Day: August 16, 2025

Alien Books, Mauro Mantella criticized for anti-trans passage in ‘Valiant Beyond: Bloodshot’ #1

The publisher posted an apology on social media, saying “We will do better,” as the author’s anti-trans social media history became evident.

Alien Books, the publisher of the Valiant comics line, and writer Mauro Mantella have received widespread criticism for a passage that appeared in Valiant Beyond: Bloodshot #1 that featured “thinly veiled transphobic metaphors,” as one comics creator put it.

The comic’s creative team includes Mantella and artists Fernando Heinz Furukawa and Juan Pablo Massa. It’s part of a line-wide reboot of the Valiant line, called Valiant Beyond, that was set to kick off earlier this year but was delayed due to the bankruptcy of Diamond. Valiant’s comics are now distributed by Penguin Random House via IDW Publishing.

What should have been a big launch for the publisher, as Bloodshot was the first Valiant Beyond title to hit comic shelves, was marred by panels whose words mirrored a false but common refrain by anti-trans bigots. For context, the comic features Bloodshot in a Japan plagued by vampires. “There are kids who want to be bitten to become vampires because their favorite influencer says they are one,” Bloodshot’s interior monologue reads. “And parents who force their children into that irreversible change just to feel modern … and believing that they’ll be thankful for it when they grow up.”

Here’s the page:

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Phillip Kennedy Johnson + Nic Klein usher in a new age of monsters in ‘Infernal Hulk’ 

The next chapter in the horror saga begins in November.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein’s run on the Incredible Hulk may be ending, but they still have plans for the Jade Giant, the Eldest, the Mother of Horrors and the rest cast they’ve been building for the last two years.

Marvel will relaunch the title as Infernal Hulk in November, and they’ve revealed that Bruce Banner’s days as the Hulk are over — at least for now. Because something far worse is taking over the Hulk.

“I’ve been promising Hulk fans the biggest, boldest status quo change in Hulk’s history, and that time is finally here,” Johnson said. “The next few issues of Incredible Hulk give fans all the answers they’ve been waiting for about Eldest and the Mother of Horrors, and Infernal Hulk is the beginning of a terrifying new normal, not just for the Hulk series but for the entire Marvel Universe.”

Johnson, Klein and other artists like Daniel Earls, have returned the Hulk to his monster roots in Incredible Hulk, introducing even worse creatures than the Hulk. The story has centered on the Mother of Horrors and the Eldest, two horrific beings who have made the Hulk’s life hell — with plans to use his body to wage war on the rest of the Marvel Universe.

“There are monsters way worse and more powerful than anything we’ve seen so far, bigger and stronger than Hulk with origins that go back to the foundations of the Earth. It’s time to take this story to the next level, and no corner of the Marvel Universe will be left untouched before the end,” Johnson said.

Here’s the main cover and a promo image by Nic Klein:

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