X-O Manowar #2

X-O Manowar #2 (March, 1992)

Aric crushes his enemies, and learns some English.

Aric has been battling hard-skins relentlessly while continuing north, encountering Wolf-Class X-O armor along the way. He collects K’nn, and together make their way to K’nn’s “queen’s castle” (doctor’s house) where Aric eats as K’nn plans their next move against the hard-skins – who attack the house. Aric makes short work of the invaders, but K’nn is taken. Giving K’nn up as lost, Aric does what he can to help the queen deal with the dead before moving on. After a nap and more food, Aric prepares to finish destroying the hard-skins.

During his onslaught of another of hard-skins’ locations, Aric hears his name spoken aloud in a voice different from the one he usually hears in his head while wearing the Good-Skin. He assumes the voice belongs to Lugh, his god, as only He would know Aric’s name and be able to speak in a variety of ways…including one without words Aric can only hear through the Good-Skin.

He finally arrives at his destination; a tower containing the king of his enemies within. He tears through the elite guards, and makes his way to the top where he kills the king and takes the dead ruler’s scepter as his own. Accepting the surrender of his enemies, Aric sends them away to find K’nn and focuses his attention on a woman offering herself to him. He sends her away as well, but she returns offering to bathe him. He accepts and takes the Good-Skin off. As she speaks to him in a language he still can’t understand, Aric recognizes his name as she says it. Realizing that only Lugh would know his name, and that this woman was with the hard-skins making her untrustworthy, Aric kills the woman and learns that she was one of the hard-skins in disguise.

Using the Good-Skin to help him protect himself from further hard-skin attacks, Aric learns that K’nn is alive within the tower and manages to let him know that Aric rules all.

Notes of Interest:

1) This is the first time Aric faces off against Wolf-Class X-O armor, and despite there being a highly-trained hard-skin inside it, Aric the Barbarian manages to defeat it.

2) We learn that Aric was the first human taken by the Spider-Aliens and was held in suspension for most of that time.

3) Aric finds smoking “stupid”.

4) Aric understands that wearing the Good-Skin allows him to understand others better; he just credits that to the great god Lugh.

5) The first English word Aric learns is “housebroken”.

WTF? Moment: I don’t know much about Visigoth culture, but Aric seems to hold manners very highly, whether it’s by burning dead bodies in a queen’s home or giving a limbless warrior the gift of death. However, Aric has no problem taking a queen’s letter opener without asking first.

WTF? Moment #2: I like the use of the letter opener here. It reminds Aric of home, is extremely low-tech and therefore completely unnecessary, yet it saves Aric’s life.

WTF? Moment #3: I’m still uncertain exactly how long Aric thinks he’s been a prisoner. In both this and the previous issue, Aric mentions it as being “ten suns”. Aristidies says in passing that Aric “probably thinks that only a few years have passed…” To me, a “sun” equals a day. If Aric had said that it’s been ten winters since he’s been with a woman, then I would think he meant years. I could be wrong, but that’s where I stand.

WTF? Moment #4: In the scene where Aric gets breakfast before continuing to , it looks to me like Aric scared the bird away from its nest. I know he’s got the letter opener in his hand, and the bird looks like it could be dead, but there’s no blood on either the bird or the blade.

WTF? Moment #5: Okay…Aric knows that the Good-Skin talks to him without the use of words. He also knows that the Good-Skin listens to him without his needing to use words. With Aric’s growing understanding of what the Good-Skin can actually do, it’s interesting to see him continually work Lugh into things. In this issue, Aric sees the Good-Skin as both a gift from Lugh and a way for Lugh to communicate to him.