COVER STORY: Unity 2000 #1

What makes the best comic book covers? It is a great topic for debate. For us, as individuals, there is no wrong answer, of course; it is purely subjective. But, with a little thought it’s possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best images are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously planning to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

Comics expected big changes with the coming of the new millennium. There was the Y2K computer virus frightening computer users the world over. And, there was Acclaim Comics’ anticipated sequel to Valiant’s Unity event, Unity 2000, promising to be “a no-holds-barred, universe-shaking, mega-story that will change everything.” Both premonitions had a similar effect: Big hype and bigger disappointment. Its predecessor, Unity, which was released seven years earlier, proved very much otherwise, though.

Time may not have been absolute, but that could not have been said of the success of Valiant parent company Voyager Communications’ groundbreaking comic book crossover. Assembled for the first time in one storyline was Magnus (whose Valiant origin would be chronicled in the series), X-O Manowar, Rai, Archer and Armstrong, the Eternal Warrior, Shadowman, the Harbinger kids, and the atomic man-god Solar. Even Native American dinosaur hunter Turok – whose brief appearance helps move this epic story along – was represented. Joining forces against the all-powerful Mothergod simultaneously in the actual years of 1992 and 4001, these desperate heroes would face great menace to prevent her mad hijacking of reality… and possibly utter oblivion.

Needless to say, the crossover event, which featured big and bold joining cinematic covers by comics celebrities Frank Miller and Walt Simonson, was a commercial and critical success. The innovative event did the job it was created to do and put Valiant on the proverbial comic book map. In fact, Unity was such a success it evolved from a mere intercompany crossover into a corporate brand.

Fast forward to 1999. Video game juggernaut Acclaim Entertainment, which bought Voyager Communications lock, stock, and barrel for $65 million ($50 million in cash and $15 million in shares of Acclaim common stock), was struggling to survive in a cash-poor comics specialty market and arguably needed an immediate success. And when we say immediate, we mean right then.        

In November of that supposedly transcendent year, Acclaim Comics announced the partnering of Jim Shooter – the father of Valiant 1.0 as well as the original architect of the publisher’s first sweeping blockbuster Unity – with comic book veteran and cosmic artist Jim Starlin on Unity 2000, a proposed six-issue series slated to launch that month.

The news release continued to point out that Acclaim Comics had long hinted that 1999 would be a very important year story-wise, featuring the much-anticipated death of Shadowman, of which takes place as a prelude story to Unity 2000 in Shadow Man #3 and #4 (which shipped in September and October of 1999).

But all plans don’t unfold as they are intended. For example, despite a cover date of November 1999, the first issue was published in December of that year.

Looking forward back then, Unity 2000 #2, which was cover-dated December 1999, didn’t land on stands until February 2000. And, as far as Unity 2000 #3, that landmark issue was cover-dated January 2000, although the issue itself wasn’t published until July 2000. Then, shortly after that, this much-anticipated bridge between the many iterations of the Valiant Universe was cancelled. For good.

The series had one purpose and one only: it was intended to clear the slate of the original Valiant Universe. All the Valiant 1.0 characters would literally disappear – never to be used again. As disappointing as that is for longtime Valiant fans, the move would give the then-current Acclaim Universe some much needed heft. Depth and weight that the publisher could use to then build bigger and better stories based on its various Valiant Heroes. It was going to add a big, fat coda to Shooter’s creation – by the creator himself. 

At least, that’s what its intention was. Instead, it sealed the fate of another Lost Universe and left others to ponder one more untold tale. Just one more imaginary story – left for the imagination of countless Valiant fans to somehow put the pieces together.

The missing pieces affect us collectors still.

–Scott Braden