Unity #4 – Review

by Matt Kindt (Writer), Doug Braithwaite (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: The team of Ninjak, Livewire and Gilad Anni-Padda tries to retrieve the X-O Manowar armor from Harada’s grasp.

The Review: Taking risks as a necessary thing in comics. With many titles having very similar premises and using tropes that are unfortunately the norm these days, a book needs to have an identity of its own and most of the time, it passes through risks in terms of its concepts and execution.

For all its marketing and its qualities, Unity is still, at its core, a super-hero team book. With so many on the market right now, the quirks and original ideas need to be emphasized further to make itself stand out in a wave of other such titles. Thankfully, Matt Kindt seemed to have a pretty good idea for the title, which has been executed in a manner that made the title rather interesting. With Unity not being a team per se, with each members having their own agenda and their own affiliation, this was more something akin to Defenders than Justice League or Avengers. The story, acting upon that fact and the manner in which the Valiant universe treat super powers made for an interesting story, which reached a point that was decidedly captivating by the end of the latest issue. However, with this one being the concluding issue of the first arc, does the ending satisfy and provide a good launch pad for the rest the series?

Unity #3 – Review

by Matt Kindt (Writer), Doug Braithwaite (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: As the Unity Squad continues their mission against Aric, Livewire gains control of the X-O armor and gets a view of the big picture.

The Review: As readers, it is normal to hope for good books on the market. It may sound like the most obvious of lines, yet not all series released can actually attain that general positive comment from everybody. With personal tastes and all accounting to this, the search for such books is something that is always the key for most comic enthusiast. It is, however, usually attached with the possibility of great books, those that aren’t just competent, but excellent in the ways that really count. Most readers would certainly enjoy to have only great books in their pull list, but to really have so is something rather hard to achieve.

In such situations, what’s usually pretty rare is to see a good book actually reach a new level, going from very competent to thoroughly enjoyable, as if the creative team had upped their game in order to really raise the stakes. Understanding that the best way to impress readers is to really go all the way, books like these are always a very pleasant surprise for fans.

It is what Matt Kindt has achieved with Unity, a book that had begun strongly and then went on to struggle a bit, only to get much better with this third issue, giving surprises, actions and plenty of goodness for fans of Valiant, a universe that is constantly growing.

Unity #2 – Review

by Matt Kindt (Writer), Doug Braithwaite (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: With the defeat of the Unity squad, Toyo Harada decides to lead an attack on Aric himself, helped by others along the way.

The Review: The opening issue of this title did a lot of things right. It presented every characters, its conflict, its setting in a concise and smart way without relenting in its actions and pacing. There were a few minor tweaks here and there, but for the most part is was quite enjoyable. However, debut issues aren’t everything, as while something may start quite well, it needs to sustain a certain level of quality in order to actually warrant an investment in its story and themes. Does Matt Kindt continue the quality writing that he had established prior?

In some way, he does as Kindt continues with plenty of actions as he raise the stakes of the conflict with Aric of Darcia. Opening with a catastrophe scenario, the issue continues then smartly with the problems made clear and concise as Kindt uses his characters well in most action scenes. Introducing Livewire to new readers as both a continuation of the ongoing narrative of Harbinger and the general Valiant universe, Kindt intelligently puts forth her ability in this issue, resulting in a rather nice sequence in the mainframe of Aric’s spaceship. In terms of tension and rising up the conflict, Kindt does very well here.

Unity #1 – Review

by Matt Kindt (Writer), Doug Brathwaite (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: What do you do when there’s a Visigoth in a space armor terrorizing Eastern Europe? Assemble a team of meta-humans, of course!

The Review: Mixing a thing I really like with something I am wary of isn’t something I am rather fond of. I am really appreciative when it comes to the Valiant universe, with titles like X-O Manowar and Eternal Warrior being particularly good, yet now Matt Kindt has rejoined the fray of this universe still in construction. While I certainly do like his Mind MGMT along with a lot of his indie work, his super-hero work has been really a mixed bag. With that respect, giving him a title as important as this one seems a bit of a gamble. However, does Kindt actually succeed in showing the Valiant universe while still telling a good story?

It is to my entire satisfaction to report that Matt Kindt do manage to bring out the strength of this blooming comic universe while still telling a worthy story. Even better, this comic actually do serve as a very good introduction to those characters, with everyone being properly presented with their quirks along with their concepts rather well.

The danger represented by Aric of Darcia and his space armor, the longevity of the Eternal Warrior, Toyo Harada and his schemes, Ninjak and his stealthy and cynical approach, everyone here gets enough dialogue and panel time to shine. Not only this, but the way super powers and meta humans are handled in this universe is also put on the spotlight in a way that isn’t extravagant or forced, pushing the difference with the other capes company to the forefront of the issue in the main action scene.

Harbinger Wars #4 – Review

Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski (Writers), Clayton Henry (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: The many players in the game converge in order to go toward the prize: the psiots children. Chaos, violence and events ensues.

The Review: Crossovers can be many things. Some of the time, they can be merely fun stories that shows the departure between two characters or teams that depict their differences and their similarities in celebration of what they are. Other times, they can be crucial in the development of one or several plot points in a series, making the story move forward in a more or less organic way in order to shake up the status of one or both the book involved. However, when said crossover is also an event, it can complicate things as it can sometime feels like they are trying really hard to do both.

In the case of Harbinger Wars, it really feel like this is what they tried to do, while adding even more. The Valiant universe is still very young, in need of some key moments or events that may yet develop some of the characters or set up some further stories in its future. As the series advanced, it tried to become a bridge and a progression toward two books, Bloodshot and Harbingers, yet somewhat failed in doing so in a way that resonated in a single book. It connected several elements in ways that made sense, yet there are some places in which this crossover event failed.

Harbinger Wars #3 – Review

By: Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski (Writers), Clayton Henry (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: Bloodshot heals from his encounter with Toyo Harada, while the Renegades arrive in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, so does H.A.R.D corps…

The Review: I am a bit torn with this issue. In many ways, it does a lot of things really well, which does bode good things for the Valiant universe in terms of quality, yet it also does some mistakes that bring some scenes down in term of pure enjoyment.

Beginning with the good stuff, I can fairly say that Joshua Dysart brings his great characterization from Harbinger here. With the issue heavily featuring the Renegades, each of them brings with them their unique voice that makes them fun to follow, with Peter being always so torn with what he should do or Faith always being the optimistic and cheerful one. He even brings some good characterization to the new characters introduced that are parts of the H.A.R.D corps, which makes them a lot more interesting to follow.

Bloodshot #11 – Review

By: Duane Swierczynski (Writer), Barry Kitson, Stefano Gaudiano (Artists), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: We delve a little bit further into the Harada protocol as Bloodshot fights Toyo Harada. Meanwhile, we see how Kara tries to take care of the psiot kids.

The Review: Tie-in issues can be both blessing and curses sometimes, albeit it is unfortunately much more frequent to see the latter than the former. While it is a possibility to see a book regain focus as it takes advantage of a greater situation in the universe they are set in, it can also unfortunately kill the momentum that a book had by injecting various elements that don’t quite match up with what was going on before the event was launched. Thankfully, this event was brought up with what went up in both Bloodshot and Harbinger, which makes this crossover quite organic to the growth of both titles.

However, it seems that all the important plot advancement is set in the Harbinger Wars title as we get to see some more details of particular events from the crossover in the titles connected to it. It is a risky move that can actually pay off as we get some deeper analysis on how these characters think and feels through these scenes from the main comic, yet here it is mostly wasted, as it brings close to nothing new to the table, unfortunately.

Harbinger Wars #2 – Review

By: Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski (Writers), Clayton Henry (Artist), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: The kids from Generation Zero prepare for their final stand against whosoever would wish to bring them back in, as Bloodshot prepare to fight against Toyo Harada.

The Review: Before we even get down to it and review this little issue, I strongly urge people to actually go ahead and read the recap page, even if they think they got a pretty strong handle on things. Just look at it and see how many characters we’ve got in this event comic, as close to everyone here actually gets a scene, with close being the keyword here.

Bloodshot #10 – Review

By: Duane Swierzcynski (Writer), Barry Kitson, Stefano Gaudiano (Artists), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: Bloodshot is moving toward a new destination with the psiot kids as he tries to defend and take care of them.

The Review: This title is something that is actually quite uncommon these days, with many noir, criminal, super heroes, sci-fi and other genre being completely covered with a multitude of books, it seems that there is one genre that is not as widely covered as we would think: pure action.

Harbinger #11 – Review

By: Joshua Dysart (Writer), Khari Evans, Trevor Hairsine (Artists), Ian Hannin (Colorist)

The Story: We get to know a little bit more about the ties between Project Rising Spirit and the Hayada Corporation, while we get some more exploration of the renegades and their plans for the future.

The Review: Harbinger has been a kind of weird title in the renewed Valiant universe. With most titles already having a direction of some kind, with X-O Manowar and the fight against the Vine, Bloodshot with Project Rising Spirits and so forth, they had a pretty strong direction providing us with a great plot and some very neat concepts for their part in the Valiant universe. However, Harbinger has been the odd duck in the row, with the antagonist being set up, albeit in an ambiguous way, as well as with its protagonists, giving us a book that evolved very slowly through its first year.

This may sound like an insult to the title, but it’s the contrary in fact, as this weird direction has been one of its greatest strength. By giving us an ambiguous villain in Toyo Harada and more human and definitely flawed characters with Peter Stanchek and the others, Joshua Dysart has given us a title that lets its readers get information while the story focuses a lot more on the characters. By making us much more aware of who these characters are Dysart makes the story more about them, making us care about what they go through and what they want as they experience and show us the world of the Harbingers and their weird power.

Harbinger Wars #1 – Review

By: Joshua Dysart, Duane Swierczynski (Writers), Clayton Henry, Clayton Crain, Mico Suayan (Artists), Brian Reber (Colorist)

The Story: Project Rising Spirit is coping with the losses that resulted with Bloodshot removal of several of their psiot children, while Peter Stanchek is being prepared for his role in the upcoming conflict concerning those psiot children.

The Review: There are many types of event comics. There are those that grow naturally from a story, yet are much too big to just encompass their respective titles and there are those that are just big concepts that encompass the larger universe and that cannot be tattered to a single book to be told effectively. This may seem like a simplistic way to view the juggernauts that are event comics, but it is effective nonetheless. Valiant comics very first event, that is also a huge crossover, symbolizing the unification of their still building universe, is a little bit of both. Harbinger Wars grows from the storylines found in both Bloodshot and Harbinger, yet also entails a concept that is too large to be just told in any of these titles respectively.