Unity #11 (Armor Hunters)

By Matt Kindt, Stephen Segovia and Allen Passalaqua

Armor Hunters is quickly tying up loose ends as it prepares for the finale scheduled for September 24^th. This Unity tie-in is a quick step in the story and really doesn’t provide a ton of story advancement. While most of the time this can be a point of contention among reviewers, it actually works in the favorite of the Unity title.

Writer Matt Kindt seizes this opportunity, while still involving the hectic attack on Los Angeles by Gin-Gr and the general story of Armor Hunters to actually further two of his main characters. Both Ninjak and Gilad have been the focus of Kindt throughout this tie-in, but this issue really shows some growth. Kindt presents some more information Ninjak and how he does what he does, while also setting up some potential tension down the road between the two heroes. Both unique characters make for an interesting pair, and regardless of the Armor Hunters stuff going on in the Valiant Universe; it’s going to be very interesting to see where Kindt takes these two amongst the Unity team in issues to come.

The art was a bit of a jumble of talent alongside series regular Stephen Segovia’s work. Normally, having this many artists on a book can be off putting, but Kindt and/or Valiant has it worked out in such a way that you don’t even really notice it. Surely the reasoning had to be keeping the deadlines for Armor Hunters, something that is all too common amongst the Big Two, but at least in this instance it wasn’t a jarring affect that pulled you out of the book. For what he did do, Segovia did it well and he’s certainly proven his skills in recent Valiant issues. Colorist Allen Passalqua maintains the look we’re used to in Unity and though nothing really jumps out of the issue, good or bad. It’s a good, clean color job that’s, as mentioned, pretty standard for Valiant. We’ll undoubtedly see more work from these two in issues and books to come.

While Unity #11 was not spectacular, especially when compared to some of the other books within this event, but it also wasn’t bad either. Kindt already seems focused on what’s to come after this is all said and done and that’s perfectly fine with this reviewer. We need more Ninjak and Gilad, and Kindt is just the man to give it to us.