Written by: Brian Wood
Art by: Stephen Thomson & Dan Jackson
Publisher: Dark Horse
In my review for Aliens Defiance #1, I made the claim that this story exists to play with ones expectations of the Alien franchise. As of Issue #7, I still hold to that claim: This series exists to play with your expectations.
As a fan of the franchise, I know what happens when space marines, civilians of varying types, and even Predators get facehugged and implanted with an embryo. Aliens Defiance gives us—or me, at any rate—our first doctor.
It…it changes things up.
Zara might be a space marine, but she isn’t our badass of this story, Hollis is. Issue #7 revolves almost exclusively around her and her take-charge approach to what is a death sentence 99% of the time. She has a monster growing in her chest, and her attitude is to shoot up some drugs and cut the thing out herself. Davis helps some to be sure, but Hollis is the one leading this operation.
Meanwhile, Zara mostly watches and plays moral support.
(And before any one asks, I do consider this to be quite a bit different from what took place in Prometheus. Shaw wasn’t a doctor doctor from what I remember, and she had some very powerful medical equipment doing her dirty work. She plugged in what she wanted and it took over. Hollis here is the one holding a scalpel.)
The best part about this sequence (and its follow-ups) is that it’s almost entirely told through artwork. Stephen Thomson and Dan Jackson are front-and-center here, and both are doing great work. At this point it isn’t surprising that Aliens Defiance looks good, but yeah, Aliens Defiance looks good.
That surgery made me friggin’ squirm!
To cap it all off, Davis once again gets another few doses of humanity. I suppose he’s similar to Call in a way, since she was pretty human and certainly regretted her android heritage, but she started the movie off that way. With this comic, we’re seeing Davis progress from robot to person. It’s a journey of personal discovery that parallel’s Zara’s, though while Davis’ is positive, Zara’s is negative.
Listen, I really enjoyed the Fire and Stone run last year, and I’m digging the hell out of Dan Abnett’s Life and Death run this year, but Aliens Defiance is the best the bunch. It’s a driving plot with big characters and tons of horror in between.
