COMIC ART (SERIES) - X-O MANOWAR

X-O Manowar (Valiant Comics) is a superhero in the Valiant Universe. He is Aric of Dacia, a 5th Century Visigoth warrior who was abducted by a race of aliens called Spider Aliens in Valiant Comics and The Vine in Valiant Entertainment, respectively, who are attempting to wage war on planet Earth. Aric manages to escape by stealing their most powerful weapon, the X-O Manowar Armor of the name Shanhara, and returns to Earth. However, due to the nature of space-travel he finds that over 1,600 years have passed and everyone he knows is gone. He now has to adjust to the modern world and to the sentient armor's abilities and knowledge. X-O Manowar began as an original character by Valiant Comics with issue #1 with a cover date of February 1992. Less than a year after it began, with the Unity crossover and quality storytelling bringing attention to Valiant books, back issue prices rose dramatically due to limited early print runs. With comic book speculators buying multiple copies of each issue, sales reached as high as 800,000 copies for X-O Manowar #0 (August 1993) before dropping off. This original series ran for 68 issues before being canceled after the Sept. 1996 issue, of which only approximately 14,000 were printed. In 1996, Acclaim Entertainment bought Valiant for $65 million and restarted the series under the Acclaim Comics banner. The publication of the second series ceased (along with all of Acclaim's non-core business) in 2002 due to Acclaim's financial difficulties in their video game division. When Acclaim Entertainment acquired the comic series, X-O Manowar was significantly altered. The character was now a modern-day scientist named Donovan Wylie who wielded X-O armor, an ancient artifact owned by the United States government, having been captured from Nazi Germany in World War II. In this series, the X-O Manowar armor is an artifact of unknown origin that has been worn by a myriad of warriors throughout history. It essentially gives its wearer indefinite power; however, the armor slowly siphons the life essence of its wearer, damaging their mind and body. The armor attaches itself to the wearer's nervous system and cannot be removed without killing the person wearing it. It can, however, be changed to its "metal" form at the wearer's will, but the metal is permanently grafted onto the wearer's chest (it is unknown if the armor will activate if grafted onto another part of the body.) . Donovan Wylie is the X-O Manowar of the Acclaim Comics universe. His powerful exo-skeleton allows him to fight against the forces of evil. He is not to be confused with Aric of Dacia, the original X-O Manowar of the Valiant Comics universe.