Reviews»Comic Books»X-O Manowar #26
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Kareem Ali 4

X-O Manowar #26

 

  • The good

    Demonstration of the armor's capabilities and how unstoppable it can be. Effectively reveals the armor hunters' motivations

  • The bad

    Time frame for Wince's tale isn't established and squanders an opportunity to better demonstrate armor's destruction. Skips over some survival moments

  • The ugly

  • X-O Manowar #26 is another entry in the intense crossover event, Armor Hunters, and reveals the backstory to their leader, Primary Reebo, and his first encounter with the dangerous armors. It opens up in a seedy bar where Reebo and Malgam hand in a bounty to the bartender but they’re not happy with the jobs he’s been giving them. They want to make a name for themselves and to do so they need to get jobs besides hunting Barbs, however the bartender explains to them that there are many other hunters who have years of putting in work behind them so he trusts the others more with that difficult work and they have to pay their dues. And he tells them that if that’s not good enough and they truly want to make a name for themselves to talk to one in the bar that everyone else is avoiding because he has just the story for them. The loner named Wince tells them that he doesn’t have any money but he used to be in the army on his planet, and his people lived for war thinking they were the strongest until the armor destroyed their cities one by one. He left the planet searching for anyone that would be able to help them kill it but he has been met with nothing but ridicule. Reebo doesn’t believe him and feels it’s a complete waste of time because clearly this guy must’ve lost his mind to make up such a story of one entity laying waste to an entire planet but Malgam convinces him that this is a huge opportunity with little risk. If they go and the armor actually exists, if they beat it they’ll have a bigger name than anyone else there. And if there is no armor then the most they’ve lost is just fuel to travel there and they could always kill the guy for lying to them. What they didn’t consider was the armor being just as terrible as they were just told, and if an entire planet couldn’t defeat it how could they possibly do so?

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    Armor Hunters #1 did a good job in making the armor hunters a serious threat and established a reason for them to want to destroy the armor worn by X-O Manowar but there was no demonstration of what the armor did or could do that made it so terrifying. This issue changes that by setting up Reebo’s first encounter with the armor, and the lack of believers in Wince’s tale was a way to stress just how unbelievable its power was. This was an effective way to show Reebo and Malgam willing to do what others wouldn’t even if there were maybe a few who believed the tale but decided against doing anything, however Wince’s situation wasn’t entirely clear. There was no indication of how long it was since he abandoned his post or if there was even a possibility of others noticing communication being cut off on an entire planet, and I only mention this because the speed in which the armor could decimate this planet would indicate how powerful it truly was and therefore the current threat to Earth. Aside from that, when they actually reached the planet and confronted the armor, seeing it in action was exciting even if it was on a smaller scale than destroying an entire planet because some of its capabilities were shown. And the conclusion of this issue just made the armor hunters story line that much more intriguing.

     

    SUMMARY

    X-O Manowar #26 is a solid issue detailing Reebo’s first encounter with the armor and therefore showing his understanding of how dangerous it can be in impressive fashion, and as a result successfully establishes his motivation for hunting them. In a way this is also my first encounter with the armor and aside from some hiccups in Wince’s tale the destructive nature of the armor was made clear to me in this engrossing issue, and the motivation of the armor hunters makes the conflict with those on Earth defending it more interesting.

     

    Release Date: 6/25/14

    Writer: Robert Venditti

    Artist: Diego Bernard

  • Rating ( 8 )
  • Total score 8.0

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