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

[Ultramorph]

I was lucky enough that one of my friends in high school let me borrow his copy of AvPvT, so I never had to spend a dime on it. 

[Xenomrph]

I much preferred the original 'Batman vs Predator' out of any of the Batman crossovers, although 'Batman vs Aliens' is okay. Batman vs Predator 2 and 3 have their moments (like the Predator being unable to see Mr. Freeze in thermal vision, that was clever) but on the whole they're not as good as the original.

The original Judge Dredd crossovers were a good time (l liked the Aliens one more than the Predator one); I have the trade paperback for the new series but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

I remember Green Lantern vs Aliens being pretty neat and I've been meaning to re-read it.

The Top Cow half of the Witchblade/Darkness/Aliens/Predator crossover is entertaining, mostly because the Top Cow writers and artists fully embraced how ridiculous the crossover was and just dialed the insanity to 11 because who really cares. The Dark Horse half of the crossover took itself really seriously and, uh, the results weren't good.

Aliens vs Predator vs Terminator is real bad - it's one of the few series that I don't have every issue for. Every once in a while the completionist in me says "hey, maybe you should complete the series", and then I'll re-read the issues I have and remember why I don't.

Just bin the issues you already own and ignore it's existence lol.

Not a bad idea haha.

[Ultramorph]

Hearing rumors that the Disney deal is going to actually happen. I wonder if DH re-released all those DC crossovers over the last year because they knew this was coming?

[Russ840]

Hearing rumors that the Disney deal is going to actually happen. I wonder if DH re-released all those DC crossovers over the last year because they knew this was coming?

Does make you think don't it. I hear they are very close to a deal.

[Xenomrph]

I'm finally getting around to reading 'Aliens: Defiance', and volume 1 (the first 6 issues) is a hell of a lot stronger than volume 2 (the last 6). The first 6 feels like they were writing an ongoing series with no end in sight and infinite possibilities, but the moment volume 2 starts it immediately feels like the writers knew they had to end the story in X issues and were scrambling to tie things up. The scope shrinks dramatically, plot points get resolved with no real payoff, it just isn't very satisfying compared to the first half.

I haven't quite finished volume 2 yet, but my question at this point is how did the Queen onboard the Europa die? We see it slaughter the pirates and is standing over their corpses, with Davis and Zula commenting that it looks like it barely took a scratch. And then the next time we see it, it's dead and Davis is strapping something to it as they're approaching Earth. Did I miss something?

[Russ840]

I had the same issue when I read it. I took it that she eventually succumbed to her injuries.

[Still Collating...]

But the problem for me was that no injuries were visible. Maybe it got too cold for her...  Anyway, clumsily executed and not a really fitting end for the Queen.
Though I have to hand it to them. At least they didn't go with throwing her out of the airlock.

[Xenomrph]

But the problem for me was that no injuries were visible. Maybe it got too cold for her...  Anyway, clumsily executed and not a really fitting end for the Queen.
Though I have to hand it to them. At least they didn't go with throwing her out of the airlock.

To be fair the Queen has a few bullet holes visible during the rampage, but they're not visible when it's standing over the pile of dead pirates.

Also I just got the 4 Life and Death trade paperbacks in the mail, what is the read order for those? After I finish Defiance I think I'm gonna go back and re-read Fire and Stone, as a primer for Life and Death.

[david8]

predator>prometheus>aliens>avp
then final conflict is in prometheus.

[SM]

I had the same issue when I read it. I took it that she eventually succumbed to her injuries.

Extended exposure to vacuum I thought.

[Xenomrph]

I had the same issue when I read it. I took it that she eventually succumbed to her injuries.

Extended exposure to vacuum I thought.

Speaking of, earlier in the series Davis says he can only handle hard vacuum for a limited time, but he seemed pretty okay with it when hiding from the Queen and then messing with her corpse.

Also yeah sure you can write off Davis' willingness to shoot and kill humans as him never having been programmed with the First Law of Robotics like, say, Bishop was, or that he evolved past that programming when he was hacking himself, but I'd have preferred if it had at least gotten some lip service.

Also I finished volume 2 and hooo boy, what a clunker. The only actual Alien in those six issues is an under-utilized Queen that can't decide if it's alive or dead (not counting flashbacks and hallucinations I guess), with the entire second half feeling like a build-up to the return to earth.... which happens with all the impact of a wet fart. Hollis and Davis die off-panel, the corporate surveillance angle is half-baked and then totally disregarded when it's no longer convenient, the original Colonial Marines series had better closure than Defiance (and a lot more Aliens, and more interesting characters, and more varied locations).

Christ what a disappointment. The first half was freaking great and set up a ton of cool possibilities for a long-running series, and then it went right into a tailspin with issue 7 and never recovered.

[Russ840]

I had the same issue when I read it. I took it that she eventually succumbed to her injuries.

Extended exposure to vacuum I thought.

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.

I had the same issue when I read it. I took it that she eventually succumbed to her injuries.

Extended exposure to vacuum I thought.

Speaking of, earlier in the series Davis says he can only handle hard vacuum for a limited time, but he seemed pretty okay with it when hiding from the Queen and then messing with her corpse.

Also yeah sure you can write off Davis' willingness to shoot and kill humans as him never having been programmed with the First Law of Robotics like, say, Bishop was, or that he evolved past that programming when he was hacking himself, but I'd have preferred if it had at least gotten some lip service.

Also I finished volume 2 and hooo boy, what a clunker. The only actual Alien in those six issues is an under-utilized Queen that can't decide if it's alive or dead (not counting flashbacks and hallucinations I guess), with the entire second half feeling like a build-up to the return to earth.... which happens with all the impact of a wet fart. Hollis and Davis die off-panel, the corporate surveillance angle is half-baked and then totally disregarded when it's no longer convenient, the original Colonial Marines series had better closure than Defiance (and a lot more Aliens, and more interesting characters, and more varied locations).

Christ what a disappointment. The first half was freaking great and set up a ton of cool possibilities for a long-running series, and then it went right into a tailspin with issue 7 and never recovered.

I thought issue 7 was excellent. The rest, although weak compared to 1-7, I still would not compare to A:CM's.

[SM]

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.

[Xenomrph]

Comparisons to the Colonial Marines comic are asinine.

Not really, though? They're both lengthy miniseries about people hopping around the galaxy exterminating Aliens. The difference is, Defiance doesn't have any Aliens in the second half of its run, visits half as many locations as Colonial Marines did, has half as many interesting characters (and kills two of them off-panel!), and somehow manages to have an even more abrupt and less satisfying ending than its predecessor.
They're also both the longest Aliens series to date, and were both seemingly plagued with production problems later on in their run that caused them to get cut short.

I'll admit that it's been a long time since I last read Colonial Marines, but at least I had fun with the series from beginning to end the last time I read it. I can't say the same about Defiance.

[Russ840]

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.