Comics Update - Aliens: Defiance, Prometheus/Predator: Life and Death

[Xenomrph]

Comparisons to the Colonial Marines comic are asinine.

That seems logical but given that in some examples of the EU, Aliens can survive in vacuum, I didn't think that was the reason.

Depends which EU.  In the Rage War Alien they needed breathing apparatus in space.  And in issue 4 they find a stack of Aliens floating dead in space, so it was kinda flagged.

Seen as Rage wars is part of the recent attempt to have a coherent EU and so is Defiance, it would seem that vacuum is a fair conclusion then.

There's no denying there are less-confusing ways Defiance could have handled it, though. We go from "the Queen doesn't have a scratch on her, what do we do when she gets hungry again???" to "stone cold dead" without a single comment from any characters about what happened or why. Even a token "huh, I guess they can't survive in a vacuum" would have cleared up people's confusion.

[Russ840]

I do agree that there is some questionable storytelling in the last 5 issues of Defiance but I would never put it anywhere near CM. Defiance still turned out to be one of the better Aliens comics we have had.

Colonial Marines, along with Xenogenesis and one or two others, is an example of an Aliens comic I would not purchase a fancy pants hardcover of. That shows that 'I' truly can't stand those books because I love collecting hardcovers. Defiance I'd buy all day long.

[Still Collating...]

I forgot about the vacuum. Though one of the reasons being that in Alien Isolation they clearly have no problem with a vacuum, at least exposed for a couple of minutes. I know it's not the most logical idea, but I always liked seeing the alien survive for at least a short while in space while the humans are in their clunky spacesuits. Ads to the the alien's toughness, making their hard and creepy exoskeleton/skin a kind of a spacesuit of their own.
To be honest, even though I really liked the Rage War trilogy, the aliens with breathing apparatuses seemed kinda weird and silly to me personally. Though if this is the new norm, then I can't say I don't understand why. But lets not forget Alien Isolation...  I guess the best reconciliation is they could maybe survive a few minutes in a vacuum with no problem, but not for too long. They are mortal after all.

And yeah, the last third is definitely weaker, but over all I enjoyed the series. I definitely want more longer stories like this. And a continuation of this one as well. I would just like them to not change direction or the flow of the overall series when we get to the later issues.
I liked Fire and Stone quiet a lot, though Life and Death not so much... For me, the story was less engaging and the artwork didn't help. That's why Defiance and Dead Orbit are so refreshing.
All in all, can't wait for more.

[Xenomrph]

I do agree that there is some questionable storytelling in the last 5 issues of Defiance but I would never put it anywhere near CM. Defiance still turned out to be one of the better Aliens comics we have had.

I'd agree if issues 7-12 didn't drag Defiance down so heavily, because the first half of the series was freaking great and I was eager for more. I didn't even mind the change in artists (although Tristan's art was fantastic and a big draw of the first part of the series).
I'll have to re-read Colonial Marines and see if I suddenly hate it (it's been near a decade since I last read it), but even though Colonial Marines got insane and had one of the most abrupt, wacky endings out of any Aliens comic, at least Colonial Marines never felt like a pointless slog for several issues in a row, and Colonial Marines' insanity was at least memorable if not outright fun. Knowing that 5/12ths of Defiance is literally "nothing happens, 2/3 of the cast die off-panel, there are no Aliens, and then it ends", I'd be more inclined to go back and re-read Colonial Marines than Defiance.

It just sucks because I'd absolutely love more long-form ongoing Aliens/Predator series where we can really build up the characters and relationships and explore their world and have ongoing or recurring plot points, etc, and the first 6 issues of Defiance felt like it was going to be exactly that. It's when the series makes a literal U-turn and goes back the way it came that it just totally loses me.
And then it had the audacity to end on a "the mission isn't over!" cliffhanger? The writing was on the wall when what was intended to be an ongoing series with no set endpoint was suddenly given an endpoint. If the mission isn't over, why try to wrap everything up, kill most of the cast, and put the protagonist right back where she started (albeit with a seemingly fixed spine), and not announce any sort of follow-up or continuation series?

[SM]

I do agree that there is some questionable storytelling in the last 5 issues of Defiance but I would never put it anywhere near CM. Defiance still turned out to be one of the better Aliens comics we have had.

Colonial Marines, along with Xenogenesis and one or two others, is an example of an Aliens comic I would not purchase a fancy pants hardcover of. That shows that 'I' truly can't stand those books because I love collecting hardcovers. Defiance I'd buy all day long.

I really liked the whole angle of Hollis removing the Queen from herself and then their attempt to freeze it in the second half of the story.  And Zula's retrieval of Davis' chip at the end.  The second half of the story wasn't as strong as the first half, but I agree it's one of the better stories.

[Corporal Hicks]

Indeed. There was definitely stuff in the backend that was really interesting and strong. And if I remember rightly, wasn't the series initially only a 10 issue run that got extended a bit?

[HuDaFuK]

I didn't think the second half was bad by any means.

But it definitely seemed like it shifted and went in a different direction from what the first half was setting up, and that disappointed me.

[Xenomrph]

I do agree that there is some questionable storytelling in the last 5 issues of Defiance but I would never put it anywhere near CM. Defiance still turned out to be one of the better Aliens comics we have had.

Colonial Marines, along with Xenogenesis and one or two others, is an example of an Aliens comic I would not purchase a fancy pants hardcover of. That shows that 'I' truly can't stand those books because I love collecting hardcovers. Defiance I'd buy all day long.

I really liked the whole angle of Hollis removing the Queen from herself and then their attempt to freeze it in the second half of the story.  And Zula's retrieval of Davis' chip at the end.  The second half of the story wasn't as strong as the first half, but I agree it's one of the better stories.

The Queen removal and freezing was one of the things I didn't like - it made it seem trivially easy to remove an Alien (which undermines the implied "death sentence" and "walking time bomb" aspect of getting facehugged), and I couldn't fathom why they opted to keep the Queen around at the time. Their entire mission was to exterminate all Aliens, and they choose to keep a Queen just for chuckles? lolwut?

Zula's retrieval of Davis' chip was cool, though. I liked that it gave a sort of "payoff" to the number on his head other than a visual indicator, and implied that you could plug his chip into any Davis body and he'd be back.

Indeed. There was definitely stuff in the backend that was really interesting and strong. And if I remember rightly, wasn't the series initially only a 10 issue run that got extended a bit?

Every article I've found while googling it has said it started as an "ongoing" series, which tends to mean "no end planned". When the creators go into a series with a pre-determined beginning, middle, and end, they tend to call it something else.

[Ultramorph]

Yeah it was initially announced as an ongoing, but it was quickly established that the initial order was 12 issues.

[Xenomrph]

Interesting, thanks for the clarification.

[Ultramorph]

Utterly bored at my night job, so I found this scrolling though Facebook. Back in June I commented on one of Randy Stradley's rare posts, and never noticed that he responded.

My comment:

Hope there's a sequel to Life and Death in the works! They must have landed on Paradise at the end.

His response:

Well, this is one of those things I can't speak about right now. Soon, though -- I hope!

So maybe there is another crossover coming, assuming buyout shenanigans don't interfere.

[happypred]

An ongoing AvP series would be a dream come true

[Russ840]

Utterly bored at my night job, so I found this scrolling though Facebook. Back in June I commented on one of Randy Stradley's rare posts, and never noticed that he responded.

My comment:

Hope there's a sequel to Life and Death in the works! They must have landed on Paradise at the end.

His response:

Well, this is one of those things I can't speak about right now. Soon, though -- I hope!

So maybe there is another crossover coming, assuming buyout shenanigans don't interfere.

Cool. I really should use Twitter and Facebook to follow these guys.

[Ultramorph]

The Disney deal is as good as done, it seems. DH's March and April solicitations will be very telling, I imagine.

[Russ840]

The Disney deal is as good as done, it seems. DH's March and April solicitations will be very telling, I imagine.

Yeah. I hope that does not mean the AVP fancy pants is cancelled.