Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 4 (May 2010)

The romance between the protagonist and the nerdy guy doesn’t work. He’s not really a nerdy guy, of course, because he used to be in the Marines. Or something. But he’s basically the nerdy guy. He’s even got a nerdy name–I think Die Hard ruined the name Ellis for anyone serious.

But part of the comic needs the romance to be touching and significant and it’s not. Maybe Stradley doesn’t buy it either. He writes zero chemistry between them. They seem like siblings.

Otherwise, it’s a rather good issue. It’s a big invading an alien planet issue so there’s a lot of battle scenes with people and Predators fighting the aliens and then the command scenes with people and Predators standing around worried. It’s a rather well-done invasion issue, actually. Some leaps in time logic for dramatic effect, but it’s good.

Even the art doesn’t annoy too much.

CREDITS

Writer, Randy Stradley; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Mark Pennington; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Blambot!; editors, Samantha Robertson and Chris Warner; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 3 (April 2010)

Wow… it’s a good issue. All throughout I mean. There’s even a big action sequence at the end and it works. Probably because Stradley writes the sequence instead of just provides a list of actions for Leonardi to draw.

As for the art, it’s still terrible. I might have to revise my opinion. Maybe Leonardi isn’t drawing the protagonist as cheesecake material because he’s simply not willing to take the time. Unless inker Pennington is going all Vince Colletta–there are a bunch of panels where the characters don’t even have faces. It’s not clear if Leonardi just didn’t bother drawing them or if Pennington got out his eraser.

But the art quibbles are somewhat small. Sure, it’s not well drawn, but the writing this time is compelling. It’s a cheap amusement and a well-written one. Stradley’s fast character establishing makes up for all the faceless characters roaming about.

CREDITS

Writer, Randy Stradley; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Mark Pennington; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Blambot!; editors, Samantha Robertson and Chris Warner; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 2 (February 2010)

Whatever my problems with Leonardi–they go on and on–I have to give him credit. He draws a female character in, basically, a bikini and doesn’t do it with any of the cheesecake objectification most comic book artists would. In fact, I didn’t even realize it; it just seemed the right outfit. (It’s a human wearing a Predator outfit for those who don’t follow Aliens vs. Predator).

This issue follows the same formula as the first one. The beginning is some really dumb action scene, then the actual story starts and it’s good. Stradley gets in some nice homage to Aliens (the movie)–it’s homage because it’s clear what he’s doing and it’s in an Aliens comic, in case anyone’s wondering why I’m in favor of it while I usually use “homage” as a pejorative around here (always with the quotation marks).

Besides the lame action half, it’s decent.

CREDITS

Writer, Randy Stradley; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Mark Pennington; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Blambot!; editors, Samantha Robertson and Chris Warner; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 1 (January 2010)

It has a flashback. It has an actual flashback to explain the events in previous comic books to explain to the reader what’s pertinent.

I tried the Dark Horse relaunches of Aliens and Predator. Both were atrocious on almost every level, but they also didn’t have any flashbacks to explain the ground situation to readers who hadn’t been loyally reading the Dark Horse licensed titles.

Aliens vs. Predator has a flashback. It comes late in the issue, in the narrative even.

The comic turns around, in terms of writing, about halfway through the issue. It opens badly with a big action scene–Rick Leonardi’s artwork is real weak. I’m shocked Dark Horse relaunched these titles (the others have it too) with such weak, cartoonish artwork. There probably isn’t a single good panel in the book… wait, there’s one.

But Randy Stradley can write and he eventually does.

It’s not terrible.

CREDITS

Writer, Randy Stradley; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Mark Pennington; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Blambot!; editors, Samantha Robertson and Chris Warner; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens (2009) #4

All right, I’m clearly missing something here. Not only does my android question go unresolved, so does the two major questions the series raised–why are these aliens different than those previously encountered and what’s the deal with the mystical alien canyon?

The letters page this issue tells the reader to stick with the comic continuity, but I’m pretty sure Dark Horse stopped doing new Aliens comics in 1999, which means other than collected editions, this story is the first new one in ten years. And they expect the reader to know their continuity?

You’ve got to be kidding me. What about the casual reader who’s picking up the series because of all Dark Horse’s anniversary nonsense?

Again, it’s a fine enough Aliens story (it would have been right at home running through eight issues of Dark Horse Presents), but come on–this series isn’t some awesome event.

It’s common.

Aliens (2009) #3

Ok, so, a little more information–there was an alien invasion of earth, which I kind of remember from the old Dark Horse comics. Old as in before Alien³. Still, not sure what’s going on here. The android’s a weak lead, but there aren’t any other good options. The supporting cast is all weak too (they’re recovering from some kind of mind control).

The question Arcudi hasn’t answered yet is whether the android’s ship’s crew knew he was an android. Not sure why that question is so important to me, but it’s a definite necessity. There’s so little to the character, other than his physical presence, it’d give some context.

I don’t think I should be trying to figure out the ground situation in the third issue though.

Aliens is leaving a lot to be desired. They’re pretending it isn’t a relaunched series instead of celebrating.

One to go.

Aliens (2009) #2

Thought balloons. Arcudi uses thought balloons. I haven’t seen a thought balloon in a new comic in so long, I thought it was some kind of stylizing error (the character also talks to himself so it’s possible).

Um. Otherwise. Huh.

Aliens is a competent book. Arcudi doesn’t do a bad job, but it’s all in the approach. He’s hiding stuff from the reader (the protagonist is a newly android who kills–they aren’t supposed to harm any living thing, right?–and falls in love–with a murdered crew mate). The android also seems to know about previous encounters with the alien. I don’t know Dark Horse Aliens continuity so I’m kind of lost–except I think I’m supposed to be lost.

Presumably, all will be revealed, but Arcudi’s halfway through the book now and he’s basically established the protagonist and had him go for a walk. Not exactly high drama.

Aliens (2009) #1

Wow, Zach Howard’s good. Never heard of him before (or maybe I have), but he’s great. Seems a little bit wasted on an Aliens relaunch (seeing as how the first issue is mostly people, just a couple xenomorphs and Howard clearly is putting more into the composition of the people panels).

The rest of it, the comic itself, is wasteful. It invalidates itself in the last few pages (actually, in the third act, Arcudi nicely gives his comic acts) and instead serves as an interesting way to do exposition.

I’d probably love the approach if Aliens was running five issues instead of four, but it isn’t and blowing a quarter of your series on exposition seems like a bad idea.

There’s no (as far as I can tell) direct ties to previous Aliens titles, only some homage and a reference to the movies.

In other words, too early to tell.