Written by: Brian Wood
Art by: Tristan Jones & Dan Jackson
Publisher: Dark Horse
Real talk: I’m drowning in awesome Alien comics right now. Between Dan Abnett killing it with Life and Death and Brian Wood smashing Aliens: Defiance out of the park, I’m basically guaranteed tense, gruesome death from my favorite monster in cinema twice a month. It’s so a good thing. Like, you don’t even know how good it is! So good!
Aliens: Defiance #5 is heavy. I’ve talked before how Zara has gone through this remarkable character evolution—or perhaps devolution—before, from gung-ho marine to mutineer, and Issue #5 really takes that one step further. She’s basically a pirate now. As a reader, I view what she’s doing as noble, as the right thing, but if I mentally step into her shoes, I’m just hit with internal conflict.
This whole series is turning into a story about sacrificing your principles for the greater good.
All good stories should have an element of man vs. the self in them. It’s all fine and good to watch a hero take down a villain, but if the hero has no doubt, no internal conflict in the process, then he’s boring. His victory holds no weight. This story here is almost the reverse. It’s turning into more of a man vs. the self than it is a man vs. the foe. The Xenomorphs are always a threat, but they are not the main threat. That is Zara herself.
And Davis too, really. Damn but he’s a complicated character.
I’m pretty sure I’ve praised Tristan and Dan before on their artwork in this series. It’s as good as ever. What they do in this issue to one-up themselves though is put gore to a good use. Liberal gore is just shocking and edgy for the sake of it, but one panel or one page of high-end gore before going back to dark shadows and off-screen death? That’s how you do it. It makes the off-screen stuff all the more horrifying, and it makes the Xenomorphs all the more terrifying.
As an fan of Alien and Aliens (and the other two films really but that’s a conversation for another day), I couldn’t be happier. We’re getting awesome stories set in this universe on a regular basis. It’s so a good thing. Like, you don’t even know how good it is. So good.
