Title: Aliens: Resistance.
Writer(s): Brian Wood.
Penciller(s): Robert Carey.
Colourist(s): Tamra Bonvillain.
Letterer(s): Nate Piekos of Blambot.
Publisher: Dark Horse Books.
Format: Paperback.
Release Date: August 20th 2019.
Pages: 96.
Genre(s): Comics, Science-Fiction.
ISBN13: 9781506711263.
My Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆.
With the Alien franchise, it is no surprise that throughout 40 years of its existence, it has been stretched in all kinds of direction, looking to expand its universe in unimaginable ways to tease and seduce fans. With its beautiful design for the xenomorph, its dystopian outlook on life and its futuristic vision for technology, the angles to exploit are infinite. In fact, the franchise isn’t just pure horror with gore to elevate the intensity, it’s also about the exhilarating tension that is built up before every kill and all the action sequences that could be imagined between humans, androids, and aliens. Where it is the most exciting is when prequels and sequels are created based on Ellen Ripley’s adventures following her tetralogy on the big screen. Only if it’s done right, though.
What is Aliens: Resistance about? Set after the events of the video game Alien: Isolation, the story follows Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, and Zula Hendricks, an Ex-Colonial Marine, as they join forces to expose a bio-weapons program. While the xenomorph threat continues to grow, this team-up find themselves on a journey through space and countless research labs as they discover some of the most unthinkable creations that could ever have been thought of. It is only in their power to put their lives on the line to take down the Weyland-Yutani weapons program before it introduces the beginning of the end for mankind.
There’s nothing pleasant about seeing a critically-acclaimed writer like Brian Wood to dish out such a poor and unimpressive four-part comic series. Although I went into this one thinking that an original story might be waiting for me, it turns out that a dialogue-light and a context-less plot is all I was going to be served. Thrown into a universe set 15 years after the events in Alien (1979), this sequel to a video game made no effort in drawing the reader into this story. The threat is intangible, the direction is invisible, there’s simply nothing in Aliens: Resistance that was remotely comprehensive.
As if it to make matters worse, the artwork was far from being exceptional. Although I found the environment drawn by artist Robert Carey astonishing at times, there was way too much inconsistency in his technique for me to wholly appreciate his vision. The most bothersome element of his work lies in his character designs. Their facial expressions are plain bad with matte-black eyes and lips that make no sense at all. Their proportions are also unexplainable, reminding me of sketch drawings created to brainstorm for ideas. As a whole, the colouring is decent but the flow in the artwork is absent and this graphic novel’s short-length simply does not help its cause.
Aliens: Resistance is a poor attempt to extend a video game’s story and suffers immensely in both plot and art with little contextualization or purpose in its narrative.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy for review!
Amanda Ripley is looking for answers regarding the disappearance of her mother in Alien: Isolation! Have you played it? What did you think about it?
Well….I was enthusiastic when I saw a post for Aliens, but then I saw the grade and read the review and that enthusiasm ended fast lol. Definitely a missed opportunity then. The game was pretty good, it was in fact one of the last videogames I played before I ended my videogame “career” so this should have been much better. Too bad it ain’t 😢There have been a lof of comics/novels from Dark Horse, some with a pretty high quality. Too bad this isn’t one of those. Oh well…at least this means I end up saving some money for a change, so there is that😊
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Vid game career?
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He used to play video games a lot hahah He was referencing those days as his “video game career”. 😉
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Hahaaha I looked forward to reading about your disappointment despite you being excited to see a Aliens post showing up in your Reader! 😛 Yep, this was unfortunate. So far, in my experience, any comic book that is born from a video game/move/show turned out to disappoint me too. I hope someone will prove this wrong before I give up on them hahah And yes, it’s a bit sad that Dark Horse hasn’t been doing too good with their recent Alien/Predator stories…. But yes, I’m glad to save some people from picking this up, unless you’re collecting them and still want to go through it even if it ain’t that good hahah Thanks for reading, Michel! 😀
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That is such a shame. The Alien movie was so good
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Yes! Alien and Aliens were the best and none of the others were able to surpass them! 😀
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Oh I haven’t seen Aliens yet, so that’s something to look forward to😁
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Well, I guess you can’t win them all…
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Indeed. Although you were probably 100% sure of not picking it up, I’m glad to make it 200% now. 😀
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Yeah, that extra 100% makes all the difference 😉
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May the force be with you and give a fab book from outer space or wherever you come from….
This is the most sci-fi I can get 🙈🤷♀️
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Hahahahah well, this did make me laugh. You should try some sci-fi stories out there. I’m sure there’s something for you. 😉
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Darn, it’s sad to hear that this another swing and miss from the Dark Horse Aliens titles – I was kind of looking forward to checking this out as Brain Wood’s previous Aliens series (“Defiance” – collected into two volumes, have you read those?) I quite enjoyed and I was a big fan of the Isolation video game, which, forgive me if I’m repeating myself, would make a good basis for a new movie/streaming mini-series.
I’ll still give it a cursory look, eventually, but I wish the quality of the Dark Horse Aliens and Predator comics could rise as they seem to be in a general decline in recent years, bar a couple of bright spots. I wonder if Disney will wrestle control of the license and hand it over to Marvel now they own the Fox franchises…I don’t necessarily support that as they’re becoming not unlike Weyland Yutani in certain respects and it’d be a huge loss for Dark Horse (who’ve already lost the Star Wars rights), but they really need to up their game!
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I actually have those two volumes and need to read them to clean my conscious of Aliens: Resistance now hahaha And yes, it would indeed be pretty cool to see Isolation adapted onto the big screen/something on Netflix hahah
I totally agree about the decline on the quality. I have yet to be really impressed by what I read from their recent releases… I have one more Aliens story queued up and it seems promising but I’m not sure (I’ll keep it a surprise for now).
I also agree. It will be a sad day for Dark Horse if they lose their rights on Aliens/Predators. They seem like the least competitive out there, despite their history and reputation as a top publisher.
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Looking forward to that surprise review mate, I am suitably intrigued!
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Ouch ouch ouch Lashaan! Yes it hurts especially if he is so acclaimed but …well if it is bad for you it’s bad there’s nothing to it!
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Yep, quite unfortunate. Then again, one work does not represent the whole career of a writer, so I’ll probably still give his stuff a shot until I realize they have ALWAYS been bad for me hahaha 😀 Thanks for reading, Sophie! 🙂
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I sometimes wish we could tell if we are going to like something before we read it/ watch it/ etc. It would save us all a lot of time and disappointment.
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True. And then there are times I tell myself that by visiting the bad, I appreciate the good a lot more. 😁
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So true.
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That’s a pity – I remember reading some old comics Alien vs. Predator, years ago, and they were pretty decent, but nowadays there seems to be a dearth of good Alien franchise (don’t get me started on Prometheus! :P) Either this, or your luck in comics is running out 😉
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Definitely not my luck hahah it really is Dark Horse’s recent Alien comics. I’m still giving them a go thinking I might land on a gem but so far it has not been too promising… One can hope. 😁
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You might land on a gem… But land mine seems more probable 😂😂 Though I do wish you luck – I’d really like to read a decent Alien comic 😉
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I do think I have landed on a Batman gem that might interest you though. You’ll know which one later in the week. 😏
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Sorry you didn’t have a good experience with this one… I see what you mean about the illustration style, there isn’t really anything to catch the eye.
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No worries. It’s nice to be able to see what they attempted. Even if it wasn’t impressive hahah
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When you don’t like something, you certainly make it known. Thanks for the warning.
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Ah yes. It doesn’t happen often but it allows me to go nuts and let me emotions take control. Just a little. 🙂
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Too bad this wasn’t good 😢 I guess that if you use a franchise too much, nothing good comes from it after a while (?) 😮
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Milking a franchise is definitely a no-no for me. It usually never turns out good. And then, occasionally, there’s that one good installment and that’s why we always end up sticking around hahah
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Hahaha I can understand 😂
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Shame this was such an unimpressive series and there was so much inconsistency and that the flow in the artwork wasn’t there. Great review!
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Yep. A bit too many problems with it. Hopefully, Brian Wood will write a good one to reestablish his reputation after this one haha Thank you!
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