How does that inform an individual’s personality and identity? So, in a way, all of that informed how I approached these characters suddenly finding themselves in Russia…being Russians…and communists. People were threatening to leave the country depending on the results and I was honestly inspired by that kind of bigger idea - about the role of citizens in a country and actively participating in government. It’s particularly timely, I think, with the recent election and this idea of examining what it means to be a member of a nation. You can really humanize the larger-than-life figures. As a writer, that’s what is so attractive about working with them. They don’t fit a traditional kind of “hero” mold. These characters - X-O Manowar, Bloodshot and Ninjak - they’re quirky and very singular. But that’s the beauty of working in the Valiant Universe. I think there’s a danger of making cliches of the characters with something like this as well - you can easily end up writing archetypes.

That’s the fun of doing a high-concept like this -really sort of diving down to the core of the characters. Were there things that surprised you in reworking characters like X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, et al.?ĭefinitely. With Divinity III: Stalinverse, you get to perform a stealth character study on Valiant’s comic book universe by showing familiar faces altered in a small - but sizable - manner, revealing what’s constant about them even when Earth has been transformed into a Soviet-run totalitarian world. Heat Vision talked to Matt Kindt, the writer of Stalinverse and the Red Legend’s origin story, about renewing the Valiant Universe and what it took to create a Soviet-inspired heroine who can stand alongside Wonder Woman and other iconic female comic book heroes.

Divinity by Matt Kindt