A little more backstory amid the chaos.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Tony Brescini
Colors: Dan Jackson
Lettering: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
Colonial Marine Private Zula Hendricks is AWOL deep in space along with the combat synthetic Davis 01, chasing the trail of the xenomorph threat. But in the eerie quiet of a space graveyard the ghosts of her past are catching up with her, and Weyland-Yutani isn’t far behind.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a delay between the second and third issues, the fourth installment lands just two weeks later and it’s definitely a big plus getting into more of this story. Or, more specifically, more of these characters. This installment provides for another artistic change-up as Tony Brescini steps in for the duties and his style definitely works amid it, particularly since Dan Jackson’s color work provides for some strong continuity in how the book looks. Though I’m not a fan of rotating artists for a series like this it’s the kind of situation where if they’re doing positive work with it I’m more than happy to roll with it, though limited series like this I tend to want a more distinctive and singular artistic vision.
The pairing of Davis and Hendricks has definitely worked for me in a good way as there’s plenty to work with in how both of them operate and their backgrounds. They work together well enough, as we see at the start here, as they deal with the ship that they came across and the mix of bodies of the xenomorphs out there and how to ensure they aren’t a long term problem. Of course, Davis is fascinated by them and wants samples, but it doesn’t go down that path for the moment since they have bigger things to deal with. Davis’s mindset of trying to understand more of the xenomorphs and people makes sense now that his programming has opened up a bit but I’m amused by how Hendricks tries to get him to just focus on understanding people instead of the aliens.
The bulk of the issue focuses on Hendricks and her past as we see the mission where things went wrong for her. It’s a solid enough piece as we see her and the group of marines she was with in how the fight went bad against the bugs and it resulted in her significant damage. This ties back into her time on Luna in recovery and the kind of real mental strain she went through, particularly when it’s made clear all the training and expense couldn’t even get the USMC one battle out of her. This gives us some time with the doctor that worked with her that she’s now able to connect with as a secure channel is available and it’s an interesting subplot to work with her having an outside connection and getting some amount of help from someone that did a lot for her on Luna.
In Summary:
With the bulk of this issue being flashback it works out well for Brescini stepping in for the artwork as you can work the slight differences in style as a part of it. Giving us more of her past is definitely welcome as it’s a big part of her mindset at this point and how she’ll react to any number of situations. It’s not anything that’s particularly rich or deep but it is defining and important. I’m curious to see where things with her doctor will go as that feels like an odd choice for her to make considering the circumstances, but when you’re faced with things like these xenomorphs, well, you’ll do things that don’t make sense since they don’t make sense. A solid fleshing out issue overall that will likely impact more things as time goes on.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: August 31st, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
