I was really underwhelmed with this. All of the things that make Aric unique are missing. That's he's a man out of time. He's basically Conan in the Iron Man suit. That's all glossed over and replaced with a homeless Aric living in NYC trying to help people and screwing up royally each time until he gets some PR help from a billionaire. Then there's the Ukraine terrorist who somehow is able to invade Brooklyn with homemade transformer looking robots made out of construction vehicles. That was beyond stupid. Emilio Laiso's art is very good though.

This was a decent story, with a good reintroduction to the character. I wasn't a big fan of the art style throughout, but it didn't distract from the story.

Unfirtunately i wasn't a fan of this one, the art style wasn't really attractive to me and i had a hard time connecting with the story

3.5!

This was more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be, since initially I was intimidated by the sheet amount of stuff crammed onto one page. I do, in the end, still consider that a fault. It was at times too busy, too much going on. However, it was still fast-paced and actually really funny! Shanara and Aric gave me sort of watson/holmes vibes, ironman/jarvis. Their dialogue exchanges were clever and snappy which really aided to the story.

I wish we would have gotten more background on Aric. Why did he time travel to now? How? What happened to his hand? What does XO Manowar mean? And I also felt the break-up of books within the book was odd, as was the ending. Its not uncommon to leave series on cliffhangers, but its never usually done in the middle of a climactic scene with no resolving of main issues. So that threw me off. It did make me want to read the next one though.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher!

'X-O Manowar Book 1' by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum with art by Emilio Laiso is a graphic novel reboot of a Valiant character that has been rebooted quite a few times. I've lost count how many times this character has been rebooted. Since I've been reviewing, it's been at least three.

This time around Aric of Dacia is played as a bit of a fish out of water. His ancient ways are paired against a modern world. Shanhara, his intelligent super-suit, is a bit humorous. Aric has new friends on Earth that will likely be further threatened.

This reboot takes Aric back and away from some of the complex storylines and entities he's been involved with. I like the approach this took and the way the characters are handled. The art is pretty good too!

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This is the first volume in a new run of the series. This one is written by Dennis Hopeless. I was interested in this volume, since I had read Kindt's 2017 run of the series.. I like this new volume, but it seems to fall short compared to the space spanning adventures of the previous series.

In this first volume, Aric is back on Earth, and he is trying to settle in to a new life as a superhero. However, that is not working out well, and often his good intentions either cause more trouble or he ends up looking like he is more a problem than a hero. Granted, some of this is also the usual people griping after they are saver, which seems to be mandatory in a lot of comics these days. This is where Whitaker comes in, a millionaire entrepreneur (think someone like say Elon Musk) offers to assist Aric with PR to help improve his public image. Still, one does wonder what is in it for Whitaker?

The action in the comic starts right away. The comic has a good pace, and the art is pretty good overall. Soon we find out that the Ukrainian villain is the least of Aric's problems, but at that point this part of the series comes to an end. We do get a bit of a cliffhanger. I found the series entertaining and good light read, but somehow it is not quite as engaging as the previous series I read. Still, I get this is the first volume, so I am curious to see how things turn out. Overall, I liked it.

If I had reviewed this story right after finishing it, I probably would have written some very meh reactions. To be honest, the backstory and the tech of the hero are a little ridiculous and off putting and the friend/foe relationship with the tech mogul seems a little too on the nose for the times. That said, after some reflection, I really liked the themes of fitting in, finding community, and seeing what limits hard power / super heroes have. Can you really create lasting change with your fists and a super suit? Unfortunately, the cliffhanger makes it seem like the comic is going away from that, but it was an interesting theme for this first book.

I love when a volume that's like a reintroduction to a character is smart enough to give you the big picture details of the character but still lets you figure things out as the story progresses, and that is exactly what X-O Manowar book 1 does.
We meet Aric as he's already a hero returned to Earth and its savior from alien invasion. Now, the misplaced Visigoth has to figure out how to live in the modern world while he's not busy saving it. We get lots of fast-paced action, shadowy characters whose motives I'm still unsure of, and 'normal' people who help Aric learn about the modern world and give the story a balancing lightness.
The art is good. Nothing awe-inspiring, but a good fit to the story. What really stands out is the color, as it sets the mood and the character of the scenes perfectly.
A solid beginning to the new adventures of a Valiant classic.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors/Valiant for the early read!

That was alright, just alright. I'm familiar with the X-O Manowar mythology going back to the original Valiant days in the 1990s. This didn't go against any of that but it didn't really add to anything either. So it's just a quick decent read.

I have to admit, with comics I tend to stick to Marvel and DC Comics. I just feel comfortable there, I know what to expect and often get to read what I truly like. With other publishers, I don’t know what the stories will be like, or how good the artwork will match my expectations. But with X-O Manovar, I was pulled in and convinced from the very first page! Valiant Comics did a great job with publishing this!

A 5th-century Visigoth warrior-prince, Aric of Dacia was abducted and enslaved by aliens known as The Vine. Escaping their control, Aric bonded with the unique sentient armor Shanhara, becoming X-O Manowar – the most powerful weapon in the universe. Returning to Earth in the modern day, Aric and Shanhara use their incredible capabilities for the good of mankind, but mankind has other intentions…

Aric is a bit lost on Earth and just wants to help people and do good things, even though he doesn’t really know how to do that with his powers and often turns situations worse than they were. With Shanhara, his alien-supersuit, he already makes a good team, and when they later start working together with Troy, a tech-genius billionaire, the team seems to have found its perfect combination of people to save the world. This gives me very strong Iron-Man / Guardians of the Galaxy / Thor vibes. So, I really enjoyed reading it! And the artwork was fantastic!

This graphic novel convinced me that I should read more about Aric’s life and I’m probably going to try to track down more of his origin story and keep an eye on Book 2! I can recommend this to every graphic novel fan, you do not have to have read other X-O Manovar stories to fully submerge into this new story arch!

X-O Manowar Book 1 is a great read. It’s a collection of the first four issues of the new X-O Manowar series by Valiant comics. This new XO Manowar comic series is a reboot of the original ComicBook from the 1990’s.

If you enjoy Sc-Fi buddy stories you will enjoy X-O Manowar. This comic will make you laugh as you enjoy the action.

I read the first X-O Manowar series in the 90’s but I never really got into it. I enjoyed reading other Valiant series like Archer & Armstrong and Turok. The new X-O Manowar book is very good. The art is beautiful and the story is engaging and funny. The relationship between Aric and his alien X-O suit, Shanhara is the best part of the comic. Aric and Shanhara share many laughs and bust each other’s chops many times during the story. Shanhara reminds me of K-2SO from Rogue One, they both have great snarky comments that make us all laugh.

I also enjoyed Arics growth through the story. He wants to help everyone around the world as X-O Manowar but discovers during the story that not everyone appreciates his help. He learns that being a superhero can be tough. Not everyone likes the hero but he keeps trying and saves many lives. He even befriends a young boy and his Mom.

I hope Valiant releases more of the X-O Manowar series in this collection format. I’d love to read more and see what happens to Aric and Shanhara next.

I highly recommend X-O Manowar Book 1. It’s a great story that’s sure to make you laugh as you enjoy all the action and fun.

Stay awesome and keep reading!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Dennis Hopeless, Emilio Laiso, and Valiant Comics for a chance to review this trade paperback book (TPB). I was given this book for free in exchange for my fair and honest opinion. I have not felt compelled, in any way by the creators, the publisher, or NetGalley to alter my sincerest thoughts on this book. Every word of this review is solely and completely mine. X-O Manowar (2020) #1 is a TPB collecting the first four issues of the X-O Manowar comic series begun in 2020. X-O Manowar is an armored hero akin to Ironman except that the armor in this case is actually an alien that bonds to Aric, a Visigoth warrior from the 5th century. I am not certain if this is an attempt to reboot the character that has been puttering around for the last 30 years or if this is just a way of distributing stories ala IDW. Generally, Valiant gets it right. I believe they do so here with a tried-and-true formula of a megalomaniacal villain that is just a stepping stone to an overarching story that continues in another edition. Yes, there is a cliff-hanger. Bummer! The story is fun, superhero fare with requisite quips and humor. The artwork is high-quality, the way you would expect from this fine publisher.

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

I’ve been a fan of Valiant Comics for a while now, especially since their relaunch about a decade ago. I think what sets them apart from other companies headed by out of touch movie execs or cartoon mice, is that they have their finger on the pulse with what fans actually want to read, and don’t pump tons of “fluff” into the market and over-saturate and shrink their audience through constant relaunches and special events. They have been amazing to interact with at conventions, and I honestly say say enough good things about them. Today’s topic is a graphic novel of the 2020 X-O Manowar book from Dennis Hopeless, I will admit, I’m about two years behind on keeping up with Valiant due to work keeping me VERY busy as of late, but I definitely wanted to read this as everyone’s favorite Visigoth Warrior is always one of my favorite titles.

“Save the day, destroy the world… Torn from the past and bonded with a living alien armor, will X-O Manowar become the hero the world needs now? As a futuristic force arises to destroy the planet, only this ancient warrior king has the courage to stand against impossible odds! Harvey Award winning writer Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum (All-New X-Men) and breakout star Emilio Laisio (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Velocity) unleash Valiant’s most powerful protector! Collecting X-O MANOWAR (2020) #1-4.”


This most recent storyline adds some grounding the the character that I really enjoyed. Prince Aric, in the past, has been somewhat distant from much of humanity considering his personality and origin of being a warrior from over a thousand years ago. This sticks him into a domestic situation, as he attempts to live amongst the people he tries to protect – all to a variable amount of success. One can’t help draw comparisons to either Spawn or Thor, which both had similar grounding to those characters that made them have a bit of humanity. Also, the “fish out of water antics” are perfect for a bit of humor. We are also introduced to a advisor-type character that is not unlike Elon Musk in real world terms, in Troy Whitaker. I’m not convinced he isn’t a villain as of yet, but he does help X-O with his image problem.

This is a solid read, and a perfect starting point if you’ve never read anything from Valiant before. If you are jaded with comics, or are tired of the nonsense “the big two” are always up to – give this a try! It’s honestly bee hard to go back after I started reading comics that are fun again.

This was everything I wanted! I found the super hero storyline to be interesting and engaging, but what really stood out to me was the art. The depiction of the powers, the action, the characters.. it felt like a movie.

I loved the characters so much too, they felt like a family and the relationships were so fun and intriguing in this.

Thank you for the e-Galley!

I've not heard of these comics before, but the art captured my attention. I flicked through and thought the prose could be tighter and sharper, but the overall story and the art more than made up for the shortfalls.
Fun

In which we see XO Manowar trying his best to be a superhero, saving all of Earth from itself, and ending up most unwelcome. Still, there's one of these ultra-rich men with Internet fortunes to come along and help him see what needs to be done, in particular concerning a dubious misappropriation of Putin's annexation of parts of Ukraine. The weirdest thing here (apart from people still putting The in front of Ukraine) is said PR lesson not including a change of name – XO Manowar is and always will be quite a stupid moniker for a character (but then... Ninjak). Still, he does get a new-look suit, so I guess that counts as a new Volume One. An annoyingly talky Volume One, with irritating human companions for XO, and by no means the event it needed to be, but there you go.

As book One this X-O Manowar comic did a great job at familiarizing me, who is new to the Manowar universe, with the character and his alien suit. Art wise it was also outstanding. Thank you Net Galley and Vailiant for accepting my request to view this Arc. I will be getting the physicals for sure.

This is a comic I buddy-read with The Husband. He got excited by the Manowar part, I know the author from a very beloved Spider-Woman series… so we were both very excited. And rightfully so. I did go into this pretty blind, but we do start with a short introduction to the character… and as long as you just keep ‘Super Hero’ in mind, you are good to go. There is one reference to a past event (which I guess is when he lost his hand), and everything else is explained within the story. And the story itself was good as well. It slowed down a bit too much for me in the middle, but apart from that I thought it was great. The writing is as good as I hoped it would be, and the banter between Aric and his suit made us giggle several times.




I liked the art-style. When it comes to the action-scenes I have seen better, but otherwise I thought it was good. Aric was a great character. He has a very strong personality, which is great to see in a super-hero comic. I am a bit annoyed with the cliffhanger at the end of the book (I do like my full volumes to wrap-up at least a bit), but it does make me want to pick up the second book for sure… whenever that comes out.