Thursday’s Valiant Effort: April 10, 2014

We are into April now, counting down the weeks to Free Comic Book Day and the kick off of Armor Hunters. This week on Thursday’s Valiant Effort, two great reviews and a preview of coming attractions. Also, if you are lucky enough to get out to Anaheim, California, check out Wondercon from April 18 – 20, 2014. Valiant Entertainment will have some special guests out there and some exclusive variant covers available for convention attendees. Here is their booth schedule:

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT – WONDERCON 2014 SIGNING SCHEDULE
BOOTH #210/212

Friday, April 18th:

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Robert Venditti, David Baron

Saturday, April 19th:

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Joshua Dysart
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Robert Venditti
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: James Asmus
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: David Baron

Sunday, April 20th:

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Robert Venditti
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: James Asmus
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: David Baron

Reviews

Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps #21 – This issue wraps up “Mission: Improbable”, the crossover with Archer & Armstrong. In the finale, Bloodshot and Armstrong beat the crap out of each other and finally come to a truce when Armstrong finds out that Bloodshot can’t get drunk. I love Armstrongs line, “No wonder you’re such an ass. C’mere. I bet you need a hug.” After that they team up to go save Archer. The little guy just happens to be holding his own against the best the H.A.R.D. Corps can throw at him, especially with his psiot ability to mimic any power or fighting style he can see or think of. Things finally come to a head when Bloodshot hands down the ultimatum, either they all let Archer and Armstrong walk after all information about the Sect is erased from Project Rising Spirit’s databases or Bloodshot is going to kill everyone in the room. I have really enjoyed both teams battling it out and the writing and art in these issues has been something amazing. The team of Christos Gage, Joshua Dysart, Tom Raney, Joseph Cooper,  along with Mark Pennington, and Al Barrionuevo, did a bang up job this month.

Unity #6 – This issue, following the wrap up of the battle with Aric, the owner of the X-O Manowar armor, writer Matt Kindt and artist CAFU bring us the second part of the story of the Unity team’s battle with Dr. Silk. The problem is that Dr. Silk is now not just any one person because he has used limited Vine technology to create a virus that allows him to rewrite a human mind and allow his to be downloaded into any body. A scary thought from someone whose only thought is taking over the world. He says that he did this all for love, using a woman, at least her mind, creating copy after copy hoping that each one would be prefect but always ending up with them hating him and dying in some awful way. Silk’s Webnet is spreading across the globe. What can possibly stop a virus that is passed by touch and through sight? This is quite a tangled story and it will take a lot for our intrepid team to unravel it.

News

Two things that I wanted to leave you with this week. Don’t forget that Harbinger #22 kicks of the “Death of a Harbinger” storyline. Someone will die. It will be sad. Check out that issue coming out April 23, 2014 and remember that I will be reviewing it right here on Thursday’s Valiant Effort.

Also, coming out April 30, 2014, the new Shadowman miniseries, Shadowman: End Times. This will be a three-issue mini series featuring a deeper dive into Jack Boniface and his true destiny as the Shadowman. I have enjoyed this regular series so far and this new mini series looks like it is a must read. I will leave you with a couple of pages from the upcoming #1. Don’t forget to come back next Thursday to read about all things Valiant and Read Valiant First.