Valiant To Create A New Female Icon For 2016, On Par With Wonder Woman And Captain Marvel

Believe it or not, New York Comic Con 2015 is almost upon us with publishers and PR-friendly news outlets already horse-trading embargoed news and information between themselves in advance of the oncoming melee of announcements.

Well, consider this a sneak preview. Sources tell us that Valiant is planning a major new series in 2016 — or possibly more than one — to give their publishing line a preeminent female icon on par with DC's Wonder Woman or Marvel's Captain Marvel for the Valiant Universe. Get ready to move over X-O Manowar….

To be sure, Valiant already has a plethora of female characters and have already announced a new Death-Defing Dr. Mirage series for December. But who are the most likely contenders for a similar such leap? Let's take a look at the candidates…

Exhibit A: GIN-GR — Valiant's killer Armor Hunters robot with a cheerful disposition was ear-marked for a new trademark earlier this year…

Livewire, most recently a fixture of the Unity superteam title – a series which is now set to conclude at #25 in December… also recently trademarked.

Tama, the newest Geomancer, was at the epicenter of Valiant's biggest-ever launch, Book of Death, giving the publisher good reason to continue her adventures…

Saana, X-O Manowar's new bride as of this summer's wedding issue, has also been a frequent source of speculation among fans. Might an X-O Womanowar title be in the offing?

Valiant's also been teasing out their cast of Harbinger characters — after a #0 issue last year, could Faith, Valiant's high-flying runaway, be gearing up to go solo?

Or, by the same token, how about the cartoon animal-generating wunderkind Animalia? Introduced in the pages of the Harbinger Wars crossover — soon slated for a film adaptation at Sony — might she be getting groomed for prime time in advance of a big screen debut?

Then, in the cast of more recent introductions, Roku — an assassin with cybernetic, fire-starting hair (yes, it's true) — made her debut in Ninjak #1 and Valiant followed up with her complete origin just three issues later… Definitely one to watch…

And, lastly, a personal favorite — the UK's own Punk Mambo. Created by Peter Milligan and Roboerto de la Torre during their 2013 run on Shadowman, the Punk is ageless voodoo bon vivant with a thirst for anarchy and sniffing glue out of human skulls. In a world where Hellblazer has gone millennial…could she be exactly what we need?

Lots of options, lots of choices… Keep those ears to the ground in the lead-up to NYCC, won't you?