Valiant Entertainment; $3.99

The “new” Valiant has put out some impressive packages, but none more so than the first issue of the new volume of X-O Manowar. From their choice of cover stock to the interior paper, from the production values to the bonus page count for the standard cover price, and from the selection of variant and incentive covers to the massive marketing push, across the board the company appears to have pulled out all the stops.

Of course, that wouldn’t matter if the end product was anything less than great.

Refreshingly, in this event-driven age in which hype so often equals the absence of depth, this one is more than just a worthy effort. As first issues go, it’s a homerun.

Writer Matt Kindt has been involved with a number of projects at Valiant. Among them, he co-wrote the tone-setting miniseries The Valiant and has written three miniseries worth of Divinity, all of which have continued to pay dividends for the company. Here he unleashes a story set years after we saw Aric (X-O) in the last issue of the previous series. It’s easy to grasp what’s going on, but he doesn’t solve or spell out all of the mysteries for the reader. It’s a more somber, less idealistic Aric, and it at least seems like there’s good reason for that.

I wasn’t familiar with artist Tomás Giorello’s work before discovering it on Chuck Dixon’s Winterworld, for which he illustrated the second story arc of the IDW revival. As there, here he demonstrates the same flare for showcasing a mighty struggle against adversity. His storytelling is solid, his art is lush, impactful and accessible, and he frequently delivers brilliant pages.

As for the character, I fell in love X-O Manowar in the original Valiant’s first five issues, written by Jim Shooter and Steve Englehart (Bob Layton and Englehart in one case, Shooter solo in another) and penciled by Barry Windsor-Smith, Sal Velluto, Mike Manley and Mike Leeke, respectively. While a good (and probably vital) bit of that early magic was lost in the post-Unity issues, the character and set-up remained magic.

Longtime Scoop readers will remember that the Robert Venditti-written series from the new Valiant also garnered no small amount of praise here, particularly the issues illustrated by Cary Nord and Lee Garbet. The consistent quality of the story remains a high point for the new Valiant so far. 

This new incarnation, though, has a bit of the flavor of each of the previous versions. That's not an easy thing to muster, paricularly when it has its own identity and tone as well. If Kindt, Giorello and company can live up to that and to this start, this is going to be one phenomenal comic book series.

A tip of the hat, too, to Diego Rodriguez, who also colored Giorello on Winterworld. Great stuff.

–J.C. Vaughn