X-O MANOWAR BOOK 1 by Dennis Hopeless Hallum, writer and Emilio Laiso, artist. (Valiant Entertainment, May 2021) Trade paperback, 112 pages. ISBN # 1682153681 / 9781682153680. Collects X-0 MANOWAR #1-4.
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . .
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!
My Two-And-One-Half Stars Review on the Goodreads website . . . .
After the epic storylines from the pen of Robert Vendetti and then Matt Kindt I can see why many reviewers consider this a fresh start and new direction for the hero.
While this is interesting with the man-out-of-time hero trying to fit in and be more responsible - - it's nothing I haven't seen before. X-O Manowar is one of my favorite Valiant heroes. It appears that new writer Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum is going to stray too far away from the things that made X-O appealing to me:
1) Aric is a Visigoth from the 5th Century abducted by aliens, bonding with the sentient symbiote armor that The Vine couldn't figure out, and then escaping to Earth in the modern day. That, to me, is a real "man-out-of-time" story.
2) This is a just a little different from the other symbiote comics (Venom, Marvel Comics) where an alien life force and a human share the same body. In X-O Manowar, Aric bonds with an artificial intelligence in the person of the X-O suit.
In the new series Aric tries to fit in, wears street clothes as often as possible and takes up residence with a young single mother and son. The X-O suit becomes his "buddy", making jibes at Aric and wisecracking sometimes rather than trying to help him out. I've seen this before too, in Booster Gold (DC Comics.) I thought it was a dumb idea there as well.
Then, Aric is persuaded by a con-man/shyster philantropist that he need a public relations person.
None of this appeals to me. I may be finished with following this character. TWO AND ONE-HALF STARS.
NOTE: I read this in the original monthly issues.
I feel the same. I read this and said "this is the Intellectual Property people rave about within this publisher?" Valiant is run more like an entertainment company with an odd unspoken hope on every project that their stuff will get optioned for TV. BUT IT'S UNDERDEVELOPED.
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