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Unity #1-4
Unity Deluxe Edition, Book 1
At last, a deluxe oversized hardcover collecting the best-selling debut and first year of adventures of the Valiant Universe's first-ever superteam!
From their first explosive confrontations with X-O Manowar to their head-on assault on the alien strike-force known only as the Armor Hunters, the most dangerous and most ruthless team of heroes ever united comes together right here in this prestige-sized collection from New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (The Valiant, Ninjak) and an all-star cast of artists including Doug Braithwaite (Armor Hunters), Cary Nord (Conan), CAFU (Action Comics), and Stephen Segovia (Convergence)!
To kill a king, he has created an army.
The world's most dangerous man, Toyo Harada, has been struck by the one thing he never thought possible — fear. Halfway across the globe, a new power threatens to topple modern civilization and, to preempt the cataclysm that is to come, Harada will unite the most lethal, most volatile, most unforgiving team the world has ever known — Unity. Their mission: defeat the warrior king armed with the universe's most powerful weapon. Kill X-O Manowar!
Collecting: Unity0-14
From their first explosive confrontations with X-O Manowar to their head-on assault on the alien strike-force known only as the Armor Hunters, the most dangerous and most ruthless team of heroes ever united comes together right here in this prestige-sized collection from New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (The Valiant, Ninjak) and an all-star cast of artists including Doug Braithwaite (Armor Hunters), Cary Nord (Conan), CAFU (Action Comics), and Stephen Segovia (Convergence)!
To kill a king, he has created an army.
The world's most dangerous man, Toyo Harada, has been struck by the one thing he never thought possible — fear. Halfway across the globe, a new power threatens to topple modern civilization and, to preempt the cataclysm that is to come, Harada will unite the most lethal, most volatile, most unforgiving team the world has ever known — Unity. Their mission: defeat the warrior king armed with the universe's most powerful weapon. Kill X-O Manowar!
Collecting: Unity0-14
400 pages, Hardcover
First published September 23, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 28, 2018
Interesting. It’s like a justice league but with interesting characters. Valiant have improved on all the stereo types of heroes.
October 10, 2018
Valiant introduces their premiere superhero team in this deluxe edition. This collects the first four story arcs of the series, starting with their initial formation to bring down X-O Manowar (who then joins the team) during his occupation of Romania, and also features the team's storyline during the epic Armor Hunters crossover. I'd read both of these big events before in other editions: reviewed here and here. Because of these major crossovers and the fact that I'd read most of this before, this book felt a little piece-meal. But I do love reading about each character, who are staples in the Valiant Universe: Unity's leader: the powerful techno-psychic Livewire, Gilad Anni-Padda the Eternal Warrior, the ninja spy Ninjak, and Aric of Dacia, the almost unstoppable X-O Manowar.
It's interesting how dysfunctional Unity is, they seem like they can never get their act together. They actually don't seem like they fit together as a team very much and can't even keep new recruits, but I think that's part of the point and makes it feel different from other teams like the Justice League or Avengers. And the fact that they still get the job done, means that there is something about them being together that still works in the end!
In the final arc, a group of foreign nations suspect that Unity is harboring the giant killer Armor Hunter robot named GIN-GR that decimated Mexico City and Los Angeles, so these countries pool their resources to form another superteam to investigate Unity and stop them. And the crazy part of it is, they're right! Unity is actually hiding shit from the public. I love that the creators are willing to take it there. The way that the group has to deal with being thrust in the public spotlight is interesting and it seems like they're hanging together as a team by a thin thread. They even try to recruit Faith on the team, and the results are interesting!
It's interesting how dysfunctional Unity is, they seem like they can never get their act together. They actually don't seem like they fit together as a team very much and can't even keep new recruits, but I think that's part of the point and makes it feel different from other teams like the Justice League or Avengers. And the fact that they still get the job done, means that there is something about them being together that still works in the end!
In the final arc, a group of foreign nations suspect that Unity is harboring the giant killer Armor Hunter robot named GIN-GR that decimated Mexico City and Los Angeles, so these countries pool their resources to form another superteam to investigate Unity and stop them. And the crazy part of it is, they're right! Unity is actually hiding shit from the public. I love that the creators are willing to take it there. The way that the group has to deal with being thrust in the public spotlight is interesting and it seems like they're hanging together as a team by a thin thread. They even try to recruit Faith on the team, and the results are interesting!
March 29, 2017
3.5/5
A cool collection that suffers because of the constant crossovers. Similar to Bendis' All-New X-men, it gets caught up in other events without focusing enough on itself. It would've been a little better if this collected edition included the actual crossover event issues that it goes with, because without them they feel really disjointed. Other than that, it's another solid creation from Matt Kindt, who has really helped make his mark and expand the Valiant universe.
A cool collection that suffers because of the constant crossovers. Similar to Bendis' All-New X-men, it gets caught up in other events without focusing enough on itself. It would've been a little better if this collected edition included the actual crossover event issues that it goes with, because without them they feel really disjointed. Other than that, it's another solid creation from Matt Kindt, who has really helped make his mark and expand the Valiant universe.
April 19, 2026
Pretty cool, except that precursor group 'Unit Y'. Come on, guys!
November 28, 2015
I generally like the individual arcs of Unity. The problem is that it's constantly reacting to other events in the VH-E universe. This creates a rather incoherent ongoing storyline. Part of that is the fact that two of the four arcs are big cross-overs, but even without that, it jumps from place-to-place with little concern for explaining continuity to you. This is sort of a wonderful spine to the VH-E universe, but the whole is less than the parts.
To Kill a King (1-4). I previously read these as part of the crossover collected in X-O Manowar Deluxe Volume 2,so I was curious if they were comprehensible on their own. The answer quite surprisingly was yes. Some of the background context is clearly missing. You can also tell there was some activity between issues 2 and 3. However everything is fairly well-explained, and otherwise this is a set of seamless issues. Valiant continues to do a rather excellent job of creating crossovers that actually read well on their own.
The Unity issues don't have the same emotional depth as the X-O issues, perhaps because we're seeing a larger cast of characters and perhaps because they're just coming together. However, I love the global scope of this comic, and I love how dynamic it is. If both of these elements continue, then it should become great as Kindt becomes more comfortable with the characters [7/10].
Trapped by Webnet (5-7). Dr. Silk debuted in the early issues of VH-1 Ninjak (Valiant Masters: Ninjak Volume 1 Black Water), which were muddled and hard to understand. I was less than enthusiastic to see him return. He's still al little too megalomaniacal, but otherwise he's been reimagined in an interesting way. The plot again is nicely global, and though it seems overly compressed, it's otherwise a nice continuation of the Unity team [6+/10].
Armor Hunters (8-11). 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. [5/10] as a standalone book, though it was [7/10] when read with the other Armor Hunters: Deluxe Edition stories.
Unit Y (0). This history of a past Unity is fun; the slow construction of a VH-E universe that ran throughout the 20th century is rather delightful. The actual story is a bit less amazing, as there's not much unexpected or exciting [6/10].
The United (12-14 + Faith Speciall).Super-Foes for Unity and global political conflicts are both nice elements of this arc, as is the introduction of Faith and what she's been doing since Harbinger. I still think this comic is remaining too heavily dependent on the rest of the VH-E universe (as evidenced by the fact that this arc is all about Armor Hunters and Harbinger). With that said, this is a nice continuation of everyone's story [7/10].
To Kill a King (1-4). I previously read these as part of the crossover collected in X-O Manowar Deluxe Volume 2,so I was curious if they were comprehensible on their own. The answer quite surprisingly was yes. Some of the background context is clearly missing. You can also tell there was some activity between issues 2 and 3. However everything is fairly well-explained, and otherwise this is a set of seamless issues. Valiant continues to do a rather excellent job of creating crossovers that actually read well on their own.
The Unity issues don't have the same emotional depth as the X-O issues, perhaps because we're seeing a larger cast of characters and perhaps because they're just coming together. However, I love the global scope of this comic, and I love how dynamic it is. If both of these elements continue, then it should become great as Kindt becomes more comfortable with the characters [7/10].
Trapped by Webnet (5-7). Dr. Silk debuted in the early issues of VH-1 Ninjak (Valiant Masters: Ninjak Volume 1 Black Water), which were muddled and hard to understand. I was less than enthusiastic to see him return. He's still al little too megalomaniacal, but otherwise he's been reimagined in an interesting way. The plot again is nicely global, and though it seems overly compressed, it's otherwise a nice continuation of the Unity team [6+/10].
Armor Hunters (8-11). 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. [5/10] as a standalone book, though it was [7/10] when read with the other Armor Hunters: Deluxe Edition stories.
Unit Y (0). This history of a past Unity is fun; the slow construction of a VH-E universe that ran throughout the 20th century is rather delightful. The actual story is a bit less amazing, as there's not much unexpected or exciting [6/10].
The United (12-14 + Faith Speciall).Super-Foes for Unity and global political conflicts are both nice elements of this arc, as is the introduction of Faith and what she's been doing since Harbinger. I still think this comic is remaining too heavily dependent on the rest of the VH-E universe (as evidenced by the fact that this arc is all about Armor Hunters and Harbinger). With that said, this is a nice continuation of everyone's story [7/10].
August 31, 2016
Not bad. Not quite the same level of intense reading that I find in other Valiant titles, but pretty good. The problem with this book is that it (inherently) relies on the other titles, which means readers need to be universally engaged. While well-written, this book does not stand on its own.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews