Valiant Entertainment’s newest addition to the team Dennis Hopeless opens up with an explosive take on X-O Manowar. Instead of focusing on the “of Dacia” aspect, Hopeless focuses on the “Aric” part of X-O. We’ve seen plenty of Aric as a grim warrior and brooding king but very rarely since his original run have we seen Aric just deal with being a human being in the modern world. Dennis Hopeless does make the unique choice of taking a more humorous approach to X-O Manowar than we’d usually see but he does it in a tactful manner that doesn’t besmirch all that we love about the hero.

Giving more of a voice to Shanhara is a nice touch because it gives us a counter foil to Aric’s more brutelike personality, something more cool and calculating providing a needed balance usually provided by outside forces. There are some loose ends from the previous run that have not been touched on just yet but the current narrative set up in #1 leaves plenty of space for Hopeless to tackle them later on without getting bogged down by expectations before he’s had a chance to give X-O his own flavor.

One of the most unique parts will be the fact that this version of Aric will stand apart the most from others. Matt Kindt and Robert Venditti did some absolutely amazing work on their runs of this title, but they also tackled arguably similar subjects which didn’t allow for much lightheartedness or humor aside from quips here and there for the most part. With Hopeless focusing on Earth as X-O’s “arena” it gives new breathing room that allows Hopeless the space to develop other aspects of Aric, in a strange yet delightful way it brings to mind the original X-O Manowar run and his troubles in dealing with the Harbinger Foundation and just trying to blend into the modern world. So that’s an enjoyable callback but also an interesting angle that provides so much opportunity to work with.