Armor Hunters #3 starts off with everyone on the defensive: The M.E.R.O. base in shambles as Lilt and the Hounds attack, Ninjak and Gilad are off fighting another Hound attack, and Aric is dealing with the aftermath of the attack on his people. They badly need to sort themselves out if they are going to defeat the Hunters.
Venditti knows how to keep the tension going, switching from one not-quite hopeless scene to another as Unity struggles to defend the Earth. The heroes’ tasks are reasonably portioned out, with each taking a task they are suited for. Colonel Capshaw, always an ambiguous figure, comes through here: She may not be particularly nice, or even necessarily terribly moral, but there’s a reason she’s trusted to deal with displaced Visigoths in alien armor and other such troublesome situations. One of the pleasures of reading Valiant comics is seeing the non-superpowered as important parts of the solution to any problem (or, to be fair, possible causes thereof). This issue also introduces a way that the combat could (not necessarily will, but could) end without the sides annihilating one another. Options always make a tale more interesting.
Braithwaite works with dividing up the panels into different angles and sizes to show the speed and sometimes fractured nature of the combat. He also chooses to vary the visual angle: In one panel, Bloodshot is seen from below. Other battles are straight on, or from above. There are some effective close-ups here, making X-O Manowar and the Primary seem kin for the first time.
Armor Hunters #3 is well into the Armor Hunters crossover. While there is an excellent summary at the beginning, the crossover as a whole is hitting the point where newcomers are going to have a hard time dropping in. On the other hand, for anyone who can get hold of previous issues, this is a crossover well worth reading—and you will not need all of the books in the entire crossover to know what is happening.
Writer: Robert Venditti
Artist: Doug Braithwaite
Cover Artists: Doug Braithwaite, Donovan Santiago, Trevor Hairsine, Mico Suaan, and Diego Bernard
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letters: Dave Sharpe
){kind=link}
The ‘previously on’ intro is indeed helpful, although, one funny error I noticed is “…Aric sought out his wife and family, only to discover that nearly two centuries had passed…”! haha! Wow, the Valiant universe is the most technologically advanced portrayal of 600 A.D. that I’ve ever seen!
Hm. Missed that one!