The Good
Today is a good day. I got to read X-O Manowar 5, and now I get to talk about how much I loved it. Oops, I just spoiled the review.
X-O Manowar is awesome in a way that my brain can barely fathom. I've been on board from the start, and in this issue, Aric starts to make sense of the world around him. This is an idea I really latched onto. I like seeing main characters taken out-of-their element and having to adapt to the world around them. We get a few moments of that, and a great scene of Aric realizing it's the year 2012. There's a few cool moments of realization here, where Aric comes to grips with the world around him.
I may have laughed hard at how awesome something was in this issue. It may have been my only way to react to one the coolest things I've seen in a comic in a long time. I don't want to spoil it for you, but during one of the fight scenes, Aric, in the Manowar suit, does something so awesome, I started not only laughing, but applauding, which confused everyone in my office.
That's just the thing, though. These fight scenes are over-the-top and entertaining as hell. It's like watching a 90s action film with an actual story.
We also get this great story of The Vine (not affiliated with Comic Vine), the alien group where Aric got the Manowar armor, trying to retrieve said armor at any cost. The Vine's ancestors, in human form, are all across Earth, and they contact Ninjak to help them out. I didn't read X-O Manowar when it originally debuted, but I got super excited to see Ninjak in the comic. I couldn't even tell you why.
What this series has done insanely well is made new readers feel right at home. From issue one, I love the book and felt like this classic series wanted to include new readers into the fold. Even the inclusion of Ninjak, a classic Valiant character, is reintroduced in a way where I feel on the same page as older Valiant fans. Thanks to writer Robert Venditti for making all readers of this series and issue included. We need more of this type of mindset in comics.
I loved the first meeting of Aric and Ninjak here. It was brief but really interesting, and it leaves the reader with an extremely cool reveal page, and reels them in for future issues.
The Bad
I liked unshaven Aric better.
The Verdict
X-O Manowar is awesome. I'm not going to spend hours here coming up with wacky adjectives or ridiculous analogies to describe this issue. It's just awesome. I love this book, and this story was great from front to back.
This book is extremely new reader friendly, so there's no reason not to pick up this issue as we get our first glimpse at Ninjak and his first fight against Aric. It's a great story and it has some great action.
Overall, I demand you buy this. If you don't, I'll be sad.