Kickin’ It Old School: X-O Manowar #7

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another new edition of Kickin’ It Old School, our weekly column in which we look to the past and review books from the original Valiant universe! This week, I’ll be discussing X-O Manowar #7

X-O Manowar #7

Published in August 1992
Written by Bob Layton
Penciled by Michael Leeke
Inked by Tom Ryder
Colored by Jorge Gonzalez
Lettered by Ken Lopez
Edited by Jim Shooter

Synopsis:

Aric is learning how to deal with life as the head of a major corporation when Geoff shows up to get him to join the fight against Pierce. Aric leaves Orb in the hands of Ken, one of which was made by the X-O armor and will keep Ken in check. Upon arriving in the Lost Land, Aric and the rest are attacked by a group of Pterodactyls that have been augmented to have the intelligence of a man. Aric also realizes that some of the pterodactyls have robot riders. Although Aric takes down many, they finally gang up on him and cause him to crash into a building.

Before heading back, he realizes that he’s in a prison, and the Skammrs are selling their captives as forbidden food to dinosaurs in exchange for weapons. Aric jumps in and takes down the Skammrs and a group of T-Rexes, freeing the slaves and helping them escape into the jungle. He realizes that they won’t be easy to turn into an army, so he decides to turn the Skammrs into his army against Erica Pierce.

Review:

This was a great book! It was packed with great action! How can you not love seeing X-O battle with dinosaurs, blowing their brains out and cutting them in half? On top of that, we see Aric figuring out how to deal with the complexities of business in a way that suits him, and he continues to learn from his armor during the dinosaur fights.

It would be so easy to keep Aric simple and just focus on action, but seeing him become such a well-rounded character makes this series great. He continues to deal with threats that think they can easily outsmart him, and he continues to come out on top. This issue was pretty simple compared to the rest of Unity thus far, but it’s been one of the most enjoyable to read. We didn’t need backstory on Aric and there weren’t any new characters to introduce, so we were able to get right to the point. That seems pretty appropriate for X-O.

Kickin’ It Old School: X-O Manowar #1

Originally from ValiantCentral.com