Fictional team biography
The U.S. Government took X-O Manowar as a threat. The Armorines were created by Dr. Phillip Zahn to deal with this threat. After they got the go ahead on the project from Senator Ackerman, Colonel Gardner recruited eight soldiers to function as the Armorines. Four would be trained as the field agents with the other four acting as their co-pilots from the base. Gunny Lewis, an aging war veteran, was chosen to be their field leader. Ackerman, however, made it perfectly clear to Gardner that he wanted Lewis out of the program as soon as the others were properly trained to function without him.
Initially a truce between X-O and the Government was formed, but this irritated CIA agent Peter Garrett and his associate, Ms. Mandrake of the IRS. The two forged orders from the Government which ordered the Armorines to take out X-O and sent them to Gardner. The Armorines attacked X-O and may have even defeated him, but their attack was called off by orders from General Kendall. Colonel Gardner was arrested for ordering the attack, and Kendall took his place as head of the Armorines. Meanwhile, the Armorine Sirot, who is also an agent of the National Security Agency, met with Garrett and forged a truce of sorts.
The Armorines went on to face other threats, but their biggest adversaries were the Spider Aliens. They first faced them underwater, and then in a huge battle in space. They were teamed with X-O Manowar and the H.A.R.D. Corps in the space battle. While they were in space fighting the aliens, the Chaos Effect broke out on Earth cutting off all communication with the military. Eventually the Chaos ended, the Spider Aliens were defeated, and the Armorines returned home.
The Armorines received medals of honor from the President himself upon their return. At the same time, however, Senator Ackerman ordered Gunny out of the Armorines program. When the President found out about this, he wrote a presidential order that took away Ackerman's control over the program and ensured that Gunny would remain in the Armorines. This didn't sit too well with Ackerman, so with Peter Garrett's help, he devised a plan to get Gunny out of the program anyway. The two rigged a hidden camera on Sirot's armor and shot footage of the destruction of a building on one of the Armorine's missions. Ackerman used this footage as a way to frame Gunny. If Gunny didn't leave the program, the footage would be used to ruin his career. He chose to leave. Sergeant William Sturgess was sent as his replacement.
Solar is an American fictional comic book superhero created by writer Paul S. Newman, editor Matt Murphy, and artist Bob Fujitani. The character first appeared in Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #1 in 1962 by Gold Key Comics and has since appeared in other incarnations in books published by Valiant Comics in the 1990s, Dark Horse Comics in the 2000s, and Dynamite Entertainment in the 2010s.
X-O Manowar is a fictional superhero co-created by writers Jim Shooter and Steve Englehart, and artists Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith.
Bob Layton is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for his work on Marvel Comics titles such as Iron Man and Hercules, and for co-founding Valiant Comics with Jim Shooter.
Valiant Comics is an American publisher of comic books and related media. The company was founded in 1989 by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter along with lawyer and businessman Steven Massarsky. In 1994, the company was sold to Acclaim Entertainment. After Acclaim declared bankruptcy in 2004, the company was restarted as part of Valiant Entertainment by entrepreneurs Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari in 2005.
Jackson "Butch" Guice is an American comics artist who has worked in the comics industry since the 1980s.
Deathmate was a six-part comic book crossover between Valiant Comics and Image Comics published in 1993 and 1994. Designated by color rather than issue numbers plus two book-end issues, Deathmate Prologue and Deathmate Epilogue, as well as Preview issues collected with comic products, the four main issues were written so they could be read in any order. Created at the peak of the comic book speculator boom, the project was heavily promoted and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but was beset with production delays. The Image half came out severely behind schedule and out of sequence. Deathmate Red shipped after the epilogue issue, and despite cover dates of September 1993 to February 1994, the actual publication lag was far longer than six months.
Mark D. Bright is an American comic book and storyboard artist. Sometimes credited as Doc Bright, he is best known for pencilling the Marvel Comics Iron Man story Armor Wars, the two Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn miniseries for DC Comics, for painting the cover to Marvel Comics' Transformers #5 and for co-creating Quantum and Woody with writer Christopher J. Priest. Bright later became a freelance storyboard artist, although he and Priest reunited for a five-issue Quantum and Woody miniseries published by the new incarnation of Valiant Comics in 2014–2015, but set in the continuity of the original Quantum and Woody series.
Ninjak is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books published by Valiant Comics. Created by Mark Moretti and Joe Quesada, the character first appeared in Bloodshot #6 as Colin King and in Bloodshot #7 as Ninjak, and quickly gained his own series.
Cary Nord is the award-winning artist of comic books and graphic novels such as Daredevil, X-Men, and Conan The Barbarian. Throughout his career Cary has drawn virtually every major character in comics, having worked on Superman, Wolverine, Mutant X, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, Thor, and Star Wars.
Richard "Rik" Levins was an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America, where he worked with writer Mark Gruenwald for over three years (1991-1994).
The PSI-Lords are a fictional team of superheroes from the Valiant Comics universe. The characters first appeared in Rai and the Future Force #21 after a cameo in Magnus #36 and were featured in a short-lived, eponymous series of ten issues between 1994 and 1995. The characters and series occupied Valiant's 41st century setting.
Michael A. Hernandez is an American comics artist also known by the pen name Michael Bair, who is best known for his work as an inker. His work includes Marvel Comics' Alpha Flight, and DC Comics' Hawkman. He is best known for inking Rags Morales' pencils since 2002, most notably on the miniseries Identity Crisis.
Tom Fowler is a Canadian cartoonist living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His published work includes Monroe feature in the MAD magazine, Mysterius the Unfathomable, Quantum & Woody, Green Arrow, Venom, Hulk: Season One, Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm and Howtoons: [Re]Igniton. He has also illustrated several cards in the Doomtown collectible card game. In 2016, he made his writing debut on Oni Press' Rick & Morty series.
Chris Warner is a comic book writer and artist for Dark Horse Comics. He worked extensively on their mid-1990s line of Comics' Greatest World and Dark Horse Heroes. He has also worked sporadically for other companies, such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
Doug Braithwaite is a British comic book artist.
Marcos Martín is a Spanish comic book artist, who usually draws for American comics. Notable works include Batgirl: Year One, Breach, Doctor Strange: The Oath, The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil and The Private Eye. He is also known as a prolific cover artist for a number of publishers in the industry, including Marvel and DC Comics.
Robert Venditti is an American comic book writer, known for his work on the Top Shelf Productions title The Surrogates, which was adapted to a major motion picture starring Bruce Willis directed by Jonathan Mostow for Disney.
David Lafuente is a Spanish-born comic book artist known for his work on books such as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man. He currently resides in London. Uses the pen name Darko Lafuente since 2019.
Unity is a superhero team featuring in titles published by Valiant Entertainment. Taking its name from the classic Valiant crossover Unity, the Unity team first appears in Unity #1 written by Matt Kindt and illustrated by Doug Braithwaite. Unity is a global law enforcement team of super-powered operatives dedicated to protecting humanity from top-secret threats. The team works as agents of the Global Agency for Threat Excision (G.A.T.E.) and acts under the direction of American and British intelligence.
