Aliens: Defiance #1

Set between 1979's Alien and 1986's Aliens, Aliens: Defiance #1 is the start of a 12-issue limited series from Dark Horse first published in April of 2016. In this debut issue, rookie Colonial Marine Private Zula Hendricks comes in contact with the Xenomorphs, leading to losing the rest of her crew and all but one Weyland-Yutani synthetic. Once Hendricks wakes up and is healed from suspended animation, she learns that the last synthetic, Davis One, has broken his programming. Davis learned that his creators plan to capture Xenomorphs for study, but fearing that they could escape all over Earth, he has gone awol and the two of them set out on a new mission to stop the company. While the story for this comic is very standard for the franchise, it's a good start that does get you invested for the beginning of this series. Brian Woods has a good eye for both exposition and dialogue, with a nice twist on how the synthetic reacts to his creators' intentions. Zula is a good character that isn't just an Ellen Ripley clone, but one who is stubborn, cocky, and doesn't want to show her pain. If one isn't too convinced by the writing, then probably the artwork would be a lot more enticing to get you to read it. The various aspects of the artwork from Tristan Jones and Dan Jackson gives us a very detailed environment but also one that is grimy and absolutely dirty, but in a way that's just wonderful to look at. It may not be the most astounding story in this franchise, but Aliens: Defiance #1 but it does have enough good qualities that it's worth picking up. Over all: 100%

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