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.