Divinity II #1 Review: The Other Cosmonauts

By D. Goodman | Apr 19, 2016

Valiant’s breakout character returns in Divinity II, an all-new miniseries that is just as good as the original.

Divinity II #1 (of 4)
Written by Matt Kindt
Art by Trevor Hairsine and Ryan Winn
Colored by David Baron
Published by Valiant Comics

The following is an advanced review of Divinity II #1 from Valiant Comics which will be on stands April 20. As such it may contain SPOILERS so tread with caution.

When Valiant returned to comic book stores everywhere, they brought with them all the characters fans had come to love during the companies heyday: X-O Manowar, Archer & Armstrong, Harbinger and the rest. And while it was great to see these heroes again in new adventures, if Valiant planned to stick around this time, everyone knew they would need to create some new characters that hadn’t been seen before.

Valiant answered in 2015 with Divinity, a miniseries by Matt Kindt and Trevor Hairsine that told the story of Abram Adams, one of three cosmonauts sent into space at the height of the Cold War. When he returned to Earth, he had been transformed into Divinity, a man with the powers of a god.

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The original miniseries was an amazing book, one deserving of all the accolades it received and served as a story unto itself, with a beginning, middle and end.

However, we all knew a sequel was coming.

With Divinity II #1, both Kindt and Hairsine return to tell the next chapter in the story and answer one very simple question that was never resolved in the first series: what happened to the other two cosmonauts?

Divinity II follows one of those cosmonauts, Valentina Volkov and how after journeying to The Unknown she is given the same wondrous powers as Abram Adams. However, instead of using her powers to help, she is determined to use them to return Russia to the glory days of the former Soviet Union.

As in the first miniseries, the writing and art in Divinity II are top notch. Kindt has crafted a sequel that works just as well as the original without missing a step as the dialogue is crisp and the pacing perfect. In Valentina Volkov he has created a very interesting idea: what if the powers of a god where given to a communist, one that firmly believes that her powers are a gift to the State and she is simply the vessel?

It’s the kind of idea that really gets you thinking.

Hairsine’s art, just like in the first series, is stunning. The sequences in Russia have a grittiness to them the perfectly suits the mood yet the parts that take place in The Unknown have a widescreen detail that gives them a sense of grandeur and wonder you don’t really see in many Valiant titles.

It really has me excited for when (and if) Divinity shows up to throw down.

Related Story: X-O Manowar #46 Review: Facing A Riot At Home

The Bottom Line: Much like The Godfather Part II, Divinity II has a very good chance of going down as a sequel that is better than the original. Valentina Volkov is an incredibly compelling character and I cannot wait to see what Kindt and Hairsine do with her over the course of the series.

You can put me down for all four issues and the trade. Yep, it’s that good.