Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Tristan Jones
Colors: Dan Jackson
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
Colonial Marine Hendricks and the Weyland-Yutani synthetic Davis break protocol, navigating the Europa to a distant science station discovered in the once-derelict ship’s data records—a station that recently went dark. Following the trail of the alien species, they dive deeper into a conspiracy, uncovering just how much is riding on their choices.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Aliens: Defiance was one of my more anticipation Aliens series of the last couple of years for the talent involved alone. We’ve seen so many interpretations of the works over the years that it’s easy to get jaded but we’ve seen some solid works in the last couple of years. Wood’s work has grown on me and his exploration of events here built upon what we had in the films in a way that felt very natural. Pairing him with Tristan Jones after the two worked on an installment of Rebels together felt spot on perfect and I really liked what they brought to light together in the opening installment. It didn’t reinvent the wheel and I’m not looking for that. I’m looking for something that’s going to expand the overall scope of this world and it did that well.
With Hendricks now tied to the artificial team that she’s part of, having broken away from the USMC in order to pursue what Weyland-Yutani is up to, the crew has arrived at the LV-44-40 Seegson science station. It’s a difficult situation as we get from Hendricks as she provides the inner monologue throughout the book as we learn about how much harder she had to work based on race and size before things went even worse and she ended up in the bracing that she’s trying to keep hidden from Davis. Her struggle and resilience is well played here and seeing her doing the hard work – smartly for the most part – makes her an engaging character that you can rally behind. In particular, I like the way she recognizes that Davis One is someone that seems to get her and deal with her right whereas she’s wary of the others since we see when she’s not around that they think she’s dead weight on their mission. Considering these guys are pretty far off script from their programming and mission, it’s right to be wary of them.
The bulk of the issue is all about exploration of the station since the place has gone dark but there are signs of life. It’s also an opportunity to restock on weapons since the clearing of the ship they’re on exhausted a lot of things. Wood works this as a solid horror piece with the exploration of the ship, the first encounter with a dead xenomorph that adds some great tension in both the mild examination and how it creates a lot of noise when it crashes through the floor, and then digging deeper into the facility and discovering a queen deep down below. These are all very familiar elements in the Aliens universe, but Wood and Jones bring it out in a compelling and engaging way. Dan Jackson’s color design adds a whole lot to it as well with some great placement of shadows but also just the general washed out tone for it that gives it that kind of claustrophobic feeling it needs.
In Summary:
Aliens: Defiance further cements itself as the series I’m most anxious to read more of this year within this particular franchise. Dark Horse Comics has several things going on with it, Predator, and Prometheus this year but the time spent with a solid plotted and paced twelve issue series is exciting based on what we’ve seen in these first two installments. I can already see just how strong this will be when read in full and envy those who get to do so after all is said and done. But I won’t trade in the thrill on a monthly basis of taking in Jones artwork and what Wood is putting together with the script and its characters. Very solid and compelling material that’s laying the right foundations now.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 25th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99