Straight Forward Reviews : Unity # 2

Valiant's Unity marches forward as Harada and his group continue in their fight against X-O Manowar. Is it worth keeping up with?

Writer - Matt Kindt

Artist - Doug Brathwaite

Publisher - Valiant

Review by Jeremias de Leon

Story

In this issue tensions rise to a boiling point. Or perhaps it's safer to say the action escalates further. The threat of the power of X-O Manowar and of Russia's weapons has everyone moving with a heightened sense of purpose to save millions.

Harada recruits Livewire so they can attack Manowar themselves. Ninjak tries to recoup and the Eternal Warrior really doesn't do much of anything. Manowar puts up one heck of a fight against the multi pronged attack Harada plans and something crazy happens.

There is no way I am going to spoil what happens as a result of this attack,  you'll just have to read it for yourself to know.

The dialog in this issue is fantastic and the pacing keeps you on the edge of your seat. The narration has you thinking for a bit as well.

Art

The art at first, just at first, like say the first page or two doesn't really scream that it's special. Just really competent and technically well done. But as the comic goes on the art goes on to capture my imagination. Something about the actions later on in this book and the way the art shows really makes you feel the gravity of the events. It's amazing.

Verdict

Unity just goes on to keep kicking butt. The narrative in this story just keeps going to new places. Except for Eternal Warrior looking pretty much useless everything else in this comic, the narration, the dialog, and the art gel together for a pretty amazing story. I give Unity # 2 a 9.5 out of 10

Straight Forward Reviews : X-O Manowar 18

The last X-O Manowar issue before Unity starts. This is a huge moment.

Writer - Robert Vendetti

Artist - Lee Garbett

Publisher - Valiant Entertainment

Review by Jeremias de Leon

Story

Things ramp up to, as the kids would say, "all the way to 11" in this issue. We've seen the plotting the entire world was starting to take against Aric and we know everybody was monitoring him like a hawk. But now, everyone is making their moves.

This arc had always had tension but this issue has tension that I wouldn't call thick, I'd call it combustible. So much so that you already see explosions occuring. All these moments however are only the signal of the start of the huge events going to happen in Unity next month.

Art

The artwork is something special, just calling it dark or gritty isn't enough because in the very same issue words like vibrant and colorful can be used to describe it.

The art is truly something to behold in this issue. Also of note is the line work of the characters it has this sketch like yet detailed quality to it. There isn't a ton of details on their faces or anything but you can immediately tell who they are and that they're totally unique characters.

Verdict

The writing in this issue is gripping, and that's a word I don't use very often unless I truly feel it is. As a matter of fact I think this is the only review I've said that. (Waits to see someone point out a previous review and prove me wrong.) The art is distinct and has a really style. 

Also considering these are the events that lead directly to Unity you definitely want to pick this up. X-O Manowar 18 gets a 9.5 out of 10.