X-O Manowar Part 30: X-O Manowar #14 (March, 1993)

Aric meets a kindred spirit who has the makings of a good friend.

I have this issue.

Aric returns to Earth after the events of X-O Manowar #13 and meets Orb Industries’ new Security Chief, Randy Carter. During their meeting, Aric learns that one of Orb Industries’ Bio-Tech labs in Florida has just cloned living dinosaur specimens. He goes to the lab, and discovers that it’s true. Aric also learns that the sample they used came from Columbia and was carbon dated at two weeks old. Aric is livid and wants everything destroyed.

He then travels to the sample’s source in Columbia and finds a bionisaurus from the Lost Land…stuffed and mounted on a wall. It turns out that Turok, a survivor of Unity, is responsible for the bionisaurus trophy. Aric tells the dinosaur hunter that the Columbian traders he’s been dealing with have been selling the genetic material on the black market. Together, they kill the traders, and destroy the complex along with all of the genetic material that’s been stored there.

Notes of Interest:

1) Apparently, Aric’s favorite beer is Miller, but there’s no way it’s Miller Lite.

2) We learn that the X-O armor can detect the cybernetic transmissions of the bionisauruses, which led him to the one in Columbia.

3) This is the first time Aric uses the X-O armor to translate a language.

4) Obviously, this is the first time Aric meets Turok.

WTF? Moment: Bob Layton does a good job movie the story along, but I have to say I’m not a big fan of Bart Sears’ art here. Aric’s face is over-expressive, and he looks about eight feet tall.

WTF? Moment #2: I understand that the X-O armor is capable of translating languages. In fact, it makes perfect sense. But Aric has the armor translate what someone says to him in Spanish, and provide an appropriate response which Aric then says back in Spanish. The X-O armor is a sealed environment, which means that whatever Aric says is fed through a speaker so everyone outside the armor can hear. There’s no reason to doubt that hidden in this alien technology somewhere is the means for that speaker to translate whatever Aric says into the appropriate language. But Aric doesn’t have the Good-Skin do that. He uses his natural aptitude for languages to convey the given reply on his own.

That’s f**king awesome!