X-O Manowar Part 3: Solar, Man of the Atom #8 (April, 1992)

Aric becomes a thorn in someone’s side…

I have this issue.

Toyo Harada is having a meeting where he's brought up to speed with various goings on throughout the world, and someone begins talking about the Spider-Alien situation. It seems they have abandoned all of their strongholds and vanished.

Some of Harada's men were dispatched to investigate the remains of a base in east Peru that was destroyed not too long ago, and footage is revealed of Aric doing the same at another base in Pennsylvania. More footage shows Aric beginning his assault on the Chrysler Building, and intelligence suggests that he remains inside.

Harada orders a freelancer to be hired to flush Aric out of the Aliens’ operations center. He doesn’t mention a name, but describes the mercenary as “that lunatic with guns built into his arm...”, and moves on to other business.

Notes of Interest:

1) We learn that Aric destroyed the base in Peru near the end of March, 1991.

2) He stormed the Chrysler Building and defeated the Spider-Aliens on the morning of New Year’s Eve, 1991.

3) Harada is very interested in the gaining control of the Aliens’ operations center.

4) Apparently Harada knows nothing about Aric, his history or where he came from, or the X-O Manowar armor.

WTF? Moment: Two panels. That’s how much we see of Aric this issue and they’re just to recap his last two appearances. That makes this issue barely worth mentioning except for the fact that it makes a connection between Aric’s previous appearance and his next one.