I have to be honest, when Valiant launched the series Unity over a year ago, I was rather excited. It’s no secret that I’m a Valiant Fanboy and I ate up everything they published in the 90s and still love it today. When I read Unity was a series of various heroes assembled by Toyo Harada to take on the threat of Aric of Dacia’s X-O Man-o-War armor I was stoked! I imagined something on the same level of the original Unity; which was a crossover event during Valiant’s second year of publication. Well all that the two Unity series have in common is just the name. This version of Unity is vastly different.
How Unity can best be described is a team book. There are three main characters: Ninjak, The Eternal Warrior and Livewire. Two of which are characters with their own series or form thereof. Together they form a union, a team called G.A.T.E. (Global Agency for Threat Excision). The organization is run by both the American and British military intelligence channels. The team has just taken a hit and been shown their worst inner fears, having taken time to hunt down what matters most to each of them they are back again to begin their next mission.
The issue opens with the team being brought to the desert where an escaped alien has made itself known. Malgam, a victim left over from the X-O Man-o-War Armor Hunters event, escapes the custody of G.A.T.E only to end up being tracked by the HARD Corps. The team is loaned out to Major Charlie Palmer, who is the head of HARD Corps, to apprehend and return Malgam. What we end up with is a pretty big powerhouse issue with a decent fight with Malgam against everybody.
In the end, Malgam isn’t brought down with brute force or strength. Livewire has brought along an old friend of Malgam’s, another left over remnant of the Armor Hunters event, Gin-Gr, the living/ sentient ship, Malgam becomes holed up in the ship which is now used as his prison but with Malgam imprisoned within Gin-Gr he can live comfortably with a friend.
This is the first time the team really comes together and shows a little attitude. The past 17 issues has taken the time to explore and flesh out each character so we can now see them function and gel like a team should in the end. As Palmer states in the beginning, “The team shows attitude and even has a leader.”
Matt Kindt is writing this train while Pere Perez is making it go with some amazing art. With a ninja, a Harbinger Psiot and an immortal being for a team, you’re bound to have one or two good arcs over time. I also wonder if this will tie into X-O’s Dead Hand story arc going on right now? Unity #18 sees release this Wednesday, you should snag yourself a copy!
Read your Unity preview here:
