Written by: Dan Abnett
Art by: Brian Albert Thies
Publisher: Dark Horse
Given Aliens vs. Predator’s track record, I should not be excited for these next four comics. The AvP movies are nothing short of bad—and I say that as a huge fanboy—and the Dark Horse Aliens vs. Predator: Fire and Stone run isn’t going to win any awards. It was great at first, an explosion of gore and gore, but it got…well, really, really strange really, really fast.
I shouldn’t be excited for Aliens vs. Predator: Life and Death, but I am. I am so very excited!
AvP as a concept brings chaos, senseless violence, and my favorite fiction trope: from bad to worse. It’s not one impossible foe but two, and as of now, ammo is short and there aren’t any places left to hide. There’s also a planet-full of Xenomorphs after Chris because she has a baby queen growing in her stomach.
Oh, and the ground group have lost contact with their ride home, so it’s more like “from bad to worse to even worse.”
What Dan Abnett gives us is a 22-page piece of tension that explodes into violence at the drop of a hat. Lurking around every corner is something out for blood, and between those corners are characters on their last legs and with no real hope left. It’s bitter survival and gallows humor because that’s all anyone has left, and it’s all handled damn well.
I love what Mr. Abnett has done to the original Fire and Stone crew, especially Ahab and Chris/Jill. Oh, Ahab is back in this one, by the way. That shouldn’t be surprising given the “vs. Predators” in the title, but yeah, our Predator friend is back and with a vengeance.
Brian Albert Thies joins the crew as our next artist, and he’s a welcome breath of fresh air. His action scenes are killer, easy to follow and flashy-as-hell, yet still grounded in the reality of the world. There’s no cartoon violence here, even if the amount of Xenomorphs Ahab kills approaches a cartoon level.
His facial expressions, models, and general everything are also pretty killer. He is what this series needs to finish itself off.
AvP:LaD #1 is starting off with a bang, and I mean that in a very literal sense. There are explosions aplenty. It’s a good thing, and while the horror elements this comic had in its beginning pages have all but left, we’re now in for an action treat.
