Unity Slipcase Edition: This has been quite the summer for Unity purchases through eBay. First, I get a free copy of Unity: The Lost Chapter from a guilt-ridden vendor, then I find Unity 2000 #3, and now this: a set of four trade paperbacks containing the entire Unity storyline, plus cover reproductions and commentary from the late Valiant Archivist, bound in a handsome slipcase and all for a very reasonable $5 U.S. (plus shipping)!
Yes, I’m a sucker for slipcases. Wanna make something of it?
I admire what Jim Shooter tried to do with the Unity series. All comics crossover storylines are marketing ploys designed to boost sales among the entire comics line. If you cross Superman over to Batman, the theory goes, then the sales of both titles will spike as the dedicated readers pick up the crossover issues in order to have a complete storyline. This is sound marketing, an annoyance to readers who don’t want to feel compelled to buy other titles, and can make for some pretty bad comics if the crossover connection feels forced or tacked-on.
So, Jim Shooter tried to write a company crossover that could be followed through any one individual title, but which expanded in scope, depth, and significance the more individual chapters you read. So, if you were only a Harbinger fan, you could pick up the two issues of Harbinger involved in the crossover, and see how the crossover affected the plotlines of that book, and you would have a general idea of what happened in the Unity storyline as a whole, but you wouldn’t necessarily know why thing happened the way they did, because those facts were only germane to another title. If you were a Solar: Man of the Atom fan in addition to Harbinger, then you’d learn that much more.
This modular—rather than strictly serial—narrative sacrifices logical inevitability for narrative focus, but succeeds through Shooter’s use of reference panels and dialogue. For example, in the first month of the crossover, every issue contained a panel of Solar fighting some cybernetic pterodactyls (don’t ask—it made sense at the time). That’s right, every issue had the same panel to offer a common reference point for continuity throughout the component issues (I’ll discuss Shooter’s noble, but overambitious attempts at super-continuity across all comic book titles another time. It’s simply too hard to manage). You wouldn’t know why this panel existed unless you read the Solar issue, but that’s not really the point. The reference panel was an absolute story element in a mass of relative narratives.
The downside to this technique is that you feel an ongoing sense of deja vu every time you hit one of these reference point, especially if you read every chapter in the crossover. But, it was a worthwhile risk.
Tom Strong #14: This is a fun throwaway issue recalling the Gold Key Space Family Robinson series of comics. Tom Strong and his family go on vacation in 1955 (which makes his daughter much older than originally presented in the series...maybe there’s an explanation later on) and have three classic space adventures: one funny, one cautionary, and one foreboding. The first two are the best, while the third is so chock-full of prolepsis and analepsis that my head spins tying to pick apart the continuity threads.
Unfortunately, I’m getting tired of waiting for these issues. I think I might start waiting for the trade paperbacks. I’ll have to think on it.