Terrible choices amid a toxic situation.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Tristan Jones
Colors: Dan Jackson
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
When Zula and Davis’s plan to deny the Colonial Marines a xenomorph sample hits a snag, their only remaining course of action may be something they can never come back from.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Aliens: Defiance series has certainly hit a sweet spot for me with what it’s been doing, particularly in keeping the cast small. As much as I’m enjoying the big cycles running with Life & Death and Fire & Stone, I’m enjoying the much more personal nature of what Zula and Davis are up to here. This installment has Tristan Jones on the art again, my favorite for this series, and it’s just such a beautifully executed book that I’m in love with so many panels. The one of the Xenomorph coming through the doorway as a full page image with dead marines around it was just hella impressive. Capturing the terror of these aliens isn’t always easy, especially as some artists go all smooth with the design and the color work, but there’s a gritty level here to what Jones does that simply makes it far more compelling and frightening for me.
While we saw the start of this particular subset storyline in the previous issue with Davis and Zula on board the fueling depot, which was intriguing all in its own, everything is in nearly pure action mode here. And it’s pretty compelling as the first half of the book is dialogue free as it’s just Zula’s narration after it gets going. That lets Jones’ artwork really stand out and tell the story here in a compelling way as the movement of the marines, the xenomorphs, and Zula and her group trying to get away moves at a pretty good clip. There’s not a lot of time given to the marines that were sent in but the narration does a solid job of tying together the why of them being so ready and how the company is intent on getting what it needs to push the bioweapons side of its bottom line into the stratosphere.
There’s some good character material in the mix as well, notably with what Zula is going through in realizing how Yang betrayed her and how her own body is betraying her as they have to flee in a non-standard way thanks to all the Xenomorphs. The best material involves Doc Hollis as she’s holding her own pretty well but ends up in a tight situation facing off against a group of facehuggers. This leads to its own curiosity at the end as to how far things really went, which is unclear, but has me intrigued by the potential since she’s approaching it all pretty calmly. Even Davis gets some good stuff here in talking about turning off his emotional side only to have Zula tell him not to as you can’t pick and choose how to react in situations like this. Though I suspect Hollis won’t be around for long, there’s a lot to like in the group dynamic that’s currently underway.
In Summary:
Aliens: Defiance has largely been firing on all cylinders for me since the start of it, though that gap took some of the wind out of its sails. As we hit the halfway mark here I find myself fully engaged and wanting more of it, and for this to just be the start of something longer and bigger. Brian Wood has the pacing for this down right as it’s teasing out these chunks of story against the larger narrative and by not forcing it into a four-issue series like we usually get it’s simply less frantic. It also delivers in a huge way thanks to Tristan Jones with the artwork that Dan Jackson just makes all the more impressive. There are some really fantastic panels throughout this that captures the tension and terror very, very, well.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 26th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
