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.
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.
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