Marvel King In Black The Union

The Union #1-5

by Paul Grist

Travel across the pond and bear witness to the grand unveiling of the Union! A team of super heroes gathered from all over the United Kingdom, including Union Jack, Snakes, Kelpie, Choir - and their fearless leader, Brittania! Proud to represent their nation, the Union believes they're ready to take on any foe. But when disaster strikes during their public debut, the fl edgling team immediately fi nds themselves pushed to their very limits! Don't miss out on an exciting new chapter of Marvel from legendary British writer Paul Grist (Judge Dredd, Jack Staff )! COLLECTING: THE UNION (2020) 1-5

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Superheroes, Comic Book

22 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 30, 2020

About the author

Paul Grist is a British comic book creator, noted for his hard-boiled police series Kane and his unorthodox superhero series Jack Staff.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new British superhero team, you say? One that isn't being played for laughs for a change, you say? Well, I don't mind if I do!

It is nice to have another British superhero team, considering Excalibur currently only has one British member. This British comicbook reader appreciates the effort by Paul Grist and co. It was a shame the first two issues got dragged into the King in Black crossover event for no other reason than to show that the effects of Knull's invasion were worldwide.

Actually, the fact that the invasion was over by the time issue three started with absolutely no comment made about it by anybody in the book was more jarring than it being included in the first place, to be honest. I brief mention along the lines of 'So, what happened to all those dragons and the black sky, then?' would have been nice. Anybody who hasn't also read King in Black must have been extremely confused.

Anyway, this is an interesting collection of characters, I'm a big fan of the current incarnation of Union Jack so it was nice to see him and the artwork was nice. The plot felt a little compressed once the 'event' crossover issues were out of the way, which was a shame. My only other complaint is that I wish every British superhero didn't have to be so 'for Queen and country'... There is more to us than the bloody royal family, you know! Some of us can't stand them, but don't get me started...

I just hope this isn't the last we see of the Union. Time will tell.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was a Marvel book when I put it on hold at the library. I was hoping it was a continuation of Grist's independent Jack Staff comic book, but it's just a work-for-hire yawner about yet another government-sponsored team of dysfunctional superheroes. The third Union Jack (still not the charm) is our everyman entry point to a group with supernatural goobers and an ex-villain whose biggest crime should be directly copying the story of Songbird/Screaming Mimi from Marvel's own Thunderbolts. The government handler and sponsor are of course quite suspect in their behavior and 10 Downing Street is aloof unless things are going well.

There's a brief tie-in to the King in Black crossover, but it mostly meanders around with some real D-list villains as the biggest enemy the group really faces is . . . dumdum dum dum (ho-hum) . . . itself.

This is a limited series, and I'd be shocked if we see a follow-up anytime soon.

[Subham · Rating 2 out of 5]

It starts off with a new team called The Union being launched but they are beseeched by the invading forces of Knull and the new team with its dysfunctional members which had just formed has to fight these alien goo dragons and battle their team mate The Choir who has her own shady history and then passing of their leader and enter an old foe called Doc Croc who has plans for world domination and he is in search of an "Empire stone" (power giving thing) but twists and turns, betrayals, passing off of old gripes, coming together of a team for the betterment of people and Britannia re-emerging and all that normal stuff. Its not a bad volume but is just very predictable and starts of well but is not able to give proper time to other characters and why are they here, the villain seems to never be fully carved out and the ending was so cryptic, god only knows where it went. But overall okay-ish for a one time read and the art was pretty good. I wonder if Marvel will use them again in the future!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real "who cares?" Marvel event. Some hero we've never heard of gathers together a group of UK heroes we've never heard of and their first act is to go fight in the newest Marvel crossover that no one cares about. Some of the secondary characters and their backstory is almost interesting, but it's not enough to save this story, which just falls flat.

[Alex Sarll]

A comic about a new British superteam which has all the weaknesses of Big Two superheroics, but none of the benefits. Initially it was meant to launch as part of one Marvel alien invasion crossover, but what with the real world's own, even less appealing Event, it got shunted to tie in with the next one instead; the best that can said about this bit of the story is that it's the first time I recall an alien invasion where we see the action play out as it affects Weston-super-Mare (and even then, if they'd gone down the coast a little to Burnham-on-Sea instead, I would have been actively cheering the devastation). And the art is entirely competent but characterless house style stuff, except on the flasbacks, which Grist drew himself. Now, if he'd drawn the whole thing, and put it out via Image or somewhere, I still wouldn't have loved it, but it would have had a bit of personality, and his fans would have been happy. What makes that especially glaring is that the only recognisable piece of Marvel IP he's using here is Union Jack, a character he already filed the serial numbers off for his own series Jack Staff. Which demonstrated a similar magpie approach to other bits of popular culture history, dotted with nods to Doctor Who, Quatermass et al. Here, on the other hand, allowed to play with the real toys...he ignores them and makes up a bunch of new ones instead. Britannia, supposedly the nation's ancient protector, despite never having been mentioned before and also isn't that Captain Britain's niche? New heroes from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, bridling at being yoked together. Having them be as stereotypical in identity and powers as Kelpie, the Choir and Snakes could have been a sly play on how American comics tend to do non-American characters, but if that was ever in the mix, it was long lost by the time the finished product ended up on the page. What's worse is that unlike a similar series years back at the Distinguished Competition, Cornell & Broxton's lovely Knight & Squire, which succeeded in creating a whole hidden history of British heroes and villains who felt like they'd been around forever, or ought to have been, all the new characters here are so flat and forgettable. There are occasional moments – an entertaining corgi, European superheroes being administered by Super-Hero European Directive and thus ending up under the aegis of SHED instead of SHIELD – but they're the merest glimmers of life in what's ended up feeling like a pointless, confused false start. Even the obvious Brexit and breakdown-of-the-union analogies feel rote, while the comedy potential of a PM's speech launching the new team is squandered by having the speech far better than anything anyone since Brown on a good day would ever have turned out.

[Kelvin Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paul Grist is a great comics writer, truly one of the best in the field, but even he struggles to get anything out of this compromised book. The social and political commentary never really gets going beyond some half-hearted gestures towards the idea of a union divided and a vague Brexit allusion, and the story itself feels a bit nebulous, all based around a mystical macguffin that makes less sense the more you think about it -- which is maybe the joke? -- and a shared past that means very little when all the characters are brand new.

There's a good story to be told about what it means to be a British superhero in the 2020s, but this, alas, is merely an adequate one.

[Honora Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly had a lot of fun with this. There is a lot of untapped potential with the British heroes and I so wish more of it was available in trades because that is the kind of stuff I would love to read. I really enjoyed this as a small limited outshoot of a bigger marvel comics event. I thought the new characters were a lot of fun to read about and I hope to see them show up in something in the future. It wasn't a perfect book but I loved the art and the premise and I thought the cast was quite cool. I would definitely read more of the hijinks of this crew of characters.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uma tentativa de repescar e atualizar personagens britânicos da Marvel UK. Union Jack vê-se à frente de uma equipa relutante de estranhos heróis, após o desaparecimento violento da heroína Brittania. Depressa se verão envolvidos em confrontos com um super-vilão inglês, enquanto são manipulados numa conspiração para capturar o artefacto secreto que está na origem do poder imperial britânico. Apesar de apresentar uma galeria de personagens interessantes, a narrativa em si não consegue cativar.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels more like it was planned to be an ongoing series but was cut short than it does an actual miniseries. The first two issues are driven by the events of King in Black, but it doesn't interact with that event in any real way. The remaining issues felt like setup for a new team, so there's hardly any story at all. And precious little character development, for that matter. I wish any of these characters had been truly compelling.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel Unlimited recently pushed an update that meant that any issues one read as tie-ins (like King in Black) to a story now show up in one's "Continue Reading." I find myself with a rather extensive Continue Reading section. So I read this in an effort to clear it out as best I can.

It was...ok. A ragtag team of British superheroes is coming together to protect the UK in the wake of Brexit, which impacted even the superheroes by kicking them out of any European alliances.

When Knull invades.

And kills their leader. (Is it a spoiler if it's in the first issue of a limited series that's been out for over a year?)

Then they have to pick up the pieces. Or not.

Nice little vindication arc for a former villain. Some potentially interesting and possibly lackluster (C-list? Or could they be better in different hands?) heroes.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The struggle is real for Marvel every time they try a "international" hero team. Here, Brit, Paul Grist tries his hand and its extremely underwhelming. Starts with a King In Black tie-in for no reason whatsoever. Literally. The characters have no depth. We learn next to nothing. The villains are cheesy beyond belief and there are twists for the sake of twists. A poorly written mess. On the flip side, Andrea De Vito's art was wonderful. Overall, this is book that will not be remembered.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Due to Covid, this thing was butchered. It was originally supposed to be an ongoing series about a British superhero team. Changing it to a 5 issue miniseries and then also having a half-assed King in Black tie-in just made this a mess. No one gets any kind of characterization to speak of. The plot's all over the place. There's multiple reasons anyone other than completists should just give this a pass.

[Colin Oaten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new team of British Marvel heroes from Paul Grist of 'Kane' fame. Union Jack mentors a new team of UK heroes but right in the middle of their training exercise, they find themselves thrown into one of Marvels numerous crossover events as they face the symbiote invasion of Knull, The King In Black.
Intriguing premise and interested to see just how much exposure the team gets going forward as UK heroes seem to end up forgotten or marginalised by the Big Two.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

An attempt to create a new UK hero team stumbles by immediately being dragged into a crossover and then being retroactively becoming a mini-series.
We barely have a handle on the cast before it ends.

Shame, as there is potential here and the team has a quirky charm.

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

British Avengers but without the time for American audience buyin.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 238