Written by: Dan Abnett
Art by: Brian Albert Thies
Publisher: Dark Horse
As far as the Dark Horse Life and Death series is concerned, we’re now 14/17. That’s damn far in, and honestly, too far in to have a blatant issue of “between” plot points. Aliens vs. Predator: Life and Death #1 ended on a big cliffhanger in regards to Ahab and his allegiance with Galgo and the rest of the human survivors. As of #2, that cliffhanger has not been resolved.
That’s a problem.
Let’s back up for a bit, if we may, further back than Dan Abnett’s run on AvP. Back in the 90’s (because of course this started in the 90’s), we had our first comic book run of Aliens and Predators fighting as a societal ritual, and when I first read that story in high school, I was on board. It made sense in a kind of stupid way, and hey, it was fun.
The thing is, the concept hasn’t evolved since then. AvP:LaD #2 is turning into just one more cog in this machine. The Predators here still have the same societal culture based around hunting, war, and other kinds of traditional masculine tropes, only now I’m not in high school anymore. Watching Predators play politics while not speaking a lick of English just isn’t that interesting. I’ve seen it before. It’s a shame too, because the first four or so pages of this comic are very, very tense, and then it just fizzles out. Sure there’s some action thrown in, and I suppose that’s a bit tense too, but at the end of the day, not enough happened for an issue this late in.
Jill’s still stuck with a queen alien in her, the Xenomorphs are still charging to overrun and kill everyone, and the getaway ship is still MIA.
Looking at this series as a whole, I can see how Mr. Abnett might be stuck between a rock and a hard place. This comic is released monthly, and as a monthly installment, I feel like not enough happened; however, in terms of the overall narrative, not giving Ahab’s meeting with his fellow Predators a full issue would be pretty lame.
But at the same time, not resolving #1’s cliffhanger is also lame.
As far as artwork goes, Brian Albert Thies is still knocking it out of the park. More characters are meeting up, and this third switch in artists is lending itself to some problems of, “who is that again?” because the characters are all drawn a bit differently, but it’s never a major issue. This isn’t Sandman where the art styles were sometimes radically different.
On the whole, the Dark Horse Life and Death series has thus far been fantastic. There have, however, been a few slipups, and I count this issue as one of them. I’d have been perfectly happy with the Predator politics had they ended with a more concrete resolution, but instead I’m stuck waiting for #3. Buying this in trades would, of course, resolve this problem.
I guess the good news is that #3 is going into not one but two cliffhangers, and it’ll be pretty explosive because of it.
