X-O Manowar #48

by Jason Laframboise on July 28, 2016

X-O Manowar #48

Written by: Robert Venditti
Art by: Joe Bennett

published by Valiant Comics

This is issue number 2 in the Long Live the King story arch, the final arc of this current X-O Manowar series. When we last left our hero he was battling a benevolent alien invasion force known to the Vine people as the Torment. This issue opens on the devastated  remains of the Visigoth home in Nebraska. It appears the battle has been lost for our hero with his people slaughter. Now all that's left is for him to make his last stand, fortunately for Aric the cavalry in the form of the Unity team is joining him.

We get some great art here. Worth checking out is when the X-O armour shows Aric the origin of the Torment, these pages are awesome, the pages remind me of Kirby. We also get some great panels of the Torment trampling through Manhattan. Also we get a great page or so of vultures circling the battle field and picking at the fallen Visigoths and Vine. I just loved the art in this one, Joe Bennett did a fantastic job.
As we get closer and closer to issue 50 with each passing month, it's been great to see that Venditti is continuing to tell the epic story that I've come to expect from this book. There is no feeling of drag here. The story is moving nicely towards the conclusion. We get some call backs to previous stories, including an exchange with Ninjak from the previous story that I completely forgot about. It's nice that the small details are so important to such a long story that has been one part love story, one part super hero adventure and one part space opera.
I'm sad that the new Valiant's first series, it's only series that has been with us since the relanch is coming to an end, but we are ending on a high note so far. The issue was good and I have high hopes that this will have a great ending. If you are interested in reading this, start with issue one and work your way to 50, you won't be disappointed.
 

Our Score:

9/10

A Look Inside