Divinity

I had read a few older Valiant comics before the 2012 from-scratch relaunch, but Divinity (reprinting the first mini series, #s 1-4) was the first book from the modern Valiant I ever read. It came out years after the relaunch, but for some reason it was the first one I bought. Immediately after reading it, I was so impressed that I decided to give some more Valiant titles a try in the near future, and fortunately enough, there at the back of the book was the complete listing of modern-age and classic-age titles they had in print. I picked the first two from the relaunch, X-O Manowar Volume 1: By The Sword and Harbinger Volume 1: Omega Rising, and I was so impressed I decided to become a regular Valiant reader, giving at least a try to every title they came out with. Within 3 books--Divinity, X-O Manowar Volume 1 and Harbinger Volume 1, Valiant had catapulted all the way to being one of my favorite publishers, a place it still holds today. Okay, onto the collection at hand: in keeping with the ongoing Valiant theme of creating a rich backstory for itself at the same time it's building its 'now', this one starts out, like a number of their other trade paperbacks, at a time and place not previously visited by the publisher's modern books: in this case the Soviet Union in the 1960s. There, a secret offshoot of the Soviet space program, much more advanced than its publicly known counterpart, is preparing to send cosmonauts not only into space, but on a prolonged, decades-spanning mission. They're aiming not for the moon but for the edge of the galaxy, to what one official calls 'the border of our reality'. We follow cosmonaut prodigy Abram Adams as he's trained and sent out on this mission, which takes twenty-seven years to complete. Meanwhile, the book flashes forth frequently to the modern day, to the outback of Australia, where after a twenty-seven year return trip, Abram Adams returns home, changed. He's now known as Divinity. The world governments think of Divinity as a threat, and they dispatch Unity to take him down. But Unity is torn on this one. When they see what Divinity's actually using his seemingly unlimited power to do, they don't know if they should be fighting him or joining him. Both the writing and the art are great, as is typical of most Valiant titles. Either read on its own or as part of exploring the larger Valiant Universe, Divinity is essential.

Divinity introduces a new and extremely powerful character, with a very interesting and odd background, into the Valiant universe. This graphic novel collects the four issue mini-series and includes some interesting commentary at the end from the creative team. Divinity is Abram Adams, a black man born in the 1940s who was left on the doorstep of a Russian foreign ministry as an infant. Adams was raised in in post WWII Russia during the height of the communist movement. He embraced the country that accepted him (when his birth parents did not) and took advantage of the educational system of the country to put himself square in the midst of the space race by becoming a cosmonaut assigned to a secret mission to deep space. Decades later, Adams is back on Earth in the middle of the Australian outback where he's either creating a utopia... or creating a significant world threat, depending upon who you ask. Unity, Valiant's team of heroes, is dispatched to the outback to ascertain exactly what's going on. The struggle that ensues outwardly focuses on Unity taking on a nearly omnipotent opponent while inwardly focuses on Adams' own struggles with who he is, what he's experienced, and what he's lost. Overall, the graphic novel is a solid read. Divinity has a very interesting and unique origin story and his introduction into the Valiant universe provides a new and interesting character to their lineup. The downside to the story, however, is that some of it feels a bit rushed and it would have been great to have gotten more of his history in Russia. I think that if the miniseries had been 6 issues, it would have provided that additional detail that would have more fully fleshed out the collection and really enhanced it. The conflict with Unity was one that was, I guess, necessary in order to bring the character front and center into the universe, but it seemed rushed and detracted a bit from the overall story. I know that a sequel is planned in 2016, which hopefully will focus more on the character himself. The artwork in the book is an odd mix. The cover art for the individual issues by Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic is extremely good. The interior artwork is mostly good -- pages with fewer panels seem to typically be quite good, but those with quite a few panels (or with smaller strips) are a little difficult to interpret at times. Interestingly, the commentary at the end of the book (which is fascinating as it takes specific pages and shows their transition from pencils to inks to colors with specific thoughts by different members of the team) shows the problem to be the inking in some cases. The penciled artwork is quite well-defined, but on some pages, the inker seemed to basically over-ink the work leaving the finished imagery too dark (and almost blotchy) for certain panels. As mentioned, in addition to the story, the collection also includes several pages of commentary by the writer, inker, and colorist in which they break down certain pages and discuss their respective approaches to those pages. I think the discussion by colorist David Baron is actually the most enlightening as it caused me to go back through the book and look specifically at some of the things he mentioned he tried to do with the book.

Divinity is a nice spin on the superhero genre. First of all, the main character is a Soviet cosmonaut that was launched into space with no hope of returning. Second, he takes a nonviolent approach to problems. The entire portion surrounding the Soviet space program is wonderful. I feel like the creators really capture the spirit of what was going on at the time, and spin out a character that is very believable in that role. As the book goes on, things break down in some unexpected ways. And then the end lays out a nice twist on the entire book. The art is superb. It showcases some unique environments, and the character details are great. The coloring is fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the art galleys at the end of the book that let the reader see how the art process progresses. That provided some nice insight. To tie this into the Valiant universe, some of their other characters show up near the end of the book. While this could be seen as superfluous, it provides an opportunity to show what this new character is capable of. He is very different from their other characters. It also sets up some repercussions for future books. This book stands pretty well on its own, though it will appeal more to fans of this universe.

There are two significant parts to what makes Divinity special. First, the character Divinity is highly unique in an industry that only recently has pushed to create character diversity in it's heroes (examples can be seen by numerous publishers and/or film production studios who have changed gender, race, sexual orientation, etc of traditional characters to create a more diverse and/or unique character line-up in their books). Divinity is not only as diverse as it gets, but he was created that way from the very start by a publisher that has one of the most diverse casts of characters in comics today; a creative risk that historically has not been taken by most publishers. Second, is the concept of the character Divinity himself who is basically a God who is able to do whatever he desires. However, at no point has Divinity engaged physically; rather he has chosen to alter time, reality, and space during those encounters to create distance in time, reality, and space from potential adversaries. He has given those who oppose him EXACTLY what their heart desires, which creates plot element potential that is unique to Divinity. This is a story that is well worth your time and money. With Divinity II and the likeliness of a Divinity III in the future,do yourself a favor and start where the story began!

A vague origin story where not much happens. A black baby is left on a doorstep in Russia. He grows up and is sent on a space mission to another galaxy. He encounters some bright lights and now can manipulate reality. Fifty years later he returns to earth. The Unity team is scared of him and puts him in a cage.

I'll try to keep this one brief: Divinity is a great new character added to the fantastic line-up of heroes that the Valiant Universe brings to the table. The art work is fantastic, detailed, and expressive. Through reading this collection, I get a distinct feel for each character and they are unique individuals with their own points of view. I love Matt Kindt's way of telling comic stories. His, along with Jeff Lemire's, is a refreshing voice in contemporary storytelling in the superhero genre. I feel his one downside is a decompressed style that sneaks in every now and again. I enjoy learning about characters and fleshed out details in their lives, but there are times when I feel that Kindt could use more words on a page to describe the happenings and goings-on. Comics print is great enough to the point, now, where we can see most of the unique definition and story that artists bring into play on a page, but there are times when Kindt relies too much on an artist to tell the full story, instead of telling us more about the characters on the page with his words. I'm not looking for a return trip to the 60's, or even the wordy extrapolations of Alan Moore, or Chris Claremont. I just feel his word count could be more balanced, akin to Mark Waid's consistency in writing. Kindt's "Grass Kings" is a great case-in-point, where he takes 14, or 15 issues to solve a single mystery in a community when I wanted to learn even more about every member in that township. I feel the reader is slighted, to a degree, and pulled along to put more money buying issues than the story needs in it's current form. I read that comic in single issue form, so it's possible it reads better as a graphic novel, or in trade. Some stories are like that. I digressed, but the one complaint I had about this collection is that I would have liked to have more words within it's pages. I don't mind the fact that there are multiple Divinity series, akin to seasons on a Netflix series. I think that pacing can make for stronger serialized stories: shorter, seasoned runs. To sum up: Great Art + Quality Story and Refreshing Angle = Buy.

I really liked finding out about a new heroe! I had not been aware of any heroes from Russia.

This was a very good read. Excellent job humanizing a god like being( or is it deifying a human being?). The ending was very good first time reading, but became mind blowing open rereading once I actually understood it. The only problem is multiple narrators using the same color narration boxes. It makes it confusing who is narrating at times.

.....e quindi?!..... Stiamo parlando di possedere poteri divini per farci cosa?! Don't get me wrong, la grafica è bella, i personaggi della Valiant ben caratterizzati anche per chi è nuovo della serie. Però una simile possibilità a livello di potenziale distruttivo/creativo sembra (a mio parere) non avere una chiara risoluzione......forse riservata per un secondo volume? Un volume consigliato in ogni caso, se non altro per i numerosi interrogativi lasciati aperti (il vero scopo del fumetto?!.....argh!)

First of all the service was brilliant comic came to me nicely packaged and promptly. Divinity is a great comic from VALIANT comics, it encompasses history and the power of the cosmos into a emotional yet elegant manner. As soon as you start to read divinity you may seem lost to start with because the story jumps straight in, but once you start to understand the troubles the main character faced whilst isolated and the true extent of his powers you will be hooked! Definetly worth a read, awesome illustration and brilliant storyline.

increíble, buen guion y mejor dibujo. Recomendable para los amantes del mundo del comic que busquen algo distinto a Marvel y DC

Great story line, Even better art. Would recommend to any comic fan. Going to get the other two to finish the series.

The cover is this best thing about this book. The art inside is good as well but thestory is all over the place and really doesn't start to take root until the end and only barely. Unfortunately I've purchased all three books in the series blindly and I feel obligated to finish reading. Here's hoping I'm wrong about it