Friday, September 23, 2011

Armorines issues 1-7


Armorines Volume 1 issues 1 through 7

Armorines was a Valiant title that started in April 1994. Now there is a zero issue that came out before issue 1. But so far I haven't got a copy. Armorines is a group of 4 marines,that have been equipped with suits of very high tech armor. I am not sure but I believe these suits are somewhat based on the X-O manowar armor.

The first 3 issues are about introducing us to the team and their first real mission. They are sent under the sea near Australia. They must go down to deactivate the nuclear power source on a sunken submarine. And also to remove some valuable data. Well once they get down there they first have to deal with a group of mutated sharks. And then run into a group of Spider-aliens. One of the Armorines is captured by the Spider-Aliens and the rest go to rescue him. This is a great way to introduce people to the team. And also helps establish to the reader the personalities of each of the members.

Armorines issue 4 starts off with the leader,Gunny and Sirot testing out some new force fields. Gunny and Sirot don't get along. And beat the holy shit outta each other. We find out that a Senator doesn't want Gunny on the team. Cause of Gunny's age and some stuff that happened in his past. The rest of the issue is filling in more back story of the Armorines team. Plus setting up the next storyline.

The next 3 issues are a story set in outer space. It seems that the Spider-Aliens are gathering all their ships right outside Earth's orbit. And the Armorines along with Hard Corps are set up to see what they are up too,and to stop them. Both groups barely make it out of the Earth's atmosphere,when something happens that takes out all electrical power on the planet. So both teams are in space and have no way to communicate with mission control. Once they get up in space,the Armorines and Hard Corps go out to investigate. And the Spider-Aliens attack. At first it looks like the good guys are doomed but a surprise appearance from X-O Manowar saves the day. Now issue 5 is continued into issue 33 of X-O Manowar. But since I don't currently own it I have no idea what happens in that issue. But in issue 6 we start off with the Armorines inside the Spider-Alien mother ship. The alien ship has pulled the space shuttle in with a tractor beam. So it is up to the Armorines and X-O to free the ship. While on the alien ship,they discover that the aliens have a huge amount of humans on their ship. Some of these humans have been kept in suspended animation for over 100 years. And with the Armorines suits running low on power,they free the humans and lead them in a huge battle with the aliens.

So far I have enjoyed the issues of Armorines I have read. I got all these issues 2 years ago at Coast Con. One of the few dealers there that had comics had an almost complete run of the title in his bins. After talking to him for awhile I managed to talk him down from $1 a issue to 10 cents an issue. This is because I was buying a huge amount of comics from him. I have learned that at cons it never hurts to try to haggle with the dealers. Most dealers,if you are spending a decent amount of money,are more than willing to give you a discount. Armorines issues 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 get a B+.