X-O Manowar: Birth HC

May 21, 2008

Quick Rating: Great
Collects: X-O Manowar #0-6

A warrior from a different time comes into possession of a weapon beyond imagining.

Writers: Jim Shooter, Steve Englehart, Bob Layton & Jorge Gonzalez
Pencils: Barry Windsor Smith, Sal Velluto, Mike Manley, Mike Leeke, Steve Ditko, Mark Moretti & Joe Quesada
Inks: Bob Layton, John Holdredge, Tom Ryder, Kathryn Bolinger, Ted Halsted, Ralph Reese & Jimmy Palmiotti
Original Colors: Jorge Gonzalez, Paul Autio & John Cebollero
Digital Colors: Rob Ruffolo
Letters: Jade, Ken Lopez & Sorah Suhng
Editor: Dinesh Shamdasani
Cover Art: Sean Chen, Bob Layton, Anthony Castillo, Chrysoula Artemis & Rob Ruffolo
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment

Back in the 90s, Valiant Comics were the hottest thing going. The company burned bright, put out some brilliantly innovative comics, then died a painful death when Acclaim bought them out and proved conclusively that making video games in no way qualifies you to run a comic book publisher. But the Valiant fans never died, and now Valiant Entertainment has bought the rights to these classic comics, and is beginning to bring them back to us – first with the Harbinger: The Beginning hardcover, and now with X-O Manowar: Birth.

Collecting the first six issues of the book, as well as the zero issue, this handsome volume introduces us to Aric of Dacia, a Visigoth who was kidnapped by an alien invasion force in the year 408 AD. Aric was one of many humans brought on a faster-than-light journey, delaying their aging as the Spider Aliens studied them in the hopes of using them to impersonate humans and infiltrate Earth society, until in 1991 the superhero called Solar, Man of the Atom, thwarted their invasion. During the battle, Aric escapes their clutches and manages to steal their most powerful weapon – the sentient X-O Manowar class armor that none of their people has been able to use without going insane.

Returning to Earth, Aric and the armor bond with one another – which will be necessary as the Goth tries to integrate himself into a society that passed him by over 1500 years ago. This was the second original Valiant title (following Harbinger), and was a fan favorite for obvious reasons. The elevator pitch for this book would be “Conan the Barbarian meets Iron Man,” but it’s so much more than that. Aric makes no effort to emulate the morals of a different time, clearly not understanding why his way of doing things is no longer acceptable, and his relationship with the “Wizard” named Ken helps to flesh out and enrich the character, while still giving the reader someone more contemporary to help view the story. Likewise, his armor is much more than anything Tony Stark ever creating – it’s living, it’s sentient, and in many ways it’s much more of a guide to Aric than Ken is. Everything in this book is rich, layered and as entertaining today as it was 15 years ago when most of these issues were first printed.

Valiant Entertainment has done something interesting with the artwork. Unable to work from the originals, they instead scanned the printed pages, removed the color and re-colored them digitally, using the original colors as a guide. The result is a book that has much more vibrant, exciting colors than any of the originals did, but also occasionally includes a page where the scan wasn’t quite sharp enough, resulting in slightly fuzzy linework. It’s not a big problem, and most of the time it isn’t even noticeable, but there are occasionally pages that make it clear just how they were done.

The book also includes the zero issue, which showed Aric’s pre-abduction life for the first time, and greatly expanded the story of his escape. This chapter, penciled by a young up-and-comer called Joe Quesada, particularly benefits from the new colors.

The book is topped off with “The Rise of Lydia,” a new 8-page story by original series creators Bob Layton and Mike Leeke. This short story, like the new story in the Harbinger hardcover, feels sort of like a “Secret Files” story to me. It’s not essential to understand the story, but it adds another dimension to one of the primary villains of the tale and fills in a lot of the blanks of her past.

If you’ve never read these stories before, if you were too young for Valiant in the first go-around, this is your chance to get on board. If you were a fan the first time, you owe it to yourself to revisit these classic stories. We can only hope that these hardcover books are merely harbingers of big things to come.

Pun intended.

Rating: 9/10

(2010 Note: Sadly, two years later only this and two other hardcover collections of Harbinger and Archer and Armstrong have come from the people at Valiant Entertainment.)