From bad to worse, the only way things go in this universe.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Andrea Mutti
Colors: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Michael Heisler
What They Say:
Colonial Marines have commandeered a mysterious alien ship—wresting it from the savage Predators who also wanted it. But now the owner of the vessel has awakened, and the marines find themselves trapped in space with an angry god!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the Life and Death arc follows the same flow and style that we got from the Fire and Stone event arc last year, the hope for me is that everything comes out in a proper order without overlap that makes things confusing. The opening act with the four-part Predator miniseries worked pretty well in establishing the current events, taking place a year after Fire and Stone and some forty or so years after the events of Aliens itself. The usual problems are still out in there in the galaxy as we get the main races coming across each other all while Weyland-Yutani feels like they’re pulling some of the strings. With this book, the focus shifts to the Prometheus side, something that I felt was the weak link the last arc around since there’s something still very weirdly undefined about the property.
With Roth and his marine group on board the alien ship that they managed to get off the ground before the Predators could do a lot of real damage, they’re in a difficult place in that everything seems to work except for the communications technology. We see this through Paget’s side on the main marine ship where everything feels like it’s going right as they’re all set to head back to Ganymede station, a locked down station at that, and figure out if all of this was really worth it considering the cost. Paget’s crew doesn’t get a lot of time here but it’s set up well so that they’ll be in chase and can provide some observation and commentary that Roth and his team won’t be able to. Partially because Roth and his team have a very different kind of opponent to deal with. The Predators are certainly dangerous and they’ve got years of stories to make that work, but the uncertainty of the alien on board the ship that they’ve commandeered is very different.
This is something they learn quickly as they discover that the firefight with the Predator straggler in the previous miniseries caused one of the containment systems to begin to unlock, revealing the “god” that resides inside. Part of the problem is that there isn’t a name given here beyond the awkward Engineer designation that’s not even said in the book,, though most of the marines seem to revert to calling it a god with the way it looks so perfect and powerful. It doesn’t seem to take notice of them unless they’re in its way, so there’s a quick burst of violence and a lot of panic beyond that. Most of what we get here is setup for the run that the Maker is going to put his ship on, which obviously isn’t Ganymede station. The setup works well as we get the cursory nods toward both crews that exist and the situation itself while adding the uncertainty of where it’s going to take us now that the Maker is actually in control. That’s a bigger plus than one might think since a little unpredictability is welcome here.
In Summary:
The Prometheus element of the Fire and Stone event last year was one of the more problematic elements for me as it just didn’t click. With the opening installment here in Life and Death, things feel like they’re more grounded and accessible and not quite the same level of weirdly crazy that we had before. It also doesn’t hurt that this series has the fantastic Andrea Mutti on board for the artwork. Mutti’s layouts are quite good, especially some of the ways the movement throughout the ship and connections are made, but it’s the character artwork that I like the most. I think his is the first interpretation of the Engineer that just doesn’t look terrible to me. With some solid ship layouts both alien and human in the mix and a lot of potential for what’s to come, Mutti’s definitely a strong choice for this book and has me hopeful for some big action sequences in the installments ahead.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 8th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
