Secret Weapons #1 Advanced Review

Secret Weapons #1
Writer: Eric Heisserer
Artist: Raúl Allèn with Patricia Martin
Publisher: Valiant

A review by Josh Rose

When Valiant announced Secret Weapons #1 I was intrigued. When it comes to superhero books, there aren’t many characters with lackluster powers, nevermind a book specifically about those kinds of characters. Valiant’s psiots are people with the potential for possessing super-human abilities similar to Marvel’s mutants and inhumans. Typically those characters with less than desirable abilities are in the background or in one-off appearances. You don’t get to know who they are and what they truly are able to do. This is a story all about how Amanda McKee, aka Livewire, found these “undesirable” psiots who are being hunted by a killer named Rex-O.

Secret Weapons #1 sees Amanda at a former Harbinger site where they kept the rejected psiots that Valiant’s most powerful psiot, Toyo Harada, managed to activate. They had powers like talking to birds and making inanimate objects glow. Meanwhile a mechanized killer, possibly alien, is programmed to find these psiots and, surprise! kill them. These kids eventually find each other and, with Amanda’s help, escape Rex-O.

I gotta be honest here, I haven’t seen Arrival. Eric Heisserer and Arrival was nominated for Best Screenplay at this year’s Oscar Awards. Heisserer has also been credited for writing the screenplays for Valiant Entertainment’s upcoming Harbinger and Bloodshot blockbuster films. After reading this, I need to go check out his other works. Secret Weapons #1 spends time introducing us to the new psiots and diving into their relationships with one another. You can tell right from the start this will be a character driven series.

Raúl Allèn and Patricia Martin are on point with the art. Rex-O looks like the perfect alien cyborg and Allèn makes Amanda look like a total badass. The panels are extremely well laid out and feel almost cinematic.

The Verdict
Buy it! Secret Weapons #1 is the start to a new series about some very relatable characters, and their fight to survive. About fan-favourite character Livewire and her desire to save these kids and redeem herself for all the things she did when she worked for Harada. I am excited to see how this story will turn out.

Secret Weapons #1 will hit comic book stores on June 28th, 2017.