The truth of the armor revealed?
Creative Staff:
Story: Robert Venditti
Art: Doug Braithwaite
What They Say:
Following the shocking final moments of the previous issue, the Armor Hunters have made their intentions clear, and unless X-O Manowar is turned over to them immediately, thousands of innocents will become additional casualties of this already brutal war. Valiant’s most formidable heroes are about to go on the offensive, but the Armor Hunters have another trick up their sleeve, and this one will change the battle forever. Who will live? Who will die? The world will know what it feels like to be POWERLESS as Valiant’s massive summer crossover continues!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening act for Armor Hunters did a pretty good job of setting up the stakes and proving to be accessible enough for new fans to figure out what’s going. That’s helped by the first page that does some of the recap in text form which fills you in on Aric and the whole armor thing and the events of the previous issue, which makes it very easy to just jump in while not throwing off the narrative of the issue at hand, which is important having grown up reading comics that continually referenced the last issue in so many ways it felt like it took pages to get going. The last issue certainly set up some big things with the Hunters having shown their power in a big way by obliterating Mexico City, not something that won’t make an impression by any means.
This issue deals with the fallout from that, but only a few panels worth from the city itself. The rest of the book deals with how everyone else is going to react. How do you react to something like that? While there are likely elements that want to just give up the armor and make it all go away, there is this solid idea that doing so would be the worst thing. After all, with a display of power like that, if they wanted the armor they should just be able to take it. But the fact that they’re not means that the armor is a lot more problematic than humanity thinks it is, but they still can’t give it up because it represents such a change in the balance of power on Earth itself and what’s going on. And there’s likely no way in hell that Aric is going to give it up since his goal is to protect his people that have been through so much since being abducted all those centuries ago.
The Earth side of the equation starts drawing things together because the scale of the threat is truly off the charts now, though Capshaw has limited resources overall since it’s impossible to know what could protect them against the Hunters. We do get Bloodshot and Livewire arriving and a nod to a few other powered folks over in London, but a good chunk of the book focuses on the Hunter side as well. With the leader looking to make this his last mission, which has him protecting himself a bit more than usual, he’s set the push against Earth in a new way here that has them sending four groups of feral beast animals to different locations on Earth where the Armor has been in an effort to hunt it down to be stolen, but also to put an end to Malgam, since he’s a huge threat. There’s some neat interplay between the leader and Lilt on this, since Lilt gets sent down to fight, and I like that we get some interesting material from their point of view. We also get a few new tidbits about the armors themselves as the truth about Malgam’s is revealed in that it’s actually a cocoon type of device that’s rebuilding and reconstructing itself into his body so that it’s like a kind of viral piece on a whole other level. While we learn that Aric is in remission for some reason, seeing how it affects Malgam definitely makes a significant impression.
In Summary:
Armor Hunters doesn’t have a lot in the way of action here, with some of it off-screen in fact as we see the beasts causing trouble, but it does keep things moving a good deal as we understand the scale of destruction let loose on the land. More of the focus is on the reaction to Mexico City’s devastation and the way it causes the various sides on Earth to plan their next move. That means drawing in a few more of those that are out there that might help. We also get some solid information from a few quarters, a touch of mild romance and overall a pretty well paced, busy and engaging issue that’s not reliant on fists bash enemy kind of material. And that’s a big plus when all wrapped up in some well structured and solid artwork to help convey it in the way that it is.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Comics
Release Date: July 9th, 11th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
