XO MANOWAR #32

[Brapbrap]

I thought this arc would just be filler but it seems like the Armorines are here to stay

Seems like Valiant always likes to introduce a team and then kill half of them off though before reintroducing a new team with the same name - they did the same thing with Unity & H.A.R.D. Corps

[dornwolf]

I thought this arc would just be filler but it seems like the Armorines are here to stay

Seems like Valiant always likes to introduce a team and then kill half of them off though before reintroducing a new team with the same name - they did the same thing with Unity & H.A.R.D. Corps

The main difference though is that the Hardcorps first introduce were the original team we had known from the previous title, they killed most of them off to show that this wasn't merely a retread.

The Armorines, at least the first set, were merc's unnamed pointless canon fodder. It ends with I think the only Armorines people know at thats Lewis. Looking forward to seeing him and his crew. Hopefully they either show up and lend a hand in deadhand or another arc.

[hawkeyeps]

One thing that bothers me about this is Aric had no problem killing the Armorines but he didn't kill Zahn, why not?

Why would he kill those guys and not Zahn? The only reason I can think of is they want to keep Zahn around for future stories but it didn't ring as true that Aric would kill the relatively benign henchmen and yet let the main evil guy who was behind the whole thing live.

Zahn wasn't even injured and 2 of the Armorines died and another got his hands ripped off.

I really expected Aric to kill Zahn.

Also I noticed a major screw up- when Zahn is in prison he's complaining about the Australian's laying charges for all this stuff that went down in Austria

3.5/5 for this, it would have been 4 is Aric killed Zahn.

[pixierosa]

I caught that error, too, Hawk. Dan caught another one - in the last panel for Dead Hand, artist notes are visible in the fingers.

Otherwise, though, pretty good story. Since they kept mentioning the wife so much in previous books, I figured she'd show up in the end. I'm glad Aric let Zahn live - he needed to be humbled and it lets the world see that Aric isn't just a power-crazed murderer. The other men were killed in battle, while shooting at Aric. Zahn had been defeated and was basically defenseless. Killing him would have been too close to murder in the eyes of the world.

[hawkeyeps]

I caught that error, too, Hawk. Dan caught another one - in the last panel for Dead Hand, artist notes are visible in the fingers.

Otherwise, though, pretty good story. Since they kept mentioning the wife so much in previous books, I figured she'd show up in the end. I'm glad Aric let Zahn live - he needed to be humbled and it lets the world see that Aric isn't just a power-crazed murderer. The other men were killed in battle, while shooting at Aric. Zahn had been defeated and was basically defenseless. Killing him would have been too close to murder in the eyes of the world.

He reverse head butted that one Armorine and he was incapacitated whimpering about his crushed face then Aric PAFFED his head. Murdildlyderdler, he didn't have to PAFF him and yet Zahn gets a pass?

[dornwolf]

I caught that error, too, Hawk. Dan caught another one - in the last panel for Dead Hand, artist notes are visible in the fingers.

Otherwise, though, pretty good story. Since they kept mentioning the wife so much in previous books, I figured she'd show up in the end. I'm glad Aric let Zahn live - he needed to be humbled and it lets the world see that Aric isn't just a power-crazed murderer. The other men were killed in battle, while shooting at Aric. Zahn had been defeated and was basically defenseless. Killing him would have been too close to murder in the eyes of the world.

He reverse head butted that one Armorine and he was incapacitated whimpering about his crushed face then Aric PAFFED his head. Murdildlyderdler, he didn't have to PAFF him and yet Zahn gets a pass?

I'd bet pretty heavy on Aric killing Zahn had communication not been restored and had Zahn not hulked out his armor and force Aric to take it public. One of the things I noticed this issue was all the growth that Aric had experienced was on display. He literally could of easily slaughtered Zahn but after taking it public, being aware of his situation with the UN and the world at large, and trying to show that he's not some dirty barbarian he trys to take the high road.

In the end though of course it's just their way of keeping Zahn alive as an ongoing villain for either X-O or Armorines

[Sir Sandrick]

I thought that it was a fun fight. It is always great to see X-O power through baddies like squatting flies. The helmet turning into the spike ball was pretty cool as well as Aric's brief explanation that the two don't simply "talk" to one another- they ARE each other.

I thought that the art by Bernard and Rodriguez was pretty great throughout. The Armor detailing was pretty awesome and could have looked really bad if not handled as well.

Yeah... the Australian line... if I didn't know better I would say that they locked up Woody instead of Zahn. Doh!

The artist notes- Wow, Dan has great eyes! But then again he is all about that line work, right

[Donovan]

This was, for me, an extremely dull couple of issues.

The look of the Armorines seemed uninspired and 90's-esque.

Any of the dramatic challenges set up for Aric last issue (ear explosion, video feed to the room cut off) seemed to be solved with no great difficulty.

I love XO, but this issue was pretty dull for me.

[Keith]

I'm happy to see Gunny has been introduced into the new Valiant. I hope this means the Armorines are going to be used down the line.

Otherwise, thought it was an ok issue/arc. Looking forward to Dead Hand starting after next issue.

[leonmallett]

This was, for me, an extremely dull couple of issues.

The look of the Armorines seemed uninspired and 90's-esque.

Any of the dramatic challenges set up for Aric last issue (ear explosion, video feed to the room cut off) seemed to be solved with no great difficulty.

I love XO, but this issue was pretty dull for me.

Aghreed that it was pretty uninpsiring - seemed a long way to go to get the Gunny Lewis pay-off.

Add in the inherent flaws in the set-up:
- no real vetting of Zahn (surely that kind of thing would really take months) to test the suit
- Zahn is able to develop and create multiple super-science technologies in total secret
- Zahn decides the best way to prove his technology by using it to kill a tactical asset with very strong ties to the USA and UK
- Zahn basically believes he will get away with the above by switching off the video feed to the room (which would surely incite suspicion), and does not seem to have anticipated any potential repercussions

Basically It seemed a pretty ill-conceived path (in plotting terms) to get to deliver the Armorines as a potential IP. For example, as board members here have suggested several times a while back, VEI could have got there much more easily, by having MERO/GATE oversight development of the alien tech into the Armorines technology. Instead we had this plot, one that I have said and stand by that simply does not stand up to the kind of scrutiny that other plots generally do from VEI books. Not that is thin (for example like in Days of Steel), just that it lacks real substance or arguable quality IMHO.

[bygranddesign]

I caught that error, too, Hawk. Dan caught another one - in the last panel for Dead Hand, artist notes are visible in the fingers.

Otherwise, though, pretty good story. Since they kept mentioning the wife so much in previous books, I figured she'd show up in the end. I'm glad Aric let Zahn live - he needed to be humbled and it lets the world see that Aric isn't just a power-crazed murderer. The other men were killed in battle, while shooting at Aric. Zahn had been defeated and was basically defenseless. Killing him would have been too close to murder in the eyes of the world.

+1 to this ... the others died in the heat of battle

Zhan could have died in the heat of the battle ... but he was too strong especially when he hulked up

When X-O had him beat ... killing him then would have been an execution

[bygranddesign]

Also I noticed a major screw up- when Zahn is in prison he's complaining about the Australian's laying charges for all this stuff that went down in Austria

I took this as an unintentional joke

I would suspect Zhan as someone who would say something stupid like that

[bygranddesign]

I thought this issue was not as good as Unity this week .. but it was still pretty strong.

I have no issues with the plot setup or the motivations of Zhan or the circumstances of why he and his company were the ones in charge of this inspection - I think this was all well established in the story.

In terms of the future of Armorines, I think Venditti has created an interesting backstory full of interesting threads to explore in the future while establishing a nice launching point with Mrs. Zhan taking over the Armorines ... even though she shows up only at the end of this arc, she is already an interesting and sympathetic character that they could really build upon.

Bernard's art was strong as always ... The coloring felt OK to me. I didn't come away impressed by the colors but didn't bother me too much either.

Overall, I'd give this issue a solid 8/10.

[mateo107]

this was one of the best drawn arcs of the series. however, the writing, particularly of the villains, was contrived and cliched. shrinking in size and armor growing in mass are ridiculous concepts I'd expect to find in a Marvel comic. Aric's a figure who naturally comes into conflict with everything around him, I don't think he needs a badguy who concocts such elaborate schemes to take him down. hopefully the next time we see the Armorines it will be in a better story. all that said, even though it felt like it was trying to be an issue of Iron Man, it was still better than an issue of Iron Man.

[jmatt]

Man, tough crowd. I loved the issue! Plenty of action and whoop-*SQUEE*! Had the feel of a SA Iron Man taking on Titanium Man vibe. And I'm glad Aric showed mercy and let Zahn live. Ya can't kill all the villains... we need 'em around for future stories.

[QUARTZ]

This was, for me, an extremely dull couple of issues.

The look of the Armorines seemed uninspired and 90's-esque.

Any of the dramatic challenges set up for Aric last issue (ear explosion, video feed to the room cut off) seemed to be solved with no great difficulty.

I love XO, but this issue was pretty dull for me.

I agree. I did like the inner ear bomb concept but the rest of it really did kind of seem like filler before Dead Hand strikes. I hope they use the Armorine suits in the future but spiff them up a bit. I liked how brutal Aric was in retaliating, but all in all it wasn't a very engaging storyline.

[hunter_peterson]

This was, for me, an extremely dull couple of issues.

The look of the Armorines seemed uninspired and 90's-esque.

Any of the dramatic challenges set up for Aric last issue (ear explosion, video feed to the room cut off) seemed to be solved with no great difficulty.

I love XO, but this issue was pretty dull for me.

I agree. I did like the inner ear bomb concept but the rest of it really did kind of seem like filler before Dead Hand strikes. I hope they use the Armorine suits in the future but spiff them up a bit. I liked how brutal Aric was in retaliating, but all in all it wasn't a very engaging storyline.

I thought it was alright. Zahn came across as dumber than he would have to have been to invent the armors, but I suppose he was probably on drugs/drunk at the time. Being an anti-Tony Stark seems like it sucks. His wife actually seemed heroic for having put up with him in order to steal his company.

I liked how the healing of the ear looked like a hearing aid. Maybe it didn't actually heal him and just made him hear again?

[BugsySig]

This issue was a dud. The whole arc wound up being useless outside of setting up Armorines.

I did like seeing Aric waste a few guys though. Been a while since we got a look at how bad *SQUEE* and violent he can be.

[leonmallett]

This issue was a dud. The whole arc wound up being useless outside of setting up Armorines.
...

On the main arc, I think the writing was on the wall with the set-up (although others differ in opinion ). The main story-line was pretty flimsy and arguably inane from the outset.

It seemed to be purely a vehicle to bring in the Armorines concept which could have much better executed IMHO. That final payoff and the stuff with the reservation in part 1 were the main redeeming features for me. The actual Zahn plot was just very, very weak for me.

[Dallow Spicer1]

This was, for me, an extremely dull couple of issues.

The look of the Armorines seemed uninspired and 90's-esque.

Any of the dramatic challenges set up for Aric last issue (ear explosion, video feed to the room cut off) seemed to be solved with no great difficulty.

I love XO, but this issue was pretty dull for me.

+1
This was my least favourite issue of XO since the relaunch. I feel like it was an editorial decision to 'crowbar' the Armorines into the ongoing story for the sole purpose of using the characters on the 'deep bench' (?). Hated when Zahn was able to make his armour expand/grow, that should seemed too iron man /transformer-ish! Visually I think they look second rate characters and I'm not too interested in seeing them again.

Only part that interested me was that it appeared that the armour 'repaired' Aric's damaged inner ear? If so, is this another part of his body that is forever armour?

That said, if VDitti's next dud is not for another 32 issues then I'm fine with that. Dead Hand preview page looks very promising and I'm confident VDitti will be back to his best in no time!!

Gotta keep it real though, 2/5

[Tony_H]

Yep, 2/5 or lower. Besides the problems noted by everybody above, the climactic fight between Aric and Zahn looked an awful lot like the climactic fight between Stark and Obadiah in the first Iron Man movie.

[jmatt]

I did like seeing Aric waste a few guys though. Been a while since we got a look at how bad *SQUEE* and violent he can be.

Now, that's what I'm talking about. More whoop-*SQUEE*!

[hunter_peterson]

Yep, 2/5 or lower. Besides the problems noted by everybody above, the climactic fight between Aric and Zahn looked an awful lot like the climactic fight between Stark and Obadiah in the first Iron Man movie.

It looked so much like that I was assuming it was a reference to it.

[jmatt]

Yep, 2/5 or lower. Besides the problems noted by everybody above, the climactic fight between Aric and Zahn looked an awful lot like the climactic fight between Stark and Obadiah in the first Iron Man movie.

I'm pretty sure every climactic battle between armored opponents is an gonna look an awful lot like the climactic fight between Stark and Obadiah in the first Iron Man movie.

[Bl00dsh0t]

I actually liked this - had a 90's comic-vibe to it.