The Good
Zahn Enterprises is still learning more and more about the X-O armor, as they develop their own armors to sell to the world. We're still in the shallow end of the pool when it comes to this story, but by the end, we're right in the deep end. Terrible water depth analogies aside, writer Robert Venditti is really building up the story and the characters properly. Sure, it's obvious Zahn is a pretty shady guy, but we're getting to know him before he unleashes his master plan.
The book opens in a bit more of an intimate setting and we learn that Zahn has no problem hooking up with his secretary, even though he's married. It almost seems like a throw-away moment, but seeing a small moment like that, with someone whose moral code is a bit skewed makes the turn at the end of the issue feel very reasonable. He's a selfish character that only wants to further his own agenda. He's a different type of villain for this book, since most of Aric's enemies do what they do for what they consider to be the greater good. Zahn is purely motivated by his own greed and ego.
This is a really grounded storyline, thus far, which is great since Armor Hunters caused so much damage to the Earth. Aric is an extremely tough character to bring down, so having him go head to head against another Earthling seems implausible. Zahn uses his Armorines to level the playing field, which makes all of this story work, and again, it's refreshing to see a book like this meet at the ground level instead of facing a powerful opponent from space.
Aside from the couple of problems I have with how none of what happens here is a surprise, this really is a great read and the turn is a ton of fun, although it could be even more fun. Sure, Zahn calls Aric "Captain Caveman," which may be the "insult that's not really an insult" of the week, but as sadistic as this sounds, it's great to see that Aric can be taken down by means other than brute force. We have another case of someone using strategy to get the best of Aric, much like Ninjak a couple years back. The planning Zahn sets up to take down Aric is pretty cool and it will leave the reader wanting more.
The Bad
There was nothing surprising about the turn in this issue. From the opening pages, it was pretty obvious the Armorine was climbing on someone's body and if you put two and two together, knowing that Zahn is the bad guy in all of this, then you can pretty easily figure out it's Aric's body he's climbing around on. There was no shock during the reveal because of this and it brought down the enjoyment of the issue a tad.
There are times where the art feels a tiny bit dated, and on top of that, some of the faces in the issue just look a bit off. Bernard usually does some top notch stuff, but there were times, here, where he felt a tiny bit off of his game.
The Verdict
How do you follow something as large and epic as Armor Hunters? It almost seems like you have to give the readers something that's a bit of a throw-away because it's a real hard follow-up. What Armorines does extremely well in this second part is show the reader that there's threats here on Earth that can take down Aric. It's not just space to be worried about. X-O MANOWAR continues to be Valiant's strongest title offering some of the most interesting characters and best storytelling. This issue and storyline is highly recommended.