X-O Manowar #8

 

It's time for our review of X-O Manowar #8. In this issue our hero Aric of Dacia, X-O Manowar and his band of misfit soldiers begin there final assault on the Emperor of the Azure people, who in an earlier issue of the series had taken him from his alien farm to fight in his army. Aric spends much of the book pre battle talking to each of his main soldiers one on one, basically more fleshing out of the supporting cast, and to add a little more to the story one member of the not so merry band of aliens, one of them is a traitor.
 

Let's start with the art. Bloody awesome as always! I love every page. The moody atmosphere makes the story just that much better. The book without the art is like a really good cake that hasn't got any icing on it and when you add this brilliantly done art it's like adding another awesome flavour to an already delicious cake. The colours help set the tone that little bit more. Not to spoil it, but once again the art alone would make this book an easy easy easy 10/10.

What can I possibly say about the writing on this book that I haven't said a billion times? Matt Kindt is brilliant. I have loved everything that he has written over the past few years. Focusing just on this series Kindt wrote a good complete story, we tied up all the story points and then teased what is coming next. That is all it is a tease. We have no idea what is coming next but we know something bad is coming for our hero. Another thing I really enjoyed about the series is that it doesn't ignore the first series' arc for Aric, he is still the same character even though there has been an epic amount of change in his current situation. Overall the writing might be the highlight if the art wasn't so brilliant.

Reading this newer interpretation of one of my favourite characters of all time was a little difficult to get used to at first. Now that we are nearing the 10 issue mark I feel like the story has found it's groove and is hitting the ground running. I really hope that Matt Kindt is on this book for a nice long haul, nothing is more frustrating than having to start a series over again with a new creative team when the book is as amazing as this. I love the first story arc. Although a lot longer than most in these days of writing for the trade paper backs, clocking in at a meaty 8 chapters, it is totally worth sitting through month to month and then once completed re reading the whole thing at once as I did today. It's just a perfect series with the mixture of the great art and the fantastic writing, I can't suggest reading this series more.