Paul Levitz on creating the sci-fi mystery in Valiant's The Visitor

This week, a stranger has come to the Valiant Universe. Comic book industry veteran Paul Levitz has united with artist MJ Kim for The Visitor, a new series that shares the name of a classic Valiant comic. However, this Visitor isn't the same as the original. Instead, Levitz and Kim have crafted a new sci-fi mystery as the masked Visitor makes himself known. According to Levitz, one of his mandates was to create a series that can bring new fans into the Valiant fold.

"Valiant has a good news, bad news joke to its business," said Levitz. "The good news is that it's got really incredibly devoted fans who have stuck with it for a long time. [But] they don't have an easy time bringing new people in. The universe is complicated. So the charge to me was 'can you do something that will potentially bring in new readers?'"

"I tried to build what I call 'a layered mystery,' where you’ll peel back and you'll learn about who the Visitor is," added Levitz. "You'll learn about why this group of Japanese people have a project and how that connects to all things and why that's important for the Visitor to seemingly interrupt or interfere or destroy. We’re not sure exactly what his agenda is."

The Visitor #1 is out in comic book stores now. For more details about the book and the artistic approach that Kim has chosen for it, check out the latest installment of SYFY WIRE's Behind the Panel!