X-O Manowar Volume 1
February 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 1
Title: Retribution Part 1 "Into The Fire"
Synopsis:
Aric, a 5th Century Visigoth, has been captured by Spider Aliens. After
a period of captivity, he finds the X-O Manowar armor, and uses it to
escape their spaceship. Due to the relativistic effects of
faster-than-light travel, he returns to present day Earth. There he is
pursued by Spider Aliens disguised as humans who run the powerful
international Orb Industries.
March 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 2
Title: Retribution Part 2: "Kingdom Come!"
Synopsis: Aric's battle with alien agents leads him to New York City. There he defeats the aliens running Orb Industries.
April 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 3:
Title: "The Most Powerful Man in the World"
Synopsis:
In his Harbinger Foundation offices in Tokyo, Toyo Harada worries about
the sudden and violent takeover of Orb Industries. He sends a
bionically enhanced ex-KGB agent to kill Aric.
May 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 4:
Title: "King's Crossing"
Synopsis:
Aric travels to New Orleans. There he meets Toyo Harada, who agrees to
make peace with him, provided Aric doesn't oppose his interests. They
cement their treaty in a nightclub, where Jack Boniface, aka Shadowman,
plays his saxophone. Later, he defends Harada when a group of
super-powered teens, who have left Harada's Harbinger Foundation,
attempt to kill their former leader.
June 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 5:
Title: "Revelations"
Synopsis: The mercenary Ax tries to steal Aric's armor.
July 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 6:
Title: "Power Play"
Synopsis: The mercenary Ax, clad in his own X-O armor, fights Aric for possession of the more powerful X-O Manowar armor.
August 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 7
Title: A Call To Arms (Chapter 5 of the Unity crossover event)
Summary:
With the help of some renegade Harbinger kids, young Geoff McHenry (a
Geomancer), and a hand from Solar, Man of the Atom, Aric is transported
to the Lost Land. There he faces cybernetic-enhanced pterodactyls,
rescues prisoners from being eaten by dinosaurs, and wrests the
leadership of a barbarian race of warriors called Skammrs from the
Mother God who oversees the world out of space and time.
September 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 8
Title: Crossroads (Chapter 13 of the Unity crossover event)
Summary:
Aric leads his army of Skammrs in an assault on the Mother God's
fortress. After the battle, a dinosaur catches him without his armor and
bites him in half. The X-O armor envelops him, and puts him to sleep.
He awakes amid the bodies of his devastated army, and the X-O armor
informs him that years have passed while it knitted his body back
together.
October 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 9
Title: Besieged: Homecoming Part 1
Synopsis:
Aric is transported to Earth in 408AD, and aids his Visigoth tribe in
fighting the Romans. But they fear his power, and conspire with the
Romans to kill him. His love Dierdre dies amid the fighting.
Heartbroken, Aric blasts a hole deep in the ground, and buries himself
in dirt and darkness.
November 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 10
Title: Homecoming Part 2: Takeover
Synopsis:
On May 8, 1992, a tree falls on the grounds of Orb Industries. Aric's
2nd in Command, Ken Clarkson, helps him out of the hole. After two
months of rest and physical therapy, the Spider-Aliens invade Aric's
mansion. But when he calls the armor to him, it looks different than
before.
December 1992
X-O Manowar Issue 11
Title: Alien Whispers: Seed of Destruction Part 1
Synopsis:
Aric fights the Spider Aliens that have invaded his house. His armor
produces a sword, a weapon he often used while fighting the Romans.
After vanquishing the aliens, he (and Ken, his 2nd in Command at Orb
Industries) suffers recurring dreams of fighting Spider Aliens in an
arena. Then he awakens from one, and finds himself clad in his armor,
floating in orbit around Earth.
January 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 12
Title: Moonstruck: Seed of Destruction Part 2
Synopsis:
The armor takes him to the moon, where Aric finds a base filled with
67,000 Spider-Aliens. The armor informs him that it reproduces every two
thousand years, and as it put him to sleep for so many centuries to
return him to the present day, it is returning to its own kind to birth a
new set of armor. At the base he meets Rexo, a soldier crippled in
Vietnam. The Spider-Aliens befriended him, and gave him his own set of
armor. Rexo tells him that his armor is not only sentient, but it has a
name: Shanhara. He shows Aric an arena filled with human hostages, and
demands Aric give up the X-O armor. When Aric refuses, Rexo kills the
hostages. Aric fights for his life, kills Rexo and many Spider-Aliens,
but he is outnumbered. He flees back to space, but the Spider-Aliens
follow. Even in their less powerful armor, they capture him.
February 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 13
Title: The Darkside To Victory
Synopsis:
The Spider-Aliens have stripped Aric of Shanhara, his sentient armor.
He fights their champion in an arena on their moon base. Solar, Man of
the Atom is there as an observer, but cannot interfere. But when Aric
defeats their champion, the Spider-Aliens attack him again. So Solar
throws him his control ring, and Shanhara flies to him. Together, they
kill the Spider-Aliens, and destroy their base. Then Aric destroys the
seed Shanhara has produced to ensure that the aliens can never gain
control of another set of X-O Manowar armor.
March 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 14
Title: The Coming of Turok Dinosaur Hunter
Synopsis:
One minute, Turok is fighting the bionisaurs amid the Unity War in the
Lost Land. The next, he is transported to Columbia, South America on
June 10, 1987. In New York, on September 14, 1992, Aric returns from the
moon to Orb Industries headquarters. After consulting with Ken
Clarkson, his second-in-command, and Randy Cartier, his chief of
security, the three fly to a corporate lab in Orlando Florida.
Researchers there have discovered infant dinosaurs. Aric travels to
South America to investigate where the young Bionisaurs were found. He
meets Turok, who helps him wipe out the smuggling operation selling the
dinosaurs that were transported through the Time-Rift along with Turok.
April 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 15
Title: Concrete Jungle
Synopsis: When a Con Edison crew is killed, Aric and Turok battle bionisaurs in the tunnels, and eventually the parks of New York.
May 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 16
Title: Family Matters
Synopsis:
When Ken, his second-in-command at Orb Industries, is kidnapped by gun
runners, Aric must put a stop to a thriving trade in alien weaponry.
June 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 17
Title: Push And Shove
Synopsis:
When the mob learns that Orb Industries plans to develop an area in
which they've buried bodies, they threaten Ken Clarkson, Aric's
second-in-command, to leave the land alone. Aric meets with them to
discuss the situation rationally, and they try to kill him. So he calls
on the X-O Manowar armor and attacks them. Later, upon reflection, the
mob decides to dig up the bodies, and allow Orb Industries to develop
their land.
July 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 18
Title: Operation: Deep Freeze Part 1: Ultimatums
Synopsis:
Aric's armor, and his battles, have not gone unnoticed by the United
States government. A Senator on the Appropriations committee, and a
member of the Internal Revenue Service, meet quietly with Aric. When he
refuses to hand the armor over, they send representatives to Orb
Industries. Ken, Aric's second-in-command, refuses to help them, and
Aric throws them out before they can intimidate more staff. So they hold
Randy, Aric's Head of Security, hostage in her own home, and order him
to meet them at a prearranged location and hand over the armor or they
will kill her. After the phone call, Randy's friend bursts in and frees
her. The villains flee, but they take with them a tracking device. Randy
and her friend follow the signal to King George Island (the largest of
the Shetland Islands lying 75 miles off Antarctica's coast). Then Aric
appears, and a battle between the X-O Manowar armor, and the U. S.
Government, commences.
August 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 19
Title: Operation Deep Freeze Part 2: Gentlemen's Agreement
Synopsis:
When the Feds surround Aric, and point a gun at Randy's head, Aric
surrenders his X-O Manowar armor to save the life of Orb Industries'
Head of Security. The Feds then transport them to the Amundsen-Scott
research station at the South Pole. The Feds plan to test the armor
inside a fortified bunker. What they don't realize is that Aric still
possesses the control ring. When he and Randy are locked inside a cell,
her life is no longer in jeopardy, and they realize the Feds still plan
to kill them, Aric calls the armor to him. But then, in the process of
escaping his cell and battling the Feds, Aric sets off an avalanche that
buries him beneath snow, ice, and debris.
September 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 20
Title: Operation Deep Freeze Part 3: The Consequences
Synopsis:
Aric's been buried before, but this time he's not content to lay down
and die. While he blasts his way out of the ice, snow and debris, and
takes on the U.S. Government forces outside the Amundsen-Scott research
station, his Head of Security, Randy, takes on the troops inside. The
two return to the states, where Aric calls in a favor from Harada, the
head of the powerful Harbinger Foundation, to call off the military.
Aric uses the information Shanhara, the sentient X-O Manowar armor,
gleaned from the computer systems in Antarctica to insure that the
Internal Revenue Service keep out of Orb Industries' affairs. Then,
disgusted with our "modern" world, he hands the X-O control ring to
Randy, and tells her he's going away. Maybe forever.
October 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 21
Title: Strange Bedfellows
Synopsis:
Aric's old foe Ax has recently broken out of custody at the Harbinger
Foundation. When he learns that Aric has left Orb Industries, he
ambushes Ken, Aric's second-in-command, and then Randy Cartier, his Head
of Security. Randy has been troubled by the easy affinity she's formed
with Shanhara, the sentient armor. But when Ax shows up wearing his less
powerful Hunter Armor, she dons the X-O Manowar armor, and shows him
she won't give it up without a fight.
November 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 22
Title: White Kings and Black Knights Part 1
Synopsis:
Aric chooses to live with the Yanomama people in a remote village in
Peru. Randy Cartier, his head of security, uses her power to wield
Shanhara, the sentient armor, to solidify her position as head of Orb
Industries in Aric's absence. While he uses his natural fighting skills
to defend them against the attacks of a nearby tribe, Randy flies
through space, and into the heart of a volcano, to learn the test
Shanhara's limits.
December 1993
X-O Manowar Issue 23
Title: White Kings and Black Knights Part 2
Synopsis:
Randy's proximity to (and usage of) Shanhara, the sentient armor, has
reawakened memories of Wolfbridge, and old foe that tortured her and
killed her friend Jean-Luc. Her friend Paul uses his connections to give
her current information on the camp in Afghanistan where the incident
occurred when they fought the Russians together for the Canadian
military. Randy uses the X-O Manowar armor to destroy the Mujahadin base
that Wolfbridge once oversaw. But instead of satisfaction, the
destruction feels like an abuse of power. Meanwhile, Aric tries and
fails to defend the Yanomama village against a white man named Reece,
who has threatened to forcibly move them off their land. When he
recovers from his injuries, Aric sees that the village has been
obliterated, and a sign identifies the land's owner as Spectar
Enterprises, a subsidiary of Aric's own Orb Industries. (Also, a sneak
peak at the U.S. military's creation of the Armorine armor modeled on
Aric's X-O Manowar armor).
January 1994
X-O Manowar Issue 24
Title: Homecoming
Synopsis:
Due to the guilt Randy Cartier feels over destroying the Mujahadin camp
in Afghanistan, Aric returns home to find Shanhara, the sentient X-O
Manowar armor, has changed. He assures her that, back under his control,
the armor has suffered no permanent ill effects. Aric then takes Randy
out to a pool hall, where he tells her she's being too hard on herself,
and tells her he intends to pursue Reece, the man who massacred the
Yanomama indians on behalf of Spectar Enterprises, a subsidiary of Orb
Enterprises. When a disagreement with the regular patrons turns violent,
Aric visits the hospital, where he reimburses them for their medical
costs, and apologizes for their injuries. The issue ends with a sneak
peak at the Armorines program, the U.S. military's elite combat unit
using their version of the X-O Manowar armor.
February 1994
Armorines Issue 0 (Included in X-O Manowar Issue 25)
Title: Unite, Corps, God, Country Part 1
Synopsis:
Colonel Gardner welcomes Gunnery Sergeant Harold Lewis, Lance Corporals
Antonio Cordova, and James Earl Williams to the Armorines project,
where they meet Dr. Philip Zahn, who won a Nobel prize for a
breakthrough in Microelectronics. The armor he's developed gives
enhanced strength, uses ion cannons mounted on gauntlets, vision beyond
the human spectrum, force fields, ion-charged blades, laser cutters, and
flight. They meet Sergeant Sirot of the N.S.A. (the National Security
Agency), who survived the attempt to capture Aric's armor in Antarctica.
They fly to Camp Pendleton, where they meet another team member, Major
Myra Lane. There they receive their training with the armor, and learn
to function as a team. We also learn that Peter Garrett, who oversaw the
operation in Antarctica, is still maneuvering behind the scenes, as is
Ms. Mandrake from the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service), who tried to
take over Orb Industries when the C.I.A. (Central Intelligence Agency)
believed they had captured Aric.
February 1994
X-O Manowar Issue 25
Title: Unit, Corps, God, Country Part 2
Synopsis:
Ken, Aric's second-in-command at Orb Industries, is having trouble
getting to the bottom of who sanctioned Reece's massacre in South
America. So Randy Cartier, his Security Chief, offers to send a few
people down to Spectar Enterprises, an Orb subsidiary, to investigate.
Aric meets Paul, Randy's friend, who worked with her in the military,
and has stood by her in civilian life. When the Armorines attack Aric,
he wants to destroy them all. But Paul and Randy convince him the
Marines were following orders, and he doesn't want the entire United
States Military against him. He lets them go. A week later, Gunnery
Sergeant Harold Lewis returns in uniform. He apologizes for the
misunderstanding, and promises that those responsible for the attack
(presumably Peter Garrett and Ms. Mandrake) have been dealt with.
X-O Manowar Volume 3
May 2012
X-O Manowar Vol 3 Issue 1
Title: Blades and Open Fields
Synopsis: When
the Romans attack his village on Easter 402AD, Aric fights with his
fellow Visigoths against vastly superior forces. The battle against the
Romans does not go well, King Alaric decides discretion is the better
part of valor. His nephew Aric ignores his order to pull back. Instead,
he rallies his people for another attack. Partly because he continued
the fighting, the Visigoths suffer heavy losses, Aric's father Rolf
dies, and his mother and wife are taken prisoner by the Romans. Aric and
his friend Gafti attack what they believe to be a prisoner transport,
but the strange beings they battle wield stranger weapons. Meanwhile,
disguised figures sneak into the Visigoth camp, and replace select
children with their own. (They change their strange appearance to match
those of the Human children they take). Aric, his friend Gafti, and
other Visigoths are captured, and taken aboard the transports, which
take them to a spaceship in orbit. There, Aric and Gafti witness an
alien warrior attempt to wear some yellow-and-blue armor. Once he puts
it on, he cries out, bleeds, and dies. From inside their cage, Aric
swears to Gafti that they will find a way to secure the aliens' weapons,
escape the strange craft, return to his people, and crush the Roman
Empire.
June 2012
X-O Manowar Vol 3 Issue 2
Title: Escaping Eden
Synopsis: Aric
awakens from a dream of his wife Diedre. The Alien soldiers order the
captives from their cells and march them across spaceship to work in
their gardens. They feed the plants with compost, and when one person
bites a piece of fruit, an alien attacks the man. Aric attacks the
guard, but is captured. A guard cuts off Aric's hand. Years later, a
prisoner gives Aric a map to the armory. Using handmade weapons they've
secreted on their persons, the prisoners escape their cells. Aric leads
them to the armory, where they find only the sentient armor Shanhara. To
the belief of the aliens known as the Vine, Aric proves worthy of
Shanhara. He can wear the armor and wield its weaponry.
July 2012
X-O Manowar Vol 3 Issue 3
Title: The Road to Rome
Synopsis: Aric,
clad in Shanhara, leads Gafti and his fellow prisoners across
spaceship. When Gafti is struck down, the armor seems to react
instinctively, deploying weaponry against Vine soldiers. From inside a
walking/fighting machine, Vine Commander Trill sets off explosives that
blast Aric outside spaceship. Aric thinks of how the Romans abducted his
wife Diedre, and Shanhara transports him to Earth. He lands in the
Colosseum of Rome, where tourists photograph him, and modern Human
soldiers surround him.
August 2012
X-O Manowar Vol 3 Issue 4
Title: Then And Now
Synopsis: In
space, Vine military leaders Commander Trill and Admiral Xylem debate
with High Priest on how to react to this unprecedented event: the sacred
Shanhara has accepted a Human--an animal--after constantly rejecting
their best Vine candidates. On Earth, Italian soldiers attack Aric in
the Colosseum; he defends himself. He shoots into the sky, where two
fighter jets attack. He destroys both, but questions one pilot. Shanhara
fills his mind with glimpses from past centuries, and he realizes he
has returned to Earth 1600 years later. In New York, Alexander watches
Aric's battle on TV, enters trance in which he communicates with other
descendants of those the Vine left on Earth disguised as Humans. He
volunteers to capture Aric and reclaim Shanhara for the Vine.
