Volume 4: X-O Manowar Issue #3

X-O Manowar Volume 4: Issue #3
Cover B by Kenneth Rocafort

Volume 4: X-O Manowar Issue #3
Published: May 2017

Writer: Matt Kindt
Artists: Tomas Giorello, David Mack, and Zu Orzu
Colorist: Diego Rodriguez
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Assistant Editors: Charlotte Greenbaum and Robert Meyers
Editor: Warren Simons

Title: Soldier
Synopsis: Aric and his strike team have accomplished their mission of lowering the Cadmium city's shields, and have taken the tower to disrupt the link with the spaceships in orbit. At this point, they are ideally located to capture the Cadmium president and end the war. Instead, the Azure Captain who sent him on this mission decides to bombard the city with heavy weaponry, and the Cadmium president escapes. 

After the battle, Aric and the Azure Captain take their grievances to their General. The blue-skinned General congratulates them both, but agrees that they cannot have dissension in the ranks. So he promotes Aric to Captain, and ends the other's military career, shall we say, rather abruptly. That evening, Aric consults with Shanhara through the ring he fashioned from a small part of the sentient armor. Shanhara points out that trouble doesn't find him, nor does Aric use the armor to flee his problems. When trouble comes, he uses the armor to confront it. He is a warrior, destined to never know a life of peace. He must reconcile himself with that.

Volume 4: X-O Manowar Issue #2

Volume 4: X-O Manowar Issue #2
Cover B: Kenneth Rocafort

Volume 4: X-O Manowar Issue #2

Published: April 2017
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Tomas Giorello
Colorist: Diego Rodriguez
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Assistant Editors: Charlotte Greenbaum & Robert Meyers
Editor: Warren Simons

Title: Soldier
Synopsis: Aric blames the X-O Manowar for the life of continual conflict he endured on Earth. Yet he recognizes that he occasionally needs the alien armor. So, pressed into service of the Azure army on planet Gorin, he has forged a portion of it into a ring. Through this link, he can call on a small amount of Shanhara's capabilities as the situation dictates. 

In Issue #2, Aric leads a team into the Cadmium's capitol. His team has two objectives: 1) to destroy the shield generators, which will allow the Azure infantry to storm the city, and 2) destroy the tower which controls the Cadmium spaceships in orbit. His team sneaks into the city, battling the defensive squads that discover them. While his team heads off to destroy the shield generator, he ascends the tower to destroy the control room, and thereby prevent the Cadmium spaceships from raining down firepower on the Azure army.

Ed Greenberg of Collector's Paradise on X-O Manowar

Ed Greenberg holding Nick Bradshaw's B&W artwork
(and wearing a T-shirt showing the cover of Volume 1 X-O Manowar Issue #0).

The Volume 4 X-O Manowar Issue #1 Collector's Paradise Variant includes a testimonial from shop owner Ed Greenberg. He discovered X-O Manowar, and Valiant Comics, back in 1992. After reading the controversial "Death of Superman" storyline from DC Comics, he decided to see what else the comics world had to offer him. In X-O Manowar, he found an appealing hero. 

"He was a Conan-like brute from the ages of the Roman empire, transported to our time and given the ultimate weapon--a sentient suit of armor--with ultimate power and ultimate knowledge of the universe. The character had a raw feeling to him, a feature that was very much missing from the corporate superheroes of the 90s. Since that day, after I hunted down everything related to X-O Manowar that was out, and collected every issue and appearance since, Aric of Dacia has been my favorite comic book character. He continues to be so now. I still collect everything X-O Manowar--from custom-made hardcovers binding the original issues together to original art--and my home office is a shrine to the character."

Superman is a household name, and a hero to many. But each of us are unique, and identify with people differently. Ed Greenberg found the hero he needed in X-O Manowar. His love of X-O Manowar, of Valiant, and comics in general, would prompt him to open his own comic store in 1994. Collector's Paradise has operated continuously since then in Canoga Park, California, and recently opened a second store in nearby old town Pasadena.

Here's the finished version of Nick Bradshaw's artwork, colored by Andrew Dalhouse, and unobscured by the excellent (but large) logo designed by Tom Muller.

Volume 4 X-O Manowar Issue #1
Collector's Paradise Variant Cover Art
by Nick Bradshaw and Andrew Dalhouse

Volume 4 X-Manowar Issue #1 Collector's Paradise Variant Covers

Volume 4 X-O Manowar Issue #1
Collector's Paradise Variant Cover (B&W)

To herald the return of X-O Manowar to comics, with this new volume from Valiant, owner Ed Greenberg of comics store Collector's Paradise commissioned his own cover. The above is the Black & White version, created by penciler Nick Bradshaw, in consultation with editor Warren Simons.

After the Azure army conscripts Aric, they send him into battle without armor or a weapon. First he must ascend a sheer cliff, fighting the Cadmium army all the way. Once he reaches the top, weapons can be scavenged from the fallen, but he must still brave many dangers. Chief among those is a giant genetically modified "Blood Beast." 

Here's the color variant, courtesy of colorist Andrew Dalhouse:

Volume 4 X-O Manowar Issue #1
Collector's Paradise Variant Cover (Color)

Like Cover B, Nick Bradshaw depicts Aric wearing his armor, and fighting the immense Blood Beast with an energy sword. While Aric doesn't wear the armor in Issue #1, he does consult with it twice. (Remember, the armor is sentient, and even has a name: Shanhara). And he does help the Azure army win this battle by single-handedly taking down the monstrous beast. But to find out how that occurs, and all the nuances of the story, you'll have to pick up Issue #1, and read it yourself.

Volume 4: X-O Manowar Issue #1

Volume 4 X-O Manowar Issue #1
Cover B by Kenneth Rocafort

Volume 4 X-O Manowar Issue #1
Published: March 2017

Cover Artist: Kenneth Rocafort*
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Tomas Giorello
Colorist: Diego Rodriguez
Letterer: Dave Sharp
Assistant Editor: Robert Meyers
Editor: Warren Simons

Title: Soldier
Synopsis: Aric of Dacia, the 4th Century Visigoth who was transplanted by aliens in the 21st Century, has left Earth behind. He's relocated to a planet with two suns, and nine days in the week. He's living with Schon, a woman with blue skin and a tail. She works in a tavern, while he looks after her farm. He finds contentment in simple tasks like tilling the soil and repairing her tractor. Sadly, for him, this period of peaceful seclusion will not last. 

Schon's blue-skinned race, the Azure people, have been oppressed for generations. Like her, they are forced to work hard every day of the week. They are forbidden education and other forms of advancement. So one day, an Azure war party conscripts Aric, and forces him to join their war against their oppressors, the Cadmiums. Aric will not be given armor, or even a weapon. He's expected to die like all the other cannon fodder, serving as little more than a living shield for the properly trained soldiers. What the Azure army leaders do not reckon on is Aric's tenacity.

It's an action packed beginning to Matt Kindt's new saga. Even though it's written like most comics these days, with visuals taking most of the narrative burden, the Giorello and Rodriguez's visuals are incredible. A lot happens in this introductory chapter, and one's enjoyment of the issue only increases with later reads.

*As a first issue, X-O Manowar #1 was printed with thirty different covers, not including the second and third printing reprints. My wife and I chose Cover B, although we liked them all.