Reviews»Comic Books»The Valiant #4
THE-VALIANT_004_COVERA_RIVERA
Kareem Ali 3.5

The Valiant #4

 

  • The good

    Bloodshot had better portrayal. Significant developments at end carry into other series.

  • The bad

    Story just wasn't engrossing due to lack of answers and character development.

  • The ugly

    • The Valiant #4 is the conclusion to the mini-series and has Bloodshot and Kay, the Geomancer, facing off against the Immortal Enemy one last time. This has been a battle Gilad has fought for millennia, and will have to fight in the future at some point. This issue opens up with future Gilad transporting the mystery box until he’s met by the Immortal Enemy, taunting him. However, Gilad responds that it’s now his turn as he attacks the Immortal Enemy while the box starts to vanish. This is the same box that Neville and Breaker have been trying to open to no avail. But they finally catch a break when they activate a hologram of future Gilad who informs them that the only thing that can stop the Immortal Enemy is contained in this box, and only the current Gilad can open it so they have to rush to find him. Meanwhile, Bloodshot is the last one standing between the Immortal Enemy and Kay. And since there aren’t any good places in hide in the shopping mall they’ll eventually have to stand their ground. Can they hold on long enough for reinforcements to arrive with the contents of the mystery box or will Kay be the latest victim of this fiend?

    THE-VALIANT_004_004
    This series has been a peculiar undertaking and I didn’t know what to expect in this final issue. Before it started it seemed to have all the makings of an epic event, and despite being so close to the Armor Hunters event, it had a relatively unique premise. The concept of an Immortal Enemy that requires all the superheroes of Earth to band together to counter it or risk humanity suffering a new dark age was very intriguing. However, the execution in the first 3 issues left so much to be desired. The Immortal Enemy never felt like a global threat nor was the connection to the Geomancer explored. And since there was only a hint of the Immortal Enemy’s true nature, there was no explanation as to why its appearance would create a new dark age for all of humanity if it succeeded in killing the Geomancer. And as a result I felt this would have been better suited as just a story arc in Unity and not its own series. So I was looking forward to this issue to see how much it would bring everything together and answer these pertinent questions. So the start of this issue with future Gilad with the mystery box fighting the Immortal Enemy was a great start and it actually made me more intrigued about what it contained. So when the action with Bloodshot took place I felt more invested in the events taking place because I was hopefully the story would tie everything together. And I was thankful Bloodshot was portrayed much better.
    Unfortunately, it became more of the same, which means the Immortal Enemy was chasing behind Bloodshot and Kay just taunting them but not saying anything of substance to give insight into this cycle. It was better than last issue since there were significant developments, which I won’t spoil, but the lack of answers connecting everything together was too much to ignore. So it was great that this was a better issue yet it didn’t even come close to changing my overall sentiment that these events could’ve happened within the pages of regular issues because most of this series felt like filler.

     

    SUMMARY

     

    The Valiant #4 has its enjoyable moments so it’s a step up from last issue however the series overall didn’t live up to the potential in its premise with this concluding entry. The contents of the mystery box were finally revealed and it was interesting yet the necessary answers to tie everything together and make the Immortal Enemy feel like more than a random unstoppable threat or the story more engrossing were lacking. I still feel this story would’ve been better suited if just a story arc in another series and less characters since it would’ve been more focused and allowed for character development. So the significant developments that will carry on in other series will just have to do.

     

    Release Date: 3/25/15

    Writer: Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt

    Artist: Paolo Rivera

  • Rating ( 7 )
  • Total score 7.0

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