Most Rare Valiant Comics

Rare Valiant Comics: 1994 VH-1 Hong Kong Edition - Pt. 2: X-O Manowar | 零度戰爭

A comprehensive guide on one of the rarest “Valiant Heroes One (VH-1)” comic books set ever published by Valiant Comics

Cover art from X-O Manowar #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition

In this part, I will focus on the content of:
X-O Manowar #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition

For background history of this book, please read:
Rare Valiant Comics: 1994 VH-1 Hong Kong Edition - Pt. 0

Covers

Wraparound covers from X-O Manowar #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition

Before I go into details, this X-O Manowar book has one of my favorite comic book covers! It is more than great to see this award winning piece of art by Joe Quesada in yet another version with solid print quality!

As the second book from the limited collection set, you can again tell the publisher was pushing for the best! Wraparound foil covers on thick cardstock with colors, emboss, and textures all feels perfectly done. When you hold this book in hand, you just feel it is screaming quality awesomeness!

Enough talking and more pictures here, hope you enjoy:

Cover art close-ups from X-O Manowar #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition

Last but not least, front cover art in total awesomeness!

Cover art close-up from X-O Manowar #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition

Cover highlights worth noting are:

• The covers are printed with fine bumpy textures, you can tell from the close-up pictures above, especially on foil printed areas. It certainly lifts up the overall feel and works quite well with the artwork itself.
• The emboss design features both English and Chinese titles, plus the character from cover art:

Emboss design from inside of the front cover

• Title in traditional Chinese reads: 零度戰爭, can be literally translated as “Zero-degree War”:

Embossed title design in both Chinese and English

• The publishers’ brand emblems also have emboss treatment. The Voyager emblem looks so cool with the texture:

Publisher brand emblems on front cover

• And, like all other 5 books, the front cover has age guidelines in fine print:

Age guidelines in fine print on front cover

Again, I just love this cover! From all 6 books in the set, personally I will rate this cover as the best, followed by Shadowman and Ninjak.

Story

Identical story pages to the US edition, all translated to Chinese.
More pictures:

Extras

For the extra materials on this book, besides the usual advertising stuff, we have character profiles and timeline:

Advertising on Dr. Mirage and Bloodshot books

Characters’ profiles

Profiles for Spider Alien and Shanhara. Also, notice the typo in “Valient” :)

Character timeline

Trivia

This book is mostly a reprint from X-O Manowar (1992 series) #0, but published as #1 in Hong Kong for reasons explained in the previous part.

Update 2021.04 — CGC Grading

This book has now been authenticated and graded by CGC, more details in:
Pt. 7: The CGC Journey

Next Up

Pt. 3: Ninjak #1 Oct 94 Hong Kong edition