Unity #8 (Armor Hunters)

By Matt Kindt, Stephen Segovia & Brian Reber

Armor Hunters continues with its Unity tie-in and after the level that Armor Hunters #1 achieved, Unity has an uphill battle ahead of it. Fortunately for Valiant fans, and fans excited for this Armor Hunters event, it seems that writer Matt Kindt, artist Stephen Segovia and colorist Brian Reber are up to the challenge.

Shortly after the catastrophic events of Armor Hunters, Matt Kindt has his A-team on the move to save Russian armor tech, supposedly copied from what they’re learned about Vine technology, from the “Armor Hunters” and use it to their advantage. The banter between Gilad and Ninjak is great, including various “history lessons” from Gilad as he warns Ninjak against tactics that he’s seen fail, literally, countless times during his long, long life. History lessons that the always headstrong Ninjak chooses to ignore as both he and Gilad go head to head with Quartz. Aside from the insane display of power in the title series, this is really the first time we get to see some Valiant heroes go up against the Armor Hunters and, well, let’s just say it’ll be hard to put a tick in the win column for Gilad and Ninjak.

Stephen Segovia’s work, which you might recognize from the recent New Guardians Annual issue, is solid and in contrast to some of the work he’s done for DC Comics, it almost feels like he’s had more time working on this issue. Everything just seems to be a step up from some of his more recent, Big Two work—not to say that wasn’t good, of course, because Stephen is a definitely a great artist. His heavy blacks and great movement really adds depth to the battle with Quartz and let’s not forget that first panel of the newly recruited Bloodshot which was all kinds of creepy. Segovia certainly impresses in his debut for Valiant and Valiant Universe mainstay Brian Reber on colors is, as always, an absolute delight. Reber is well on his way to being the Dave Stewart of Valiant—Dave Stewart is a Dark Horse colorist mainstay, not to mention the master of color. Seriously that guy does a ton of color work for them, especially in the Mignolaverse—with the sheer amount and quality of his work and it’s always a pleasure to see his color work on a Valiant book.

While Unity really strives to hit that bar that Armor Hunters #1 hit, it might have just missed the mark by hairs. That being said, the bar was set insanely high by Venditti and Braithwaite so you can’t fault them for anything. Unity is definitely a great book and a great chapter in Armor Hunters. So far, it’s safe to say that Valiant and company are more than living up to the hype around the Armor Hunters event. Bring on the next issue!