X-O Manowar: "Escaping Eden" (#2)

An amazing continuation from the first issue, fully action-packed!

Talk about action packed: this issue's story exudes plenty of it. Aric, Gafti, and the other men held prisoner start off doing hard labor—working the fields. Our heroes couldn't understand what their "bosses" tell them while working, but after all that misunderstanding, Aric and the men grew tired and rebellious: they gang up to fight back against their "bosses." Does this all sound familiar...to maybe the real world?

Aric and the gang went on to devise plans in fighting back against such enslavement. Fighting against these aliens—the Vine—wasn't easy, though what looked like an old trick worked as the men gradually started taking control. After taking down a few of them, all men charged and fought against every last one. In the end, let's just say that what Aric did wasn't something he was supposed to do, knowing prior what would happen, but did it anyway. Story ends there.

You can count this second issue being another well-written, and well-presented, continuation of the story. Since this was released back in 2012, it's almost as if comics today aren't written this well anymore; likely a reason why many entertainment fans look back at older comics, including music, films and TV shows, since they have been done well compared to today. In short, this is, by far, the most impressive issue we've read. Plenty of twists and turns that urged in flipping the pages; although some parts were predictable, those "twists and turns" pivoted the other way instead, especially at the end. Absolutely incredible story-telling.

Like the first issue, Valiant shamelessly added a preview of their other comic series, this time being Bloodshot. That preview comic wasn't as bad, and may look into it some time in the future. As for ads, there were two of them shown during the story. These things may be distracting for some, though we need to mention it, but this time, we actually liked it; the reason being is this story was a lot to unpack in contrast with the plot. How often do you have that "what if?" while reading a comic? Huge shoutout to the writers of this comic series. Anyway, we felt that it's one of those few times where ads presenting in the story, as a "commercial break," was necessary.

We don't remember reviewing a comic where after reading, or consuming, then being "blown away" afterward couldn't be more stated. This issue blew away the first, despite it's only the second release. As mentioned earlier, there were twists and turns in this story, plus an even bigger twist at the end leaving us wanting to know what happens next. Isn't that how comics are, and stories in general, supposed to be told? (Please, do not get us started with "BookTok"—a social media phenomenon that ruined the beauty of reading.) Whether you're a comic book collector, fan, or someone who simply loves reading them, you'll get plenty out of this issue! Highly recommended!

Another fantastic work, Valiant Entertainment!

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he started blogging in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, plus playing old video/MS-DOS games, digital video archiving, listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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