Britain Gets Gooey in The Union #2

Time to Make Waves in The Union #2 from Paul Grist, Andrea Di Vito, Drew Geraci, Le Beau Underwood, Nolan Woodard, and Travis Lanham.

Nola Pfau: LIZ, HAPPY NEW YEAR, MORE SNAKES!

Liz Large: The most important feature of 2021: the presence of Snakes!

NP: I certainly can’t think of any more newsworthy events.

THE DEATH OF EMPIRE

LL: When we last left Snakes and Friends, the hero Britannia had just died defending everyone from the goo dragon. There’s a little bit of a weird split here, for me at least– Britannia is a completely new creation, and I keep having to remind myself that she’s meant to be one of the big gun heroes here. They’re calling her “legendary” and I’ve had to look up the spelling multiple times while taking notes.

NP: Paul Grist is really belaboring the point of her death here it feels like, and given the way it’s shown here; she’s sprawled out in a “sexy” death, looking almost like she’s lounging on the grass, as the descending caption boxes narrate her death, the death of all that is good and kind, just and fair. Did we mention she’s literally named after Britain? I feel like Paul’s trying to tell us something here.

LL: But what could it be? In fairness, Britannia does seem pretty great, from what we see– she’s universally beloved, both by the media and government (which isn’t much of an endorsement for a hero), and by the misfit toys on this team. They don’t seem inclined to trust authority, but they do care about her.

NP: Certainly more than they care about the other flag-wrapped hero on the team, who they basically immediately turn their backs on. It just occurred to me, though, why this was originally intended as an Empyre tie-in rather than a King-In-Black one; with this sort of commentary on Britain, Britannia, death of empire, Grist was literally going wild with the very concept of Empyre. Seeing it laid plain here almost ruins the joke. Almost.

LL Poor Union Jack. He’s beloved by no one in this, and though he attempts to step into the team leader role, it’s almost embarrassing. He doesn’t know any of the team’s powers, he gets knocked unconscious once the fighting gets tough, and then Knull doesn’t even try to take control of him because he is, and I quote my favorite snake here, “a bit useless”.

NP: That was such a good bit. I really enjoyed the entire panel devoted to Union Jack emoting through his mask in response. Just beat-perfect comic timing. It’s kind of fun to only really see the events of King In Black through the lens of this book; I have no idea who Knull actually is, other than Donny Cates’ very special boy. Apparently after Union Jack gets knocked out, Knull covers the entire planet in like…a goo shell? I don’t know. Either way, he at least finds Choir important enough to possess.

CHOIR, THE HERO OF WAILS

LL: In fairness to Knull, Choir is very cool! This issue opens with a flashback to ten months ago, and we see what she was doing before she joined up with the Union. It’s not ideal for her, as she’s fleeing cops in helicopters and on foot, but she is calling herself Skreem, which is pretty great. It’s exactly what a sonic based hero should call themselves, spelling and all. She also really reads as a teen to me, so it makes sense that scream requires at least two letter swaps.

NP: It makes perfect sense to me too. It’s also interesting to me that her response isn’t the same as the rest of the team; everyone else is in for the fight, but she doesn’t want it. Maybe that’s why Knull goes after her? Because she’s let down her defenses. I think I mentioned it last time, but I really like her power set too. It seems to be sonic-based, like Banshee or Siryn, but it manifests in such a different way. But either way, she’s definitely not here for any of what’s going on…at least until she’s possessed.

LL: In contrast to the last issue, everyone gets to do some fun stuff with their powers this week. Kelpie not only can control the waves, but also grows long finger talons to fight the Knull-posessed security guards. As an added bonus, she didn’t like them when they were regular humans, so this is great for her.

NP: She’s so delightfully violent! Thankfully she has a counterbalance in Snakes, who commits to a gentle approach. Should we talk about our perfect boy?

SNAKES (and some other stuff we guess)

LL: HE HIT A GUY WITH ANOTHER GUY! THE MOST PERFECT MOVE IN FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY!

NP: Look, Liz and I are unironically here for one thing and one thing only, and that is Snakes. We love him. He’s large, he’s mysterious, he speaks…telepathically, maybe? And he’s strong enough to HIT A GUY WITH ANOTHER GUY!

LL: He’s neat! I can’t wait to find out more about him, most especially if he is made of many snakes, is possessed by many snakes, or just really likes snakes! There’s so many options. He speaks in diamond-shaped thought balloons, which means telepathy makes sense. But telepathy and being as strong as ten guys don’t seem like a natural pairing, unless the telepathy is how the dozens and dozens of snakes making up Snakes communicate?

NP: It might be! Or it might just be a weird representation of many snakes hissing in unison? I mean how many other men made entirely of dozens of snakes have we encountered? We have no idea what they sound like! All we know is he’s a perfect boy.

LL: In a surprising twist, while not perfect and not as cool as Snakes, the sketchy tech millionaire from last issue proved himself to be useful twice in this issue! Instead of fighting in the initial battle, he filmed on his phone, which actually provided helpful information that electricity can damage the Knull-posessed soldiers. I think electricity can damage most things, but it’s good that they had documentation!

NP: That part’s very interesting to me…well, okay, it’s only kind of interesting, because I’m still not gonna read King in Black to find out what’s going on. All I know is symbiotes have traditionally been weak to sonic and fire attacks, but this Knull stuff appears to be different? Like Choir did a scream and then got possessed, while electricity seems super-effective. I gotta say, if Knull is like this super evil ancient thing, waiting for multiple societies to specifically develop electric power before attacking them is just a really bad strategy.

LL: I am also not going to read King in Black, so maybe he’s just so old that he doesn’t know about electricity or the dangers. He’s probably doing his best! Union Jack does successfully electrocute the Knull out of Choir, but she doesn’t look completely happy about it.

NP: I noticed that too! She didn’t seem to want to lose it. I don’t know if that’s an effect of Knull possession, or if something about the joining just really worked for her. I guess it makes sense? I mean, she’s named Choir, she joins with like a weird hive mind of unified voices? There’s probably something there but I’m not gonna try to reason it out any further.

LL: The issue ends on a down note. Choir, Snakes, and Kelpie want to leave– and not just to go home after a battle, like Union Jack thinks.They only joined this team because they trusted Britannia and cared about her, and now that she’s dead, they have no reason to stick around.

NP: Something something believing in the dream of an empire and now that dream is dead…she’s definitely still gonna come back before the end of this mini, right?

LL: Oh, absolutely. If nothing else, Union Jack may try to resurrect her to get the team back together, since he apparently faces imprisonment if the team isn’t ready to work in a month.

NP: I’m torn. I don’t really care about Union Jack enough at this point to be worried about that outcome for him, but I do like the hot super lady. I guess we’ll have to find out next issue!