I can’t wait to see how this can be continued.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Robert Carey
Colors: Dan Jackson
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
Amanda Ripley and Zula Hendricks are engaged in a desperate battle on the jungle moon, losing the fight against genetically modified Aliens and synthetics for survival. One desperate, last-ditch, option remains, and the two women are forced to decide how much of a sacrifice they are willing to make. Written by Brian Wood of Aliens: Defiance.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Aliens: Resistance series has definitely been firing on all cylinders for me as we’ve gotten Amanda and Zula together. Brian Wood has been playing with these characters for a while across various books that have exposed more of what Weyland-Yutani is up to and it’s been pretty tense and exciting. This series has been putting in a bit more than it should have as I would have liked more time to explore some of what’s been revealed, but the quick and tense mood has definitely clicked. That’s also been reinforced by some great artwork from Robert Carey who once again really does a fantastic job here. While most of the xenomorphs are kept to a distance shot they still have this kind of intense herd aspect that’s frightening in how he lays out the panels and places everything to such great effect.
The hunt that Amanda and Zula are on here plays out well as they move throughout the jungle, the narration talking about some of the past experiences in an abstract kind of way. That unfolds as the visual is all about one of the colonists that’s going through the final stages of gestation which continues to be horrifying even all these years later. When we do get to our leads, however, they’re thrown off a bit by the arrival of another colonist, a young woman named Alec who ends up attacking them because of how loud they’re being. Surviving on this jungle moon is not easy and the pair is making it harder, so they kind of earn the smack that they get. This leads us to a fun little group dynamic as they hide and survive for a while, getting details from Alec and filling her in on the reality of what she signed up for. You can understand how she ended up in this way and really feel bad for just how terrible it has all gone down.
With this in mind, Alec is key to the pair now as she’s proof of what Weyland-Yutani has done, and they need to get her off-world before the nuclear explosion goes off. That we do all of this plus the escape sequence in this single issue means things are packed and maybe a bit too-quickly paced for my tastes, but it moves right along with what it has to get done all while Carey gives it such a great look as the xenomorphs attack. We do get some good material from Davis as he moves in to set the escape plan fully into motion with Alec, but I’m mixed of feeling about how much more time should have been spent with Amanda and Zula as things turned from really bad to unfathomable.
In Summary:
With more to come, I’m not sure if there’s some surprising twist to be pulled out to change course on it and I’m not sure if there should be. Or if this is the right decision for the two either, because of all our investment in them and the books. Brian Wood definitely keeps things moving at a good pace but we get our quiet moments as well which definitely helps. I like what we’re presented with overall and the way the character arcs have gone but I’m still holding my breath for some finality. Wood and Carey have a really good run here with the Resistance series and I’m curious to see what’s in store for the Alien comics universe overall going forward.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 8th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
