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Okay, can we be honest or do we have to be drooling fanbois?

I like it overall, good art and dialogue. But it's hard to go wild since the book is mostly plotline setup for the rest of the story arc. Nice opening splashpage but there were pages of the book that lacked background art altogether; an odd contrast as I'm presently reading the BWS post-Unity stuff and each panel looks like a photograph there's so much background detail.

Aric is reckless to the point of getting his father killed while accomplishing nothing. Flinging a vastly understrength horde at multiple phalanx formations is beyond stupid, it's suicide. Okay, we get it, the guy is headstrong and brave.

Okay, I gotta step away for a bit, be back soon.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

NO DROOL GET OUT!!!

I wasn't completely overwhelmed the first time I read it.

Read it again tomorrow, you may find more in it the second time around.

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Honestly, I'm not an art guy, so if there were flaws in the art (unless painful), I wouldn't notice. The fact that this reads mostly as setup is because that's what it is. I'm glad they are taking their time with the story and I'd be more than happy if they spent the whole summer of Valiant just on his origin. It allows for more future payoff. Also, I did get how reckless Aric is, but I'm hoping it's to help develop future plot lines that address how he could be a much better warrior if he weren't always so impulsive. They needed to drive home the point that he doesn't consider the consequences when he acts and that is what is getting all of these people needlessly killed.

This story really has the potential to be MUCH better when read as a total arc (much like I feel Solar was in the beginning).

It was good. Very good. It didn't read like 29 pages because it all flowed very well. My only complaint would be that we don't see Aric in the armor. I am even guessing we won't see that Neil the last panel of issue 2.

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Agreed.

I felt the same way, and had the same opinion on the recklessness angle and such.

It was an OK "set-up" issue, but, hopefully, future issues will be better.

I have to admit, I was nervous posting anything without the proper amount of drool, at first.

This story arc will be like one of those "revenge" action movies, where the first 3/5ths are spent setting up The Payback. So I'm not disappointed, I was kind of expecting this.

And in an odd way, Aric's utter recklessness made me, I dunno, not like him that much. I mean, it's obvious he has no regard for his own life but meanwhile he's getting scores of his countrymen killed because he refuses to recognize any tactic other than "Charge! Fight!". I'm kind of hoping that's setting up some future personal growth.

Did you notice they changed the dialogue from what we've seen? His troops are urging caution pitting swords against something the size of a spaceship. For the third time in 8 pages, Aric throws all prudence, strategy, tactic and caution to the winds and opts for another head on charge. "Give them no quarter!" he cries. Prior to this, the response of the soldier beside him was "So much for caution." Now he says "Or we could attack now." I thought the orginal response was funnier, more sarcastic. Perhaps they changed it so that we're not left with the impression that his comrades are mocking him.

Nord's art and the color are great, but leafing through it a third time I stand by my initial observation: There is very little in the way of background detail.

I liked the looks of the alien ships and the aliens themselves.

I agree with someone else's observation that the flow of the book is great, story elements flow together so seamlessly that the book was over befor I knew it.

It appears that the armor chooses its owner, an interesting change from ownership belonging to the wearer of the ring. That has possibilities.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

The Dacians run forward because there is nothing behind them. They were pushed from their lands and are nomads trying to conquer a new homeland. That is the tragedy of the Dacian people.

Aric, even in VH1 wasn't all that "Likable" either. So the characterization isn't so far off. He got better as time wore on and he learned a few things. Same thing will happen in the V2012 iteration too I imagine.

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Oh, without a doubt. The first time through with X-O, I had no idea what to expect. So after reading a single issue and deciding I liked it, I was able to go and get all 8 back issues, sit down and read them in one or two sittings. I didn't have to wait six months for a clear picture to emerge of who he was and what he was about.

Not so this time. I'm not sure what rubbed me the wrong way, regarding his personality.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

Aric's next enemy...The Twigs!

I liked the issue (loved the art), but truthfully I am not sure its really possible to be blown away by a single issue. UNless you really rush the pace of the story, I think you need to judge things on an arc by arc basis. JMHO...

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Hey, I just noticed that at the end of the Harbinger piece, it says "To be continued in Harbinger #1...".

I was under the impression that this was a preview of content that would appear in Harbinger #1. But could it be that this is the official "First Appearance of Pete Stancheck" in the VEI incarnation??

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

I consider it an advertisement, not really an appearance. IMHO if you were to consider this type of thing a first appearance, then the C2E2 preview would have to be considered the first appearance of both XO and the Harbinger characters.

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Mmm, not sure that I agree. Generally speaking, "first appearance" pertains to regular issues, not previews and posters, etc. IMHO.

That being said, it looks like they're gonna work on making us like Pete, too. Which is cool by me, I don't want them trying to clone 1992.

And who's that red fiend behind Pete in the second to last panel? It appears right after he doses up on drugs with a thought balloon of "Just one more taste, then I'll get back on the program...". A thought balloon from an inner "demon"? And was anyone able to make out the words of that third balloon on that panel? I don't have it in front of me but it was difficult to decipher. Perhaps meant to be mental gibberish trailing off as the drugs kick in or something.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

Unless it is teenage mutant ninja turtles

That red guy interested me too...though I think we will all be seeing things for a while as we are expecting Easter eggs at every turn...

I couldn't read the last bubble either, but figured that was the point as the drugs were kicking in, as you said.

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Yeah, I could see where Aric was Bravehearting his short encouragement speech about having a land for his people, I get what Venditti was going for there, "We've got nowhere left to turn".

But King Alaric and Gafti and all of the men are counseling "live to fight another day" and pointing out their spilled guts on the bare earth, it appears Aric's the only one who thinks "it's now or never". I dunno, you'd think if they truly had their backs against the wall everyone would be in agreement.

Aric's refusal to back down results in the death of many Dacian warriors, the death of his father and the abduction of his mother and wife. I'd rather be in camp running off a raiding party to save my mother and wife rather than needlessly flinging my overmatched and disorganized troops into phalanx echelons with no lateral guard.

Don't mind me, I'm just obessesing on the book tonight. I can't wait to see Aric mature into a tactician.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

I agree completely. I've been reading some 1977 back issues of World's Finest where they manage to tell an entire Superman / Batman story in like 8 pages! The pace of comic book storytelling is so different today.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

I don't have the comic yet but am I wrong to think that I pretty much know/seen most of #1 from all the blurbs, previews and splash pages I have seen already?

I would have thought so too, but there is still a lot in there. Espescially the first battle and all the scenes involving the Vine.

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No, that character was pointedly different than the rest of humanity Pete was wading through. We will see him again, methinks.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

Ya, plenty of new stuff. Lots. We see the armor, f'rinstance.

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When you're driving a tank, things don't happen to you. You happen to things.

I believe the X-O preview says "To be continued in X-O #1" as well, so I believe this is nothing more than a preview of pages from the book. I am happy to see that the X-O stuff left out some pages and wasn't at the beginning of the book. It allowed you to get a preview without it feeling stale when you re-read it.

I agree. I just meant we may be assigning some sort of meaning to things based on VH1 that aren't necessarily there.

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