Unity 4: The United

Comic Info

Unity #12

Reprints Unity #0, 12-14, and Harbinger:  Faith #1 (October 2014-January 2014).  Unity is going public…sort of.  With the joining of GIN-GR under wraps and Ninjak keeping his identity hidden, Unity is as public as they can be without upsetting the public.  In a PR move, Faith finds herself as one of the new faces of team, but Faith is about to discover that being a member of Unity could be nothing she ever expected or wanted.

Written by Matt Kindt and Joshua Dysart, Unity Volume 4:  The United is a Valiant superhero team book.  Following Unity Volume 3:  Armor Hunters, the collection features art by CAFU, Cary Nord, and Robert Gill.  Harbinger:  Faith #1 (December 2014) was also included in Faith—Deluxe Edition.

It feels like Unity needed this book.  The team was making worldwide, life-changing events for the last few books, but no one seemed to know about them.  With the Armor Hunters storyline resulting in a destroyed Mexico City, Unity’s official arrival was inevitable, but I do like how it is rolled out here.  Despite liking the set-up, Unity still has some basic structural problems to fix.

Unity #13

There is no doubt that if there was a superhuman team of superheroes, the government would be trying to manipulate it.  There is also no doubt that civilians would never hear half of what was going on with the team.  I like that Faith (even briefly) was added to the team because it feels like a smart PR move by a public team…and unfortunately, it blows up in Faith’s optimistic face.

The problem with this volume is (once again) that too much happens too quickly when the story could have easily been expanded.  The United are introduced and completely taken down with ease and this is a problem with Unity…they need a real nice set of established villains.  It might not be “real” to have a group who believes themselves to be super-villains since Valiant seems to strive for realism with most of their titles, but there has to be recurring enemies that readers can get to know.  I also feel that the Faith joining-quitting storyline should have lasted a few volumes.  The characters should have been allowed to get comfortable before the rug was pulled out from under her.

Unity 4:  The United is another step forward in a series that keeps stepping forward to a fault.  The comic honestly needs to slowdown and establish the team as a team.  Right now, Unity just feels like a bunch of pieces shoved together without “Unity” (ironically).  If the comic is going to work there needs to be more cohesion because the Defenders style of team doesn’t necessarily work here.  Unity 4:  The United is followed by Unity 5:  Homefront.

Related Links:

Unity 1:  To Kill a King

Unity 2:  Trapped by Webnet

Unity 3:  Armor Hunters

Unity 5:  Homefront

Unity 6:  The War-Monger