Reckless plans can sometimes lead to finding what you never knew you needed.
What They Say:
It’s the comic book event a decade in the making! The all-new Valiant Universe kicks off with a landmark, oversized # 1 issue of X-O Manowar by New York Times-bestselling author Robert Venditti (The Surrogates, The Homeland Directive) and Eisner Award-winning artist Cary Nord (Conan)! Born into battle, Aric of Dacia — heir to the throne of the Visigoth people — has never known peace. After a brutal encounter with a mysterious enemy known as The Vine leaves him a prisoner on an incomprehensible world, the only hope Aric has of returning to his family and saving them from slavery is to seize a weapon of incalculable destruction and become X-O Manowar! The Vine destroyed Aric’s world. Now he will give them war.
The Review:
One of the things that I loved the most about the world of comics in the 90’s was that it brought in a change in mindset for many fans to look beyond the Big Two. One that definitely garnered a lot of attention was that of Valiant Comics. I didn’t get in exactly at ground floor at the time, but after a couple of issues hitting the stands, I was part of the wave of fans buying them up as back issues at ridiculous prices in order to read the stories. Some of it is just nostalgia, but there’s nothing but very positive feelings about the works that were put out there and a certain fondness for many of them over the years. So with the news that X-O Manowar was going to resurface in a new series in 2012, I was beyond keen to check out what was going to happen. The original work was certainly distinctive in its tone and style, especially since it connected with other things but stood on its own and had its own story to tell. This incarnation looks to be much the same in that regard.
This series, written by Robert Venditti and artwork by Cary Nord, takes us back to the year 402 as the Visigoths are fighting back against the Romans in Northern Italy. Like they’ve suffered for many, many years, they’re used and abused by the Romans when needed, but when they’re not they’re hunted down and slaughtered while the women and children are sold into slavery. The decent sized group of Visigoths here, led by King Alaric, is doing what they can to push back but there are simply too many Romans. Things go so bad that even his nephew, Aric, is unable to change the tide of things with his bravado and skill. Aric is inspirational and can motivate the men, but sometimes the forces are just too overwhelming.
But even in retreat, he’s the type to push and plot to deal with the problem. With the loss of many of the women after the battle, he’s intent on getting them back. Which leads to him and a small group going after some Romans that were found nearby. Unfortunately for them, it turns out after they start attacking that they weren’t Romans but rather aliens. Aliens that can quickly beat them back and take the survivors back to a colony ship and more. While the book is certainly interesting before the aliens show up, and they’re not high profile in appearance or stature, it’s definitely more so once the Aric and the others get caught up in this. There’s some intriguing tidbits tossed in about seeding among the humans which will come back to haunt them later, but there’s also the introduction of the armor itself as we see how revered it is by the aliens. Aric gets it all, understands it, and plots to use it against them if he can acquire it.
In Summary:
Having only vague memories of the original, I can largely view this as a new work that stands on its own. And it’s very easy to do that as Venditti really hits a good flow here, even if it does have a bit of a theatrical flow to it. You can really visualize this through the writing and Cary Nord’s artwork as something that’s quite easy to translate to another medium. The opening issue gives us some good battles, big and small, and a quick but solid look at Aric. While there’s obviously more to men of this time period than we see here, Aric is pretty much what you’d expect. The opening issue hits some very good plot points and sets up a lot of things to come, but it doesn’t try to cram so much in here to get us to any particular point. It’s getting the room to breathe and definitely leaves you wanting to see more of what’s going to happen with Aric and how it’ll unfold.
Grade: B+
