ARC REVIEW Dark Horse Comics: Aliens Defiance vol 2

ALIENS

Defiance

vol 2

Dark Horse Publishing

Story by Brian Woods

Art by Stephen Thompson, Tony Brescini, Eduardo Francisco, Dan Jackson

Story:We pretty much pick up where we left off in vol 1. Hollis discovers she has one of those things inside her. Instead of killing it she thinks it would be wise to study it so they can find better ways to kill them. Davis and Zula are hesitant but they agree to Hollis' plan. Davis retrofits one of the cargo holds into a giant cryo chamber. Hollis successfully removes the creature and Davis transports it to the cryo hold where they successfully hold the thing, for a while. All the while Zula who is in constant pain keeps thinking back to the transmissions her doctor sent her about coming back to Earth and turning herself in and how she can have it to where she won't face any punishments. But the makeshift cryo hold has caused damage to the ship and now not even the cryo hold is failing top it all off with pirates attacking and Zula has decided the only way to go is home. But first they have to get rid of the Alien. Once they get to Earth things don't go quite as they planned but Zula ok with that she's not a quitter she can find a way.

Art: For the most part beautiful artwork. The first three episodes the main characters were drawn really inconsistently. Zula's head would completely change shape from different perspectives. The latter half of the book it's wonderfully drawn. I am constantly amazed how beautifully scary the xenomorphs are drawn especially the queen. 

Review: Wow. Hollis reveals she has a xenomorph in her and all I'm thinking is, "that is a queen!"

The story just keeps getting better and better and when you think all is hopeless Zula is there with a solution. It does have a bit of a bittersweet triumphant CLIFFHANGER ending but man oh man. I think the story flowed better in this one than the first volume it definitely exciting, I couldn't put it down.     

ARC REVIEW Dark Horse Comics Aliens: Defiance

Aliens: Defiance

Dark Horse Comics

By: Brian Wood

Art by: Tristan Jones (Illustrations), Massimo Carnevale (Illustrations), Riccardo Burchielli (Illustrations), Dan Jackson (Colorist), Tony Brescini (Illustrator), Nate Piekos (Letterer)

Story: Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks was sent on a mission with a bunch of Wayland-Yultani synthetics. She was just supposed to type in a key to the computer giving over the rights from the abandoned ship over to WY as salvage. What happens next Zula doesn’t remember she was knocked unconscious and when she woke up she was still on board with a handful of the synths remaining. One of the synths in particular is helping her with the designation Davis 01.

Davis tells her what happened something was brought on board and it killed the whole crew and when they boarded the strange aliens started to kill the synths. Davis managed to shoot them all out the airlock along with most of the other synths. Davis further tells her that WY has plans to bring back a specimen so they can weaponize it. Zula understanding what she is hearing also picks up on the fact that Davis has gone against his programming. Davis admits it and again surprised her by saying he has evolved into something better he has taught himself new things and to let WY get its hands on something as dangerous as these creatures would be horrible. After barely surviving the first time Zula agrees with Davis and together they begin to thwart WY at every turn. 

The Aliens are not the only thing Zula is battling right now she has massive spinal damage due to a previous and only mission. Zula is dealing emotionally, psychologically, and physically with the damage and pain she’s going through. Davis and Zula become friends they even pick up a sole survivor at a filling station and continue to do what they think is right but Davis has secrets of his own.

Art: The art was my favorite thing about this but it’s not surprising when you have fantastic artist like Tristan Jones and Massimo Carnevale. The illustrations were just so beautifully detailed and dark, it’s dark and gloomy in that typical Alien style but not so dark you lose the fine details. Massimo’s work on the covers and the chapter breaks is stunning, there is one that I would love to have a print of to hang on my wall.

Overall: I love the Alien franchise, I have loved it since my sister first showed me Alien as a kid in the late 80’s. (Yeah, my mom wouldn’t let me watch horror movies like Halloween or Friday the 13^th but she was ok with Alien) I haven’t read as many Alien comics as I would like, aside from Sandman they were one of the first ones I did read when I first got into comics. I think Zula is a perfect fit with the typical type heroine we normally see in these roles. I think I like her even more because she is so broken. I loved the tie in with Alien: Isolation and Amanda Ripley. The story is great it’s so much more than just fighting aliens, there’s great character development and the relationship between Davis and Zula, I like where it’s going. This was a great one I really look forward to the rest of the series.