In the 1990s there was a small company known as Valiant Comics that was putting out brand new super heroes like Ninjak, Bloodshot, the Eternal Warrior. They weren't the biggest hits--Bloodshot seemingly the biggest impact of all them, or at least the longest lasting. The company was bought out in the mid-90s by a videogame company, publishing comics of those games, but it ultimately failed and Valiant Comics tanked, going under and allowing titans like Marvel and DC to move in at the turn of the century.
A little over a decade later, though, Valiant Entertainment surfaced, and under a new bold direction: forget what we've done in the past, we're charging forward with a whole new mythos. If you've read those stories from back then, that's great, but we have to expand to a new audience and make a name in a world of superheroes that had undergone controversy.
By the time X-O Manowar #1 was released, DC did it's New 52 relaunch and Marvel was undoing years of its history with its multiple event comics. And like that, Valiant was back. On the map? More like on some radars. All of its new titles were major hits, though, providing new life for some fun characters like the aforementioned Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Shadowman, Quantum & Woody, and the Harbingers. Speaking of, Harbinger Wars did in fact put Valiant on the map, with one of the best event comics in recent memory.
Why is all of that relevant? Because Unity is a result only of that success. It is the coming together of the greatest pieces of mythos Valiant has to offer. A king, risen from a long-dead society. A warrior who cannot die, a man whose gadgets cloud a mysterious past, a woman with incredible technological prowess, and a man whose lust for power stems by those who have such power.
This is an origin story of sorts, though technically there are event prior to the event. It really does begin with the events going on in X-O Manowar, as Aric of Dacia, a Visigoth soldier, is set to inherit the throne, only to have his peoples taken hostage by an alien race known as the Vine. After escaping, he comes across their legendary X-O Manowar armor, and takes the fight to them, along the way meeting Ninja-K and his mentor, Gilad the Eternal Warrior. But when the Visigoth people are back on Earth, they seek to reclaim their homeworld...modern-day Romania. And thus, we have our jumping on point for readers.
Sadly, I don't have good scans or images for the book, so I can't do a typical review, and will instead do an overview of sorts for it. Besides, I really do want more people to read Valiant's books. They put out consistently great material each month and it's a real shame they don't harbor the same attention as Marvel and DC, who are very inconsistent with their material and how good it is.
The issue begins as we see a former food-writer quickly become a journalist, capturing the events of Romania's invasion by the Visigoth, who are using the Vine's alien technology. More important, she manages to meet Aric of Dacia after he finishes off several Russian soldiers. The rest of the world does not see him as quite so high and mighty. Rather, he is a threat.
And Russia has their nuclear weapons pointed right at the Visigoth camp. Looking to avoid World War III, Toyo Harada, leader of the Psiots (who are super-powered beings of various causes, Harada himself being an incredibly powerful Psiot), meets with the Eternal Warrior, assembling his strongest team of Psiots. In the meantime, Ninjak is dispatched for recon.
And high-jinks ensue.
One thing this book works well with is subtlety. In the opening page before the action we do get a six-part image informing a new reader all they need to know to be caught up to the invasion. Everything from there has an air of mystery, yet is layered with this understanding on the part of Matt Kindt, the writer, that many may not know the exact events. So when we see Harada and Gilad for the first time, and Gilad enters with a broken arm, you can clearly understand, "Gilad had a fight with Aric that didn't go well in his attempt to top the invasion." When Ninjak is dispatched to try and capture, rather than kill, Aric, he mentions that Aric would never fall for this "again." Again? Well, how did they meet in the past?
A book like Unity, and this issue in particular, is perfect for anyone unfamiliar to the Valiant Universe to go back and see just what it is these events had going on in them. All of them are pretty great. The two arcs of X-O Manowar where Aric has to team with Ninjak and Giland respectively are great, and I have full plans for bringing a review of the former when I can (as it serves for Ninjak's re-introduction into the universe as well).
The subtlety also extends out into a real sense of dread. There is a time over all of their heads, and we aren't really shown what that is, but you kind of get it. Russia has their missiles pointed right at Romania, and there are hundreds of innocent lives on the line. When Ninjak sneaks into the camp, he knows that if he screws up anything, Aric will react and set off the Russian military. Harada is forced to assemble a small team so that it doesn't attract international attention.
All of this hinges on Aric not acting rashly, but as Ninjak puts it, he's a "monkey with a hand grenade." You have no idea what the heck he's going to do with his power. And given that we see samples of it in the early pages, and then throughout as things go south, it is truly terrifying. It's hard to remember sometimes that Ninjak is, yeah, a specialist and a ninja, but he has no super powers. Harada has his psychic powers and Gilad is pretty darn strong, but man if Aric isn't overpowered in that suit. And in some stories, it wouldn't work. But here? It does, as it shows just one man in a suit of armor could plunge the world into complete darkness.
It's also funny that Unity doesn't actually form in the book. Oh sure, there is a team calling themselves Unity, but it's not the members of the group we'll have by the end of the arc. Ninjak and Gilad don't work as a team once this issue as one would expect, given their history with Gilad. But, again, you don't have to have the team form in the first issue. In DC's relaunch of the Justice League--where I suspect some inspiration was taken on Matt Kindt's part--the group doesn't form until after Darkseid is repelled. Yet it works for new readers who are unfamiliar with the characters. Allow them all to be in the same book, yes, but build them until the end of the arc so their coming together is natural.
If anything really were to bug me with the book, it's that sometimes it feels as if there is too much story and that the art is pretty weird in some of the close-up shots. To speak on the plot, the book felt longer than it was. You know how sometimes you'll watch a movie that's only 90 minutes but walk out feeling like it was over two hours? It's the same here. It's a regularly sized book that just feels long. There's a lot of information, and for the most part it's spread out well, but sometimes you just have to take a step back, reassess what you learned, and go on. It pays off, though.
Doug Braithwaite has some absolutely epic action scenes, but his close-ups of the characters are a bit off for my team. I don't know, I just think that he tries to put a little too much detail into his characters. Some of the slower scene, where they're just sitting around, are also a bit dull and come off as clunky. But his actions scenes have a real impact to them. Nothing looks dull and it plays on the point of the weight of the mission they're on.
The action is visceral, and looks real. Which is what it should be. I've always viewed Valiant as being the closest thing to our world as we'll get from super-hero comics. There are some mystical and alien elements that are interspersed by histories of war and just comedic missions. Here though? Braithwaite paints an issue of what it would look like, with much less gore obviously, if Russian soldiers were to be attacked by a man in a suit that has nearly infinite energy reserves.
Unity #1 is an epic beginning to what would become an epic series for Valiant. I can't recommend this series enough, and this is a pretty solid jumping on point for new readers. If you've been reading Valiant, I definitely recommend looking into the Unity book.
Next week, #1 month concludes with another New 52 book, but this time, instead of getting our first glimpse of Tim Drake, we'll take a look at another man who put aside his role as Robin, who is flying high as Nightwing. See you then.
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