The Positives:
Give credit where credit is due. Fred Van Lente wraps up a massive crossover in too small a space by giving every character something to do and adequately setting up a new status quo that justifies putting all the heroes together in one place with a common goal… maybe. Van Lente’s limits were tested in this finale, and he mostly succeeds.
The Negatives:
Resurgence of the Valiant Universe: Finale epitomizes the definition of trying to do too much too fast. Admittedly, you can still follow what’s happening without getting lost, but no scene has adequate space to fully form and take on weight, and the explanations of Silk’s plan can only be delivered by exposition dumps that nobody could have guessed. A crossover of this size and complexity needed a lot more than five issues, or the story needed to be a lot simpler.
The Bigger Picture:
Series Continuity:
Where does Valiant go from here? If the last pages in Resurgence of the Valiant Universe: Finale are any indication, the majority of Valiant heroes have to band together to survive a zombie dimension. How that setup moves forward is anyone’s guess.
Final Thoughts:
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RESURGENCE OF THE VALIANT UNIVERSE: FINALE wraps up every thread at a breakneck pace to set up the new status quo for the Valiant Universe of heroes. Fred Van Lente does a commendable job of giving every character and sub-thread a moment, but the sheer distance that needed to be covered was too much to cram into a single issue, even if it is oversized. This finale is the very definition of “rushed.”
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