Aliens Defiance comic book series questions?

Started by Camarguess, Sep 08, 2021, 08:05:09 AM

Author
Aliens Defiance comic book series questions? (Read 2,737 times)

Camarguess

Just finished reading Aliens Defiance. It was a decent read. Some parts were really good, but I found it difficult following along in the story, as there are a lot of flashbacks and the story isn't told in a linear fashion. There's a lot of going back and forth in time. Anyway, I have a couple questions regarding the series for any of you that have read it. First, from my understanding, Zula was injured by her own marines on her first mission, did the mission involve fighting the aliens, and why on earth would her fellow brothers and sisters in arms give her shit if Colonial Marines were the reason she was disabled anyway? Lastly, how did the Alien Queen die? She was kicking ass and taking names on issue 9, but in issue 10 it appears that she was dead, and the reason why Weyland Yutani / and or the Colonial Marines fired upon Zula's ship, as the agreement to their safe return to earth involved bringing back a live Alien specimen. I know in the grand scheme of it all, that those details probably don't matter all that much as the story itself continues in Aliens Resistance, but missing details like that bugs the heck out of me. Thanks for the replies in advance.

Corporal Hicks

If I'm remember rightly, whatever they fight are called "bugs" but they're not Aliens. It's never made clear who they're actually fighting.

In regards to the Queen's sudden death...yeah, there's no answer to that. Just happens. Ones of the disappointing elements of the series.

Camarguess

Hey Hicks! Yeah. I really like Zula as a character, and there was some pretty exciting moments in the series, like when when Davis is seen holding a Xenomorph finger and then a little later we find out that Weyland Yutani has the capacity to essentially clone the aliens, and then later we find there's no connection regarding that finger and the cloning of the aliens. There were quite a few moments like that where ideas were kind of just dropped or skipped. I thought for sure Davis was going to turn on Zula and Hollis lol, but it never happened. The other one that bugs me was the idea of keeping the Queen alive to figure out their weaknesses. I wanted to know what they found out, but nothing came of it. It made this series kind of just mediocre to me, which is disappointing as the art and the characters were really good. Let's see if it gets any better going into Aliens Resistance.

426Buddy

Camarguess you are pretty spot on with your thoughts on Defiance.

Unfortunately the quality takes a very steep dive in regards to Resistance and Recue.

Camarguess

It gets worse?! Oh geez. You'd think one of the last Alien comic runs from dark horse would be good. That's disappointing. I don't own all the Alien comics (yet), but so far my favorites are in the first volume. Aliens (1988), Aliens (1989), Rogue, Hive, and Genocide. The stories were good and the art is beautiful, especially in Aliens (1989), Den Beauvais' art is some of the best I've seen in Alien comics. Thanks for the reply.

Corporal Hicks

Unfortunately yeah. Resistance is ok. Rescue is terrible. The quality of the run declines once Tristan comes off it and isn't influencing the story too.

judge death

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 09, 2021, 10:53:23 AM
Unfortunately yeah. Resistance is ok. Rescue is terrible. The quality of the run declines once Tristan comes off it and isn't influencing the story too.
Myself find rescue to be better than resistance where not much happened while in rescue there was several stuff I liked.
But Defiance 1 is the best in that series, defiance 2 was a let down. Resistance and rescue are about same level as defiance 2 to me.
Good comics but never excelling, besides defiance 1 which is close to.

For the queen in defiance 2: I dont remember it 100% correctly but I thought they frooze it down to keeo it unable to go for them until they find a way to kill it or make sure WY done get it, later with the pirates coming they use it to take them out. I dont remember any big issues writing wise besides fast hurrying through certain themes and dropping some parts suddenly but overall it do a proper alien story to me, and needs some rereading to get all backtracking.

there are two theories:
1: the queen died from lack of air as she was let loose and attacking those pirates in the empty space with no air.
2: It receiver enough injuries from the pirates that it died from it.
I go with option 2 these days.

For Dark horse best comics before disney take over:
Aliens dust to dust is really good, and also a must read is dead orbit, its awesome!
The best comic to read, great art and good story and handles the xeno drone with respect: thicker than blood, I hold it up there in the top of alien comics.

Camarguess

Camarguess

#7
I have Aliens Dust to dust, it was ok. Art work was great though. Interesting concept on inherited memories from host. I don't know maybe I have to re read it. I liked it better than defiance though. I've heard of how good dead orbit is.l, I have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestions.

Xenomrph

I'm one of those people who wasn't a huge fan of Dead Orbit, I liked Dust to Dust a lot more.

kie

kie

#9
Just got through Inferno's fall (urgh, poor) and I thought I'd read through Defiance again to get the Zulu / Davis backstory... What a mess!

The story completely nosedives after fishing the Alien out of Hollis's body. A real shame as the majority of the first 6 were excellent, particularly the ones with Tristan's artwork.

The last few issues literally make no sense, i had to check the numbers to see i hadn't skipped an issue :o

Spoiler
Numerous issues that stick out - Hendricks returns to earth (total pivot) and as a result Hollis dies, sort of as an afterthought, and when Zulu finds out she shows no remorse! Also, as mentioned, how did the Alien queen die after they comment she barely had a scratch on her? Why did the ship fall apart all of sudden.. etc
[close]
Seems like it was just rewritten on the fly past a certain point, and then cancelled with a weak extremely fragmented conclusion. Reminded me of the Colonial Marines comic, which, after a spellbinding start veered off course drastically and suffered from the same art, pacing and plot inconsistencies...


Oh, i just realised two points...

1. The series is split into volumes 1 & 2 (6 issues each). Volume 1 is generally very good, particularly the the ones with Tristan's sublimely atmospheric art. Volume 2 is pretty much nonsense.

2. There is an intermediary comic 'Defiance: Extravehicular' which explains what happens to the queen... I read these on kindle, which doesn't help! 
 

AvPGalaxy: About | Contact | Cookie Policy | Manage Cookie Settings | Privacy Policy | Legal Info
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Patreon RSS Feed
Contact: General Queries | Submit News