Unity #13

[ValiantChris1994]

This was a pretty decent issue, and Faith is definitely a fun new member of the team. Little seemed to really happen though, but that's true of all comics in this written-for-the-trades era, so it's not like I'm surprised.

I find it kinda odd that Faith is so shocked that Unity are violent, seeing as through her time with the Harbinger Renegades, her compatriots did far worse things, and she was in Mexico City during ground zero. This is no big deal though.

[hunter_peterson]

This was a pretty decent issue, and Faith is definitely a fun new member of the team. Little seemed to really happen though, but that's true of all comics in this written-for-the-trades era, so it's not like I'm surprised.

I find it kinda odd that Faith is so shocked that Unity are violent, seeing as through her time with the Harbinger Renegades, her compatriots did far worse things, and she was in Mexico City during ground zero. This is no big deal though.

I think she was shocked it was so... cold. When the Renegades did violence, it was because they were either outgunned, generally. And they always tried to minimise casualties. Whereas Unity always goes for the maximum impact strike, big casualties every confrontation. And she'd also apparently built up a lot of hype about them being four-color-heroes somehow. I guess the marketing worked? It'll be interesting to see Unity with a source of moral friction in it that isn't a dark influence like Harada.

I really liked this issue. The way it fleshed out the United was fantastic, I really like all of them. Glad they'll apparently be around for a good while. And the confirmation of Stock's connection to Breaker was great! And that potentially makes it three out of four original Unit Y members still in action, surprisingly. Interesting. I wonder how long until we have a reunion?

Also, like the Faith one-shot, this issue made me think she actually could work very well as a solo hero, if the set up was right. They seem to be building her up to that, perhaps...

[Brapbrap]

Loving this Unity arc, feel like the start of Unity was ruined because although the first arc was cool the forced Armor Hunters tie in arc was awful and the Dr Silk arc felt like it was just there to fill the gap before AH, now the characters are coming in to their own a bit more and its starting to feel like a more human comic. I really hope Unity doesn't tie in to Dead Hand for these reasons; I can't see anything good coming from another few months of forced event stuff.

[Keith]

Seconding the love of this arc so far. These past two issues have been fantastic! Faith has made a great addition to the team solely on just the point of view she brings. The United are fantastic characters, and they are proving to be every bit the adversaries for Unity that we'd expect. Love that we are seeing connections back to the original Unit Y!

Oh, and if they've offed GIN-GR already, I riot.

[Brapbrap]

almost certainly a fakeout, if GIN-GR could be killed by a nuclear blast then Armor Hunters would not have been a big deal

[hunter_peterson]

almost certainly a fakeout, if GIN-GR could be killed by a nuclear blast then Armor Hunters would not have been a big deal

I think it's more likely that the world finds out about her, though it's also possible she's cosmetically damaged and rebuilt looking different.

[jmatt]

Little seemed to really happen though, but that's true of all comics in this written-for-the-trades era, so it's not like I'm surprised.

I'm usually in that camp, but I thought it moved at a decent clip all things considered. The first third of the book was a profile rundown of the United, character by character. And in the remaining pages we saw Neville captured, Mare captured and Gin-GR possibly blown up or irradiated. Not bad by today's decompressed standard.

[David_Cody]

I enjoyed the heck out of this issue. Loved the inner-dialogue of Faith. Thought it was interesting how her view of the team changed at the end. The whole issue was a

[pixierosa]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Faith's POV was a welcome break from the usual seriousness. Her B.O. comment had me laughing. I also liked that we got the run-down on The United. They're not villians (except for Ultimo). I like how this is being set up - rather than the usual bad guy does something horrible, we've got a super team sent in to "correct" a situation that a group has caused. But this time, rather than it being Unity going after someone for harboring a killer robot, it's the founders behind Unity that behaving questionably in the minds of the other groups, and they've sent in a supergroup to correct the wrongs. So much more interesting this way. The United believe that they are acting in the right - just like the Unity team normally does.

Good backstories. The United have some cool abilities. I think Gin-Gr will be alright but the public will be aware of her. The predicament is a nice reflection of the world we live in - you may be able to overcome personal adversity or win physical battles, but ultimately the hardest fight will be the one played out in the press.

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

[BugsySig]

Just read it. I thought it was a very good issue. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out with the United.

[jmatt]

And she'd also apparently built up a lot of hype about them being four-color-heroes somehow. I guess the marketing worked? It'll be interesting to see Unity with a source of moral friction in it that isn't a dark influence like Harada.

I agree it's interesting how fast the shine came off the glamour of being a big league superhero with her "I wish I wasn't here anymore" comment. Yes, she's seen some action before but I think she's not accustomed (or even ready) for the blood and guts modus operandi of Gillie and Colin.

[Brother Darque]

so The Myth is like evil MacGyver?

[String]

It's nice to see Faith lose some of her naivety in this instance. She's always been a bit of a fanboy about such things and now she's finally seen how some of these actions are carried out. Plus, the marketing ploy may have worked as well, they've been building up Unity as this grand team, which Faith would certainly buy into, except now she's witnessed firsthand the dark underbelly of the beast, so to speak.

It'll be interesting to see what, if any, changes she's able to wrought on the team. Her evolving comments on the other members were fun to read. (Gilad, a smelly barbarian? Say it ain't so! )

Love the United and their backstories. So far, the past two issues have been rock solid entertainment.

[Bl00dsh0t]

Great issue all round really. So much happened and so much was character focused.

I'd like to see Stock join Unity and perhaps Gang at some stage, keeping The Myth and Ultimo as villans.

I don't think Gin Gr is in any real trouble here - I agree with the other comments that this will likely lead to her being seen by the world due to building damage etc.

I wonder how long Faith will last with Unity? The group seems a little too violent for her liking. Personally I hope she hangs around. I'd also like to see Archer join which could lead to the Faith/Archer connection mentioned in A&A #13 by Ivar.

[dmezynski]

Unity gets better and better.

Faith seems like a great addition, and (as I recall anyway) her weight didn't fluctuate wildly panel to panel.

[leonmallett]

For me this was another good issue, although I found the structure of the United's introductions a little repetitive; not in their back-stories, just in the format. It felt like quite an exposition dump.

I think Kindt showed off how Faith was a fish out of water among the Unity crew, underscoring that these guys are not simply VEI's Avengers or Justice League. It does make me wonder if she is really viable as a long-term member.

It is also interesting to see Kindt weaving in more of the past of the team's previous iterations.

[grendeljd]

Solid issue, I really liked The United back stories & the main present day portion with Faiths commentary running over the events. I think Matt is handling her character very well so far.

Loved the way she used her power to float everyone on a big disc for stealth purposes but also showed her lack of experience & training by dropping it on the rooftop. Loved CAFU's art, as always

It's cool & yet strange to be reading Valiant material that is trying to break new ground - like the insertion of these new characters forming The United.

Gang is really cool - I love that backstory, love the idea that she may have access to all those ghost psiot abilities. Horrifying to read about the Chinese Psiot activation program...

It makes sense that other agencies besides PRS in other countries would also be aware of & secretly trying to generate psiots, but I was left wondering how they discovered them, how they learned to try & activate them, why Harada wouldn't have stopped it to protect his interests (unless it was already being done under his umbrella)...

This new fact actually ties well to Q&W though - wasn't there a Chinese superhero in the Valiant-Sized Special?

[grendeljd]

There is one thing that bothers me a bit overall in Unity so far - it's that no one ever mentions the tie to Harada when it came to launching the modern Unity team... There's a lot of history for Unity being founded by MI6 / UK government in the past (ie Unit Y, etc), but the beginning of the series was all about Harada forming Unity. I'll have to re-read the run to see how that all pieces together, I may be forgetting something in there.

[jmatt]

There is one thing that bothers me a bit overall in Unity so far - it's that no one ever mentions the tie to Harada when it came to launching the modern Unity team... There's a lot of history for Unity being founded by MI6 / UK government in the past (ie Unit Y, etc), but the beginning of the series was all about Harada forming Unity. I'll have to re-read the run to see how that all pieces together, I may be forgetting something in there.

Yeah, we talked about this in another thread. It doesn't really make much sense.

[grendeljd]

There is one thing that bothers me a bit overall in Unity so far - it's that no one ever mentions the tie to Harada when it came to launching the modern Unity team... There's a lot of history for Unity being founded by MI6 / UK government in the past (ie Unit Y, etc), but the beginning of the series was all about Harada forming Unity. I'll have to re-read the run to see how that all pieces together, I may be forgetting something in there.

Yeah, we talked about this in another thread. It doesn't really make much sense.

If there isn't a clear tie already in there somewhere, all it would really take is a line or two from Neville at some point where he says something as simple as 'We gave the reins to Harada to form the team, but that was clearly a mistake in hindsight. Fortunately we have no ties to him any longer'

It makes sense that MI6 et al would be anxious to sever any connection to Harada, and would likely not ever talk about it in public voluntarily - but you would think that internally/privately the characters would still discuss it since they were all part of the modern team's inception & know it happened...

I just wish something was mentioned in there to make it an official concrete chain of events. It's not the end of the world, the book is still great - but it's a tiny loose end I would like to see addressed.

[hawkeyeps]

grendeljd and I were having this discussion on FB, here is my thoughts-

- IIRC Gilad has a history with Harada, they knew each other before Unity and they seemed to be somewhat friendly.

- MI 6 may have specifically gone to Harada for the new Unity team, perhaps he was viewed as a contractor of sorts like PRS was in the old days. At this time those that did know about Harada largely viewed him as benevolent.

- I see the chain of events like this- Gil confronts Aric doesn't go well so Gil goes to MI 6. MI 6 brings in Ninjak and goes to Harada to activate his Unity team. They get wasted so Harada brings in Livewire and forms the new team with Gil and Ninjak. Everybody thought he was pretty much a good guy until he tried to take the armour for himself. That's when they started to realize how dangerous he was and severed ties. Luckily for them Livewire defected which must have *SQUEE* off Harada to no end.

- It was like broken arm Gil went to see Harada on behalf of MI 6 to activate his team of super powered operatives that he created for MI 6 to be the new Unity team. If Livewire didn't defect and require protection from Harada there would be no new Unity team, it would just be Gil and Ninjak doing *SQUEE* for MI 6 in secret. It was the events of Armor hunters that forced the team to go public and bring on Faith.

- The Chinese may have been aware of psiots due to MI 6's activities with Harada.

- I think the international espionage world has been aware of Harada for a long time.

- If Harada was cozy with MI 6 that may explain the American's association with PRS, the couldn't allow Mi 6 to have all this power. Also interesting to consider is that prior to Aric coming back to earth MI 6 was heavily infiltrated by Vine Plantings.

We really started going down the rabbit hole but it made me think how all these parts may be moving in the VU.

Thoughts?

[bygranddesign]

Finally made it to my LCS and couldn't wait to read this issue.

And it did not disappoint!

Matt Kindt is doing his best work right now for Valiant.

I agree with the comments that this book is finally coming into its own ... and it finally feels like a Team title.

Cafu's art and Reber's colors are great. Perfect for this book.

I'm so pleasantly surprised how much I like the United.

Each back story was intriguing and fun ... and I could see a lot more that can be mined from these characters.

Gang ... might be one of my favorite new characters.

This is a much more successful villian team than the one introduced in the Bloodshot and Hard Corps arc with Bart Sears. I don't even remember much about them ... but the United I hope sticks around.

Faith was great in the issue ... I don't know if Kindt has her voice down as well as Dysart (She should have said Fracking instead of Freaking .. ) but she is such a great character and its cool to see her a part of this team.

[ilzuccone]

I loved everything about this issue.