“Yesterday’s” Comic> The United #1

One of these days I’m going to find out what all these characters are running towards on comic covers. And it will be a disappointing answer.

The United #1

Weapon Press (no date given and I had to hunt the publisher)

WRITER/ARTIST: Melchizedek Todd

COVER ARTIST: Marc Moran

ALTERNATE COVER ART: D.L. Maffett (I don’t know which cover is in this digital version)

BACK COVER ART: D.L. Maffett & Melchizedek Todd

Let me see if I can follow what’s going on. The United is a collaboration between a group of indie and online comic creators all with a Christian theme. We have one group fighting robots while looking for captured children. A second is meeting the villain of the story, who thinks he can be a better god that the Lord and is trying to get them to switch to worshiping him. When they refuse he sends them back in time to a tornado in Mehama, Kansas. A third is protecting a scumbag criminal from what appears to be an attack by other costumed characters. That’s as much as I can figure out.

What they got right: Each hero is not only identified in the story but in a cast sheet at the start and end of the comic. I do like some of the designs, how varied the powers are, and the only time they break out a Bible verse it’s to counteract the “dark lord”, not preach to the audience just to preach.

What they got wrong: I have to call it as I see it, and the art is ugly. Proportions and anatomy are okay, but there’s so much crosshatching, close-ups, attempts to draw lips on characters, and just overall unattractiveness to the art. You can follow which panel you’re supposed to go to next, but that’s the only compliment I have for the layout. We’re also dropped into the middle of the story. I checked on Drive-Thru Comics and this is the only issue, so I didn’t miss one, and that also means not knowing how this story ends unless one of the other 9 creators involved took on the next issue.

What I think overall: Bringing a bunch of Christian themed superheroes from different not-as-famous creators and publishers is a good idea to promote them. It’s been done before with more secular hero team-ups by other creators. It’s in the execution where this falters, so I’d love to see them try again with better art and more thought into the story flow. At the very least it’s worth checking out if you want to find other Christian superhero comics, since there are urls to the comics that were active at the time.