Unity #2 (Comics Review)

Superhero team-up books are quite fun because of the diversity they have to offer in terms of characters and their backhistories. Whether you talk about an X-Men book or an Avengers book or a Justice League book or whatever, team books bring together the best and the brightest and do some fun things with them. Of course, the experience itself is subjective and some team books can be terrible, but I’ve generally enjoyed them as starting points. And that’s what Valiant Comics’ Unity #1 did for me last month, and what I hoped Unity #2 would do this month.

Which it does. Aplenty. After all the momentous events of the previous issue, we are in for a real treat this week as well as Matt Kindt and Doug Braithwaite return for another excellent issue. The first issue served as a really good introduction to various high-profile characters of the Valiant universe. That’s where the second issue comes in to build on everything that has already happened and move the story forward significantly. I definitely enjoyed the new issue, more than the previous one I should point out.

Team books are almost always full of action first and story second. When you bring together so man different characters then action is always inevitable and while seemingly easy to do, it does need to be handled well. The story itself can be a little wonky and not so good, but its not as crucial as the action, I think. In my experience, few event books or team books get that right. Most usually just meander along endlessly, dropping the action every now and then just to give the reader “some” excitement. That’s not what Unity #2 does though. It balances the action and the story very well for the most part and it ends up being really good for that.

And the action is certainly one of the high selling points of this book. Harada making things just explode with a flick of his hand. Livewire going up against Aric in the… well, brainscape of the ship that Aric and his people returned to Earth in. The Eternal Warrior fighting Aric up close and personal. Its all there and its all perfectly great, just the way that I wanted it. I don’t know any of these characters since I never followed their respective series. Kindt however does well in making the characters all easy to understand, such as their motivations and who they really are.

Of all the characters, I enjoyed reading about Harada and Livewire the most. The Eternal Warrior is, well, a warrior so he is not quite so interesting for me, but the other two most definitely are; Harada for his role as the leader of the team and Livewire because of her technology-related powers. I remarked last time that Valiant’s characters are very innovative in concept and even if they come across as some sort of derivation of characters that have come before, they are still very unique, each in their own way.

The catch-up pages early on are not so enjoyable because they spend too much time on recapping the first issue, but once Kindt gets going with the story, he really does get going. And its an exhilarating ride throughout. He ends the issue on a really major cliffhanger, best as I can tell, if it is what I’m thinking that is and that just means the next issue is going to be a very important issue in the series.

Braithwaite and Brian Reber are back once more for the art in the issue, and they are as impressive as last time for sure. Sometimes the art gets a little too detailed, but generally Braithwaite’s artwork is consistent and he draws his characters really well. There’s always a sense of energy to his pencils and his visual storytelling is second to none. I would put him right next to some of my favourite artists like Francesco Francavilla, Becky Cloonan, Greg Capullo, Fernando Blanco, Fiona Staples and others. Reber’s colours match very well with Braithwaite’s pencils and the sense of atmosphere that they create is pretty damn good.

Reading this issue, I honestly want to really get into reading more Valiant Comics. Ninjak and Eternal Warrior are ones that I’m particularly interested in.

Rating: 9/10

More Unity: #1.