CREDIT: Valiant Comics
Rating: 5/5 – A Great Comic to Jump on Board With Valiant.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.
Matt Kindt is one of my favorite current writers in comics, whether on his creator-owned Mind MGMT or some of the DC books he’s currently writing (which I’m getting ONLY because he’s writing them). Valiant scored a major coup in getting him on-board for their new cornerstone title Unity, which unlike the Unity events from “old Valiant” is now an ongoing series featuring a rotating cast (by story arc) of Valiant characters.
This initial arc features the repercussions of Aric of Dacia (aka X-O Manowar) deciding to settle his Visigoths in his old homeland, which just happens to now be called Romania and it already has people living there who seem to believe it’s their country.
We’re ably brought up to speed with a summary page before jumping into the story, beautifully illustrated by Doug Braithwaite. I really appreciate it when storytellers add in little bits of throwaway information that add to the feel of the story making it seem more real to me. A good example of this is the local Romanian dish Papanasi that’s added into the story as a bit of local color in a couple of places. Not essential to the tale but it makes me feel like I’m reading about something actually happening.
Valiant seems more grounded in the the world we live in (with the fantastical elements added in) than those of other super-heroic universes. Another thing that makes their comics resonate more strongly with me.
This story gives us some more of a couple of my favorite characters, The Eternal Warrior and Ninjak, as well as introducing a new super-team fielded by Harada’s Harbinger Foundation. They’re all Allied against Aric and his X-O armor. One of the most ridiculous kill-shots ever happens in this issue, but I was all-in and loving it by that point.
The thing about the storyline here is I’m fascinated about how they’re going to resolve this situation that’s been created for Aric and what the repercussions of this will be in the X-O Manowar comic. If you read only 1 Valiant comic, this would be a great one to jump on board with.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall – bob@comicspectrum.com
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Reblogged this on ComicSpectrum News and commented:
Our review made the “Pull Quote” cover!