Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Dr. Silk, matt kindt, ninjak, unity, valiant, Webnet

Matt Kindt Spins A New Web For Ninjak In The Next Unity Story Arc

Published Tue, 04 Feb 2014 15:00:43 -0600

I am really hooked on the Valiant titles. I jumped in because I wanted to see what my friend Josh Dysart was going to be doing on Harbinger and because I was a bit nostalgic for the 90s, but these titles are great and if you're not reading them you should be.

I got a chance to interview Matt Kindt about the Unity series and what they have coming up in the second story arc. For those of you who have been following along since the relaunch but feel there hasn't been enough Ninjak… you're about to smile.

Unity is one of the best debuting books of the year in 2013. Were you surprised by the fan reaction? What do you think it is about the title that got readers attention?

Well, I think the fact that it's the first real team book for Valiant (not counting Harbinger) – that pulls all the biggest characters together is kind of ground-breaking for the company. I've been a fan since the 90s so I would LOVE this book as a fan…I just happened to be writing it. I was happily surprised at the huge reception it got however. I had no idea, you know? It's one of the best-selling things I've ever done so I'm just happy to be reaching that large audience with a fun story.

How familiar were you with the Valiant characters before starting with the company? How much of the previous incarnation of the characters effect what you are doing now?

I was reading all the Valiant books in the 90s. I was burned out on the super hero stuff and was starting to get into Eightball and Hate and more alternative stuff but my brother gave me an issue of Harbinger and I was blown away. It wasn't that I was burned out on super heroes, I was just bored of the same kinds of stories…and those guys in the 90s were cranking some great stories out that weren't like anything at the time. Truly inspiring. And it happened again – when Valiant re-launched in their current incarnation I was kind of out of touch – doing my own books now and he told me I had to check out the Valiant books again – and lo and behold, they were good. I was reading the stuff as it came out when they called and asked if I wanted to write a Bloodshot issue #0…well, hell yeah, I would! I've since gone back and read the whole run of Rai and a few others to just remind myself about the core stories of these characters – so I can stay true the them in some essential way.

Being the team book of the company, how much coordinating do you have to do with the other writers?

Usually just one or two – depending on who I'm picking on in that particular arc – so Rob got drawn into my Unity vortex for this arc because I wanted X-O…and the next arc I'm kind of running solo as we introduce Dr. Silk and I'm trying to just pull one new team member in every other arc or so to keep it interesting and to spread the pain of cross-overs evenly across the company!

In the new arc the spotlight turns toward Ninjak. What do you see is the role of Ninjak in the new Valiant universe and on the Unity team? Any chance this might lead to a Ninjak series?

I'd LOVE to see a Ninjak series and I'm sure he'll get one when the time is right. Valiant rolls their stuff out slowly and they do it right, so when it happens it'll be awesome and I hope I'm not too busy to write it! Ninjak is a guy I'm trying to sort of position as the leader of the group…we'll see if he actually pans out but I think he's the kind of dick that will just eventually take over by default. He's pragmatic so he'll get the job done and it'll be up to Livewire to be the heart and soul of the team.

This introduces the character of Dr. Silk and the terror cell called Webnet. The key to any successful comic, especially a team book are the villains. Who is Dr. Silk and what brand of evil does he bring with him?

He's the worst. Literally, I re-read all of his old appearances for inspiration and then I just made him even worse. It's tough to make a villain more villainous. You can threaten to kill a bunch of people or try to take over the Earth so I really approached it in a way where I tried to think of something he could do that would be WORSE than killing someone. And so we'll get a bunch of backstory with him and you'll get to see how twisted he was…but in a kind of heartbreaking way. I try to keep the villains sort of relatable on some level, you know? Like Harada is sort of a villain but you can kind of see where he's coming from. With Silk, you'll see where he's coming from but he's coming from a very bad place.

The Trapped By Webnet arc will take us through issue 7. What about after that? What are your long term goals for the title? What do you see as the title's niche on the comic shop shelf?

I really think it's a great avenue to showcase Ninjak, Livewire, and Eternal Warrior along with a rotating team member to keep things fresh…it's a great introduction to the Valiant Universe you know? If you haven't read a Valiant book yet, then this one will give you a good healthy taste of what the world is like and the characters are about. That said, I think if you stick with the book long enough you're going to see this longer story play out with characters that don't want to be together, don't really like each other, and don't know how to work together – you're going to see them slowly evolve – almost in real time – into a group of people that ultimately do care about each other and become this sort of weird group of friends, if not family.