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Like the old summertime annuals from a couple generations ago, “X-O Manowar Annual 2016” #1 evokes the feel of something truly special. Series writer Robert Venditti and artist Pere Perez take the lead with a full-length main story preceded by a short prologue. Three other creative teams also deliver some worthy backup features, giving readers their money’s worth with over forty pages of story content. From the first day of their relaunch, Valiant has been the comic book publishing equivalent of a welcoming committee for new readers, ever-vigilant to the always present possibility of newcomers discovering their line of stories. This comic typifies — and, in fact, exemplifies — that discipline, kicking off with a concise and easily consumed single-page origin of X-O Manowar, aka Aric of Dacia, which is nicely detailed by J.G. Jones. In the span of six dense but efficiently laid out panels, rookie readers will find everything they need to know about the character before plunging into t

In Joe Harris and Martin Morazzo’s “Snowfall” #1, an eco-terrorist strikes back against a corrupt government in the aftermath of catastrophic climate change. The story begins with a fairy-tale-like prose introduction, complemented by Morazzo’s dream-like panel compositions and Michael David Thomas’ italic lettering. On the first page, Morazzo’s art is all shapes and symbols, and the texture of his trees and the geometric lines of his stylized snowflakes are lovely. This sets up a strong contrast with the second page’s cluttered urban landscape and Thomas’ colder, sans-serif text style in the captions. The first scene set in the concrete world of “Snowfall” is slow and cinematic, allowing the reader a glimpse of a mysterious character, whose entrance is reminiscent of the Golden Age Sandman. Morazzo’s landscapes and backgrounds are strong, but his faces and bodies are weaker. He draws different ages well, but most of his adult characters have overly pointy chins and small mouths. H

Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato attempt to wrap up the story of Gamora’s wanderlust in “Guardians of Knowhere” #4, but it falls short of succeeding. Yes, there is a conclusion to one storyline, but it only comes at the opening up of another, larger storyline that points readers to “Secret Wars” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” #1. The closure Bendis scripts into “Guardians of Knowhere” #4 comes in the form of casualties and mystery. Those casualties are shrugged away as a surprise character pops in at the end to change the course of the narrative, away from the mystery of the “nine-foot-tall” blue skinned female warrior who appeared at the end of the previous issue. The quotes around the warrior’s height come as citation from dialogue. Deodato draws every female in this comic with virtually the same build and stature, favoring upshots as opposed to anything more descriptive or establishing. The cast is fairly limited throughout the twenty-one story pages, with the Nova Corps mak

“Guardians of Knowhere” #2 contains the origin of Yotat and, as the cover brands him, he is “the Destroyer of the Destroyer.” Writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato put the spotlight squarely on Yotat and fill this issue with the character’s origins and motivations. Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Drax and Mantis all make appearances, but three of the four characters have little more than glorified cameos. The downside to those cameos is that Deodato and colorist Frank Martin simply don’t seem to be connecting completely. Deodato leaves a lot of his drawings sketchily detailed, choosing to tell the story with fewer lines. Unfortunately, the drawings come off more like a bad photocopy of a bad photocopy. Details are lost and dark spots become muddy patches. This is not an effective look for sequential storytelling, and a lot of the art just falls flat. The storytelling relies on motion lines to tell the tale of the action, rather than depicting the equivalent of keyframes, and t

Readers are finally given a chance to see what is happening adjacent to Doomworld in “Guardians of Knowhere” #1, which reimagines the Guardians of the Galaxy as peacekeepers who have sworn to protect the denizens of the floating Celestial head in the sky. Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato take what remains of the group and pits them against Angela, who has come to collect Gamora’s head for crossing zones, which she knows is expressly forbidden by Doom. The writer uses Gamora as the eyes of someone newly agnostic, questioning reality and ruler, blasphemous at best and pursuing a death wish at worst. His script contains some intense action scenes, such as the opening number between Angela and Drax, allowing Deodato the opportunity to flex his superheroic muscles. The fight is ruthless and bloody, shockingly so for a Marvel book, and lets the characters really tear into one another; Deodato creates a medieval battle in space alongside Frank Martin, whose colors give this book an ep

Triggered by the demise of the Armor Hunters, the Dead Hand has crafted a planetoid on a crash course with the Earth, which is where writer Robert Venditti and artist Diego Bernard pick up X-O Manowar” #37. With an army of armor wearers backing him up, Aric — the armor wearer of Earth — makes a final stand. Venditti makes it clear to the readers that Aric is the exception to the rule when it comes to the armor wearers. Appearing to be a hive mind, the battalion of wearers responds to Aric’s commands. Venditti makes this quite clear throughout the issue but also reinforces that by having Aric tell the readers, his foes and his allies as much. “X-O Manowar” #37 is pure plot powering forward to a conclusion, with virtually no character development allowed. The end result is a fast moving story that is packed with action but shallow in range. Aric is mad, the fight makes Aric madder and the possibility of having to get mad makes Aric warn people that he might get mad. Not much to grow o

Robert Venditti and Cafu’s “X-O Manowar: Valiant 25th Anniversary Special” #1 is actually an origin issue of sorts; not of Aric of Dacia, but instead of his sentient armor, Shanhara. It’s a story that would have been right at home in a zero-numbered issue, though issue #0 was already given to the story of Aric’s own origin last year. The inside front cover provides the usual credits and character recap regarding the bond between Aric and Shanhara, which will probably be skipped by many readers, but this time the recap sells the very premise of the issue, especially when followed up with three enticing words: “Who was Shanhara?” Regular readers will immediately realize that’s a very good question, if they haven’t asked it of themselves already. Venditti obviously agrees, and he tells a worthy origin story of a young, plague-stricken girl from millennia ago, who was both victimized and saved by her father’s unusual experiments, which lead to the creation of the armor that eventually bo

Dead Hand makes a serious dent on the Valiant Universe with “X-O Manowar” #35, even though the collective is still light years from Earth. The sentient robot hive establishes themselves as a formidable threat as they begin their mission to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy in order to eradicate armors like Shanhara, which it considers a virus. Robert Venditti and Diego Bernard split this issue into a race against time and a knock down fight between Aric and Dead Hand that leaves X-O fleeing from the scene to recover. Venditti pushes Aric’s greatest failures up against him once again, forcing the king to relive his powerlessness as a group of beings he has sworn to protect are once again taken from him. This time it’s Loam, homeworld of the Vine, whose high priest must evacuate a small contingent of survivors from the doomed planet. Venditti shows us the emotional rainbow the characters experience in the face of unstoppable doom; the priest is broken and defeated, wallowing in

Abigail’s friend isn’t the Frosty kind of snowman; rather, he’s of the abominable variety in Roger Langridge’s “Abigail and the Snowman” #1. The first of a four-issue miniseries, the issue establishes the relationship between the two, as well as that of her and her father, and her early, icy interactions with her new schoolmates. Within the span of one page, Langridge establishes Abigail’s situation with a standard first-day-in-new-school introduction structured with a brilliant and simple efficiency. One single panel with Abigail surrounded by a classroom full of judgmental school kids, complete with their caricature-like frowns, tells readers everything they need to know about her new environment. Langridge’s cartoonish style is enhanced with a straightforward kind of stripped-down technique; one simple change to an eyebrow is all it takes to convey disgust, disinterest or joy with deceptive simplicity. The first real relationship Langridge lays out is that with her father, a refr

Robert Venditti launches a new, post-“Armor Hunters” era for Aric of Dacia in “X-O Manowar” #31, and reintroduces another holdover from the classic Valiant Universe: the Armorines. Along with artists Diego Bernard and Alisson Rodrigues, Venditti rolls out the new status quo, as Aric works alongside the United Nations to further gain their trust. Venditti immediately throws in a clever reverse twist, though, with the notion that Aric might have good reason to distrust the U.N., thanks to the manipulations of Armorines inventor and CEO Philip Zahn, who has his own personal agenda. Venditti employs a now-common storytelling device to open the issue, starting things off at an undetermined time in the near future, and at an unknown location, before moving back to present day to eventually connect back to the issue’s original point. It works especially well, as it’s not as simple as connecting the dots in a different order; the time, and especially the location, of this opening scene come