Unity #9 (Armor Hunters)

By Matt Kindt, Stephen Segovia & Brian Reber

After the ending of Armor Hunters #2—which, regrettably wasn’t covered on All-Comic simply due to time constraints—Unity #9 takes a step back to discuss the potential Armor Virus and really take a look at Livewire who, up until now, we really haven’t had much time with. After adding a few more character building blocks for her, Matt Kindt moves right back into the action as the Armor Hunters literally release the hounds on the world.

Of course, being that this is the Valiant Universe, they’re not regular hounds and things get crazy quickly. Kindt choreographs some great fight scenes between our Unity heroes and these hounds, particularly with Ninjak and Gilad, before settling the story pretty much where Armor Hunters #2 left off. It’s always interesting to see a parallel story that eventually ties back into the main one, especially if the main one might not have enough time to explain all the necessary events as was the case with AH #2, and Kindt pulls it off flawlessly.

It goes without saying that colorist Brian Reber knocked this one out of the park. He’s very much the go-to guy for Valiant and he completely deserves that honor. Unfortunately, even he can’t save some of these panels from artist Stephen Segovia. Now, that’s not to say that Segovia didn’t do a good job, because he did and all you really need for proof is to look at the aforementioned scenes with Ninjak and Gilad, particularly a calm and serene page showing just how sharp Ninjak’s sword really is, but it’s not all up to his usual standard. A few faces and heads here and there just look off, and that can pull a reader out of the story, even for a moment.

Aside from some minor flaws in the art, which in no way should deter you from picking up another great installment, Armor Hunters continues to roll on. We’re slowly learning just what these Hunters are made of, and it’s going to be great when we finally get to see them go head to head with the Valiant heroes particularly, of course, Aric. Next up, Bloodshot dives into the Armor Hunters with his own mini-series tie-in and if this event so far has been any indication, you’re not going to want to miss it. Valiant is the real deal, folks. Pick this up.