X-O Manowar Deluxe Edition, Book 2

X-O Manowar (2012) #4-5, Unity Vol. 1

by Robert Venditti (Writer), Matt Kindt (Writer), Lee Garbett (Artist)

Following hot on the heels of the world shaking events of Planet Death, X-O Manowar rockets headlong onto a collision course with the Valiant Universe's first-ever superteam in this prestige-sized collection from New York Times bestselling writers Robert Venditti (The Flash) and Matt Kindt ( MIND MGMT ), and acclaimed artists Cary Nord (Conan), Doug Braithwaite (Justice), and Lee Garbett (Loki: Agent of Asgard). Aric of Dacia returns to Earth with his mind set on reclaiming his ancestral lands. He has fought for his people - and he has bled for them. But nothing he has faced before can prepare him for the combined might of UNITY - and the deadly combination of Harada, Ninjak, Eternal Warrior, and Livewire!
Collecting: X-O Manowar 15-22 and Unity 1-4, with more than 20-pages of bonus features including covers, character designs, process art, and more.

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2015

About the author

Robert Venditti is a New York Times bestselling author of more than three hundred comic books and graphic novels. Some of his works include the monthly comic book series Justice League, Superman ’78, Hawkman, and Green Lantern for DC Comics, X-O Manowar, Armor Hunters, and Wrath of the Eternal Warrior for Valiant Entertainment, and the graphic novel Six Days, inspired by the story of his uncle’s participation in D-Day. He has also adapted Rick Riordan’s global bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus novels, as well as Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia and Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz. His graphic novel The Surrogates was adapted into a feature film by Touchstone Pictures, and his work on The Flash was the basis for season three of the CW television series.

Venditti lives in Atlanta, where he both writes and serves as a storytelling consultant for some of the most recognizable entertainment brands in the world.

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first X-O Manowar Deluxe Edition graphic novel was really good, but this second one is even better. The origin story involves an alien race that abducts humans from the Visigoth period, not the least of which is a prince named Aric. The aliens are called The Vine, and they have developed a pipeline of human abduction and subservience.

Somewhere in the kerfuffle, Aric finds the Manowar armor that bonds with him. Aric is able to utilize the armor to liberate the slaves, commandeer the spacefaring vessel, and take the ship to Earth. The challenges that the new arrivals must face begin with the fact that the humans are 12 or 13 centuries out of date. They have traveled to the future, and alighting in present day Romania is not without consequence.

The nations of the world are alarmed by the alien vessel and the alien armor. It only stands to reason that there be a factfinding inquiry about the origins of each, and it doesn't make a damned bit of difference that the humans are the current holders of the alien technology. The superhero team of Unity, along with the Eternal Warrior, and Ninjak are sent to investigate and supposedly deescalate conflict, but they fail because of course they did.

The collected books are X-O Manowar #15 - 22 and Unity #1 - 4. Writers Robert Venditti and Matt Kindt tell an action-oriented tale and artists Lee Garbett, Cary Nord, and Doug Braithwait do some stellar pencil, ink, and watercolor work. A real recommend for some meritorious work.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would happen if a large alien spaceship landed on Earth and a bunch of people jump out, led by a flying guy in a blue metal suit, and claimed a city in Europe as their kingdom? Shit would get crazy, that's what!

That's exactly what happens when, our time-displaced hero Aric, fresh from razing the home planet of the Vine and liberating his Visigoth descendants, attempts to bring his people back home, now modern day Romania. He claims a major park in Bucharest and announces himself as the king of that land. Naturally, the powers of the world are like: "what the hell bro?" They all struggle not only to take Aric down a couple of notches, but also to be the first to get intel on the Manowar armor, possibly the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy.

I love how these books seem to take place in a relatable world, showing how much of a global event it would be for a man to land on Earth in a spaceship wearing an alien weapon. It naturally leads to a small crossover event when, in an effort to stave off a Russian nuclear response, Toyo Harada (from Harbinger) forms a team of specialists to stop and commandeer the Manowar armor. This team is known as Unity, (now seen as Valiant's flagship superhero team) and includes Ninjak (the MI-6 weapons specialist and the only human who, in the first book, fought X-O Manowar and survived), Livewire (the powerful psiot and Harada's pupil that can psychically communicate with computers), and Gilad the Eternal Warrior, the immortal protector who was introduced in Archer and Armstrong, and happened to be Aric's trainer back in the 5th century.



It gets pretty exciting and I loved seeing all of these familiar characters reacting to the barbarian with the most powerful weapon in the universe. The relationship between Gilad and Aric is especially interesting, as Gilad tries to relate to Aric's 5th century ideas but show him that times have changed. The biggest problem with this book is the compiling structure. All of the Unity and X-O Manowar issues in the crossover are included here but not in proper reading order, with the Unity issues all lumped at the end. Follow this reading order once you get to the crossover after issue #18:

Unity #1
X-O Manowar #19
Unity #2
X-O Manowar #20
Unity #3
X-O Manowar #21
Unity #4
X-O Manowar #22

Valiant really needs to work on organizing their issue orders in these books. They claim to be accessible for new readers, and for the most part they are, but not arranging your story correctly in your books works against this idea.

This compiles the following trade paperbacks:

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

X-O Manowar sigue con su fórmula clásica pero efectiva. guiones sencillos pero bastante coherentes, mucha acción, un héroe mezcla entre iron man y conan... en definitiva, nuestro sombrío y taciturno visigodo repartiendo mamporros a mansalva mientras suceden un montón de cosas a su alrededor de las que se entera sólo hasta cierto punto gracias a su intelecto medieval.

En este segundo libro de la edición deluxe Aric vuelve a la tierra de sus ancestros (la actual Rumanía) con la nave espacial Vine cargada de los descendientes de los visigodos que esclavizaron los alienígenas allá por el año 402... aterriza la nave espacial en un parque natural y se disponen a colonizarlo, por supuesto las grandes potencias terrestres no se quedarán con los brazos cruzados (y menos los rusos que lo consideran una intromisión en su patio trasero) y emprenderán maniobras para hacerse con el control de la tecnología vine y de la misma armadura de shanhara.

Aquí también encontramos el primer crossover en que participa esta colección... por suerte están incluidos en esta edición deluxe todos los números del crossover, tanto los de la misma colección de x-o manowar como los de Unity, por desgracia no están colocados en el orden óptimo de lectura, que sería Unity #1, X-O Manowar #19, Unity #2, X-O Manowar #20... aquí los capítulos de unity los tenemos al final, así que si queremos leerlo en el orden correcto tendremos que ir dando saltos.

En este crossover, Toyo Harada crea un grupo de superhumanos para luchar contra Aric y hacerse con el control de la armadura de shanhar.

[Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I had an ungodly amount of fun with this book.

The first book was solid fun. It was a nice blend of cool genres - historical fiction, sci fi, superhero antics - and it was enjoyable reading the ridiculousness of it all. Aric of Dacia is essentially Cap, Iron Man and Thor all rolled up into one brutish, goofy Visigoth warrior who's as annoyingly righteous and honourable as he sounds. There didn't seem to be that much more to it.

But wow! This second volume really took me by surprise!
This series isn't going the way I expected it to at all but I'm staying for the ride. It's almost become a tale of political intrigue involving several interested parties with differing motivations.
The gradual development of Aric into an actual human being has been a bit of revelation. I was not just constantly thinking of him as a stubborn prick. Dude has proven himself quite the onion boy with some layers now.

I enjoyed how this volume having to tie into the broader Unity title didn't detract from the main story, as it usually would with any superhero books from the Big Two. It all folds in together nicely.

I came for the fun, but I'm staying for the characters.
Oh dear, the Valiant floodgates have well and truly been opened now haven't they? This is sending me down the path of all-consumption. I need more Valiant.

[manuti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aprovechando el cierre de la líneas de cómics de la Editorial Hidra, liquidaron todos los de Valiant de su división Medusa Cómics.
Me lo pasé bien con algo distinto cuando leí el primer tomo: X-O Manowar: Deluxe Edition, Book 2.
Este ha sido divertido y me resulta interesante ver como Valiant tiene un Universo integrado que imita los roles ed Marvel y DC pero un poco a lo gamberro o más bestia.
Le doy 3 estrellas pero podrían ser 3,5 ***. Tal vez lo mejor sea la mezcla, crossover, con otros personajes de este universo Valiant como los Unity (una especie de Justice League) y Toyo Harada (medio Magneto medio Xavier).

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aric was great as usual and the whole plot was actually pretty predictable even the ending but it was still enjoyable.

I think honestly the worst part for all of this was Livewire. She just felt a little overpowered in my opinion. I know she is a very powerful Psiot with powers directly relating to machines and stuff, but I felt like she kept control of the armor a little too well. I don’t have a problem with how she took over the armor just how easily she kept control. It felt like they nerfed the armor a little too much. To me it weakened the plot where it could’ve been much stronger and more interesting.


I’ll still give the story 4/5 stars. I was expecting this to be a little better than it was though. I still think the story from the first 3 volumes of X-O Manowar was more consistent and better overall.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never before have I seen someone shoot a persons head off, and the flaming skull shoot through its partners chest, thank you Robert Venditti, bless you.

[alejandro galvez · Rating 5 out of 5]

So awesome!

Really good read. So underrated. Can't wait to finish this series. I been glued to every page. Can't get enough!

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homecoming (15-18). It's great to see the new X-O continue to revisit great ideas from the original series. Previously "Homecoming" was the story of Aric thrown back through time to his original tribe. It was cool, but ultimately of limited importance. Here we instead get Aric landing on Earth with the Visigoth tribe that he liberated from the Vine and trying to create a new home for them. And, it's glorious. This is the sort of thing that you don't typically see in superhero comics: global events with global response. I was absolutely enthralled wondering what was going to happen next (and shaking my head as things spun out of control in different ways). This is an original story, well told [9/10].

Unity & The King (19-22, Unity 1-4). This overall crossover is a nice continuation of the events of X-O Manowar: Homecoming that refuses to hit any reset buttons, but instead continues to relentlessly push forward the narrative.

Of the two crossing over comics, X-O Manowar is the stronger. Venditti continues to do a superb job not just of characterizing Aric, but also of growing the character. As ever, I'm eager to see where the story of him (and his people!) goes next. Unfortunately, I wasn't thrilled by the artist on the X-O issues. He's not bad, but he's stylized enough that the art melds badly with Unity [8/10].

The Unity issues don't have the same emotional depth as the X-O issues, perhaps because we're seeing a larger cast of characters and perhaps because they're just coming together. However, I love the global scope of this comic, and I love how dynamic it is. If both of these elements continue, then it should become great as Kindt becomes more comfortable with the characters [7/10].

Overall, this is another fine volume of X-O Manowar.

[Michael Giuliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read the first XO deluxe, so I was a little fuzzy on how it left off, but this volume does a good job of getting you right back into Aric's story. The introduction of//crossover with Unity was nicely done (and placed in proper reading order!i