Come the end of the Armor Hunters saga, Gin-gr was saved and essentially put into storage by the U.S. government even though she was found to be a sentient being.  As such, while the Unity team would like to use her for the good of mankind, they do realize that there are many in the world that only see her as an engine of destruction.  At the moment the Unity team also realizes that the world is changing and that a little clarity with the public would be a good thing.  What is also apparent is that the team is a little short-handed and so they start to entertain the thought of bringing in a new member, who just so ends up being Faith from the Renegades.  A problem arises though when Gin-gr’s existence is made known and the governments of the world, specifically Mexico, are angered.  Thus a new team of super-villains is called into action, code-named The United.

One voice that has been crafting absolutely magnificent tales in the Valiant Universe is Matt Kindt, and he continues to do so here in the fourth volume of Unity.  He has the unique gift of making even the most powerful of characters relatable and this team which features some of the best and most impressive figures that Valiant has to offer, are still just as human as you are when it comes right down to it.  Kindt lets that shine through but even so, these men and women do not wear their emotions on their sleeve and when it comes down to business, they take care of it.  As such, new recruit Faith is not the best fit for the team because she literally wears her emotions all over her sleeve, her shirt and more blatantly, across her face.  When it comes to making the hard decisions, she simply cannot do it.  That either makes her the worst member of the team, or really, when it counts the most, the best one.  Where most heroes think killing is a last resort, these heroes know that it is a part of the job and in real life, some foes will come back and have no compunction about killing you.

Also reprinted in this volume is the Faith one-shot by Joshua Dysart and Robert Gill that takes us on a trip into Faith’s past as she tries to make decisions about her future.  We see her as a little girl, shy and cloistered within her little world, sort of like the Faith of today, but you can see how she has grown and Dysart’s tale proves why Faith is one of the all-time best characters to come out of the new Valiant.  She is a strong woman, she just does not always realize that and by joining Unity, she makes a decision that will possibly affect the rest of her life, for good or bad.  All she knows is that she has to try or forever be the little girl waiting for life to come to her.

Unity #0 is also published in this volume which sees Gilad serving the war effort during World War I with his team called Unit Y.  It is a secret division that takes on cases that require a certain bit of finesse, usually meaning a lot of destruction.  The team is made up of a diverse bunch of characters, much like the ongoing Unity book and this particular issue chronicles their final mission.  Written once again by Matt Kindt with some really spectacular art by Cary Nord, the issue is truly fun and exciting and while we might know how the adventures of Unit Y end, it would be great to see some more of them before this final point of their existence.

All in all, a very strong collection of stories are presented in this volume with some truly great creative teams.  While the good guys almost always win, the great thing about Valiant’s line of books is that they take risks with their characters.  So though the United might be going away, they are hopefully not down for the count.

4 out of 5