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A review by wyrmbergmalcolm
DC Comics/Dark Horse: Aliens by Bernie Wrightson, Ian Edginton, Chris Sprouse, Kevin Nowlan, Jimmy Broxton, Staz Johnson, Ron Marz
4.0
This graphic novel combines 3 DC/Dark Horse Aliens crossovers books: Batman/Aliens, Batman/Aliens II and Batman and Superman Vs. Aliens And Predator. It also includes WildC.A.T.S/Aliens that had only been published as a comic, or as part of another TPB.
Batman/Aliens
The first story sees that brooding caped crusader in the middle of a jungle looking for a missing employee of Wayne Enterprises. Instead he finds a team of mercenaries and a hidden spaceship with something really nasty on board. At this point, the Xenomorphs are a completely unknown entity and none of the character knows what they're getting into. What follows is a pretty good Aliens story with Batman doing his best to survive. Although a little more violent that usual Batman fare, this is quite tame for an Aliens story, with the gore setting as quite low. Also, I know Batman's quite fast and pretty strong, but how he's able to grapple xenomorphs time and time again and come away pretty much unharmed get less believable every time (yes I know it's Batman vs. Aliens and believably is not the first thing to pick up on, but still). I did enjoy the story and the appearance of a crocodile-born xenomorph was pretty cool.
Batman/Aliens II
This one I have as a TPB so am struggling to know if I count this whole book as 1 book or 3. In this one Aliens have been brought to Gotham leaving Batman to grapple with the xenomorphs once again. This time he does have a special suit to help him not die immediately. This one's upped the gore factor a little, but also given more thought to providing a story. As usual with these things, there's a secret facility who wants to use the xenomorphs as weapons, this time by splicing their DNA with that of some of the choice residents of Arkham Asylum. Always a good idea that... This leads to a ridiculous, but very enjoyable confrontation between these hybrids and the caped human.
Superman and Batman Vs. Aliens and Predator
Despite the long title, this was quite an interesting story surrounding a long-isolated group of Predators and their traditional alien game. Following separate leads, Batman and reporters Louis and Clark meet up and do their best to salvage the situation despite Superman's unswerving intent to not take any life, even if it's a Xenomorph.
This story takes place after both heroes have had their individual stories chronicling their encounters with xenomorphs and Yautja so both know what they're up against. Having Louis Land there as well does add a fragility to the human representatives. Unfortunately, even though this is chock full of all of these elements, there wasn't a lot to the story itself and the Aliens, for the most part, were mostly just... there.
WildC.A.T.S/Aliens
Not knowing anything about WildC.A.T.S. I did struggle to care about the characters in this one. I felt that some introduction would have benefited here to bring the reader up to speed about any of the related stuff going on in this story. This was another base-under-siege story with Aliens verses a team of super heroes. Again, the characters have no idea what they're facing which did help bring up the tension. This time though, as I didn't know who anybody was, I didn't know if any of the character deaths, or discovered bodies had any significance beyond them being know by members of the super team. The really interesting premise of having xenomorphs being born of super heroes features the super attributes of their birth places was unfortunately woefully underused. Only one alien got to demonstrate its power and briefly at that. I felt that was a missed opportunity. Imagine a hoard of xenomorphs where each creature has a super power. Oh well.
It was okay for what it was but nothing to make me want to find out more about WildC.A.T.S.
Batman/Aliens
The first story sees that brooding caped crusader in the middle of a jungle looking for a missing employee of Wayne Enterprises. Instead he finds a team of mercenaries and a hidden spaceship with something really nasty on board. At this point, the Xenomorphs are a completely unknown entity and none of the character knows what they're getting into. What follows is a pretty good Aliens story with Batman doing his best to survive. Although a little more violent that usual Batman fare, this is quite tame for an Aliens story, with the gore setting as quite low. Also, I know Batman's quite fast and pretty strong, but how he's able to grapple xenomorphs time and time again and come away pretty much unharmed get less believable every time (yes I know it's Batman vs. Aliens and believably is not the first thing to pick up on, but still). I did enjoy the story and the appearance of a crocodile-born xenomorph was pretty cool.
Batman/Aliens II
This one I have as a TPB so am struggling to know if I count this whole book as 1 book or 3. In this one Aliens have been brought to Gotham leaving Batman to grapple with the xenomorphs once again. This time he does have a special suit to help him not die immediately. This one's upped the gore factor a little, but also given more thought to providing a story. As usual with these things, there's a secret facility who wants to use the xenomorphs as weapons, this time by splicing their DNA with that of some of the choice residents of Arkham Asylum. Always a good idea that... This leads to a ridiculous, but very enjoyable confrontation between these hybrids and the caped human.
Superman and Batman Vs. Aliens and Predator
Despite the long title, this was quite an interesting story surrounding a long-isolated group of Predators and their traditional alien game. Following separate leads, Batman and reporters Louis and Clark meet up and do their best to salvage the situation despite Superman's unswerving intent to not take any life, even if it's a Xenomorph.
This story takes place after both heroes have had their individual stories chronicling their encounters with xenomorphs and Yautja so both know what they're up against. Having Louis Land there as well does add a fragility to the human representatives. Unfortunately, even though this is chock full of all of these elements, there wasn't a lot to the story itself and the Aliens, for the most part, were mostly just... there.
WildC.A.T.S/Aliens
Not knowing anything about WildC.A.T.S. I did struggle to care about the characters in this one. I felt that some introduction would have benefited here to bring the reader up to speed about any of the related stuff going on in this story. This was another base-under-siege story with Aliens verses a team of super heroes. Again, the characters have no idea what they're facing which did help bring up the tension. This time though, as I didn't know who anybody was, I didn't know if any of the character deaths, or discovered bodies had any significance beyond them being know by members of the super team. The really interesting premise of having xenomorphs being born of super heroes features the super attributes of their birth places was unfortunately woefully underused. Only one alien got to demonstrate its power and briefly at that. I felt that was a missed opportunity. Imagine a hoard of xenomorphs where each creature has a super power. Oh well.
It was okay for what it was but nothing to make me want to find out more about WildC.A.T.S.