There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at “X-O Manowar”(2017) that saw writer Matt Kindt and a bevy or artists take a Visogoth to a strange new alien planet, that was sadly not different enough.
Who Is This By?
“X-O Manowar” is written by Matt Kindt and features artists such as: Tomas Giorello and Diego Rodriguez, Doug Braithwaite, Clayton Crain, Renato Guedes, Ryan Bodenheim with Andrew Dalhouse, and Ariel Olivetti. Other Valiant staples like CAFU showing up for a few pages now and again. This run has been consistently lettered by Dave Sharpe.
What’s It All About?
The first year of “X-O” was an intense character study focused of a man of violence trying to leave that past behind him and escape to the stars. When he is unable to escape those shadows, Aric attempts to repurpose them in to help the inhabitants of his adopted world Gorin. Aric of Dacia is a man out of time and space, stuck in a perpetual cycle of violence with Romans, aliens, the U.S. Government, more aliens, and most of all himself. This latest turn of the wheel, as he is conscripted into a revolutionary army, offers him an attempt redemption for the mysterious reasons he left Earth and his Visogoth tribe. But is such a thing possible?
That year long arc, is covered in the first four trade paperbacks, is followed by some shorter stories that deal with Aric’s time Dacia and the looming Roman presence and his continued work for the U.S. Government.
What Makes It So Great?
Really good art goes a long way in selling the series. “X-O” features a large variety of artists, not just in name but style, with new teams coming in at the start of every new arc. Kindt writes to their various strengths, allowing the art to present some of the best visions of Aric as he struggles through the series.
Aric of Dacia was abducted in the 5th century by aliens until he stages a revolt and comes into possession of the powerful armor known as Shanhara and travels back to Earth only to discover it is now the present day. But when this new volume of “X-O” begins he is far away from Earth, leaving the mystery of why he abandoned everything to hang over the book for the first year as he attempts to live a peaceful farmer’s life on the planet Gorin. That mysterious wound, gives the series a consistent emotional anchor for all the tumult it goes through in those first 12 issues. Initial artists Tomas Giorello and Diego Rodriguez come together and give the book a high quality pulp influenced look, the aliens and technology that surround Aric look like someone mixed “John Carter of Mars” with Warhammer 40k. At the center of all this spectacle is Aric, and the dead eyed look on his face as he finds himself once again driven to violence on the orders of other people. Matt Kindt’s plotting and writing is consistent and one of the pillars of the series, but the variety and quality of the art make this a book to look out for.
As the series and revolution continues Aric finds himself pressed into progresses, Kindt beautifully tracks a character who is beginning to open himself up again. At the same time Kindt uses the revolution, and it’s eventual success, to explore the differences between wilderness antagonism and governing as Aric finds himself Emperor and potentially becoming the thing his people originally fought against.
Kindt also adds something new to the “X-O” mythos, by turning the Shanhara armor into more than a prop and giving her a voice. It’s a move that is functionally similar to why sidekicks initially appeared, they gave the lead someone to talk to or in the case of Aric someone to talk at him. What Shanhara has to say isn’t always kind, she knows Aric better than anyone which creates space for some probing episodes on the ethics of Aric’s violent actions and the emotional wounds that originally drove him from Earth. For a series whose apperance is spectacular, Kindt minds the property for it’s socio-political undertones.
Continued belowAt the core of “X-O” quality is the ability of the creative team to use the absurd nature of the property and still tell well defined character driven stories.
How Can You Read It?
The 18 issues currently published have been collected into 5 trade paperbacks: ‘Solider,’ ‘General,’ ‘Emperor,’ ‘Visigoth’ and ‘Barbarians.’ The first 3 trades are readable on Comixology Unlimited. Issue #19 and the fifth trade paperback collecting issues #13-18 ‘Barbarians’ are due out September 26, 2018.
