Former Marvel Marketing Manager and Tekno Comics staffer John Taddeo has had the terms and conditions of his initial offer accepted by the trustee of the Acclaim estate to purchase the rights to the characters of the Valiant Universe.  Taddeo's bid for CrossGen was used as a 'stalking horse' (see 'CrossGen Gets 500k Offer') and he eventually lost out to Disney subsidiary Cal Publishing, though Taddeo has acquired the rights to the CrossGen project originally known as American Power, which he has re-titled America: Superpower and is preparing to publish (along with Zoom Suit) through his Assassination Entertainment company.

In the early 1990s Valiant was a hot company whose nascent superhero line helped fuel one of the biggest bubbles ever in the volatile comic book market.  Acclaim, a highly successful video game company, purchased the Valiant titles in mid-1994, just in time to see the market plummet and its expensive entry into the comic book market go down in flames.  At just about the same time Acclaim lost a key connection to an arcade game developer, which had provided most of its hit video games and the once powerful company began a downward spiral that ended in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004.  With an auction of Acclaim assets set for mid-April, by next month it should be clear whether or not the man who lost out on Sigil, Sojurn and Mystic will end up with Rai, Ninjak, Harbinger, Bloodshot and X-O.