Reviews»Comic Books»Unity #8
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Kareem Ali 4.5

Unity #8

 

  • The good

    Great action sequences giving a taste of the coming battle between the armor hunters and Earth's forces. Effectively sets the stage for interesting story developments

  • The bad

    Bloodshot doesn't get to see any action. Ninjak and Gilad lack of planning

  • The ugly

  • Unity #8 continues the Armor Hunters storyline and opens up in what was once Mexico City but now a smoldering ruin due to the armor hunters setting off an explosive device in the middle of it. This wasn’t the case a week earlier when Livewire was questioning people all over, including the inhabitants there, about Bloodshot in order to learn his whereabouts, and after some time she finally got a lead to follow. Her goal was to recruit him to be part of their team knowing all the stories about him, the black ops missions he went on, and true to his reputation, Bloodshot got the drop on Livewire before she even saw him. He could tell she wasn’t a trained killer so he gave her some time to explain herself, and somehow she was able to appeal to the angels of his better nature and successfully recruited him knowing he was seeking to do good for some time. However this story isn’t something that Ninjak cared to hear in his current situation, which was flying in a plane with Gilad to the secret underground bunker the armor hunters attacked. And that was due to the fact that it wasn’t a normal flight, nor were they planning on a landing since they were in violation of Russian airspace, and they needed to focus on the task at hand, jumping out the plane and using the crash as a diversionary tactic. Livewire tells them that their purpose there is to gather intelligence on the armor hunters attacking and not to engage, and their secondary mission is to retrieve a spare armor since the technology has yet to be shared with them. But Ninjak and Gilad have their own plans and that’s to deal out some revenge against the invaders but are they underestimating them and jeopardizing what is possibly the best opportunity to gather information on what M.E.R.C. will inevitably have to face?

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    After the stunning start to the crossover event in Armor Hunters #1, I couldn’t wait to read other issues connected to the event and seeing the characters who would be involved in the story. (And it’s amazing how the little rundown at the start of some issues isn’t fully appreciated until you start reading a new series and need a brief summary before it starts.) I can’t be entirely sure why the Bloodshot story with Livewire was shown at the start of this issue since this was my first one but it was interesting, and I’m curious to see what this ultimately means since I had a brief familiarity with Bloodshot prior to this. But what it did here is made me wish at a point later this issue that he was the one on this mission and not Ninjak and Gilad, who didn’t come off as bad characters here but their actions would come off as very reckless considering the commands being issued to them. I enjoyed the tactics they used to get the drop on the 2 armor hunters who attacked the Russian bunker and the need to take action at that particular moment was made clear but it seemed to be more luck than skill. Of course this sentiment is somewhat due to lack of familiarity of the characters but the action was still entertaining, and the first encounter with the armor hunters  made me feel better about the two of them since they held their own, and without undermining the build up of the armor hunters as incredibly powerful in Armor Hunters #1. I don’t know what role they’ll play in the upcoming events but what unfolds here has the potential to be vital for this series after the armor hunters event or will be important at some point during the event. Either way it was an enjoyable read, increased my interest in the event and sparked my curiosity for this series.

     

    SUMMARY

    Unity #8 is an enjoyable issue that brings the characters into the Armor Hunters event in an exciting way, and gives us a taste of the inevitable confrontation between the armor hunters and Earth’s defenders. It’s slightly perplexing that the hunters wouldn’t grasp that killing an entire base of soldiers without warning wouldn’t necessarily be about defending the armor but about not being killed but that sets up an interesting angle that can be explored during the event when others learn how destructive the armor can be. And overall this issue just made me more excited for things to come, and raises my hopes for the crossover event.

     

    Release Date: 6/18/14

    Writer: Matt Kindt

    Artist: Stephen Segovia

     

  • Rating ( 8.5 )
  • Total score 8.5

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