What do you do when all you know is to plant your feet and face the oncoming storm? What happens when that storm rips your skin off and leaves you looking like the cover of an anatomy and physiology textbook? And unlike Shakespeare’s “Henry the IV,†for Aric of Dacia in issue 48 of “X-O Manowar†heavy is his head that wears the crown doesn’t come anywhere close to what this king has to deal with. In part two of “Long Live the King,†attacks from the Vine are the least of Aric and his allies’ problems. Even Ninjak comes back, which seems to mean that you’re on the verge of being completely screwed over to the point of annihilation in the Valiant universe.
Called the Torment by the High Priest of the Vine they have come to end the world. So ancient they have been long forgotten to the point of barely being a children’s story. In nearly every tradition of a culture rises a boogeyman. They go by several names. In Haitian folklore, the Tonton Macoute would take badly behaved children and have them for breakfast and the Celtic in origin banshees were thought to be harbingers of death. These tales are told to instill a sense of consequence among the younger generation. If you don’t listen to your elders the Macoute will steal you away in the middle of the night. This fear of being apart from the community helps maintain balance. For the most part, there is order. In the case of the Vine, they had long forgotten their history to the point where the lesson of the fairytale (don’t stray from the path) has left them fractured. More importantly, they do not know how to contend with the Torment. It also goes to why Shanhara, the center of their religion chose a human to be its wielder of the X-O armor. The Vine have gone so far from their beliefs that their elder gods have come for them. And most of these alien beings don’t even know who they are.
Still, this realization doesn’t mean that Aric isn’t in the most of the precarious predicaments.
Meanwhile, writer Robert Venditti brings the reader back to the Easter eggs he left in the annual issue of this series. Aric may not feel like the best of protectors, but he has two things over the Vine and Captain Trill (who can’t take his head out of his anus long enough to know that his life is also in peril). This king remembers the lessons of his childhood. Let’s not forget that Aric is a Visigoth, taken out of time. He was running away from those trying to kill him since he was a boy. Also, he has Shanhara who may be able to help him save humanity.
Throughout the devastation at the beginning of the comic readers will see Vine and human carcasses side by side. The artwork emphasizes the most important of themes in this narrative, that everything must have an end. The thing is will you decide what your fate will be or will be devoured by your own torment?
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