Unity vs. Chaos Effect - Poll

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:07 pm

This may sound nuts, but IMO, I thought Chaos Effect was a better cross-over than Unity. What are your thoughts?

Background:

Unity - I read it back in the day and LOVED it. I read it in the last couple of months as a part of my reading of the Valiant U and it felt like a tedious read.

Chaos Effect - I read it this month for the first time ever.

The threat in Unity was far superior. There was a defined enemy (Mothergod) and a defined threat. There really was no enemy in Chaos Effect and the threat (Chaos) really wasn't well defined at all. In this regard, Unity killed it.

However, I thought Chaos Effect was much better overall. It took one issue of each series that was running and blended the general threat into the ongoing plotlines to pull everything loosely together. Each writer seemed to do a very good job of blending into the cross-over. Hell, the Psi-Lords issue was even really strong because they very effectively blended in an origin into that cross-over issue. Probably my favorite week of books were the last week (epsilon books) and the epilogues. Great stuff!

Take a look at the art in the first week of books. The colors were insanely vibrant. I'd love to own some of those color pages.

Overall, if all cross-overs were done the way that Chaos Effect were, I wouldn't mind reading them. I thought that the writers throughout this cross-over all really understood what they were supposed to do. I guess the credit really should go to the editors on this.

I know most here like Pre-Unity and Unity only and laugh at the other stuff. Hell, I thought I was the same, but since I've been reading all this stuff now and giving it a fair shake, there are some really bright spots throughout (so far to this point).

P.S. Harbinger after #25 is actually really damn good (so far). You just have to be able to accept that Pete isn't in it.

P.S.S. I'm only 3 issues in, but so far, Psi-Lords is actually pretty good..... and I hate Sci-Fi crap.

P.S.S. Ninjak and Hard Corps and to a lesser extent Bloodshot still suck and are pretty pointless reads.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 1:17 am

400yrs wrote:P.S.S. I'm only 3 issues in, but so far, Psi-Lords is actually pretty good....

Cue Chiclo...

-slym

cplsimon · Post by **cplsimon** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:35 am

Wow bro that is sacrilegious around here. You might be banned from the boards for even posing the question. In all seriousness unity's story imo is hands down better and way more epic. Magnus origin plus death of Rai, epic just epic.

Now to be fair I loved the format for Chaos Effect. The self contained by week stories were very cool. If you did not want to read a title you could skip that week. I did not but you could. Love any time a&a, ew flip book.

So I understand, but unity has to be taken in the context of nothing less than the bringing together of a new and better comic universe, that will rival the big two. It swings for the fences. Unity was a statment to the industry not just a crossover.

Chiclo · Post by **Chiclo** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:09 am

slym2none wrote:
400yrs wrote:P.S.S. I'm only 3 issues in, but so far, Psi-Lords is actually pretty good....
Cue Chiclo...

-slym

Tomio never lied.

Phantom.. · Post by **Phantom..** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:09 am

psi lords is a good rtead.
alot of
pre unity people do miss out on g9reat stories

myron · Post by **myron** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:20 am

Phantom.. wrote:psi lords is a good crap.
alot of
pre unity people arent missing out on g9reat stories

fixed all that for ya...

kevinbastos · Post by **kevinbastos** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:48 am

Okay - I've gone back and read a bunch of the Valiant stuff over the last few years. Pre-Unity and Unity are great, and some stuff after Unity is nice, but...

To read Chaos Effect as much more than a company struggling to keep its fingernails on the last pieces of industry share. The industry was imploding, and the company within the failing industry was failing. Most revered writers and artists had jumped the ship, and some of the best storylines were collapsing, too. A & A - one of the best under Barry - was canceled at the end.

I'm, certain that the company worked hard to combat and revitalize itself during this time - like a New X-Men, but came off more like a New Universe.

In retrospect, Chaos Effect seemed like little more than a bad Unity ripoff. Through all of the lines, starting and ending with a separate title, even publishing a postscript...

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:51 am

I actually liked both events. They were different many ways.

Unity was amazing.. but the writing and story telling werent perfect.

Choas event was neat.. and the flow of the story was a little better than unity.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:13 pm

they are kinda 1 large story chaos is the beginning unity is the end in a duality kind of way

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:35 pm

To me, the only decent thing about the Chaos Effect story was the epilogue with Magnus.

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:49 pm

IanAlexavier wrote:

Choas event was neat.. and the flow of the story was a little better than unity.

Definitely. That's what I liked. I didn't have to read the same 5 pages 18 times.

Chiclo · Post by **Chiclo** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:00 pm

400yrs wrote:
IanAlexavier wrote:

Choas event was neat.. and the flow of the story was a little better than unity.
Definitely. That's what I liked. I didn't have to read the same 5 pages 18 times.

So, are you the official VF.com malcontent? Can someone even say something that negative here?

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:44 pm

Chiclo wrote:
400yrs wrote:
IanAlexavier wrote:

Choas event was neat.. and the flow of the story was a little better than unity.
Definitely. That's what I liked. I didn't have to read the same 5 pages 18 times.
So, are you the official VF.com malcontent? Can someone even say something that negative here?

I guess.

I kind of remembered the early stuff fondly for many years...... Then I re-read it and much of it isn't as good as I remembered.

There's stuff throughout that's great though - stuff I read in the past and stuff I'm just now reading for the first time. All Bob Hall Shadowman, Harbingers after 25, All the Magnus pre-unity .... truly great stuff!

Some of it's overrated though. Unity to me is overrated as a story, but deserves the accolades for being a crossover that brought a universe together. The execution read as a whole though..... sub par. It did what is was supposed to do perfectly though.

careygold · Post by **careygold** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:55 pm

Thanks for sharing

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:54 am

-slym

Second_Death · Post by **Second_Death** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:55 pm

400yrs wrote:
IanAlexavier wrote:

Choas event was neat.. and the flow of the story was a little better than unity.
Definitely. That's what I liked. I didn't have to read the same 5 pages 18 times.

That is the very reason that Unity is such a classic. Certainly the CE books are an easier and faster read compared to the Unity books. The Chaos Effect crossover could just as easily been titled "Unity For Dummies".

StarBrand · Post by **StarBrand** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:05 pm

I had to admit I didn't read both. Unity was great, of course, but I never read Chaos Effect.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:44 pm

StarBrand wrote:I had to admit I didn't read both. Unity was great, of course, but I never read Chaos Effect.

Meh...you're not missing much.

StarBrand · Post by **StarBrand** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:02 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:
StarBrand wrote:I had to admit I didn't read both. Unity was great, of course, but I never read Chaos Effect.
Meh...you're not missing much.

What was it about?

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:45 pm

StarBrand wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:
StarBrand wrote:I had to admit I didn't read both. Unity was great, of course, but I never read Chaos Effect.
Meh...you're not missing much.
What was it about?

The basic premise...

Ivar accidentally releases necromantic energy through one of his time arcs. This in turn jacks up the powers of Shadowman, Darque, Sandria, Eclipse and Dr. Mirage. The energy also has adverse effects on electronics and it sends the world into…wait for it….Chaos!

Ultimately Sandria has to recruit people to help seal the energy breach before the world comes to an end. She starts with Mirage and convinces him to use his energy to hold back the hole Ivar created until she returns with help.

StarBrand · Post by **StarBrand** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:47 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:
StarBrand wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:
StarBrand wrote:I had to admit I didn't read both. Unity was great, of course, but I never read Chaos Effect.
Meh...you're not missing much.
What was it about?
The basic premise...

Ivar accidentally releases necromantic energy through one of his time arcs. This in turn jacks up the powers of Shadowman, Darque, Sandria, Eclipse and Dr. Mirage. The energy also has adverse effects on electronics and it sends the world into…wait for it….Chaos!

Ultimately Sandria has to recruit people to help seal the energy breach before the world comes to an end. She starts with Mirage and convinces him to use his energy to hold back the hole Ivar created until she returns with help.

Thanks.

dave · Post by **dave** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:32 am

I think it's hard to judge these stories outside of the context of when they were written and published. Unity doing what it did for a fledgling company deserves high praise even if it was repetitive, because all that repeating meant fans at the time did not have to purchase every issue to get the story.

CE was timely in regards to events like the Northridge earthquake and the way information was beginning to be published via the internet.

Today, reading through a title is easy during Unity because so much is recapped for you in any issue, but you can't read a CE issue without reading the A and O issues to get the story.

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