“Armorclads” by JJ O’Connor with Art by Brian Buccellato and Manuel Garcia and Miguel Sepulveda is a graphic novel series about genetically engineered workers.

On the planet Xeru, there is a class of people who mine a mineral called The Pure wearing construction class mechs known as ironclads. When one is killed, the rest decide to defy their oppressors. Along the way they find out the secrets behind their existence.

It’s an interesting premise, but the delivery is heavy handed and bogs the story down. The art feels a bit heavy handed also. With some work, this could be a better story.

The first volume in any new series must dedicate time and space to introducing the characters, the community and the back story. If you do not share the stories history, it can have no future. The authors and artists of Armorclads have done an excellent job building this world and populating it with some very interesting characters. As the story progresses, we are drawn into their battle for control of their own futures. While this is not an original concept, the manner in which it is portrayed here is definitely original. I loved this volume, let's hope the fol;owing stories are equally great.

My thanks to NetGalley and Diamond/Valiant Entertainment for an eARC of this book to read and review.

I thought this was interesting when I first read it, but a few months later and I don't recall much of it tbh. I try to hold my reviews until the book has been published, but I think I might have waited a bit too long on this one.

I know I wanted to continue to the next volume, there is a mystery of sorts that I would like to see resolved, but I don't have a burning desire to run out and get the next one.

Damning with faint praise, I know. But I can see those into mechs and "the One" hero tropes being into it. I guess I'm not the target audience for this one, but it wasn't bad.

2, I don't mean to darn with faint praise but it didn't knock my socks off, stars.

A different kind of book from Valiant, at last – the most frustrating of comics houses, who had a successful – if highly patchy – couple of years, and since lockdown have gone all dodgy, thinking them Vertigo as well as DC, and ended up with a titles list that is most charitably called weak. This seems a self-contained title from them, not interacting with any of their other franchises – until the final sting, at least. It concerns legendary mecha that acted as a kind of seven-way mutually-assured-destruction, with the control of them strictly limited by DNA. But when enough time had gone past the DNA wasn’t there, and the greed to monopolise power came back. Nowadays, the world we’re concerned with is a boring space mining one, where the camp commandant – allegedly the only person interested in regaining the mahoosive powers of the ancient tech – has found some of the key genes amongst his workers. Workers who are revolting, mind…

This reasonable premise falls the way of any and every sci-fi story (heck, any story) that confines its characters to soul-less, identity-free shells. They have mining suits, and there are some other people with other suits, and there are other things with ED-209 suits, and so on and so on, and it’s impossible to be sure of who is who and what is the bigger threat, and why the scorpion-Venom things matter, and why some mercenary invaders are even here… It is a sheer muddle, with a decent look to it yet one that refuses to let us see the action with nearly enough clarity. In providing the info-dump that is Issue #0, as well as the first few of the narrative, we get something that is too repetitive for its own good, as well, meaning the set-up is hammered into us to the extent it allows this book to go next to nowhere in the grand scheme of things.

Much more should be demanded of the creators here, and much more is expected before any positive reaction to this woolly sci-fi can be deserved. Two stars for the energy in the telling, when it’s there, but that itself feels generous.

Initially I wasn’t too sure who was who, or what was happening. Everything became clearer as the story progressed. This is the first volume to what is probably going to be a great series. Guns, quests, battles, giant insects and courageous resisters. What’s not to love?

I am a big Pacific Rim/Gundam/build robot suits and have them beat the crap out of each other kind of guy, and so when we were tasked with reviewing Armorclads for the site, I signed up immediately. Mechs? Check. Dystopian future? Check. Legacy-spanning conspiracies? Triple check! So, imagine my disappointment in seeing that Armorclads just did not live up to the expectations I had for it. This could have expanded the Valiant universe in a very real way, but it teeters between nonsensical and lackadaisical, and that is its biggest crime.
Let's start with the artwork: Manuel García and Miguel Sepulveda deserve some credit in the world for making this world pop despite an overuse of dark hues. This is a joke: I am admittedly not sure what aesthetic they were going for with their artwork, but unfortunately the color choices they make did nothing to make me excited to return to this world. Their biggest mistake, in my opinion, is they did not make each character distinct enough. When you are building out a world like this, the second most important thing (beyond the actual story) is that every character you're introducing is memorable even if their appearance is short-lived. In a comic like this, where we are being transported to a world we have very little reference for, the artists have such a responsibility to design this world so that it is both accessible and it pulls you in. They sadly did not deliver here, and that is the first misstep.
The next misstep is the story, and this really took me out of this world. There is so much exposition about the world the story takes place in, which would not have been needed if the artwork was used to show the world. I would much rather have been shown this world, while the story told me about the characters living in it, than to spend half a short read like this being told why I should care about this long-forgotten war. Being told that these suits are capable of legendary fears? Also a mistake. Why were we never shown what they could do? This is where the piss-poor art decision causes the story to dovetail even more, except this time I put more blame on the writers because it is their choice to spend even more time telling us why we should even care about this story to begin with. Building out this world's inhabitants would have made you care about the use of these powerful entities, but instead you're left to quickly have to care about the main characters and everything that happened to get us to this point in this universe. The writing was awful, from start to almost finish, with little redeeming qualities for most of the story.
Here we get to the little bit of good in this, and why this is so disappointing to write: the story begins to get better around the 3/4th story point, but it is only because the story is now simplified to an extent. However, the complications of this destiny-like journey our main character is on rear their head at the end when we are just supposed to accept that they're the "chosen one." By this point, I had literally zero reason to even care that this was pre-ordained or connected to the war from eons ago: all I wanted was to end my time on this planet. The protagonist was forgettable, as was the world, and most of the story, and it just feels like someone dropped a multitude of balls from the idea phase of this story to the implementation.
Overall, I give this a 1/5, and that is disappointing because I had high hopes as a fan of these kinds of stories. The story should've been fleshed out differently, so as to make the final reveal mean more. Instead, we got an exposition-heavy story with a boring protagonist and a forgettable McGuffin amidst really poor art.

went a little out of my comfort zone and picked up a comic book. i don't think i can review it very well because of my lack of knowledge regarding the creation of comics, though i must say i did like the effort exerted on the visuals even though armorclads isn't as memorable art-wise as the likes of, say, spider-man, especially since the palette is mostly composed of dull greys and brown and the character designs aren't the mosts distinct, but as a lover of the written word, i thought the worldbuilding was immediately immersive because the exposition quickly introduces everything i have to know about it, but the plot and development of the characters could have been done better. all in all armorclads isn't the most revolutionary in the world of comic books, but it's a quick, easy enough read for a newbie like me!

The reason that I decided to pick up Armorclads was partly due to the Blurb; but for the most part it was the cover that caught my eye. Which shared an uncanny similarity to a bastardized Imperial Fist-Terran marine power armor, with sprinklings of Mecha.

I was not mistaken. Taking place in the distant space faring future, the lore of Armorclads was a mish mash between Warhammer 40k Halo, Dune, Isaac Asimov's Foundation (surprisingly) and a faint hint of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.

Now, it may be that I'm not the target audience for such a story and hence it didn't really connect with me.

Especially the first half, which is filled with a truckload of exposition, which is TOLD and not Shown, as is the cardinal sin in storytelling. Good world building, at least in my opinion, should be done by introducing us to the daily personal life and struggles of the characters, and settling in with this world, before delving into the thick of it. Think the first Star Wars movie, or Dune. I apologize, but having it shoved down your throat doesn't endear the reader to the narrative.

Second, is the sense of gravitas, or lack hence of. The main McGuffin of the story are these suits of immense power which came from a (obviously) long lost empire. These God Armors, which by themselves were able to turn tides of war, and whose mere presence were deterrent to war, don't really come across as such.

We are barely shown its capabilities, although are repeatedly TOLD of its importance. Again, doesn't get the point across, as, I don't know, a single frame Showing them actually decimating armies. Their fate and backstory is told in an almost cavalier manner, without leaving anything to our imagination. Again, there are some parts, the old Foundation references, which are well done, but the rest is too shallow.

The story & the art gets progressively better during the second half, albeit with checkpoint action scenes and a watered down narrative, and a protagonist who doesn't do anything. Or maybe I'm wrong, and one of the supporting characters was meant to be the main character.

Not spoiling anything, you get a strong vibes of Dune, Arrakis, Fremen, Spice plus the Arachnids/ Tyranids from the Starship Troopers movie. (Hmm, I'm getting a hankering to reread the fascist source novel for Troopers).

A similar point of contention is the pacing and inconsistency. Towards the end, we get a 'You're a wizard, Harry!' moment for the protagonist, but it's brushed past without giving it any breathing room. So is the scene where he is supposed to take up the metaphorical gauntlet and accept his role.

Speaking of the Protagonist, he is bland, and was too OK way too fast with the revelations being showered upon him. Also, things happen, around him, to him, involving him, but his role is mostly reactionary. There is one, maybe one blink & miss moment where he does something of his own volition. Otherwise he is just taken along for the ride.

All in all, It's an OK entry, albeit a watered down version of better stories. I'm giving it a tentative 3 out of 5.

P.S. Thank you to Netgalley & Diamond Book Publishers, Valiant Entertainment, for allowing me to review this title.

The character motivations in this first volume left me with more questions than answers, so I was generally neutral on the story, which at times felt without focus. But I suppose those questions have left me generally interested in seeing how the story might develop.

It's Warhammer 40k by way of Saturday morning cartoons, with an ittle sprinkling of YA gubbins.

The W40k connection is very thin, btw, we've got youngsters plonking around in armoured suits, and insect-like aliens ever so slightly resembling Tyranids.. it's not the specifics, more the general flavour of W40k, with all the grimdark expunged.

The Saturday-morning-cartooniness shows up in that there are mythical mech suits, seven of them, that are indestructible but have seemingly been destructed, as they're lost and now most people don't think they existed.

There are cloned youngsters, who perhaps are connected to the suits by DNA, and who are used as slaves in mining. They revolt, lots of fighting, mercenaries in battle armour, etc.

I'm not the intended audience, I guess, but I still like a good story. This isn't a very good one. Everything feels derivative, the worldbuilding, the plot and the youngsters are made of cardboard.