My review of
Armor Hunters #1 is up.
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR UNITY #7, X-O MANOWAR #24, AND ARMOR HUNTERS #1
---
The following is a review of Armor Hunters #1, a comic book published by Valiant Entertainment on June 11, 2014.
It seems safe to describe Armor Hunters #1 as the first attempt by the new Valiant to do a line-wide event, as the arrival of an interstellar task force hellbent on destroying the X-O Manowar armor by any means necessary touches on the separate series X-O Manowar, Unity, Bloodshot, and Harbinger, each of which will be beginning their own Armor Hunters-themed miniseries this summer to coincide with the launch of this new series.
The reason is that this team of seemingly unstoppable alien creatures possesses power that threatens the entire planet.
X-O Manowar #22 and #23 showed the arrival to Earth of the extraterrestrial character Malgam, a strange humanoid creature seemingly half-made of the same substance Shanhara, the sentient X-O Manowar armor, is made of. Every time Malgam was wounded by Aric in his attempt to forcefully pacify the insane creature, Malgam’s wounds were not replaced by human flesh-and-bone (as Aric’s hand was after he stole Shanhara from the Vine’s mothership), but instead more armor. It would appear the armor is malfunctioning in some fashion and slowly taking over Malgam’s body (obviously, the character’s name is a play on “Amalgam”—he has become an amalgam of man and machine).
In truth, perhaps this is an accurate way to describe Aric now—while his arm appears to be human seemingly down to its very structure, some seemingly indefinable element of the armor has become inextricably intertwined with it. This link has allowed him to summon the armor to him even when separated from it by hundreds of miles. And a similar link was created with the psiot Livewire during the first arc of Unity—when she stole the armor from Aric, its AI become inextricably intertwined with her own consciousness, allowing her to control machines and computer code in a way she never had been able to before. And
Unity #7 has shown that the armor has altered her own body chemistry—she is immune to a virus that can affect any human, but has no effect on Vine. We know she isn’t Vine, but presumably any extraterrestrial being would be similarly unaffected—which shows her DNA has been modified in some way by her contact with Shanhara.
Its unclear how Bloodshot and Harbinger will be drawn into this event (although the world threat that it heralds provides enough motive), but with this connection to both Aric and Livewire, we can see why these two will be the primary targets of the Armor Hunters.
So, about those Armor Hunters—while it’s somewhat inaccurate to say that a hero is only as good as his villains (Valiant’s heroes seem deeply entertaining simply interacting with each other), I think it’s safe to say that by that measure at least,
Armor Hunters #1 blows it out of the park. It’s been a while since I’ve seen originality in the creation of characters like this. Valiant is known for being able to spin out some pretty interesting secondary characters (just look at the slew of psiots introduced in Harbinger Wars).
Suffice it to say I will be spoiling a few things in the following paragraphs by inventorying the Armor Hunters, though I’ll try to keep it spoilers to a minimum.
We are first introduced to two of the Armor Hunters storming a Russian military base in search of the armor. All they find are power armor suits made in an attempt to replicate the X-O Manowar armor (as we’ve seen in both
Unity and
X-O Manowar, the world’s superpowers, the U.S., China, and Russia, have been scouring the destroyed Vine invasion fleet in orbit around the earth, and at the bottom of the ocean, for Vine tech).
Quartz, the heavy, is a humanoid seemingly composed of rocks and minerals—he may possibly be related to the rock-humanoid slaves that Aric worked with to overthrow the Vine on their homeworld Loam. While he may be a bit slow of speech, he seems quite intelligent, and is certainly formidable, his rocky exterior making him immune to bullets and his incredible strength allowing him to rend steel and smash Spetsnaz operatives into fleshy bits with his mace.
Helix, on the other hand, is a strange being seemingly composed entirely of energy. Helix’s outward appearance is that of a female, though who knows the exact anatomy Helix’s race possesses. Her weaponry seems to vaporize humans instantly, but as they are destroyed they begin to speak in binary code. This strange effect seems to extend into Helix’s power set, which allows her to hack computers remotely, similar to Livewire. An explanation will probably be forthcoming exactly as to the exact nature of what is happening to her victims (are they being transmogrified into pure data?), but in any case, her blank mask, seemingly devoid of humanity with an inhumanness belied solely by the red-and-blue-colored 3D glasses she wears, is terrifying enough as it is in its soulless-ness.
The two update the command center of the Armor Hunters with failure, though a quick scan of the central database of the Russian military confirms the location of their real targets: Aric of Dacia and Livewire. It is here we are introduced to the remaining Armor Hunters.
Lilt, a strange insectoid and reptilian being who handles communications, seems to be the right-hand man to the commander of the Armor Hunters, “Primary”, and cautions him to follow protocol in hunting the armor. We find out the Primary’s real name is Reebo, but as Primary, his function is to search the galaxy for remaining members of the X-O Manowar class of armor and destroy them with his strike team, by any means necessary. The team travels inside probably the most fun member of the Armor Hunters: GIN-GR (presumably pronounced Ginger, based on the teaser at the end of X-O Manowar #23), a giant robot.
Yes, they travel inside a giant, interstellar robot. I see great things ahead.
Things play out somewhat predictably: the Armor Hunters contact Major Capshaw, head of MERO (Military Extraterrestrial Reconaissance Outpost) and Aric of Dacia’s handler since the first arc of Unity, and demand she turn over the armor and Aric to them.
"I’m someone who has seen the armor bring entire systems to ruin. I know you think you can control it. Every world does. But it’ll turn. They always turn.”
Capshaw, as a United States military officer (and a particularly stubborn one at that), refuses. Primary Reebo, tired of the seemingly pointless protocols he has followed over the past several years in his ceaseless hunting of the armors across systems, his patience dwindling like the members of the team he has led on this quest, is through playing games with systems he encounters.
The Armor Hunters then demonstrate the seeming futility of opposing them with the full unflinching power at their disposal, setting this line-wide event into motion with a bang.
I can’t wait to read the rest of this miniseries, and indeed, those connecting with it this Summer. It looks like it’s going to be a real blast.
---
