Valiant Entertainment 2016
Written by Matt Kindt
Penciled by Trevor Hairsine
Inked by Ryan Winn
Coloured by David Baron
Lettered by Dave Lanphear
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union—determined to win the Space Race at any cost—green-lit a dangerously advanced mission. It sent three Cosmonauts further into space than anyone before. Lost in the stars, they encountered something Unknown. Abram Adams–one of the three–came into contact with it. The Unknown changed him and gave him the ability to bend matter, space, and even time to his will. He became Divinity. Long thought lost to the cosmos, Divinity suddenly returned to the present day, crash landing in the Australian Outback. The local inhabitants believed him to be a deity -- one who turned the scorched desert into a lush oasis. But the forces of the West were not content to let such immense power remain free. They tried to contain Divinity, but after a violent confrontation with the Deity, they were easily defeated. However, Divinity chose to retreat to a reality of his own making.
This time around we aren’t focusing on Abram after all he was only one of three Cosmonauts who went into space and we never saw the fate of the other two. We open up with a young girl out on the streets of the Soviet Union in the harsh winter. Her struggles are immediately clear as is the man who spies her and takes her in. This is the story of Valentina Volkov.
I love that Matt is once again exploring the world where Abram got his powers and that we see Valentina and Kazmir and what has become of them. While Valentina tries to make heads or tales of this strange world and come to grips with Abram’s actions and the wounded Kazmir she tells him, Kazmir, the story of her life in order to calm him down. I have to say that while it’s always nice to see a strong woman portrayed in comics this one almost feels like a stereotype of a cold war Russian woman. By that I mean cold and heartless and totally in line with the party vision.
While her upbringing would be considered anything but normal you would think at some point she would rebel against the party line. However they gave her a life and a mission and she was entrusted with this task and she takes what she was tasked to do rather seriously. She’s a complex and interesting woman to say the least. From everything we see of her past leading up to going into space Matt does a superb job in fleshing out her character.
The characterization is so intense and everything we see Valentina go through in both the past and now all lead up to the last page. What a freakin doozy that is too! So much so I cannot wait to see what happens next. Watch out world there’s a driven, determined and heartbroken woman coming back from space!
The interiors here are incredible! I love the attention to detail and how the panels are used, the backgrounds that just flesh it all out visually you name it and it’s here. The faces have so much life, expression and emotion coming off them that it’s easy to see what’s happening inside someone. The flow of the story is handled extremely well from page to page, panel to panel.
The writing and artwork here are simply indicative of the high quality stuff we’ve come to expect from Valiant.