ADVANCED REVIEW: X-O Manowar Unconquered #1: The Champ is Here

Full disclosure: I came into X-O Manowar Unconquered knowing next to nothing about the character, which makes me the perfect mark for it. And I suspect, many others as well: Unconquered serves as a superb jumping-on point for the character, who, though having been around for decades now, is something of an unknown to the wider comics populace. Most people know him for his distinctive orange and blue armor, but how many can say much about Aric, the man within? What’s his deal? What motivates him? Hell, what’s his origin story?

Not to worry: X-O Manowar Unconquered #1 serves a fresh starting point for new readers, and with the A-list creative team of Cloonan, Conrad, Sharp, and Peteri onboard, readers are in for an absolute treat. Aric, it seems, is running out of steam: after so many years of protecting the galaxy from celestial menaces, he’s tired, and maybe doesn’t have the fight in him he once had. All that changes when he encounters a pair of new foes from a mighty empire that maybe has ties to the ancient Romans of Earth… but how can that be? All bets are off as X-O decides to take the fight to the aggressors, setting the stage for one helluva rumble.

Cloonan and Conrad, already a superstar duo courtesy their work on Wonder Woman, Batgirls, and a wealth of other wonderful books both as collaborators and rolling solo, strip X-O down to his bare bones as a character in a move that could have alienated older fans, but instead serves a dual purposes for both luring new readers and old alike, a delicate balancing act regardless of how talented a writer(s) is/are. But here we are, with an Aric who feels lived-in with real history as well as enough of a blank slate that new readers can get a feel for who and what he is, as well as the world he inhabits. Cloonan and Conrad don’t quite nail this landing – I came away feeling like I still didn’t have quite as much knowledge about Aric’s motivations and internal narrative as I’d have liked – but there’s still plenty enough there to invite future issues and rereads.

The biggest star here, though, is artist Liam Sharp. Hot off his Image series Starhenge, Sharp shows why he’s one of the biggest artistic names in comics with a %&#!ing vengeance:

In Sharp’s hands, Aric’s battlefields of space become wide-open vistas to boggle the imagination, like great, gaping and boundless fields of black at once threatening and beckoning to be explored. Aric himself, though ripped to the gills with muscles atop muscles, carries himself like the weary warrior he is: strong and proud, but tired from years of nonstop battle. Meanwhile, Sharp’s designs for the new characters from the spacefaring Novus Romanus Legion borrow from classical Roman designs, gene-spliced with classic Sharp-ian imagery to horrify and tantalize in equal measure. In short – his art is an absolute feast for the eyes, and demands careful consideration. Readers will no doubt be finding themselves waiting to turn the page just a moment longer, so they can pore over the details throughout. Like everything Sharp touches, it’s stunning.