X-O Manowar Part 6: X-O Manowar #5 (June, 1992)

In this issue, Aric learns English…and History…and Social Studies…and Science…

I have this issue.

Aric makes good on his vow to kill all Hard-Skins when he destroys an underground base in Maine. He returns to Orb Industries HQ in time to attend the first meeting with Orb’s Executive Staff since the takeover only to leave immediately after it ends. He tells K’nn he wants to go home and be among his people. K’nn tires to explain why he can’t, but Aric doesn’t understand and is tired of waiting. Frustrated, Aric heads to “Central Forest” (Central Park) to blow off steam…without the X-O armor.

He returns hours later, carrying a “bandit’s” head with him, to find K’nn holding a fire-light maker on the other side of the door. K’nn tells him that chopping people’s heads off isn’t done anymore and Aric loses his temper once again over not being able to understand things. Enraged, Aric dons the Good-Skin, finds some privacy and asks the Good-Skin to help him understand – which it does.

The X-O armor teaches him everything it knows about everything. Some of it Aric gets right away, some is hard for him to accept, and some of it Aric flat out refuses to believe. Calling the armor a liar for telling him his people are no more, Aric leaves the suit behind again and heads somewhere he can feel a bit at home to sit and think…a topless bar, where he meets a dancer named Lauren who starts talking with him about Visigoths, his Uncle Alaric and stars being suns. Aric leaves the bar and wanders into Times Square where he decides that since his world is no more, he’ll take the one he’s in.

Aric uses the ring to call the armor, but it doesn’t come. Aric then tells the ring to lead him to it, and he finds it at the Plaza Hotel along with Ken who was also taken prisoner. Aric frees the armor from its bonds, dons it and turns his attention on the bandits who stole it.

Notes of Interest:

1) The bandit that stole the X-O is Ax, who Aric meets for the first time.

2) Aric’s intelligence is highlighted again as he absorbs a vast amount of information in a relatively short period of time. He has a hard time accepting his people are gone, sixteen hundred years have passed and that stars are suns a great distance away. He doesn’t at all agree with the armor saying Ken tried to betray him or that Lugh doesn’t exist. He does, however, pick up English just fine and understands how people of this time and this place behave.

3) His adaptability shines here too. He takes Ken’s advice about “not knowing what’s on the other side of the door” and it saves his life. He also tells the ring to take him to the armor, after the armor doesn’t come to him.

WTF? Moment: Don’t you just love how Aric finds solace in a topless bar? Let’s see – alcohol…check, beautiful dancing women…check. All that’s missing is senseless violence and he would have been right at home, although I guess there could be a boxing match on a television somewhere. Plus, the comparison he makes between beer and mead is hilarious.