In X-O Manowar #17 Aric now believes his is to lead his people in the ways his father described to him as a child nearly 1600 years ago. It’s a new world for Aric and his leadership will not go unnoticed or unchallenged for very long.

Official description from VALIANT:
To this king… a kingdom. Since bonding with the sentient X-O Manowar armor, Aric of Dacia has rampaged unchecked, crushing every enemy in his path. But what happens when a one-man war machine must become the protector of an entire people?

Writer Robert Venditti begins issue #17 with a surprising warm family flashback of Aric’s family and his father’s words of wisdom. But it ends with his father’s command that Aric will lead his people of Dacia behind a bloody sword against all who would oppose them. His leadership begins anew with a proclamation to his people, now occupying land in modern day Romanian, and a promise to not only survive but thrive.

In the past several issues of X-O Manowar Venditti has been lying the foundation for a new Dacia and throws in a new twist of his people discovering modern day society and conveniences on their own. This leads to a slow underling current of rebellion among his people. For example; why tend the fields when stores provide all the food we need? The mess continues to get bigger when the government sends Alexander Dorian of ORB Industries to offer Aric and the Visgoth’s asylum in America to prevent all out nuclear war from bordering countries from erupting And is there is nothing least honest or trustworthy than that kind of offer from a government? The final few panels bring that all home in gut punching style.

Venditti is pulling multiple strings here for maximum deceit and betrayal and it’s about time to pull the trigger. The slow burn since the end of “Planet Death” is past due to expire and I welcome what’s certain to come. Lee Garbett continues to be extremely solid in his work and with the majority of the issue being pedestrian in nature he certainly goes all out for what he’s given. Sometimes simply and understated is still great work it’s just harder to recognize without big splash pages but it’s most certainly still there.

X-O Manowar is setting up for the UNITY event and that explains the titles lull in action as the Valiant Universe is set to explode. But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s lesser in value. Venditti his hitting all notes in X-O and it still packs a punch without packing literal punches. X-O Manowar is leading the way in uniting all of the Valiant Universe and it continues to get better with each issue.

4/5