Unity, Vol. 3: Armor Hunters

Unity

by Matt Kindt (Writer), Stephen Segovia (Artist), Brian Reber (Colourist)

In battle with the Armor Hunters!
When an ultra-powerful threat from deep space begins brutalizing Earth, humanity's first response is - who else? - the fearless team of heroes, soldiers, and short fuses called Unity!
Now it's down to X-O Manowar, Ninjak, Eternal Warrior, and Livewire - plus some special surprise recruits - to lead the assault on the Armor Hunters' frontline...even if they die trying!
Valiant's unbreakable all-star superteam leads the resistance against the Earth's fi rst all-out extraterrestrial incursion right here in an all-new, standalone story arc from New York Times bestselling writer Matt Kindt (MIND MGMT) and red-hot artist Stephen Segovia (Superior Carnage)!

Collecting: Unity 8-11

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Adventure, Comic Book, Thriller, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2014

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unity loose tie ins to the Armor Hunters event. I feel like you will be really confused if you haven't read the Armor Hunters and X-O Manowar books. I'm not a big fan of Segovia's art. At first it looks pretty great, but the more you see of it, the worse looking it gets. Everyone looks like they have kidney stones they are trying to pass.

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

*this review will encompass the main event as well as all tie in TPBs*


This was a spectacular crossover event. Everything felt appropriately built up. The way each player entered the scene was artfully done in a way that maximized excitement, seemed necessary and natural, and didn’t feel like a cheap, exploitative excuse to bludgeon people with recognizable IP.

The main event was a dramatic and high energy masterpiece. The X-O Manowar tie-ins added some much needed world building and context, the Bloodshot tie-ins were straight-up BADASS, Unity was probably the most essential piece outside the main event mini, and the Harbinger book, while good, was probably the weakest addition.

There were many climaxes. It’s great to see Valiant come into it’s own like this, showing that a Valiant event can indeed stand toe to toe with the biggest big two events.

I plan on reading this again. I’d like to own the hardcover that compiles all of these issues, but first I need to arrange more shelf space!

Definitely get into Valiant so you can enjoy this shit!!

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was a whole bunch of things that happened in kind of a sequence...or not?

The art was great and the origins of GIN-GR bit was really well done but on the whole reading this volume was incredibly frustrating as it barely dealt with the Armor Hunters themselves at all, plus Aric was nowhere to be seen. Shrug.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Unity team is being kicked around by the hunters, though this may have to do with their almost lack of plan initially. They group up and show off some pretty cool tricks that make serious dents in the armor hunters and their ship.

Livewire tracks down Bloodshot to an isolated island. Meanwhile, Ninjak and Gilad barely manage to recover an armor from the Russian military installation that two of the hunters were destroying. They return the armor to the UK and fight off the hounds unleashed by the hunters on the locations Aric visited.

The hunters' ship is grounded in LA and has spawned dozens of drones that Livewire is trying to dismantle with her power. Ninjak helps with some cool technology, even if the whole thing felt a bit too convenient, too deus ex machina

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review covers the entirety of the Armor Hunters event, including all of the tie-ins.


The Main Event - Robert Venditti + Doug Braithwaite - 4 stars
The Armor Hunters have made it to Earth, and they want to kill Aric of Dacia - and they're not going to let anyone get in their way.

What surprised me most about this event is the fast pace. In a world where most events are 6-12 issues long, Armor Hunters is four issues and an aftermath, all of which take place over a matter of days. Each issue has some huge revelations involved, and some devastating events that echo out across the Valiant Universe. I think some of the impact of the series might be lost if you've not read X-O Manowar up to this point, but it does stand very well on its own. It's nice to see that Venditti can spin a tale that puts Aric on the world stage (again) without alienating new readers, and tell a complete story in four issues (although some of the tie-ins are pretty important).

Both here and in the Unity issues, we're reminded just how god damn powerful Livewire is as well, and I'm seriously surprised she hasn't had her own ongoing series at this point. There are some real fist-pump moments, especially in the final issue, and I had a smile on my face when I finished this, which is always a good sign (and not something I can say about a lot of events recently either). There's also a lasting impact, which is something else I haven't said much recently either; Unity and X-O Manowar have very different status quos on the other side of Armor Hunters than they did before, and it's not something they can instantly go back on, which is great. The Valiant Universe always feels like it's evolving rather than regressing or staying the same, and this is a good reason why.

I've made no secret that I really like Braithwaite's art; I find that it works a lot better on more mystical or supernatural books because of the wispiness to his linework, but he really manages to hammer this one home and solidify himself in my mind as an artist that can tackle anything.

X-O Manowar - Robert Venditti + Diego Bernard - 4 stars
These tie-in issues tell the secret origin of the Armor Hunters, as we witness the rise of Primary and the fall of Malgam.

There's not a lot of relevance to the main storyline, which is fair since a lot of Venditti's plot points take place in the Armor Hunters mini itself, so these issues offer some much needed background that paints the Armor Hunters in a very different light, almost justified in what they've been doing across the universe. Of course, they still want to kill our main characters so there's got to be a twist, but even so, they're effective at enhancing the main story.

The focus remains on Malgam for the final issue as well, as we see his final fate in the wake of the battle in Armor Hunters; it shows just how compassionate and caring Aric is, and why he's such a good leader and king. Good character work, for a constantly evolving character.0

I mentioned Diego Bernard in the prelude volume, and he continues strongly here. He fits the Valiant house style very well, and really makes these characters his own.

Unity - Matt Kindt + Stephen Segovia - 4 stars
If X-O Manowar can't stop the Armor Hunters, maybe Unity can? But even with Bloodshot to bolster their ranks, the Eternal Warrior, Livewire, and Ninjak may have bitten off more than they can chew.

These issues serve more to fill in the gaps that the Armor Hunters series doesn't get to touch on; we see some more of Unity fighting against the Hounds, and the emotional toll that the battle takes on Livewire, as well as some backstory on GIN-GR which I wasn't expecting in this book either. The story does jump around a bit, because it tends to cliffhanger on things that are then followed up in another book, so this one doesn't really stand well on its own, but as part of the Armor Hunters package I'd call it almost essential reading.

There's also some time for some humanization of the characters which I also didn't expect - Ninjak gets a lot of heart put into him, which we haven't see a lot of in his other appearances, while I've already mentioned how good Livewire is. If anything, you'd have thought Kindt might have leaned into the Eternal Warrior's battle expertise a bit more, since he seems a bit superfluous, especially once Bloodshot shows up.

Stephen Segovia's artwork is instantly recognizable from his distinct facial expressions, but he slots himself nicely into the series - there's an almost entirely silent issue that wouldn't work half as well without a good artist, and yet there's no lack of clarity at all.

Armor Hunters: Harbinger - Joshua Dysart + Robert Gill - 3 stars
This three issue mini-series features Generation Zero, as well as Faith and Torque (since the Renegades have kind of broken up at this point), and deals more with the fallout of the main book than anything else, including the recovery effort.

The first thing I noticed about this book was how well it highlights the differences between GenZero and what's left of the Renegades; they may all be psiots, but their upbringing and their relationship with their powers puts them at odds with each other, and the Mexican authorities as the two groups are forced to team up to stop an infestation as a result of the events of the main Armor Hunters book.

This one's hardly essential to the overall story, but it's a fun addition that shows a little more of how the Armor Hunters 'disinfect' the worlds tarnished by the Armors, and since there wasn't an ongoing Renegades book at this point, it would have been nice to see the characters again.

I like Robert Gill's art, but the real star of the show here is Romulo Fajardo on colours, who adds some impressive depth and detail to the proceedings, especially the giant bug monsters. Very, very pretty bug monsters.

Armor Hunters: Bloodshot - Joe Harris + Trevor Hairsine - 3 stars
I was a little confused at first as to why this series exists, since Bloodshot is a main player in both the main Armor Hunters book and the Unity tie-in, so there's a bit of overlap here.

This is mostly just an excuse for Bloodshot to be Bloodshot and murder his way through the Armor Hunters' forces, and it's pretty impressive. It reads a bit like the end of the first Terminator movie, with Bloodshot using whatever he can to take down Lilt and recapture Malgam while escaping the MERO base.

The artwork in this one feels a little rushed and scratchy; I'm not sure what Hairsine was going for, but it doesn't match up to the consistency of the other Valiant books, or even Hairsine's contributions elsewhere. Bloodshot's torso is out of control in certain panels too; he's ripped, but he's not meant to be top heavy.

Like Harbingers, this one's not essential reading, but it's fun.

[Des Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great thing about Armor Hunters, was that you could read just the Armor Hunters mini, and you get a complete story. Sure, reading X-O at the same time would offer some cool back-story, but you wouldn't be punished for not buying every title in the crossover. Unity volume 3, is a whole bunch of filling in minor blanks to Armor Hunters that don't really need to be filled. Kindt smartly takes the opportunity to at least throw some background and characterization at us, and the writing on whole is a much better executed affair than volume 2. Unity still doesn't get their own story arc, and this volume reads as disjointed, with plenty of gaps that readers will of had to read other titles to fill. All that said, it was still a fun supplement to the Armor Hunters story-line, and Stephen Segovia's art is fantastic. Hopefully Unity gets a stand-out story of their own soon, because right now, this book feels like its only here to support crossover events. It's not the Avengers-style, flagship book that was promised.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unity is clearly a subsidiary comic in the Armor Hunters arc, but it stays involved with the big picture of the evolving story, making it more successful than the Armor Hunters mini-series, which tended to get a little small and specific. Ninjak and Livewire are both put to very good use. Ninjak is depicted as an interesting, multi-faceted character, while Kindt really has fun with Livewire's machine empathy (almost, but not quite, to the point of success). The result is overall a fun read as part of the Armor Hunters crossover.

Unfortunately, as a standalone volume, Unity V3 is largely a failure. The story is entirely incoherent, without a start or an end, and little explanation of how we get from one issue to another. Though I love how the characters are spotlighted as part of the Armor Hunters crossover, if read on its own, this is a muddled mess ... which is a darned shame, because Valiant is offering it as if were a comprehensible standalone book, both in Unity V3 and Unity Deluxe V1.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another part of the Armor Hunter crossovers that works somewhat okay by itself (aside from the 'see Armor Hunters #4 for the conclusion at the end), but is better seen as a part of the larger crossover event. Focusing mainly on Ninjak and the Eternal Warrior, the book actually covers some of the same scenes as the main Armor Hunters book, albeit from a different character's perspective. But the focus is on the trust (or lack thereof) within the Unity team, and feels a little looser than the other crossover titles. Still okay, but the action isn't quite as good, although the background of GIN-GR provided here is interesting. It certainly helps make that aspect of the crossover make more sense.

[Anchorpete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh No! Valiant is succumbing to a negative trait that I only found within DC trades! They are collecting issues that are part of an overarching crossover, that are pieces of a larger story and do not make sense by themselves.
This is the same kind of disjointed story telling I have complained about in previous reviews. it is especially sad, because Valiant had done the complete opposite with their very first crossover, harbinger Wars. In that crossover, every individual book told its own story, which was a part of the larger story.
This is just a mish mash of moments featuring some great characters, like Ninjak, live Wire and The Eternal warrior. Come on Valiant, Matt kindt, you can do better than this!

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprints Unity #8-11 (June 2014-September 2014). The Armor hunters have come to Earth and Unity finds themselves battling for the planet without their strongest member. With Aric out of the mix, Ninjak and Gilad find themselves travelling globe to put out fires while Livewire struggles with her own humanity…and the Armor Hunters cannot be stopped!

Written by Matt Kindt and illustrated by Stephen Segovia, Unity Volume 3: Armor Hunters ties in with the larger Valiant Comics event series Armor Hunters. Following Unity Volume 2: Trapped by Webnet, Unity 3: Armor Hunters is also reprinted in the Armor Hunters Deluxe Edition and Unity Deluxe Edition—Volume 1.

Unity is a non-team team book. The characters really only come together to fight threats. This volume of Unity has ties to the bigger Armor Hunters series that had a bunch of tie-ins. While X-O Manowar and Armor Hunters form the core of this story, Unity’s Armor Hunters story feels more like a filler series.

The series doesn’t really flow very well in the issues in this collection. A lot of what is going on with Aric isn’t covered here and much of the action involves Ninjak and Gilad flying around the planet and putting out fires. The substory involving Livewire and questions about her origins is alright, but the whole storyline doesn’t seem to have much thrust.

I do commend the art for the series. Overall, Valiant Comics really does pull on a strong art talent. I do however feel with the non-team and rather generic looking characters that the series needs something…dare I even say uniforms? I don’t know that I’d go that far because uniforms always rub me the wrong way, but I think something is needed to give the book more of a team feel since it is supposed to be the Valiant Universe’s premiere team.

Unity has been a really weird team book. In the Marvel Universe, I’d probably pick Defenders of the ’90s Secret Defenders as a possible comparison. The reason being is that the book really doesn’t have much of a flow or a really solid roster. The characters are working together, but seem disconnected at the same time. If the group is going to be a team, I feel that they need some team bonding, like an X-Men baseball game or something. It is cheesy and overdone, but the characters really need to start connecting and functioning as a team. Unity 3: Armor Hunters was followed by Unity 4: The United.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another case of a possibly good story being poorly collected.

This story is a crossover between X-O Manowar, Unity, and Bloodshot. This volume focuses on Unity, and each chapter has a cliffhanger ending, and then begins the next chapter much later in the story, where the reveal from the previous chapter isn't dealt with. And there's no "continued in X-O Manowar" or "continued in Bloodshot", you're on your own for figuring out how to read this.

I'm stunned that in the 21st century, comic book editors still haven't figured out how to collect crossover stories so that they're enjoyable to read. It's a super basic concept that collection editors just don't seem to grasp. It makes me wonder what, precisely, their skill set is.

I can't really recommend this book because it's missing huge chunks of story, and is therefore highly unsatisfying. I'll soon be reading the other two collections that deal with the crossover, and, hopefully, they'll provide the portions of the story that were left out of this volume.

So far, though, this series suffers when it's being crossed over, and shines when it's self-contained.

[Xavier Marturet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reconozco que Unity ya me tenía interesado a priori,pero este tomo es absolutamente perfecto en muchos sentidos.
La primera idea es que se trata de un complemento a la serie limitada Armor Hunters.
Craso error.
Se trata de una saga que tiene mucho que ver, pero que tiene un argumento independiente con la intención de que el grupo se consolide, especialmente tras el reino formado por X-O Manowar en Rumanía.
En esta saga el grupo se conjunta y se presentará al mundo como lo que son: un grupo al estilo de los Avengers de Marvel. Se darán a conocer y se harán oficiales al mundo tras vivir una aventura que recomendaría a cualquier fan del género de superhéroes, tanto por guión como por dibujo.

[David Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next to last Armor Hunter tie-in, with being the last. I like the team concept. Was never really crazy about Ninjak, but liked Gilad and of course Bloodshot and X-O Manowar. Livewire looks promising as well.

After I knock off the Armor Hunter collections I think I will go back and catch up on the other Unity collections. I used to collect the Valiant comics years ago but slowly stopped. I am coming back a little now, thanks to the Bloodshot movie and the Killers series.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3 star rating is a little misleading. These issues are part of a big Valiant Crossover, and when I read the entire crossover together it was a solid 5 star read. However, this re-read of just the Unity issues leave a little to be desired as you only get part of the story. Not bad and the art is exceptional, but taken on its own these issues leave a little to be desired.

So as part of the Armor Hunters Crossover, this would be 5 stars. But read alone, since it leaves holes in the story, I gave it 3. Basically if you'd like to read these issues, I'd suggest tracking down the Armoer Hunters Deluxe Edition since that is definitely worth the trouble.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

It ties in majorly to the Armor Hunters crossover, so if you don’t read X-O Manoward and the Armor Hunters miniseries you’ll be confused. Unity launches an attack on the invading attack squad in order to not only save X-O, but also to save the Earth. Read as part of Armor Hunters Armor Hunters and Unity: Deluxe Edition

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

What was this? This book still confounds me as to why it exists. Its supposed to be the Valiant Universe's Justice League or Avengers. Instead its a handful of stories they may or may not be connected that always are leading to the next thing. It serves little to no purpose. The art was very good but couldn't fix this mess of a plot. Overall, very easy to skip.

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good tie in book to the Armor Hunters series.

[Hunter Lambright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would absolutely read a Kindt-written Ninjak and Eternal Warrior team-up series

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Battle royale and epic team up!

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

So what was the Unity team doing during the Armor Hunters event? Aside from saving the world? This book is tangential to the whole Armor Hunters story. It fills in some of the parts that aren't shown in the main book (i.e. the mini-series #1-4). I think it does a great job filling that niche. It answers some questions, like how did they get Bloodshot to come back from his self-imposed exile?

This volume feels more like four separate short pieces that are loosely connected to each other and Armor Hunters. For me, that's not a bad thing by any means. I enjoyed each of the issues in this volume. I would recommend reading this alongside the Armor Hunters event (especially after searching for a reading order online). It's a bang up action book that doesn't shy away from that fact. There isn't a ton of depth to the characters and in this case it doesn't matter. Jumping into this on its own will leave you confused though.

[Aildiin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bleh. The tie-in that didn't need to exist.
Skip this and saves yourself. The 4 collected issues do not really follow one story but act each as single story loosely tied in with the Armor Hunter event and having read the event before I can tell they don't even bring much to the overall story.
The only thing of matter here is that Bloodshot joins Unity.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying Armor Hunters.

One issue is nearly wordless...and it works really well as an experiment.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great premise

[Ritinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kindt não desilude, mantendo uma narrativa de analepses constantes que nem por isso alienam o leitor do presente. Merecia melhor arte.