Release Date: November 13th, 2013
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Written By: Matt Kindt
Art By: Dough Braithwaite
Price: 3.99
Colors By: Brian Reber
Review:
The entire Valiant universe has been full of win since their relaunch/rebirth/resurrection. The underlying threads have been masterfully woven into the background, and sometimes foreground, of all their titles. Subtlety and overt in your face action have both been utilized to lead up to the company’s first big all-encompassing crossover event. Unity #1 did not disappoint.
Kindt brings all of these hugely intense characters into the spotlight and spends an even amount of time and effort into letting their importance shine. Toyo Harada’s team is easily massacred by Aric, aka the wearer of the X-O Manowar armor and current occupier of Romania. Intent on maintaining his ancestors’ land for himself and his decendants, Aric is headed down a road of annihilation. As countries and militaries rally and draw arms for a potential World War 3, Russia is at the forefront as this bleeds into their backyard. The Eternal Warrior at least attempts to help Harada’s team but it makes no difference as they and Ninjak seemingly get obliterated in, like, two pages. On a side note, Ninjak is possibly the coolest ninja currently in comic books. It must be a blast to write for Valiant right now. They’re doing a massive superhero story perfectly but also grounding it in reality with just the right amount of politics and nonsense us humans are known for. The magic is in the fact that they aren’t weighing their characters down with Russia’s butthurtedness or America’s commentators. In the end, this WILL come down to X-O Manowar and Harada most likely. The nukes may fly but with the amount of power those two have, they don’t have to actually detonate.
The art by Braithwaite is superb with just enough realism in it to remind us that the Valiant universe is probably the most likely scenario if these people actually existed. The characters are full of expressions and life as the action sequences never let up with intensity. The only complaint would be that the X-O Manowar armor looks a little cheesy or rushed at times. Everybody else looks intimidating and powerful when they need to. At times you don’t even need word balloons to follow the story.
Now that it’s finally here, the 1st issue of Unity started off with a bang and opened up a ton of possibilities. I lost track of the kill/death count already and that’s only the first issue. Aric looks like he will not bend no matter what and we all know how determined Harada is. Now all we have to do is sit back and watch the death, destruction, and all-out devastation these people are about to unleash all over the Valiant universe.