Want to know who it is?

Seriously, it’s not a huge spoiler, but it is a tiny one.

Once you see it, it can’t be unseen.

Ok, here it is…

Down here…

Just a bit…

It’s coming…

Last chance to back out…

Because…

Well,

Gilad, the Eternal Warrior appears in the first issue, as one of King Alaric’s advisors/soldiers.

Eternal Warrior appears in X-O Manowar 1, Yes, My King

How do we know this is him?

Dinesh, Valiant Comic’s Chief Creative Officer, confirmed that Eternal Warrior appears in the issue.

Next, check out the Eternal Warrior image from the FCBD issue. Big scars on Eternal Warrior. Just like this guy.

Eternal Warrior speared in X-O Manowar 1, -URK-

So, I was wrong. I was hoping that Gilad was the guy that gets decapitated by Aric after he spears Aric’s father.

Just another post brought to you by Captain Spoilers

Instead, he gets speared by a Roman.

The question in my mind, will Aric and the Eternal Warrior have known each other, and will they recognize each other in the present day?

This sort of guest appearance is definitely a very “Valiant” sort of thing to do.

We do not shy away from spoilers!

We will travel to any length to make sure you notice everything in your Valiant Comics!

Every detail!

With hawk-like scrutiny!

We will spoil!

And spoil!

And spoil!

We are channeling the spirit of…

Captain Spoilers!

If you read the Valiant Comics Free Comic Book Day issue, you saw it.

Eternal Warrior image from Valiant FCBD 2012 Preview

Eternal Warrior, Winter 2012

Bam! With just a single image, Valiant gave us a glimpse into the future. It won’t be too much longer after Archer & Armstrong hits stores, the fourth comic in Valiant’s new line up, that we’ll be getting the fifth comic, Eternal Warrior.

We don’t know the creative teams yet, or exactly when it will launch, all we have to go with is the awesome, and ferocious drawing of Eternal Warrior by Lee Bermejo.

When I see “Winter 2012″, I think December. If this book will indeed be launching in December, We can expect to see it solicited in October, and probably the advance solicitations as early as September.

It looks like Valiant won’t be waiting too long before expanding their universe of comic book titles.

We’ve got nothing to go on about this title now. Prudent eyes saw Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, in issue #1 in X-O Manowar, and I remember some interviews that spilled that Gilad would also be seen in Archer & Armstrong. By the time the title comes out, we’ll probably know a bit more about the character, but for now, it’s anyone’s guess.

But then, there’s also…

Rai, Spring 2013

Rai from Valiant FCBD 2012 Preview

Bam! Another single image with a single phrase, “Rai, Spring 2013″, drawn by David Aja.

This one is interesting to me for a couple reasons that are tied together.

First, that gun in Rai’s hand, and the guns all around his feet, look awfully modern. These aren’t from hundreds of years ago, and I wouldn’t expect them to be around hundreds of years from now.

I don’t think we can expect Rai to be set in the distant future, or the distant past. In fact, it looks like it will be set pretty much in the modern day, plus or minus 50 years or so (after all, how long has a Beretta pistol, or M1911 pistol, looked modern?). I wouldn’t be surprised if Rai takes place in the near past, or near future. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it takes place in the present.

Second, Rai looks an awful lot like Bloodshot. Conspicuously so. In the classic Valiant, the Japanese Rai legacy was based on the legend of Bloodshot, hence the similarity. This incarnation of Rai looks like it will be closely related to the current Bloodshot, but in a totally different way.

How closely will this comic book tie into Bloodshot? Will it spin out of the title? Will we see Rai in Bloodshot before we see him in his own title?

I don’t know. More than anything, these pictures raised a lot of questions, and I don’t think we’ll know the answer until these titles hit the stands later this year and next year.

If Valiant threw these images in the Free Comic Book Day book to increase anticipation, mission accomplished.

Aram vs Gilad, the first blow

As I listened back to the OTV podcast about the Valiant Royal Rumble I was thinking about the final bout, Arm vs. Gilly.  It was a tough decision but I went with Arm…… and for good reason.

One of my MAIN points was that Gilly could not deliver the knock out blow while Arm could.  Let’s bring in some photo evidence.

First, in Eternal Warrior #3 Gilly is all bent out of shape about what went down in Unity.  He ends up telling Neville Alcott that he is done working for him, and pretty much quits.  He then tells Astrela (the chick who he is staying with in Greece) that he is tired of fighting.  Gilad is really down in the dumps.  So Astrela works out that Arm comes to the bar where she sent Gilly to “meet an art dealer”.

They start to fight (Aram starts the fight, mad at Gil for making him fight in Unity).  They are doing a good job of breaking up the bar when Gil finally get to the point where he wants to end it.  Arm tells Gil to watch out and not break the good stuff (a ’64 Rufina Fresobald) and Gilad answers back, “too late Aram you started this remember”.  It’s clear that Gilad wants to really take it to him.

You can see in the panel above that Gilad wants to take him out.  While admitting that Aram is stronger than him.

Here is where Gil delivers the knock out blow……. or thinks he does:

Aram vs Gilad, page 2

But we clearly see that Aram is NOT knocked out, but is only faking.  Gil punches him through the back of a truck and Aram comes up with the Fonz, “ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy”

Aram vs Gil, page 3

And the end scene clearly shows that Aram let himself be “beaten” for the sake of his brother.

Now let’s look at Eternal Warrior/Archer & Armstrong #8.  The end of the book Aram wants to teach Gil a lesson.

Eternal Warrior 8, Aram vs. Gil

Aram steps on his foot, and gives Gilad a good smack.  The result…..

Eternal Warrior 8, Gil is out cold

Gil is out cold.  I think we got it right.  Aram is victorious.

If this book were to be published, it would be quite a problem for Valiant Entertainment, showing that others are infringing on their protected trademarks, without them doing anything to counter that. Since some people have non-valiantly speculated that Valiant Entertainment is a dead company (because they have been very quiet), they thought that this might not be addressed by them.

It turns out that Image Comics has changed the title of the book to The Eternal Conflicts of the Cosmic Warrior. I wasn’t able to find any information about why this was changed, but it makes sense that it was changed because it was brought to their attention that this title is a trademark infringement.

I’m pretty sure that the use of this title was unintentional, and in fact, I ordered this book to check it out. Maybe the use of the title was good, because it drew some extra attention to the book!

Interesting stuff!

The solicitation of the book is as follows:

THE TIMELESS ADVENTURES OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR (ONE-SHOT)
story PAUL GRIST
art & cover PAUL GRIST
OCTOBER 7
32 PAGES / FC
$3.50

The Eternal Warrior. He’s the Cosmic Champion, a wanderer through time, forever caught in the battle between order and chaos

There’s a woman called Bernadette who wants to be the Empress of the Universe, and she’s just found the one thing that could help her achieve that. The only man who can stop her is the Eternal Warrior. And he’s just arrived 10 minutes too late!

So what is the issue here?

It comes down to the difference between copyrights and trademarks.

Copyrights protect the content of a published work. For instance, the copyright for Eternal Warrior would refer to a character named Gilad that is ten thousand years old, wears a jacket with strange containers down one side, has a glove with spikes on it, and has long flowing hair like Fabio.

Trademarks protect titles of products. In this case, the title Eternal Warrior is registered by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to Valiant Entertainment. An online record of this registration is located here.

In particular, the use of the words Eternal Warrior as the title of a product is registered to Valiant Entertainment, Inc, and includes:

Printed matter, namely, comic books; graphic novels; books featuring stories in illustrated form; books relating to comic book characters; periodicals, namely, magazines featuring illustrated stories for children and adults; comic strips; posters; art prints; lithographic prints; seriographic prints; limited edition prints; collector’s cards featuring comic book characters; trading cards; trading card albums

As far as I understand Trademark laws, the contents of this comic solicited by Image are fine. Even the description of the character within the book as the Eternal Warrior is probably fine. The use of the words Eternal Warrior in the title of this book seems to be a violation of VEI’s registered trademark.

These trademark laws help to protect both consumer and producer. If VEI does eventually print a new Eternal Warrior comic book, it is in the companies interest and in our interest as consumers to only have one product in comic book stores called Eternal Warrior.

If I were to recommend to a friend that he go to the comic shop and buy the latest issue of Eternal Warrior, there should not be any confusion about which comic book I am referring to. With two different books, with entirely different content in the marketplace, the consumer could reasonably be confused.

It will be interesting to see what happens, and if this comic book does come out with the title that it is solicited with. I will be ordering a copy, at the very least for posterity, to see how this plays out.