X-O Manowar Book 1 (X-O MANOWAR (2020) TP)

'X-O Manowar Book 1' by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum with art by Emilio Laiso is a graphic novel reboot of a Valiant character that has been rebooted quite a few times. I've lost count how many times this character has been rebooted. Since I've been reviewing, it's been at least three.This time around Aric of Dacia is played as a bit of a fish out of water. His ancient ways are paired against a modern world. Shanhara, his intelligent super-suit, is a bit humorous. Aric has new friends on Earth that will likely be further threatened.This reboot takes Aric back and away from some of the complex storylines and entities he's been involved with. I like the approach this took and the way the characters are handled. The art is pretty good too!I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I was really underwhelmed with this. All of the things that make Aric unique are missing. That's he's a man out of time. He's basically Conan in the Iron Man suit. That's all glossed over and replaced with a homeless Aric living in NYC trying to help people and screwing up royally each time until he gets some PR help from a billionaire. Then there's the Ukraine terrorist who somehow is able to invade Brooklyn with homemade transformer looking robots made out of construction vehicles. That was beyond stupid. Emilio Laiso's art is very good though.