Valiant Entertainment 2016
Written by Matt Kindt
Penciled by Trevor Hairsine
Inked by Ryan Winn
Coloured by David Baron
Lettered by Dave Lanphear
Once again the world is under a Communist Russian Regime much like when Mishka came back to Earth and rewrote history. There was a third Cosmonaut on that mission is this handiwork? Could he have found a way to survive the fate we assumed was his and found his way back to Earth? If so where are Mishka and Abram?
What I like about this issue is how Matt structured it for us. This issue takes us on a journey through the world’s most prominent heroes so we can see where they stand. We see a communist Bloodshot who is pretty damn awesome looking by the way and he has all his programming in place so there’s no Ray aspect to him. While Peter may still remnants of his humanity is still loyal as well. There are two more characters as well one of whom was a delight to see and the other is X-O in his new communist inspired armour.
This really sets things up so that we don’t see those Cosmonauts from the previous two mini-series. The question quickly arises as to where they are, after all they did this and stopped it previously. Also where are Earth’s other heroes in all this? With the Stalinverse Timeline we get a comprehensive look at how things went down so there’s a starter here for when it all occurred. Still everything about this while incredibly well thought out and mind boggling is presented in a way that really makes you take a look at what would have happened has Russia been able be that super power they wanted to be. Also a scary look at what our country could be like now with the new President.
Trevor, Ryan and David do some magnificent work on the interiors here. The page layouts are spectacularly done with the attention to detail their angles, perspective and use of backgrounds. The character redesigns are awesome and really do represent a communist inspired vision of them.
I love that I was so caught up in these version of the heroes I missed the biggest clue out there till it was made painfully obvious. Well the world has changed, once again, and it’s up to one person to figure out the details behind what happened, recruit whom he can and put the world back to the way it was. There’s only one small problem, he has no powers, has no allies and doesn’t have the first clue how it all came to be.
This time around it’s one giant mystery and I have to say it’s incredibly well done. Matt has outdone himself with the way this story is structured and executed. Though this is the third installment in the series so far it’s still very fresh, new and exciting. That at this point we have no idea how this came to be is the best thing going for it. I’m looking forward to seeing how the mystery of how all this came to be unfold before our eyes and there’s no better storyteller to do it than Matt!