“X-O: Manowar†is one of Valiant Comics’ most successful series. So what better way to treat your most famous character than to make him the main villain in another series? That’s where Valiant’s brand new series “Unity†comes into play by Matt Kindt with art by Doug Braithwaite. The first issue is everything that readers expect.
Taking place in modern times, Aric now calls himself the king of Romania, his home which was called Dacia in his time. He is under attack by the Russian military and a Military strategist named Harada who is training young people with superpowers to fight him. One of these people is Ninjak who is a ninja with some modern day equipment.
The story is essentially an “X-Men vs. Magneto†story minus the mutant prejudice. One of the problems is that the only characters with any likable traits are Aric and Ninjak. Every other character, even Harada are about as boring and generic as they come. When the readers are rooting for the villain as he destroys everything in sight is a bad sign. There one scene where four of Harada’s students get introduced with lengthy introduction boxes only to be killed off one page later. All that work with writing bios for characters that are reduced to red shirts.
Another problem with the story is that there is way too much inner monologue. These inner monologues go on for pages. It’s not they are short monologues either. Each page has a full paragraph of it. This only slows down the story and makes the comic seem longer than it actually is.
One big bright spot is the art. Valiant has great artists and Braithwaite does not disappoint. The characters all look and move almost lifelike and their facial expressions do convey their emotions nicely. The backgrounds are also a delight and fit well with the characters and the scenes.
“Unity #1â€is a poor man’s “X-Men,†where the villain is the one who to root for. Wonderful art will not help this comic rise above its mediocre story and forgettable characters though.
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