With two kingdoms now under his command, Aric of Dacia has pledged loyalty to his adopted nation – the United States of America – and now…America has given him a new mission: destroy the Vine’s network of humanoid alien agents once and for all. To do it, he’ll have to turn to the one man among us he can trust…his own former enemy, the deadly MI-6 operative called Ninjak!

This issue kicks off the next story arc for X-O Manowar, The Kill List. Valiant are often fond of pointing out that a new arc means a new jumping on point, which as may be the case here, isn’t always true.

Despite not being as new reader friendly as perhaps the last arc was, the opening chapter to The Kill List is solid; Robert Venditti is a talented writer, and he’s able to inject moments of humour into the script that wastes no time in getting down to business. This issue finds Aric of Dacia joined by the high tech MI-6 operative Ninjak and there’s an under lying tension between the two men that I’m curious to see play out over the coming arc.

Robert Gill‘s art isn’t a strong point for me this issue; his depiction of the lead character is far from my favourite, indeed in several panels X-O Manowar looks like he may have overindulged on the turkey and stuffing though the holiday period. It’s enough to pull me out of the enjoyment of the story, which is a shame because if not for that, I’d probably have enjoyed X-O Manowar #43  more than I did.

Overall this is far from a bad comic, but it’s not quite as good as some X-O Manowar issues have been lately. It is still early in the arc, however, and there’s enough here that makes me want to read the next issue. Worth reading, if nothing else.

Story: Robert Venditti Art: Robert Gill
Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Read

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.