The Oscar-nominated writer of ‘Arrival’ is bringing a new series to Valiant Comics

In today’s era of superhero cinema, working on a comic book could lead a writer or artist to Hollywood. Screenplay writer Eric Heisserer took the reverse approach.

Heisserer, who wrote the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for “Arrival,” which is based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, has been writing scripts for “Harbinger” and “Bloodshot,” the two movies that will bring the Valiant Comics universe to the big screen via Sony Entertainment. (Neither film has an official release date yet.)

While scripting “Harbinger,” a movie that will be based on the Valiant Comics series of the same name that features super-powered teenagers, Heisserer especially liked writing for Amanda McKee, an African-American character known as Livewire, with the power to control machines. He had new ideas for Livewire that he knew he wouldn’t be able to fit into a two-hour movie.

Heisserer reached out to Valiant Comics publisher Dinesh Shamdasani with his Livewire ideas, and the result is a new limited-series, “Secret Weapons,” that will feature Livewire tracking down and recruiting others like her. Raul Allen will illustrate the series, available in print and digitally on June 28.

“(Livewire) is not the only character. (“Secret Weapons”) will be a team title,” Heisserer says. “I’m hopefully setting her up to lead her own title in the future at some point. She’s more of the beating heart of the team and the (person) that helps form this ragtag group and sort of becomes the glue that holds them together.”

Heisserer credits Joshua Dysart’s writing during Valiant’s successful 2012 relaunch with piquing his interest in the Valiant Comics universe, a world he is part of in multiple platforms.

Heisserer points out that the current superhero movie heavyweights — Marvel Studios, and the efforts from Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment to duplicate Marvel’s movie success — will have no effect on the way Valiant’s movies are made, in part because Valiant’s characters are so different from those at Marvel and DC.

“I loved the reimagining of (Valiant’s) characters. It feels contemporary and fresh. They all feel like they’re in a world of their own and not some other franchise or other established publisher like Marvel or DC,” Heisserer said. “My worry is to make sure that you can look at just a few minutes of a Valiant movie and recognize it is completely different from a Marvel or DC movie.”