Who we were says so much about who we are.
Creative Staff:
Story: Robert Venditti
Art: Clay Mann
What They Say:
After narrowly surviving the events of ARMOR HUNTERS, X-O Manowar (or what’s left of him) must look to the future, but, to do so, Aric must first learn the startling secret of his past. Be here in October and learn the TRUE, violent origin of Visigoth life under the brutality of the Roman Empire.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having had a passing familiarity with X-O Manowar from its original run in the 90’s and then touching lightly on it with the relaunch a couple of years ago, I really reconnected with the character in the Armor Hunters storyline from this summers event series. With that series having come to a close and putting the world in a different state, my curiosity was piqued as to where this title would go afterwards since Aric is determined to protect the world and view all its people as those that he must view as his own rather than the small band that he was looking after before. It’s a good bit of growth for the character to shift from just “his people” to “all people.” So with an issue zero billed as a kind of post-Armor Hunters storyline issue, I was in to see what’s going on here.
Written by the same author, who handles the main X-O Manowar series itself, and illustrated by Clay Mann, we don’t exactly look to the future here but instead look to the past. Namely, 391 A.D. in Thrace, where we see the young man that Aric is with his friend Gafti, both of whom are chomping at the bit to become true men and join their fellow warrior rank. Aric is struggling with the brutality of it all, amusingly enough as he seems to wretch constantly at the sight of the dead bodies. He and Gafti are kept from the warrior ranks by Aric’s father, who is protecting him from his future for his mother, but they do participate in the post-battle awfulness of going through and sticking their swords in every Roman body so those lives end fully and completely rather than writhing on the ground causing potential problems.
The book gives us a little bit of decent but useful material in seeing the kind of family issues that exist there at this point in time, the need to be protective but also the understanding of the kind of shame it can cause and all that comes with it. Holding Gafti back from moving on so that it looks like it’s not just Aric shows just how protective Aric’s mother is and what Aric’s father will do to keep her happy. But as we know, he does become a warrior and we see that baptism by fire that exists with the next battle a few days later. It’s a brutal and intense piece that unfolds, one that really works well to show how that once Aric got himself into battle and experienced it, he found that he was ideally suited for it. Though he certainly wasn’t comical before or anything else negative, once he has his first kill and really stands in the midst of it all, you see that he’s completely found his element. That’s a beautiful foundation moment for a man like this and seeing it unfold in such a sequence reinforces it beautifully.
In Summary:
Aric’s shift from protecting a small group of people to all people was something that Armor Hunters was partially about, and we get that told in a different way here. Going back to his past, showing how he went from being protected to being engaged in protecting others was the kind of trial by fire that forges many warriors over the centuries. Aric, as we know him in the present, is ideally suited for it and far more adaptable than many of his brethren would likely ever be. The past is handled quite well and you feel he’s more humanized in a way that we didn’t truly see in Armor Hunters since that was filled with so many characters. Add in a nice couple of pages to cement things in the present and the commitments, he has there, and the influence he has as well on the next generation, and you can see how he’ll have a lot to live up to in the years to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: October 8th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99