For years, Keith Champagne has been doing a great job inking some of my favorite books, including Starman and JSA. Recently he branched out into writing, penning one of the final issues of The Legion. In that dark tale, Champagne gave us a taste of the 31st century version of Green Lantern foes the Weaponers of Qward, as well as determined the final fate of Wildfire...at least until Mark Waid and Barry Kitson reboots the whole thing in a couple of months. It was a concise and creepy story that proved this guy is more than just a pretty pen and brush. He can write!

Champagne and I occasionally run in the same circles, and when he mentioned that he had a new book coming out from Image, I offered (begged, whined, define it how you will) to give him a space to preview it here on Fanboy Planet.

Graciously, he accepted, and this weekend sent over a preview of the cover image with a description of his new project with artist Andy Smith (Green Lantern, Hawkman, The First and -- yes, Valiant fans -- X-O Manowar). But I'll let him tell it...

From Keith Champagne:

ARMOR X is the story of CARSON DEEDS, a seventeen-year old kid with problems who stumbles across a mysterious suit of high tech armor that makes him the most powerful person in the world.

In school, Carson is the kid that no one talks to unless they’re picking on him. Too smart to fit in with his classmates, he’s a loner who long ago convinced himself that having no friends was his choice, not a result of the fact that none of the kids in his school like him.

If the year was 1964 and Stan Lee was creating Carson Deeds, he’d have a lot in common with Peter Parker. Both are teenagers that come from broken homes. Both are intellectually gifted beyond their years. Neither fits in well with their peers at school.

But Peter Parker was created in a time where, after a day of being picked on in school, he’d go home to a warm glass of milk, a hug from Aunt May, and a night spent playing with his microscope.

Carson Deeds is reflective of a time where, all too often, emotionally troubled teens mutilate their own arms with razor blades or create homemade Nitroglycerin with instructions downloaded from the Internet.

Or rampage through their schools in cold blooded murdering sprees.

Carson Deeds isn’t emotionally mature enough to drive a car, let alone wield the most powerful suit of armor in the world.

Which is exactly the reason why the armor chooses to be found by him.

ARMOR X is written by Keith Champagne, pencilled and inked by Andy Smith, Lettered by Charles Pritchett and colored by Rick Hiltbrunner.

The book is being produced by ATP Comics and published by Image. It'll be listed in the December previews and the first issue, PROM NIGHT, is in stores in February.

As we get closer to the release date, Keith will funnel a bit more of Smith's gorgeous art our way, and we'll be doing an interview to delve deeper into the secrets of Armor X.

Derek McCaw