For years, Valiant Comics has been a leading publisher in the indie market. It's been nominated for several Harvey Awards and has top-notch titles like Harbinger and Bloodshot on its roster.
But Valiant Comics' underrated flagship was a series called X-O Manowar. After its launch back in 1992, it became an indie classic, selling more than 8 million copies. Now, 25 years after it began, X-O Manowar is back -- and Mashable can exclusively reveal 6 pages from the first story at the bottom of the page.
The series follows Aric of Dacia, a Visigoth from the Roman Empire who was captured by aliens and escapes back to Earth -- which has reached the 21st century, thanks to the time dilation of space travel. He wears a high-tech suit of armor, which helps him to battle alien foes in our era.
X-O Manowar first resurfaced from 2012 through 2015, when it was written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Cary Nord. It had one of the longest runs for a single superhero story under one writer – 56 issues – without going through any kind of rebirth or relaunch.
But now, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the book, Valiant is breathing new life into the old character. At the helm is writer Matt Kindt, who is partnering with a rotating act of five artists – Tomas Giorello, Doug Braithwaite, Clayton Crain, Ryan Bodenheim, and Mico Suayan.
CARD ID: 149135
Each artist will be tacking a separate three-issue story arc, which Kindt tells Mashable has been "a real luxury."
"Every arc has its own unique flavor," he says. "They all tie together, but it makes sense to have the art change to go with that part of the story."
There are a few other ways Kindt is setting this X-O story apart from the rest. In this version, Aric isn't just transported in time -- he's exploring a whole new world.
"That was the difficulty of taking a character like that, after such an epic run," Kindt explains. "It's like, what do you do that hasn't been done before?
"I figured the way to do that would be to just throw him on a completely alien planet with all new cultures."
So now not only is Aric – a person who's never seen running water before – coming to grips with technology beyond his wildest dreams, he's also dealing with feuding alien races. Readers get to explore this new planet and new characters with him.
The most fascinating and unusual aspect of this new run will be Aric's famous armor, which (mild spoiler alert) is becoming more sentient as the story goes on.
"I think what's fun is (that) the series has Aric's story arc that he's going to follow, but then the armor also has its own." Kindt tells Mashable. "The armor is evolving, and it's growing, and it’s going to have its own arc, too."
For his part, Aric is not exactly happy about this development. There is a lot of tension between the man and his armor. "It's almost like a buddy-cop sort of comic – but without cops, and they're not buddies," Kindt says. "So, whatever that is."
The new X-O series promises to add a little flavor to a world of comics that is flooded with superhero stories. But Kindt believes that X-O Manowar, as well as other Valiant titles, has something unique to bring to the party.
"It's not trying to ride a trend, and it's not trying to do anything but tell good stories with these characters that you can care about," he says. "People don't know what to expect, and as a writer they let us do anything with [these characters].
"So they won't be the same at the end ... the characters can actually still change."
If you're looking for an unpredictable comic series to immerse yourself in, then, X-O Manowar may be the book for you. The series will begin on March 22nd with X-O Manowar #1. Here's a 6-page preview:
CARD ID: 149138
CARD ID: 149139
CARD ID: 149140
Topics Books
