Image courtesy of Marvel Comics
Once Dark Horse Comics acquired the license to publish Alien comic books, it wasn’t long before they started doing crossovers with other properties, the first of which was the incredible, iconic and hugely influential “Alien vs Predator” back in 1989. Aliens has crossed over into many, many different series with varying degrees of success. Some of the DC crossovers, such as Batman/Alien, have, somewhat surprisingly, been very successful.
When Dark Horse lost its Marvel license due to parent company Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox (which owns the rights to the Alien and Predator franchises), it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the character would appear in the Marvel Universe, but the comic book publisher has been admirably restrained in its approach: Predator has crossed over with Wolverine (very successfully, I might add) and most recently Black Panther, while the Alien Xenomorphs have remained in their own universe.
That was the case until now. Marvel has brought together writer Jonathan Hickman, who is responsible for some very dense, long-running comic storytelling, and the incredibly talented Esad Ribic, whose incredibly detailed and beautiful drawings are always astounding. This dream team has come together to create Aliens vs Avengers. So how does the first issue handle combining the two series for the first time?
Apparently the Shi’ar are in possession of the Xenomorphs and are using them to experiment on various alien races, creating new species of monstrous creatures in the process. The space-faring Wakandans try to stop them, but it’s too late: the Shi’ar have seeded various worlds with the Xenomorphs, including Earth.
But as the issue begins, it quickly starts to feel like a typical Jonathan Hickman work, with slightly more obscure characters than the average reader might know, and a bit more lore depth, but after a lengthy prologue it quickly switches gears and becomes something entirely different, as familiar characters are pulled out of their comfortable status quo and thrust into a desperate, never-ending battle with the Xenomorphs. By the time the story really gets going, many of our heroes have already fallen.
As an Alien fan, I was pretty nervous about how well the Xenomorphs would work in a story based in the Marvel Universe, and whether it would end up being a cheesy crossover like so many of the others have.
There was no need to worry: in Hickman and Ribic’s extremely capable hands, the comic doesn’t downplay the very real threat posed by the Xenomorphs, and doesn’t shy away from actually killing off characters, even if much of that happens off-screen (and arguably leaves open the possibility for characters to make surprise returns later in the series).
Nevertheless, thanks to Ribic’s stunning pseudo-realistic art and Hickman’s skillful writing, Aliens vs. Avengers gets off to a great start with issue #1, and ends with an unexpected cliffhanger.
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