Comic Review 182 // 2000 AD Prog 1335

Oooooo excited for this epic double Judge Dredd alien feature. With two cover options! The main cover is by Jock and is the blog post's main image above. It features Judge Dredd shouting while an alien Queen roars in the background. This is portrayed in a stunning orange pallet and really stands out. Then the follow-up image below is by Chris Blythe and shows Dredd about to be swarmed by xenomorphs in a more relaxed colour scheme. Both are very visually striking, and I think Jock's piece takes the win just. I am honestly hoping for an epic finish to the tale.

Okay, straight into the thick of it with Judge Dredd vs. Aliens: Incubus Part 15. It has been a wild ride, lots of action to the series, and this issue does not let up. We get a great scene where Dredd has accepted his fate and gunslinger-style attacks the Queen Alien. This, of course, pisses off the entire nest, it is at this point Judge Giants' team arrives, and we get a Mechanismo vs Queen punch up! The droid loses big time, losing the Nuke it was carrying. With little choice left, Dredd attempts to purge the nest with lava, and it is at this point that I will stop with spoilers. Go read it yourself! It is an excellent ending to great series, and I really hope the follow-up stories stay strong as this was an epic way to reintroduce myself to the prog formats.

Unfortunately, we follow up this incredible story with V.C.s Charon. I can't get into this series! Luckily this is also the last tale for them and has the team attempting to slingshot the Gravity of Pluto's Moon Charon. Unfortunately for the team, their ship is hit, and they plunge into the planet's gravity before disappearing. I assume there is book three, but I am not sad to this end. It is a definite miss for me.

Atavar II Part 7. After attempting to find the Wosk, Atavar and Worldbeaker are left playing chase as they seek out the Wosk who believe their God has arrived to save them. Turns out the giant mass at the core of Rim space is anything but Godly! Turns out the Wosk has invited the bringer of death to all things organic! Great way to end this series. We have gone from searching for an ally to discovering the end of all! After a rough start with this series, I ultimately have grown to enjoy this. Hopefully, Book 3 isn't too far away.

And just like that, we reach an end. A solid book; sad to see the end of the Alien crossover and Atavar but delighted to say farewell to the V.C.s. Let me know what you think of the comic. I love hearing your thoughts.

Until next time cheers for reading!

Comic Review 176 // Star Wars Adventures: The Will of Darth Vader by Tom Taylor

Recently my kids have been getting into the Stars Wars and Marvel franchise, which is excellent. I now have a reason to read some of the comics, and while browsing the library shelves, I discovered this series that I didn't know existed.

Title: Star Wars Adventures: The Will of Darth Vader

Author: Tom Taylor

Art team: Brian Koschak (Penciller), Dan Parsons (Inker), Michael E. Wiggam (Colorist), Michael Heisler (Letterer)

Description: Darth Vader on a mission for the Emperor When the Rebellion's hit-and-run attacks on Imperial cargo ships become too audacious to be ignored, Darth Vader is sent in to find the Rebel base and destroy it. But the base, hidden in the center of a constantly shifting asteroid field, cannot be attacked directly. To reach his target, Vader will have to team up with a recently captured smuggler named Zika - and dealing with an unwilling, wisecracking partner may be more of a trial for the Dark Lord than the actual mission.

Style: Paperback, 80 pages

Publisher: Dark Horse Books

Reviews

Let's get the nerdy crap out of the way. The Will of Darth Vader is set about three years after the battle of Yavin. So basically between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of Jedi. Unsurprisingly the lead is Darth Vader, and we fly around the Annamar system (no idea where that is, by the way).

Here we discover that rebel forces are doing a little too well raiding Empire cargo ships, leading the Emperor to send in Darth Vader to solve the problem personally. This leads to a chance encounter with a smuggler called Luca, who makes Lord Vader question his role within the galaxy and shows us some depth behind the villain.

The story initially reads like an action-packed tale, where you expect Vader to march in and destroy the rebel base before sitting down for lunch. But once Luca appears, the story takes a turn. We seemingly have a character who is physically threatened by Vader and isn't scared to speak his mind and question the system Vader is a part of. This unknown Luca character begins to get Vader questioning just how much free will he has, if any, or is he just a puppet to the Emperor? Unfortunately, this arc was never truly explored, and just as I felt we were getting somewhere, the action takes over once more, and Darth Vader destroys everyone.

Ultimately designed for a teenage-aged audience, I am not surprised by the safe story-telling, but I do wish they had delved deeper into Vader questioning his own role. It is an intriguing take on the character. I want to find more of this series as my kid enjoyed the nighttime retelling of the story.

Interested in adding this to your collection? Use this link to visit Amazon.ca and purchase a copy.

Comic Review 173 // Alien: Rescue by Brian Wood

Following on from Aliens: Resistance comes Aliens: Rescue and continues the story of Amanda Ripley, Zula Hendricks and Alec Brand. Hopefully, we have a better account than Resistance. Here are the details

Title: Aliens: Rescue (Alien: Isolation #4)

Author: Brian Wood

Illustrations: Kieran McKeown

Description: Colonial Marines are the elite military fighters of the future, battling alien threats across the galaxy.

One hero has the chance to fight alongside Amanda Ripley and Zula Hendricks, who saved his life from Xenomorphs so long ago.

Following Aliens: Resistance, Alec Brand, the colonist rescued by Amanda Ripley and Zula Hendricks, has grown up into an elite Colonial Marine. A secret mission brings him back to the Alien-infested moon where he was rescued...and face to face with the past.

Brian Wood (Massive, Aliens: Defiance) joins artist Kieran McKeown (Halo: Lone Wolf) for an action-packed battle against a dangerous alien threat.

Collects Aliens: Rescue #1-#4.

Page Count: 96 pages

Review

The good news is this is better than Resistance! Following on the adventure of the disappointment that was Resistance comes Rescue. Rescue is set five years after the last comic and continues Amanda Ripley's and Zula Hendrick's attempt to bring down the mega-corporation Weyland Yutani. I can't explain how much better this story is compared to Resistance; it has a good pace, a clear storyline and characters that seem natural and not two-dimensional. 

Though an improvement is still on the weaker side of comics, the artwork seems weak and a bit lazy, and the story ending seems rushed and forced in a way that can close off the story. Seems like maybe the series ended sooner than planned?

As mentioned definitely a step up on the last comic, but still with too many flaws. If you are a fan of Aliens and must read everything, go ahead. If you are more casual with the franchise, give it a skip.

Comic Review 170 // Aliens: Resistance by Brian Wood

Xenomorph fans rejoice! We have more Aliens content for you this week with Aliens: Resistance. I discovered this title in my local library (support and check out you're local), now I knew of its existence due to having completed the Aliens: Defiance Volume One and Two. I remember not being blown away by the characters or the writing, so I am nervous going into this. I am excited to see Amanda Ripley as I am seriously enjoying Alien Isolation at the moment on Youtube.

Here are the details.

Title: Aliens: Resistance
Author: Brian Wood

Illustrations: Robert Carey (Illustrations)
Page Count: 96 pages
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Fluff:
An evil corporation's secret bio-weapons program puts all of humanity at risk. Ellen Ripley's daughter must fight the horrific xenomorph threat.

Following Alien: Isolation, Amanda Ripley is kept silent by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation about the xenomorph threat. Enter Zula Hendricks, an Ex-Colonial Marine, in need of Ripley's help to expose a sinister bio-weapons program. The duo teams up against the sinister corporation's upgraded arsenal as they journey through space from the research lab to a test facility designed to keep the darkest atrocities secret!

Critically acclaimed writer Brian Wood (The Massive, DMZ, Briggs Land) returns to Aliens to pen the strenuous efforts of Ripley and Hendricks to bring down the Weyland-Yutani weapons program. With hair-raising art by Robert Carey (Power Rangers, The Phantom).

Collects Aliens: Resistance 1-4 comic series.

Review

This comic series drops in after the Game Alien: Isolation in the grand timeline of things. It, of course, follows Amanda Ripley and reintroduces Zula Hendricks, an Ex-Colonial Marine. They are teaming up to expose Weyland-Yutani's bio-weapon program in this title. Image ragtag team vs the evil corporation.

This comic kind of has it all; we have space adventures, xenomorphs, androids and nuclear bombs; we also have colony ships full of soon-to-be victims and, of course, the puppet masters Weyland-Yutani.

But it turns out even with all the best parts, we have a bit of a dud. The writing is dull, leading to a failure to capture my imagination. The characters seem to not mesh or even like each other. Then combine this with xenomorphs that don't feel like a threat, and the story rapidly becomes dull. This was a real shame as I found myself zoning out as I read the story. With a weak story, you hope for incredible artwork to carry it, and sadly this failed as well. The planet that the story was set on was impressive at times and could make me pause for a moment, but the characters themselves seemed so plain and doll-like, faces lacked emotion, and for most of the comic, they seem 100% dead behind the eyes. 

Ultimately Aliens: Resistance, felt rushed and maybe it was? It just seemed like it was all thrown together last minute to fill a gap in the publishing schedule and attempt to cash in on some success from the game. It lacks in plot, direction and artwork. So I have to say this is a miss for me.

Typically I would link to Amazon now and a buy it links. But I'm not today as you deserve better. Instead, head to my Youtube channel and support me there.

Comic Review 150 // Virus by Chuck Pfarrer

After reading how Distressed in the Bug Hunt series was based on a comic Virus, I just had to go off and find a copy to read. Turns out it is an extremely hard comic to find. I will have a link below for an amazon version, but I recommend looking around instead of paying these high ass prices!

Right, let's go.

Title: Virus

Writer: Chuck Pfarrer

Artist: Howard Cobb

Publish Date: 1992

Publisher: Dark Horse

Don't worry about catching this virus -- it will catch you! When the crew of the ocean-going tug The Electra runs across an abandoned Chinese radar ship adrift in the Pacific, it seems like their ticket to Easy Street; Maritime law says they can lay claim to the ship and the millions of dollars worth of top-secret electronics on it! However, collecting on those millions is easier said than done. The Wan Xuan may be abandoned, but it's far from deserted. Something is alive inside the ship's computers, and it's building monstrous bodies for itself from pieces of machinery and the corpses of the hapless Chinese crew!

I got all the 80's action/sci-fi movie vibes from this comic. The plot is straightforward to follow. The mysterious weather front, causes the boat and its crew to be washed off course, leading them to discover an abandoned Chinese warship. Upon investigation, they soon discover that the ship is not what it seems, and it would seem an alien force has infected the ship and is feeding off both machines and humans, creating weird and crazy-looking bio-mechanical monsters.

I found it kind of strange just how accepting the characters were to the idea of the creatures, and they just roll with the extreme body horror that unfolds around them. The artwork feels very much of the era and plot though fun was lacking depth. Very fun to read if in the right mood, but didn't age well overall. I can definitely see how the plot of Distressed was inspired by this.

As always, I thank you for reading. I hope you will take a moment to use one of the links, and help support the blog. Thank you.

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Buy the Paperback edition (expensive): Virus

Comic Review 148 // Aliens/Vampirella

I got lucky last week and managed to get my hands on a digital version of Aliens/Vampirella. Got to be straight up and say I know zero about Vampirella, I know she is a vampire and wears red but that is it. So I felt completely blind going into this and was just left hoping I would enjoy it. But before we dive into the review here is the commercial fluff:

Title: Aliens/Vampirella

Author: Corinna Sara Bechko

Artist: Javier Garcia-Miranda

Fluff: Two iconic horror franchises collide, as Vampirella - the fan-favourite supernatural heroine - faces the most nightmarish creatures ever to appear in cinema: the Xenomorphs from Alien! As the first human colony on Mars digs deeper into the crimson soil, they discover the catacombs of a hibernating civilization, tens of thousands of years old. The evidence suggests that they are Nosferatu, an ancient and sinister species that Vampirella is all too familiar with. Called to the Red Planet to investigate, the monster hunter and her human allies find a chamber with hundreds of ellipsoidal, leathery eggs... and after they hatch, the true horror begins. In space, no one can hear Vampirella scream!

Page Count: 144

As I said earlier I went into this completely blind, but I found myself enjoying it. The basic plot is Vampirella (a female Vampire), is sent to Mars to aid a human research/colony team who has discovered some ancient Vampires and possibly a long-forgotten vampire base. The only problem is this base was overrun by the Xenomorphs!

Overall the story is pretty straightforward and lacks depth, but this is fine as it is full of action. Due to my lack of experience with Vampirella, I am not sure how well she came across? I can tell you she kicks ass and makes for an impressive monster hunter. I am now intrigued enough to go check out some of her line of comics. The xenomorphs come across as their classic horror villain selves. I found the Queen to be a bit lacklustre, but overall they did a great job. The artwork is clean and well-detailed, it helps portray the story well, but could have been a touch darker to add to the mood. It felt a bit too clean.

It wasn't all great. It had some missed opportunities. Firstly the other characters, were dull, pure filler. I get it, they needed some people to die, but so bland, give them some depth! The ending was weak, I am sorry to say this, but a Vampire/Queen with wings fighting a Vampire Bat just wasn't as exciting as it should have been.

Overall, I enjoy this. You need to check it out!

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Comic Review 116 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 6.

Finishing the year on a high. The entire Aliens omnibus collection is now read, reviewed and published. This has proven to not be an easy read. Though I love the franchise, this series has suffered from a lot of poor stories. Sadly, volume six falls into this category as well, a lot of stories in this issue should have been left on the editor's floor.

With thirteen stories to get through, we will move quickly and sweep those corners.

Apocalypse - A recurring author in the talented Mark Schultz and artwork by Doug Wheatley. The artwork is beautiful in this story and it is a great opener for this book. We have a return to LV-426 with Alecto Throop a strong powerful, female lead, who is hired to find Dr. Lucien. As the body count rises, the story gets Lovecraft creepy, with once more a deranged scientist, trying to find ways to control the xenomorph. Great story, great artwork, read it!

Once in a Lifetime - Mark Schultz once more with writing assistance from Phil Amara. Artwork by Rick Leonardi. Another Geholgod themed story, these guys are as bad as Weyland Yutani! A scientist is sent to investigate a world with xenomorphs that never grew from humans and see how they differ from human born ones. She seems to think the aggressive nature of the xenomorph may come from the genes of humans. An interesting idea, but a little rushed and not overly exciting.

Xenogenesis - Written by Tom and Mary Bierbaum and drawn by David Ross. Set further into the future, xenomorphs are a well-known threat. The companies are bored of them and now have specialist kill teams for extermination jobs. To be honest this is a poorly written story even in the xenomorph franchise. Teenage me may have liked it but he had terrible taste. Just skip it and move on.

Headhunters - Written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Gene Colan, tells the story of xenomorph hunters attempting to claim some bounties on the death of the aliens. Pretty straight forward, basically a filler piece. Nice pencil artwork.

Tourist Season - Written by Beau Smith and drawn by Gary Morrow. A what I assume is a theme park-style planet, designed to represent the Wild West is under siege from Xenomorphs. Enter stage right the town sheriff for some gunslinging action. Basically, a tale to draw some cowboys - Yawn.

Pig - Script by Chuck Nixon and drawn by Henry Flint (amazing Judge Dredd artist). The story is about a bunch of space pirates attempting to loot a crashed spacecraft. The only problem is the planet is infested by Aliens. To solve the problem they decide to nuke the nest by strapping bombs on to a pig, nothing goes to plan for our pirates but it is one hell of a fun ride. Great story, fun artwork, love it.

Borderlines - Darko Macan and Tommy Lee Edwards team up on this tale. A weird soldier's tale of why we fight the aliens, the best line is "Their hunger of today or ours of Tomorrow". A non-offensive filler piece. Nice moody black and white artwork.

45 Seconds - Darko is back this time with the B & W artwork of Frank Teran. Great artwork on this one. 45 seconds is a tale of a colonial marine who has set bombs to go and blow up the Xeno nest. With only 45 seconds to get out the fear has his control. The ending is great and this is a solid piece. Very enjoyable.

Elder Gods - Story by Nancy A. Collins and drawn by Leif Jones. A lazy merging of Lovecraft and Xeno. Had the opportunity to be good, instead fell a bit flat by leaning too heavily into the Lovecraft theme. ie. Instead of Lovecraft, we have Loveless, instead of Cthulhu we have Tuulituu. Shame.

Purge - Script by Ian Edginton and Phil Hester on the artwork. A weird tale involving a science lab located on a remote planet. The lab specializes in the effects of alien impregnation on lepers. Turns out the defective human gene affects the alien to the point that they never leave the host. And actually, enhance their host in a positive way. Into this mix throw an android with DNA of a xenomorph gene and you are asking for trouble. A weird tale that I am not sure if I enjoyed or not, I find the android angle weird and annoying but the leper angle was definitely a fun spin. I wonder if we will ever meet these characters again?

Glass Corridor - A rare one in the sense that it is written and drawn by the same person, David Lloyd. Following a hitman called Frank, we join him after he fails a hit. Frank stows away on a transport ship with the hopes of escaping, unfortunately, it turns out there is a Xeno onboard. This is a story of redemption and Frank becoming a hero. A nice story.

Stalker - Seems we have a bus scenario happening, we suddenly have a second written and drawn by the same person, David Wenzel. Basically a story of Vikings vs Xenomorphs. A fun story with beautiful artwork. The story ends with a colonial trooper armed with the blade handle of his Viking ancestor, about to board a Xeno infested colony.   

Wraith - The final tale by Jay Stephens and drawn by Eduardo Risso. What happens when your campfire story turns out to be true. This is the theme of this tale. I have to honest this was not a great ending tale it felt and read I a weak-ass Creepshow story. It tried to be scary and then when you felt everyone was saved the twist kicks in. Below average at best.

Final thoughts for this omnibus is an above-average outing. Seems weird to think I've completed the range and I feel proud that I pushed through. Overall from volume one to six, the series has been all over the place. We have had highs like the initial story arc, then we also have had super lows (some even unreadable). But the one thing that has carried us through the entire series is the xenomorphs, I just love them. I also love the continuing threat of Weyland Yuntani, I wish they actually featured more. So where now? I feel it is time to move back to Judge Dredd and 2000 ad, maybe even Strontium Dog? Let me know what to read next in the comments below.

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Comic Review 114 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 5

In space, no one can hear you scream! Lucky for us no one can hear my hit and miss reviews of these Alien comics. Well, we have hit number five in the six-volume series so our time is nearing completion. If you wish to read the other review please do follow this link.

Omnibus Volume Five opens with the creepy-ass cover. A drooling xenomorph, coloured in cool blues, purples and blacks. It feels very neon and 80's inspired, not sure that was the desired effect but I love it. The artwork is by Richard Corben, who I can only assume will be illustrating one of the ten tales inside. Yep, ten tales make up this volume, with over 370 pages this is a big book!

As always we will start at the beginning and deep dive into the graphic novel. If you haven't already please click the follow button or subscribe for updates, thank you.

Alchemy

The open tale is by John Arcudi and drawn by Richard Corben (guess I didn't need to wait long for him to reappear). Another story based on region. This world was founded by a colony ship that fell of course, after a terrible virus was released killing all the adults. The world that grew around the crashed ship was built by children and their android babysitters. As the generations passed, info was forgotten and in time the people reached a medieval-style system. Now it would seem a cult has arisen and found the old android. Using his information the cult is growing xenomorphs and calling them the first father. It is up to the local police to solve what is going on and kill the monsters once and for all.

Not hugely taken by the art style of this piece, it felt lacking in detail which is a shame when you think back to the amazing cover.  Overall an okay tale.

Kidnapped

This story was written by a team of two, Jim Woodring and Justin Green and the art is provided by Francisco Solano Lopez. Well, I can safely say this was a fail for me. The premise is some goons are attempting to collect xenomorph eggs for a scientist. During the egg scoop, they collect one infected with a virus that can even kill a xenomorph. The scientist realizing the danger to earth tells the goons to burn the egg and destroy it, but of course, they can't and so they head to an outer rim pleasure planet. Soon an infected chest buster is free and infecting the populous with a killer virus. Upon realizing what is happening a company man nukes the pleasure city to cover up the disaster.

For me everything was poor. The story was weak and dull, the artwork childish and sexist. Truly a waste of page space.

Survival

Hopefully, this can turn us around as we are failing so far on this comic. Written by James Vance and drawn by Guy Davis. Survival finally a good tale. We join a lone survivor in an escape pod and get to relive his story through hallucinations. Thompson is a Xeno - archaeologist and part of the crew sent to mine an outer rim world. During the flashbacks, we see how everything unravels and leads to Thompson's entomb in the escape pod. A sad tale of how the company manipulates the general workforce and how Thompson's final act wrecks the chances of humanity finding a safeguard against the xenomorphs.

Great story as I am sure you have guessed and the artwork is dark and gritty a style well suited to the story. This is what I want more of, please!

Cargo

Script by Dan Jolley and Drawn by John Nadeau. This story follows ex-smuggler Gerald Coile and is set on Earth. Finally, mankind has outlawed Xeno-zip, but this has lead to the new underground drug trade. Coile, making quick money running the drugs to and fro has learnt that his boss Vasco is to be hit by the FEDs. Feeling the tides change, Coile sides with the FEDs and feeds them info on Vasco's hauler. With one finally, delivery to complete Coile arrives on the hauler to discover it abandoned and running on low power. In the hold is a recorded message - announcing the fact that he knew Colie had betrayed him, with the message was a gift, a full-grown Xenomorph!

Another great tale. This could have had a lot more pages given over to it as we watch a cat and mouse scenario take shape on the ship. Instead, it all happens a bit fast, the ending though was a true joy and I highly recommend this one.

Alien

This tale is created by John Arcudi the writer of the opening tale and is drawn by Paul Mendoza. Finally hitting a rhythm. We are on an unknown world that is home to a tribal community, plighted by a xenomorph. The brave tribal leader collects some brave warriors and an unblooded to hunt the monster down. As in all classic Alien tales the shit hits the fan and soon only the unblooded brave and a badly wounded chieftain remain. They take shelter in a crashed spaceship and soon the unblooded discovers the source of the xenomorph and discovers a second Alien lifeform - Man. The newcomer fully armed and armoured ultimately kills the Xenomorph. When this man fails to share the trophy the unbloodied kills him, taking his helmet and his gun, before triumphantly returning to his village.

A really fun tale and hugely enjoyable.

Earth Angel

A double-headed feature for John Byrne, set in what would seem to the 50's or 60's. A young couple discovers a crashed craft in the woods and pulls out a pilot wearing an unusual mask. Turns out the unusual mask is in fact a Facehugger! The pilot underneath is an alien of unknown origin and soon a chest buster is on the scene. In classic horror/sci-fi film plots, multiple members of the town start to disappear and only the doctor fully understands what is happening.

This was a fun tale and great artwork. The only thing that slightly annoyed me was making the town doctor a Ripley ancestor. No real need for it and made the tale fall flat at the end.

Incubation

Tale seven is by Ron Marz and Bernie Wrightson. Once again we are visited by other aliens dealing with Xenomorphs but this time the story is told by a third party. Turns out the narrator is a scientist dealing with a crashed alien vessel in the Southern American jungle. Inside he discovers the alien bodies and the truth behind their deaths. Now he is alone leaving a message of hope, the hope that whoever finds the tapes will kill the Xenomorphs before they spread across the world.

Great story, a great lead up to what I think is a Batman vs Xenomorph tale. Another enjoyable tale.

Havoc

The script is by Mark Schultz and has 43 artists working on it. What on earth am I about to witness. A weird tale of a body-hopping dead scientist, who assists the rescue team to survive the monsters. A strange tale interestingly told. Every time the scientist jumps host the artwork changes, sometimes this is a great experience, sometimes it is horrible, but overall an excellent story.

Lovesick

Story by Thierry Gagnon and Richard Forgues, whilst the artwork is by Thierry Gagnon and Randy Stradley. A rather lame filler tale, mostly about a creepy preteen who has the hots for his cousin! Childishly drawn and with a rather weak plot. This is worth ignoring.

Lucky

The last tale of the book. Lucky is written by Mark Verheiden and art by Mark A. Nelson. We follow the downfall of a salvaging ship as it picks up a derelict craft. Unfortunately, a greedy crewman fails to follow procedure and releases xenomorphs onto the ship. Soon the vessel is overrun and the only survivor is the greedy and cowardly crewman who caused all the problems. In classic self-serving behaviour, the crewman blames the whole thing on the first mate and is safely returned home. I enjoyed this one. It is not a long tale but it was very good at showing how the xenomorphs aren't the real villains it is, in fact, mankind that is the monster.

With Lucky, the book ends. I have to say this was a rocky one with a lot of sub-par stories that are just worth ignoring completely. But the tales that were good made up for the rest. So if you are a fan of the Alien franchise you may as well treat yourself and enjoy some otherworldly horror. As always thanks for sticking around to the end. Use any of the following links to help support the blog, cheers!

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Comic Review 113 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 4.

I am really enjoying these Alien comics. For better or worst, these stories inspire my imagination. The cover is a thing of nightmares, just imagine opening a storage door and facehuggers pour through! This tome is massive, clocking in at 376 pages. The omnibus contains the following stories: Music of Spears, Stronghold, Frenzy, Taste, Mondo Pest and Mondo Heat. Set in the far future most of these tales involve madmen who hope to control the xenomorphs and ultimately fail! I am excited to start, so like all stories let us begin with the opener.

Music of Spears: Written by Chet Williamson and drawn by Tim Hamilton. The plot is a classic madman scenario, in this case, we follow a composer, Dean Eddington. This character is truly obnoxious and it is hard to find a valid reason to care about him. Eddington is attempting to create a new form of music by using the screams of a xenomorph. In the classic plot route, the xenomorph escapes killing a lot of people before itself is killed. The story has a weird ending, with the killing act, being recreated nightly to entertain the masses.

Ultimately a good enough story and a solid opener to the book.

Stronghold: Written by John Arcudi and drawn by Doug Mahnke. Set in a remote scientific world, this lab is not your normal research station. Inside is a full alien nest, which is maintained by a squad of Androids. Following a routine security inspection, it is discovered that the lead scientist is selling xenomorph eggs on the black market. Then the expected happens the aliens break loose and the death starts happening.

The highlight of this piece is the xenomorph android, Jeri. Designed to blend in with the xenomorphs, Jeri is constantly scaring the main characters, but when he gets a plasma gun his cool factor goes through the roof!

Frenzy: Written by the Legend John Wagner and drawn by Paul Mendoza. Now we have specialized eradicate teams (made up of ex-marine convicts), who get sent in to destroy hives. With some of the team members acting as bait, they allow themselves to be captured and taken to the Queen's lair. Once this happens MAX is released. A new hi-tech robot suit controlled by a convicted Marine this suit is a one-man army. The downside is the suit will ultimately kill the host. The story is fairly straightforward and is mainly about covering up the Companies errors. Expect robots versus robots.

Taste: Written by Edward Martin III and drawn by Mark Nelson. A rather short story focusing on an egg and the Facehugger inside. The story seems to build to the Hugger launching itself out of the egg. Then the plot twist. Turns out that in the wider universe there are bigger, scarier creatures out there, that enjoy frying Facehuggers for lunch!

Mondo Pest: Written by Henry Gilroy and drawn by Ronnie Del Carmen. Escaped psych ward marine turned merc, accepts a call for assistance from an outer rim world with seems to have an alien problem. Feels like a bad 80's film made into a comic. Lots of fighting, lots of action and a small bit of traitorous greed. A nice solid tale.

Mondo Heat: Seems like a doubleheader, Mondo our escaped psych ward turned merc is back. Still written by Henry Gilroy and Ronnie Del Carmen. I'm sorry but these Mondo tales seem like they were written by a teenage boy. But the high and low of the tale is a rich colonist who has lost his daughter and her friend, in a world infested with aliens. To make things worst it would seem the brother is jealous and was the reason the aliens are here!

With the end of Mondo, we have reached the end of this Omnibus. I enjoyed the escapism I got from this issue but just like the last omnibus, this is a huge hit and a miss. I enjoyed the Music of Spears and Taste, Stronghold and Frenzy were okay and the Mondo tales suck. So once again an average comic to help past the time.

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Comic Review 112 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 3.

A great opening image on the cover of the Queen ripping open a doorway screaming. I can hear Ripley in the background saying, " Get away from her, you bitch!". 

I'm excited to be on Volume three of these already, if you have not already, please check out Volume One and Two. Volume three has a lot of stories contained within: Rogue, Sacrifice, Labyrinth, Salvation, Advent/Terminus, Reapers and Horrorshow. With plenty of titles to review, let us dive in.

Rogue

With a script by Ian Edginton, art by Will Simpson, it feels like we have stepped back into the 1990s. The main plot of the story is based around a mad scientist who is slowly feeding his staff to the aliens. His goal, to manipulate the alien DNA and breed a King Alien. In classic Alien fashion storytelling, the shit soon hits the fan with the Rogue King Alien on the loose killing everything in its path, but it seems this new alien has a goal in mind. To face off against the Queen, but can a king beat a queen? Hell no!

A solid tale, that I am sure is better as a novel with space to explain characters better and the driving force behind the crazed doctor. But ultimately a great opener.

Sacrifice

Story two is written by Peter Milligan and the art is produced by Paul Johnson. The artwork is beautiful, I recognized the style enough to have a google and yes, Paul Johnson has drawn for 2000 AD in the past. Great start to the story already then. The tale begins with a spacecraft crash, that mysteriously has only one survivor; Ann. Took in by the local colony, Ann starts to realize something is off and soon discovers the town is offering up sacrifices to a lone xenomorph in the Jungles. In the course of not fully understanding why they sacrifice child to the xeno, Ann affects the norm and leads the colonials into a deadly fight with the xenomorph.

Strange how many times the themes of family and religion come up in stories to do with Aliens. It is a great tale with amazing artwork, well worth the read, a true highlight of this book.

Labyrinth

Story three, Labyrinth by Jim Woodring and art by Kilian Plunkett.  Once again a slightly unhinged doctor, testing out his theories on the xenomorphs. He believes that with the right mental attitude, a human can turn away a xenomorph without using a weapon! Of course not everything goes to plan, I feel this almost follows the same story arc as Rogue. The story though ultimately good, is not great. It delves deep into the aliens behavior patterns and how science can possible manipulate it. I was not a fan of the artwork, and the writing was a bit movie-style storytelling, focusing on gorey imagery rather than the fear factor. Not a great tale to be honest.

Salvation

This tale I have reviewed before, so I won't rewrite it, all I will ask is for you to go check it out here: Salvation

Advent/Terminus

Written by Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan, artwork by Paul Guinan. I would class this a mini tale. A pyramid of unknown design has been discovered and film teams and explorers are rushing to discover it secrets. Only problem is no team ever seems to leave. Not the worst story in the comic, but sadly a little throw away and filler. Nice to see as one team dies another arrives.

Reaper

Written by John Arcudi and artwork by Simon Bisley (another ex-2000 AD artist). What a weird ass tale! No written script just art, lucky it is beautiful art. We watch as a team of green humoid aliens (Of unknown origin) hunt down some xenomorph eggs to sell back  at home. Why, I hear you ask? Well this race of aliens enjoys eating Facehuggers! Wierd artwork, weird story, just plain weird.

Horror Show

Written by Sarah Byam and artwork by David Roach. Set on Luna during the still happening xenomorph takeover of Earth. Once the gleaming city of the rich it is now infested with the poor escaping Earth's demise. Once more a deranged scienciest is at the centre of the tale and is virtually downloading the dreams to train Marines in combat against the xenomorphs. To be honest a bit of a weak tale for me, I can see it working as novel but as a comic it doesn't really work for me.

And with that we come to an end. Seven stories in this collection, I would say three solid stories: Rogue, Sacrifice and Salvation. One story was just plain weird: Reaper and three stories a little dull: Labyrinth, Advent/Terminus and Horror Show.

For me this seems to leave me with no choice but to say this is an average omnibus at best. I enjoyed Sacrifice the most it had a great theme going on and made the humans seem like the true villains of the tale. Have you read this story? Let me know your thoughts below.

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Comic Review 109 // Aliens: Omnibus Volume 2

Been a while since I review volume one way back in June (Follow the LINK). With us, well into the creepy month of October, I felt it was right to have some scary comic reviews. For me the Xenomorph is the ultimate in the scare factor, it is completely uncaring, unforgiving and so cosmically horrifying that it is perfect for a good scare. Let us take a dive into the comic book stats and then we can move onto the review.

Comic Stats

Writer: John Arcudi, Jerry Prosser, Chris Warner, Kelley Puckett, Dan Jolley

Illustrator:  Damon Willis, John Nadeau, Kelley Jones, Paul Guinan, Tony Akins, Allen Nunis, Mike Richardson.

Commercial Fluff: Many humans have died horribly at the claws of the Alien. The surface of Earth has been devastated to cleanse the beasts from our world. But the commercial value of this scourge has never been in doubt, especially when the special properties of the Alien Queen's royal jelly are discovered. Will Mankind once again risk its very survival as a species in order to sleep with the Alien? Dark Horse Comics' critically acclaimed Aliens series set the bar for how the universe of a popular film could be expanded through graphic fiction. Aliens Omnibus Volume 2 collects more of these exciting series in a value-priced, quality-format omnibus, featuring over four hundred story pages in full color. Includes the complete story arcs of Genocide, Harvest and the never-before-collected, epic-length Colonial Marines.

Pages: 456

Published Date: December 25th, 2007 

Publisher: Dark Horse Book

Review

Going to break the comic down into stories and go through each one. These won't be super in-depth as I plan on doing that with the novels when I find them. Ultimately like its predecessor, this graphic novel is made up of three stories, Genocide, Harvest and Colonial Marines. I had already reviewed the book Genocide (here), so I already had a feeling of how the story arc was changing with the inclusion of Queen or Royal Jelly so I was interested to see how this is picked up in the other stories. As with most things in life let us begin at the start.

Genocide

Earth is a mess and big companies are making a killing in exchange to help clean it up. One such company is making a drug called Xeno-Zip, using trace amounts of Queen Jelly it is able to make people stronger and faster. But due to lack of supply, they attempted to make their own with unstable results, the main problem being people turning into Psychos. In steps the military to help secure a pure source in exchange for the psycho version for the marine corps. Of course, as soon as they make planetfall everything thing goes FUBAR, why are their two factions of Xenomorph? A fast-action paced story, with stereotypes straight out of an 80's action film. Fun enough read just like the book.

Harvest

A strange tale that I hope the book does more justice to. In this tale, we follow a dying scientist who is using the royal jelly to prolong his life. But in order to this, he needs more jelly. With the help of his love interest, a robotic pet ant and a robotic Xenomorph, they attempt what I can only describe as a Jewel thief. Heading to the alien homeworld to raid the nest. Once again nothing goes to plan and we end up with a plasma rifle-armed robotic Xenomorph, fighting the alien hordes. This was a weird-ass tale, but I am intrigued to read the book now.

Colonial Marines

The selling point of the graphic novel. Colonial Marines was a 10 part series that faced a ton of issues during production. It had multiple writers work on it, issue numbers were cut and it ended up being delayed. This clearly comes across in the story, it so badly disjointed and I am pretty sure a marine who died in one part is alive in the artwork later in the story (HA). What you do get is a dead beat LT. who is tasked with looking after a bunch of down and out marines. Unfortunately, no story is that simple and soon Xenomorphs are running wild. The LT. character is all over the place as writers struggled to pick a motive and hang on to it. Leaving us to not care about anyone whilst the story collapses under its own weight. The highlight of this tale was the water versions of the Xenomorphs at the Kelp farm, this was worth the price of reading such crap.

Overall Thoughts

Don't buy this graphic novel it is just a hot mess! The colonial marines story ruins an otherwise below average offering. I will move forwards onto Volume three but wow did this one leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Comic Review 106 // Star Wars: Boba Fett - Enemy of the Empire

 

First up welcome back. Secondly, drop me your thoughts on the new graphic. I am trying some things out and input is much appreciated, just drop me a comment below and I will enjoy reading the input.

For this week's comic, I decided to mix things up. I needed a little JD/2000AD pallet to cleanse but what to read? I know I wanted Sci-fi, I know I wanted it to be within the sphere of the hobby I enjoyed, so I decided to try a Star Wars comic. Personally, I have enjoyed the Mandalorian on Disney so I felt maybe Boba Fett was the way to go. After I little online shopping I purchased a copy of Star Wars: Boba Fett - Enemy of the Empire. I didn't pay much attention to the writer or artist as I normally worry about those things after I have decided to read something. Comically one page in I found myself recognizing the artwork and even the writing seemed similar, that's when I realized I had got a John Wagner and Ian Gibson comic, two amazing people who have worked on many Judge Dredd and 2000 AD titles. Seems like I am not getting as far away as I thought. With the intro done, let us dive in and I will take a moment to remind you to follow by using the links above.

Star Wars: Boba Fett - Enemy of the Empire

Published by Dark Horse and clocking in at 117 pages. Here is the commercial fluff:

Before the events of A New Hope, Darth Vader employs Boba Fett, on a mission to discover and bring to Vader a single small box, the contents of which could change the fate of the galaxy. But there's a catch: Vader trusts no one, and the truth of the box's mystery is too important to allow the bounty hunter to live! When Fett retrieves the prize, he finds himself the target of more of Vader's thralls.

As mentioned page one straight away made me realize who the writer and artist were. Let's start with the artwork. Ian Gibson just has a way of drawing that instantly transplants me back to my younger days, when I opened a 2000 AD and read a Halo Jones or Sam Slade Robo Hunter strip. The style is just pure comic book and I love it. Is it the right artwork for Star Wars? Properly not. Star Wars fans can be notoriously cruel to people who miss the mark and I fear this artwork will fall into that category. Ian Gibson also inked the pieces himself so we are seeing it exactly as the artist wanted it to be seen which is great. Overall I love it but can understand some of the negative comments I have also seen. Now to John Wagner, this man gets British humour. It is funny it is dark it is not forced, my own real comment is that it doesn't seem to fit the franchise. Having a Cult of Pessimists doesn't sound very Star Wars to me but does add some light humour along the way.  

Boba Fett as always is a total badass unfazed no matter who he is fighting. Throughout the comic, Fett is constantly ahead of everyone and seemingly knows what is about to happen next. This leads us to some fun scenes but also leads us to know that no matter what he is protected by plot armour. Plenty of highlights throughout the comic and an interesting treasure in the box that is also a pandora effect on the owner. But overall amazing short read for a non-die-hard fan of Star Wars.

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Comic Review 70 // Aliens: Defiance, Volume 2.

Coming in hot on the coat tails of our last comic review come Aliens: Defiance, Volume 2. If you haven't read last weeks review, do yourself a favour and go read it. I will be honest and say the last comic was pretty standard.
One strong woman lead, supported by an android fighting the xenomorph menace whilst trying to stay one step ahead of the evil Corporations. I am interested to see where the tales goes from here.

Details

Title: Aliens: Defiance, Volume 2.

Author: Brian Wood

Illustrators: Stephen Thompson (Illustrator), Tony Brescini (Illustrator), Eduardo Francisco (Illustrator), Dan Jackson (Colorist), Nate Piekos (Letterer)

Type: Graphic Novel

Page Count: 152

Commercial Fluff:
Colonial Marine Private First Class Zula Hendricks is on an AWOL mission to prove her mettle by eradicating the alien species before they can be exploited as weapons on Earth. She must battle with aliens, fend off space pirates, and elude the insidious Weyland-Yutani corporation that wants their freighter back, all while facing rehabilitation from an old war injury.

Review

Well Aliens: Defiance, kind off drifted off to a slow end.

It's not that it has a bad ending in anyway. It just felt like a very organised, all the t's crossed and i's doted kind of finishing. With no real loose threads left behind, you aren't left wondering the meaning of the tale. Instead you are left feeling this is just a leading tale to a future script.

But hey, it's a xenomorph comic, it's not meant to be a tale for the ages. Instead you get a solid story, once again delivering a strong female character in the lead. Zulu continues to be an interesting heroine and Davis (the now freed android) continues to search for the meaning of his life and if he is able to function in a galaxy of caring humans. Personally I think Davis was the strongest character in series and I would have loved to have seen him with more page time.

But back to the story: nothing goes well for the trio, in classic Alienverse fashion the xenomorph's constantly mess things up and I do feel the final pages were rushed and led to a blunt ending and possibly not the ending I felt the story was heading to. Though the biggest peeve for me, was the changing of the artists between strips. It completely drew me out of the story and really affect my overall enjoyment of the series. In what to me seemed like a short strip to change artists four times, really annoys me, Dark Horse please stick to one artist please!

Ultimately you should read it if you are a fan of aliens, but just remember it's not going to blow your mind or change your view point on the franchise. What it will do is entertain you for the thirty minutes read. Leave me a comment below of your thoughts and then hit follow!

Comic Review 69 // Aliens: Defiance, Volume 1

Wow I have gone down the rabbit hole with reading these xenomorph comics. This time I move onto a series call Defiance, the first volume I am about review, which contains the first six issues. I have no prior knowledge of this series so I am going in blind.

Details

Title: Aliens: Defiance, Volume 1

Author: Brian Wood

Type: Graphic Novel

Page Count: 160

Commercial Fluff:
Colonial Marine Private First Class Zula Hendricks is battling demons from her past while fighting for her life in the company of Weyland-Yutani synthetics. In deep space she is forced to question her strength and loyalty when the discovery of an insidious alien species on a derelict hauler sends her on a dangerous journey across the stars.

"The New York Times" best-selling comics writer, Brian Wood pens an epic space odyssey filled with gritty, fearless art by up and coming artist, Tristan Jones. Aliens Defiance #1-6.

Review

As already mentioned I have gone over the edge and have fully delved into the xenomorph Alien franchise. From what I can gather and have read the series is set between the first and second movies. First up I have to say like many xenomorphs comics this doesn't add anything new or even attempt to surprise us. It instead attempts to provide the readers with solid piece of story telling that's sole job is to entertain.

Early on you are introduced to the main character a Zula Hendricks, an AWOL Colonial Marine who's once promising career is brought to a rapid end, after sustaining a back injury in her very first combat mission. They pair this strong female character with an android called Davis 01, who is seemingly going rogue with his programming. This unlikely duo have managed to discover plans by Weyland-Yutani (classic villain of the Alienverse) to recover some xenomorph dna/bio sample. So they do what any normal human/android combo would do; they set out to stop the corporation and kill the Aliens themselves.

This comic is definitely an action comic, with to no surprises or suspense. It just seems to jump from action to action. Which really isn't an issue for me as it helps keep me interested. The artwork fits perfectly with the movies and is extremely dark, moody and scary. It really adds to story.

Overall this is solid read and I am already tracking down Volume 2!

Comic Review 67 // Aliens: Dust to Dust

The xenomorphs are back and they are taking over the blog slowly! Today's bit of terrifying space horror comes in the form of a graphic novel titled Aliens: Dust to Dust.. Scary right? Well let's jump into the full details and go from there.

Details
Title: Aliens: Dust to Dust

Author: Gabriel Hardman

Type: Graphic Novel

Page Count: 96

Commercial Fluff: A terrifying coming-of-age story by master storyteller Gabriel Hardman.

A mother and son bound by a shared terror--separated by an implacable alien force! A spaceship that should carry them away from the fear becomes a deathtrap from which escape seems impossible!

The Trono colony on LV-871 is under attack. Emergency evacuations are ordered. Twelve-year-old Maxon and his mom face the most terrifying creatures in the galaxy . . . Aliens!

Review

It really seems like the writers struggle to move away from the classic story arc. Colonists meet facehugger, destroy colony and survivors flee whilst slowly being eaten/killed/captured one by one. But maybe that's actually what I want from a xenomorph story? This tale like so many others, sets us

up on world suffering from a xenomorph takeover. The real scary part is that we are viewing it all from the view point of a twelve year old. That's right a twelve year, who wakes to find his mum's face covered by some weird crab like creature, whilst his city is filled with gun fire and burning. Imagine how fucked up you would be.

Overall the story though predictable is tense and scary, but if you get into the twelve year olds mind set it truly becomes terrifying.. The action is full on as the survivors go on the run. And it is all brought to life by the grim, dark and gritty artwork. Is it the best comic of my year....nope. but it is a solid worthwhile read.

Have you read it? Drop me a comment or become a follower to stay up-to-date with my postings. Thanks for reading.

Comic Review 58 // Aliens: Dead Orbit by James Stokoe

Looks like I dropped a Warhammer 40k addiction for an Aliens one! This time I am review a comic by James Stokoe for Dark Horse Publishing. It is the collected works of 4 issues and is titled Dead Orbit. Here is the official fluff:

After a horrific accident strikes a space station, an engineering officer must use all available tools--a timer, utility kit, and his wits--to survive an attack from the deadliest creature known to man.

Collects issues #1-#4 of the thrilling and claustrophobic Aliens story: Dead Orbit, penned by Orc Stain creator James Stokoe!

Got to be honest and state this story is lacking on plot and reads like a lazy Alien story, going through all the classic Alien ideas.

Step 1 - A ragtag group of people discover a space hulk floating in deep space and decide to explore it.

Step 2 - Discover a Xenomorph hidden in the hulk.

Step 3 - Die!

The real highlight of this comic is the stunning work of James Stokoe. He is able to produce a beautiful Alien and a great space station backdrop. But sadly the story is so dull, you will find yourself enjoying the crew die. The characters are completely forgettable which is what I plan to do with this comic. Let's swiftly move on.