The Good
You know how sometimes big events drag their feet and take their sweet time to feel important? UNITY doesn't have that problem one bit, and the funny thing is it's not even a big event! It has the feel of a big event, it has the look of a big event, but it's not one -- it's just another ongoing from Valiant, and that's ridiculously impressive. The premise which connects these characters is a great one and swiftly recapped. It's building off of the events in both X-O MANOWAR and HARBINGER, but never alienates new readers, either. Just the right amount of exposition is thrown in to remind/inform us of what went down elsewhere, but it's never enough to weigh down the issue. Furthermore, Kindt uses this to his advantage when he brings Livewire into the picture and it establishes an immediate connection to her (if you don't read HARBINGER, that is). Not only does the writer cover a lot of ground here and make a ginormous development, but he manages to throw in a crazy amount of action, too. Livewire's inclusion is definitely a creative one when it comes to battles and, I swear to you, seeing Ninjak and Toyo Harada in action will never get old. Never.
A slow clap goes out to artist Doug Braithwaite and colorist Brian Reber. This is one mighty fine looking issue and never appears rushed. There's a commendable amount of detail on every page and the violence is brought to life (so to speak) in a jaw-dropping fashion. There's one panel of two characters clashing that's simply gorgeous and left me speechless.
The Bad
Occasionally the facial work can be a bit too detailed, making people seem way older than they're supposed to be. But considering how good everything else looks, that's a really, really minor complaint.
The Veridct
If you're going to throw all of these characters together, you better make it worthwhile. Thankfully, Matt Kindt does just that and he's wasting no time at all with UNITY. The writer opens the book by talking about big moments in history and it's appropriate since this book has a ridiculously epic feeling going for it. The pacing is seriously impressive here. So many other writers could have pushed these events back one issue and spent t Not only is the comic moving full speed ahead, but it's doing so in an amazingly entertaining manner and is sporting some oh-so-lovely visuals, too. I just can't praise this book enough, people.