X-O Manowar becomes the hunted in Armor Hunters #1

Valiant Comics newest mini-series event kicks off as the alien Armor Hunters come to Earth looking for trouble.

When Aric of Dacia returned to Earth with the stolen X-O Manowar armor of an alien race, he thought he finally found a weapon to guard the peace and kingdom he’d struggled so long to secure. But now, a relentless and surgical strike team from the farthest reaches of space – sworn to exterminate the armor and all like it – have found their final target. The ARMOR HUNTERS are coming. They will hunt. They will trap. They will kill. And they will rid the universe of the X-O Manowar’s incalculable destructive power…even if it means taking the Earth with it.

“The Hunters have been hardened by a long and difficult campaign against the Manowar armors,” writer Robert Venditti told USA Today. “They don’t come to Earth to make friends or forge alliances. They come to finish the fight.”

Interesting choice of words there from Venditti. Interesting setup too, since we have aliens heading to Earth who’re out to eliminate X-O, but they’re not really bad guys. Of course, neither is he.

One of the biggest heroes in the Valiant U, X-O has been on both sides of the battlefield after his stint in not only his own series, but also Unity’s opening arc. Here we see him as a hero, no doubt, but kind of against other heroes when you really look at it.

Aric doesn’t go down easily though, and this group of Armor Hunters might find the armor living on good old Earth might not be doe easy to take down- especially when they run into the rest of the heroes and the members of Unity. This is Valiant’s big Summer crossover event, much like last year’s Harbinger Wars, and it’s looking like a knockout thus far.

The end begins on June 11th when Armor Hunters #1 arrives from the team of Venditti and Doug Braithwaite. And be on the lookout for the Chromium editions of the books Armor Hunters is set to cross into, which are exactly what they sound like. If your local retailer ordered through the minimums on “Armor Hunters #1 (Of 4), Unity #8, X-O Manowar #26, Armor Hunters: Bloodshot #1 (Of 3), and Armor Hunters: Harbinger #1 (Of 3)”, then they’re going to have these Chromium wraparound covers on the racks for those books.

Personally, I’m so jazzed that the ’90s-style variant editions are coming back, I’ll be first in line to grab whatever I can find.