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Valiant Goes To Space – Six Pages From X-O Manowar #1

Late yesterday at Mashable, Valiant unveiled the first look inside its upcoming X-O Manowar series, written by Matt Kindt with art by rotating cast of artists that will include Conan's Tomas Giorello, Bloodshot USA's Doug Braithwaite, Carnage's Clayton Crain, The Dying & The Dead's Ryan Bodenheim, and Bloodshot Reborn's Mico Suayan.

Touted as "the most important Valiant series of 2017" and the subject of Valiant's upcoming FCBD release, the publisher and its representatives have spent weeks promoting the title's importance to the Valiant line over the coming year.

But today's preview offers the first substantial evidence of what the future holds for (what is arguably) Valiant's biggest character and how his future adventures represent a sizable shift from what has come before:

X-O Manowar is a literal "man of war"…in space…

Over the course of X-O Manowar's recent history, the character – a Roman-era Visigoth transported to the modern day with a sentient suit of alien armor – progressed from an out-of-his-depth barbarian to a full-fledged protector of Earth. Not so anymore. For reasons unknown, Aric has fled Earth with the suit to seek out a new life. Which isn't going to work at well since, as these pages illustrate, he's about to get drafted into the lowest rung of alien rebel army fighting a brutal civil war against his new planet's ruling class. He can fight or die…but he can't do both.

…Bringing on big, brutal sci-fi action

Matt Kindt turned the espionage genre on its ear – and hen inside out – over the course of his

much acclaimed

run on Mind MGMT. And, while he's been turned loose to create some outside-the-box narrative devices in other Valiant series like Divinity and Ninjak, X_O Manowar is giving him his biggest canvas yet – a strange new alien world populated by exotic, but brutal warring races and crude technology. Case in point: A D-Day style assault up a miles-highs wall waged

rocketships

and grapple cannons.

He's also pretty pissed off at the armor

With nary a faceplate in sight, X-O Manowar's trademark armor takes a back seat in the first pages of the series…but will play a major role unlike any we've seen before throughout rest of the title's first year. Not only are Aric and the sentient suit estranged as the series begins, but, according to Kindt, "the armor is evolving, and it's growing, and it's going to have its own arc, too."

Don't expect Ninjak to turn up anytime soon

Valiant has announced the artist line-up and arc titles for the first year of X-O Manowar – beginning with "Soldier," then "General," then "Emperor," through "Visigoth." As such, the series is expected to stay away from Earth and the other Valiant heroes for some time, making this a clean entry point for anyone new to the Valiant line. But seeing as #1 alone is packed with first appearances and the introduction of many central new players to Valiant's universe, this is series is likely to be the cornerstone of the publisher's plans for both the near and far future… So don't be surprised if some elements start to bleed over into other books sooner rather than later…

X-O Manowar #1 by Matt Kindt and Tomas Giorello is on sale March 22 from Valiant Entertainment.

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