Eternity Is A Place – ‘A Little Kirby, A Little Moebius, And Different Than Anything Valiant Has Done Before’
by Staff
During the Valiant Summit 2017, streamed live from the HyperRPG Studio on Twitch this week, new titles were announced for 2017 and new information surfaced about already announced series. One of the announcements focused on a series that will be spinning out of the Divinity line of comics, but is not actually Divinity IV. Instead, it’s a cosmic tale that delves into the origin of the powers of Divinity himself, and the powers of the other cosmonauts. This title is called Eternity, and it’s not a person, but a place.
As a limited series that will be written by Matt Kindt and illustrated by Trevor Hairsine, this “expedition into the unknown” takes us “Beyond time..Beyond space…Beyond reality…”, and lands in October 2017. It’s going to bring “new worlds, new beings, and new myths…” to the Valiant Universe and make a big impact on our understanding of how the magic in that universe works.
Here’s what The Valiant team had to say about Eternity during the Livestream event, which we covered here on Comicon.com:
Coming up on a big announcement, Hunter Gorinson started talking about Divinity, a series that has been really significant to the Valiant Universe. A god-like character, he’s “uniquely qualified to jump into stories on a cosmic scale”, Shamdasani said. The book went to 11 printings, Divinity II went to five printings, and Divinity III is currently wrapping up with “Stalinverse”. The new arc is going to be called Eternity.
It’s been teased for two years, but now can be revealed that there’s a baby involved. Mishka and Divinity have a baby in this arc, and it’s not actually Divinity IV–it just uses Divinity to spin off into another possible universe, maybe not even the Valiant Universe. Eternity is not a person, but a place, Gorinson said.
If you wonder where all the power that infuses Divinity and the other cosmonauts comes from, they are calling that place “Eternity”, Gorinson said. It’s a “pocket universe”, really, Matt Kindt said, since it’s called “the unknown” previously, as the source of Divinity’s powers. As huge fans of Jack Kirby, there’s influence here, Warren Simons said. There’s no “beating Kirby”, but it’s a discussion point to look at his work in this cosmic way. Some sketches shown by Kindt featured plant-based people like a flower man and “The Spine King”. Also, “The Stet Monks of Preservation and Sameness”.
It’s no small undertaking, said Gorinson, and will have a large cast with “dozens of new characters” and a “new pantheon” that may have characters who even “outrank Divinity”. Kindt said the story is about the disappearance of the child, and Divinity following the child into the unknown place to find him. Where he encounters these “weird environments”. Khari Evans has also done some of the character designs on this book.
It’s a new universe, with a “new tone” and “dozens of characters”, Shamdasani said, and that’s part of why it’s not actually Divinity IV, which was a conscious choice. It’ll be a new entry point for readers, as well. It’s a “little Kirby, a little Moebius, and entirely different from anything Valiant has done before”, Gorinson said.