Credits:
Written by Randy
Stradley
Pencils by Jim Hall,
Mark Heike, Phill Norwood, Mike Manley, Javier Saltares, Chris Warner
Inks by Phill
Norwood, Jimmy Palmiotti, Ricardo Villagran
Colors by Chris
Chalenor, Frank Lopez, James Sinclair
Lettering by Steve
Dutro, Vickie Williams
Covers by Duncan
Fegredo
For years now, Dark
Horse has proven that comics based on movie properties can rise above reader
expectations. The trick is to find the elements of the films that go deep
enough to find entire worlds in. With both Aliens and Predator, Dark Horse had
the benefit of concepts and world-building that already hinted at huge stories
that could hardly be filmed.
The Alien was first
designed by HR Giger and hyper-designed with a host of bizarre and dangerous attributes
(strange stages of development, acid for blood, bee-like intelligence), and
lent itself to stories that took more and more time looking deeper into the
possibilities of that creature. Where did it come from? How did they get so far
out in space? How many of them are they?
The Predator was a
gimmick in the film: a hunter from space, who could turn invisible and loved
hunting intelligent live game. The comics looked deeper, finding a culture of
the hunter, whole sets of rules and taboos. They call themselves “the Hunters,”
incidentally.
Putting them together
was a work of inspiration, no doubt inspired by the shot in Predator II, in
which an alien head is seen in the Predator’s “trophy hall.” The idea is that
the Predators have deliberately aided the Aliens in moving across the galaxy.
Why? To set up hunting planets, where they can go and hunt aliens.
Who’s in the way? We
are.
ALIENS VS. PREDATOR:
WAR is really about Aliens and Predators vs. Humans, with a few surprises
(sometimes, depending on who’s standing, it might be Aliens vs. Predators and
Humans.) And what tiny creatures we humans are, here. The two alien races are
akin to gods, they kill us for their sport, and its not even that much sport.
The story follows two
major strands. In one, a set of marines trying to get to the bottom of the
Alien massacre of yet another entire colony (that reliably loathsome Company is
involved, of course.) In the other, a woman named Machiko Noguchi, who has
lived with the Hunters for some time, learns the ways of the Hunters and tries
desperately to prove herself. She’s succeeding, somewhat, but the comic is
brave enough to suggest it’s a lost cause: we don’t finally get the sense that
the Hunters are not so bad after all, to a human. A fish out of water lives a
dangerous life among these people. Eventually, as these things tend to go, the
strands overlap.
The benefit of
reading the Aliens and Predators comics is that the writers take the time to
delve deep, telling us the thoughts and drives of the alien races- - these scenes
would be impossible for the screen; they are the strict domain of science fiction
prose. Rather than a rehash of a favorite movie, Dark Horse takes you past the
movie, opening up a fantastically deep world. ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: WAR is good science
fiction made more engrossing by good art. What more could an SF fan ask?