As hard as it was in space, Earth will be harder.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Eduardo Francisco
Colors: Dan Jackson
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
The mangled Europa is in a state of free fall in Earth’s atmosphere with Zula, Davis, Hollis, and a previously frozen xenomorph onboard. Davis battles the alien threat while Hollis and Zula scramble to the escape hatch. Impact is unavoidable; survival is doubtful.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Aliens: Defiance worked some big and sprawling pieces the last time around with the return to the solar system, movement over the moon, and the threats being employed by the powers that be to acquire what they want. Brian Wood gave us the big picture view of things with some tense moments mixed in on a more personal level as our main characters worked to survive. With this issue, Eduardo Francisco steps in on the art side of things to give us earthfall and he definitely delivers in giving us something different than we’ve had before with locations and the way the characters have to engage and suffer with very different interactions with themselves and others. Though I continue to wish that the series had a singular artistic vision, team we’ve had have been great.
The blending of time periods in this issue is a bit problematic though and I think it throws off the flow more than it helps it since the back and forth comes across as disjointed. The final fight aboard the Europa has its moments as Zula does her best to survive against the Xenomorph and it’s one that’s fraught with tension on the sporadic pages that we get for it. It’s also pretty thrilling as we get the crackup of the ship once in orbit and seeing the escape pod get away, its splashdown in the ocean, and seeing how Zula and Hollis do their best to hold themselves together after all that had happened and the seeming loss of Davis along the way as well. There’s so much carnage around them for so long now that even the quiet moments here are tense as they sit and watch the sunset across the soft rolling waves of the sea. You know it won’t last, but it’s that rare kind of quiet for the par that they can’t truly relax in.
The time on Earth after that is the chaotic mess that you’d expect, and something that with it being spread throughout alongside other material just doesn’t work well. Zula and Hollis being separated and taken by the military is expected as they know what they have in Hollis and are preparing to extract the Xenomorph from her to change the world. Zula is simply abused from top to bottom by people as she gets her injuries dealt with. She broke her oath and that makes her the worst of the worst for many, but there’s such a mean streak in a way that feels like it’s out of character for some of the soldiers that it’s hard to really connect with. If they had just ignored her completely? Sure. But this just feels weird. Zula’s not isolated in a sense but we do see just how she’s handling being the outcast here and the minor bit of potential help she may be getting doesn’t feel like it’ll be more than enough.
In Summary:
Aliens: Defiance has had a strong run of issues over the course of it but this is the first one that feels like it’s falling a bit short, mostly because of its structure. There’s also the problem that there’s only one more issue to go and it feels like it won’t be anywhere near enough space to get everything done. There are some good things going on in this issue but the structure of the storytelling just didn’t click as well for me as I think a more linear approach would have worked and there are just too many uncertainties going on now that we’re back on Earth without enough context to really draw it together in a clear enough way. There’s plenty to like overall and I’m curious to see where it’ll all end up when it’s done and over with, but as a penultimate issue it just doesn’t feel like it delivers enough.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 26th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
