X-O Manowar Part 42: X-O Manowar #26 (March, 1994)

Aric has a Die Hard moment.

I have this issue.

It’s Christmas, and the Good-Skin tells Aric that Ken is in trouble. He arrives in time to witness three thugs run from Ken in panic. Ken is outraged by what the X-O arm did to protect him, but Aric makes it clear that he will continue to look over Ken’s actions for as long as he deems it necessary.

At the Orb Industries Christmas party, Aric is introduced to Abby Sawyer, C.E.O. of Zimmerman Enterprises. She offers him a gift…and something a little more private…only to drug him and leave him unconscious.

He wakes up wearing the X-O armor, but isn’t able to communicate with it – until Ken gives him the X-O ring back. The Good-Skin tells him that the “gift” Sawyer presented is a bomb set to go off in seconds. Aric grabs the bomb and returns it to Sawyer, who’s making her getaway in a helicopter.

The next morning, Ken asks Aric once again to remove the X-O arm. Aric agrees, acknowledging that Ken saved his life and has therefore repaid the life-debt. He informs Ken that the X-O arm will be released once it has finished regenerating his arm, and asks him to continue helping Aric run his empire.

Notes of Interest:

1) We learn that the armor can be worn by someone not wearing the X-O command ring.

2) It’s also revealed that someone can put on the ring after they’re wearing the armor, allowing the ring to pass through it onto the person’s finger.

3) Apparently, the command ring is what allows Shanhara to communicate to the wearer.

4) Aric’s reference to being trapped in the armor harkens back to his time during and after Unity, where he was mortally wounded and needed to keep the Good-Skin on or he’d die.

WTF? Moment: You’d think that after the treachery he’s encountered before around beautiful women, he’d have learned his lesson.

WTF? Moment #2: It’s a rather humbling moment for Aric to actually ask Ken to continue helping him.