4. Valiant 8-Bit Adventure: Unity! By Ben McCool, Donovan Santiago and ChrisCross (Valiant)
Valiant have really been hitting the 8-Bit art hard this year when they're not releasing 8-bit trailers for their comics, they're producing 8-bit variant covers! So it's no surprise that they've gone one step further and created a digital-only 8-bit tie-in comic for their latest Event, Unity. It's also amazingly fun, so much so that I want to read an entire 8-bit series now! Toyo Harada has assembled his team to take on X-O Manowar - Eternal Warrior, Ninjak and Livewire - but they need to be trained to work as a team before taking on the most powerful technology on the planet, so he puts them into a training simulation that is presented in 8-bit graphics! The comic follows the three 8-bit characters as they navigate a series of levels, defeating three mini-bosses and collecting rewards as they progress. The comic looks at times like they it was alternately influenced by Zelda, Mega Man, and other games of that ilk, so readers who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and who had SNES/Mega Drives are in for a bout with nostalgia. 8-bit graphics just look so wonderful and retro! The comic is only available digitally on Comixology, perfectly utilising Comixology's Guided View format. If you've never read a comic in Guided View, it's a bit like reading a movie characters appear animated against a non-moving background, speech appears and disappears, and action plays out much faster. It's a terrific presentation tool that provides a unique reading experience and, in this instance, is especially suited to a comic that looks like a video game that you have to read on a computer. If you're reading Unity and wondering if you have to read this, this comic isn't essential in that it doesn't provide you with any crucial info on the main story, but it's a fun addition anyway, fleshing out the characters that much more, especially Livewire who hasn't had much time in the story so far. Valiant 8-Bit Adventure: Unity! is a really enjoyable read with a great script and even better graphics. Kudos to Valiant for continuing to pursue innovative and imaginative ways to publish their comics!