Bryan "BAC" Clendening is a comic book review and some times video producer. You can follow him on Twitter at his handle @BAClend
It is hard life for Aric of Dacia star of X-O Manowar and
for our hero things are not going to get any easier with this prelude to Planet
Death story ach. The Vine are going to stop at nothing to bring back the
Shanhara X-O Manowar armor by whatever means they can. Which means a massive
invasion of planet Earth, which some may say is tad overkill.
Valliant’s flagship title has been a staple of quality
writing ever since it launched and here is another pure example of why that is.
Issue nine is what the cover says it is a prelude to something major about to
come for not only Aric but all of planet Earth as well, Admiral Xylem is tired
of the failuars of the past to remove the Shanhara from some human. Writer
Robert Venditti has created a chilling villain and very smart villain here. He
has seen the failures coming before him and is setting out to see that not
happen again. And the way he goes about to try and collect that information may
consider crossing the line when he pulls out a trump card later.
Then right on the opposite side of it is the High Prist, he
sees Aric gaining the power of the Shanhara as something divine. It chose Aric
for a reason while rejecting so many others that came before him. The Vine
isn’t just a blood thirsty alien race of the week. They have different trains
of thoughts, different opinions, and different methods. While currently they
are choosing the side of a major threat we care how and why they would make
such a decision.
And in some sense they mirror the heroes in Aric and
Alexander Dorian, Aric the warrior right to his bones is more than willing to
move head long to meet Xylem and have him pay for what he has done to him. And
Alexander trying his best to try and to stop the destruction of this world he grew
up on. These character moments are what drives this issue.
That is not to say we didn’t any action in the issue, far
from it. He last section of the book is dedicated to Aric facing off against
some X-O Commandos sent ahead of the invasion. And that is when the issue pops
on the art level. Trevor Hairsine while doing well in the quiet moments and
tension building characters did seem wooden as they all stood around. But, once
Aric meet the commandos things picked up.
There were a few close up faces that tended that were over exaggerated
to a degree of bring you out of the story.
At the end the cliffhanger really sends home the note that things for
Aric is going to get much worse before he can fully get his hands on the Vine
This issue is another reason why Valiant titles are all
sleeper hits, if you are not reading these now you need to.
SCORE-8.5/10
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