Review: Unity #1 by Matt Kindt and Doug Braithwaite

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UNITY_001_COVER_BRAITHWAITE1

Unity #1

Written by Matt Kindt

Art by Doug Braithwaite and Brian Reber

Published by: Valiant Entertainment

Reviewed by: Ryan “Irish Rican” McLelland

 

For those who remember the 90’s you may remember Valiant Comics first company wide crossover was entitled Unity.  It brought all the characters together no matter what time period they were from (characters like Rai and Magnus Robot Fighter were from a future timeline) to fight a Godlike woman in a mysterious land.  It was one of the truly greatest moments of Valiant Comics history and still one of my favorite story lines of all time.

 

That was then.  This is now.

 

Now there’s a new Valiant book titled Unity.  There is no Mothergod this time around trying to repair timelines.  We simply have one man, Aric of Dacia, who wears the X-O Manowar armor.  This armor makes him one of the most dangerous men on the planet.  It was on a recent trip to an alien planet where Aric found a group of the Visigoth people that Aric had not known of surviving.  Aric is a Visigoth – a man from the past who wears the armor of these aliens.  He slaughtered many of these aliens and took his people home to Earth.  He reclaimed Dacia, which is now Romania, and declared the land his kingdom.

 

The world doesn’t take this sort of “invasion” lying down.  There is one man who wants to see Aric brought down and his is name is Toyo Harada.  Toyo is not just the most powerful man on the planet, he’s a man who wants the planet run his way.  He’s not game for X-O Manowar taking over Romania and he’s certainly not game for nuclear weapons being used against Aric.  Harada forms a plan and bring Gilad the Eternal Warrior and assassin Ninjak into the plot.  The plan?  Take down Aric and capture him, by any means necessary.

 

Man this issue is just full of action and excitement.  The pieces are all set-up for a vicious attack on X-O Manowar and us readers are in for quite a ride.  I love how X-O has become this antihero who is doing what he feels is right no matter what the consequences are for the rest of the world.  Harada brings together his team and yet we all have a feeling that no matter what he does it’s not going to be enough.  We actually find out that it isn’t enough and that brings on the thought of where the hell are they going to take this story?  If you start off things at a “10” where do you have to go?

 

This isn’t your Dad’s Unity.  It’s one hell of a riveting, exciting read that gives us one hell of an adventure.  I wondered to myself if this is the perfect issue for new readers as well.  Sure you might be a bit confused on the characters at first but it really is the perfect place to jump into the Valiant world and discover what you are missing.  So if you are reading Valiant, Unity #1 is a great place to find the best writing you aren’t reading.  If you are already reading Valiant this issue is a true no-brainer.  Pick it up, read, and enjoy.  It’s going to be very exciting to see where Unity takes us.

 

OVERALL: 10/10

Ryan "Irish Rican" McLelland is a reviewer for Inside Pulse while also writing indie comic column 'Your Indie Weekly' for Sequart. His comic book credits include the superhero book 'Philly' and war comic 'Grunts: War Stories'.  Ryan's "acting" debut came in the cult classic film 'Thankskilling 3'.