Update 7/6/2017
Valiant had a big presence at Denver Comic Con and one of the things I snagged was an XO-Manowar #1 Gold Cover. That is right Valiant is still selling new prints of XO Manowar #1 how many will it end at? I'm not sure but obviousily its going to be a huge total. In an age where Marvel's flagship Amazing Spider-Man is barely breaking 50 thousand a Valiant book is going to be well into the 100 thousands. It is like the 90s are back.
Original:
At the Valiant summit it was announced that X-O Manowar #1 sold over 90k copies and was the largest Independent launch this year. Valiant seemed very excited about this series and carrying on those readers into future issues. Today on 4/27/2017 Valiant announced that X-O Manowar #1 is not done yet, as the company is going back for a third printing of the book that should push the total sales above 100k. This is a big milestone for any book and a huge milestone for one outside of the Big 2. Really those numbers are not seen much in the Independent arena outside of The Walking Dead.
Now let me tell you why I have been on Valiant kick lately. I have added a ton of Valiant posts to the Toylab site over the past couple of weeks. The first reason is that I am excited for what the company is going to be doing in film. I really think a lot of Valiant characters could explode in the mainstream once people see them in a live action setting. The 2nd reason is X-O Manowar #1. I picked up that book as kind of an afterthought but when I read it my eyes exploded into my brain, and I suffered hours of momentarily blindness as a tidal wave of alien awesomeness waterfalled relentlessly into my skull. That book is good, like real good, like I want to accentuate the word "good" with a whole lot of curse words but I know kids sometimes read my blog......well F#$# it. Lets just say it the way that I want to say it.
X-O Manowar #1 is a God D#$# Mother F Beeping Awesome Comicbook and you are F Beeping idiot if you don't read it..... (Mike Drop)
There I think that cuts through the crap and tells it how it is rather nicely. I was reading this book and just thought this is the best book I've read in a long time. To be honest it made me a bit weepy and I don't get that way often. The art on this book is gorgeous, Gawd its amazing you could just buy it and cut out the pages and frame those mother f beepers its that awesome.
I know a lot of you are saying what is Valiant comics or what the heck is an X-O Manowar? I get it, no judging, no hate-orade is spilling your way from me. But I will say you are doing yourself a disservice by not checking X-O Manowar out now.
Here this link can help you - Who is X-O Manowar?
This is the TIME to become an X-O Manowar fan, the train has not left the station yet but its gearing up and its fixing to be a mighty big train. This is like becoming a Justin Timberlake fan with the initial Nsync album you are timing the wave right.
Why is this book so great? Why am I being so damn dramatic. Lets try to break this thing down. The story telling is great, no page is wasted the first book is full of action and yet also has drama. The characters are great, and space is not wasted on exposition. You know an alien is a dousche bag in seconds, you know who Aric is in seconds. Its as stunningly efficient as it is drop dead gorgeous. And Holy hells is this book beautiful. The premise and ideas of where they are going with the full arc are really exciting. It uses Big Stuff. Its Big Ideas, Big places and characters that you make you say FBeep yes!
You can also just feel the love. You know when you eat your Grandma's hot chocolate chip cookie and it tastes better than anything else and you ask her what she put in it. She responds, "That's the love baby." You feel the Fbeeping love sweating out of every pore of this book. This is a company loves its characters loves its history and has hired top notch talent and created a comic book super weapon. X-O Manowar is the freaking Deathstar comic book and meanwhile Marvel has lost the keys to their X-Wing fighters.
Actually maybe I should spin that metaphor because Marvel is much more like the Empire in this scenario and Valiant is much more like the wily, strong willed Rebellion. Valiant has taken its lumps, but now they have a plan, and Luke Skywalker is speeding toward his mission and nothing is going to stop him. BOOM!!!!
A lot of people are out there doubting me on this but all I've got to say is pick up X-O Manowar #1 when it reprints or pick up #2 that is on shelves now. The book will slap the stupid right out of you. I'm not worried about that happening at all. I'm not lying this is my #1 comic from this last Wednesday on my pull list. Read it and let me know what you think. A lot of comic press goes toward the big 2. I get it that is where the most eyeballs are, but I'm not sleeping on Valiant anymore. I could say Valiant is coming but that would be a lie, Valiant is here baby and this wave is just going to grow.
What is really crazy about this book is when you listen and read about where its going is that it has this big planned arc and unlike Marvel books that get canceled after 3 issues I think this book is going to get there and its going to be amazing. Get on it now.
Preview Pictures from X-O Manowar #4
X-O MANOWAR (2017) #1 by Matt Kindt & Tomas Giorello in March
“X-O MANOWAR wasn’t just the launch of a new series, it was a statement of purpose,” said Valiant CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani. “Even before the first issue hit stands, the success of that series has emboldened Valiant and its creators to redouble our efforts and create what might just be our most high-profile roster of titles to date. Over the course of the coming year, Valiant has dedicated itself to bringing the same level of creative vision, formidable storytelling and intensive quality to each of its most important new series and most beloved characters – a process that began with X-O MANOWAR and will soon extend outward into FAITH AND THE FUTURE FORCE, BLOODSHOT SALVATION, NINJA-K, QUANTUM AND WOODY! and some of our most exciting titles yet.”
X-O MANOWAR (2017) #1
Written by MATT KINDT
Art by TOMÁS GIORELLO
Cover by LEWIS LAROSA
WAR IS COMING!
Born under the oppressive thumb of the Roman Empire, Aric of Dacia learned warfare at an early age. It was amid such violence that he was abducted by an alien race. Forced into slavery, he survived where others perished. His escape would come from bonding with a weapon of immeasurable power: the X-O Manowar armor. With it, he returned to Earth…only to find himself stranded in the modern day.
But that was a lifetime ago.
Now, far from home on a strange and primitive new world, Aric has begun a new life. Liberated from his past, he tends to his crops. Free from war. Free from violence. Free from the armor.
But the machinery of death marches his way once again. Conscripted into an alien army and thrown into an unforgiving conflict, the fury inside him finds voice as he is forced to embrace the armor once more. With it, he will decimate armies, topple empires and incite interplanetary warfare as he rises from SOLDIER to GENERAL to EMPEROR to VISIGOTH. They wanted a weapon. He will give them war!
A stunning new beginning for Valiant’s most enduring icon starts here as New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (DIVINITY, NINJAK, Mind MGMT) and a rotating cast of powerhouse interior artists spanning the series’ first year – including Tomas Giorello (4001 A.D.: WAR MOTHER, BLOODSHOT REBORN), Doug Braithwaite (ARMOR HUNTERS, BLOODSHOT U.S.A.), Clayton Crain (RAI, Carnage), Ryan Bodenheim (The Dying & The Dead), and Mico Suayan (BLOODSHOT REBORN) – present the biggest Valiant debut of all time…and unleash the brutal opening salvo of the ultimate X-O Manowar tale ever told!
ONGOING SERIES | BEGINNING MARCH 2017
