Last issue, Dr. Hollis discovered that she was expecting. This week, we get to see the world’s worst baby shower and delivery.
Is it good?
Aliens: Defiance #7 (Dark Horse Comics)
Observations
- Pretty sure no one’s going to want to keep those sonogram photos.
- Hollis may not be much of a soldier, but she’s definitely a badass.
- Uh…isn’t that exactly what they were trying to keep the other guys from doing?
- Say want you want about Davis, but that android knows how to babyproof a room.
- I feel the need to reiterate that Hollis is a total badass.
- HA! That might be even better than the kangaroo punch.
- You know something’s messed up when it makes Hendrick’s stomach turn.
Is It Good?
This issue accomplishes a number of things, chief among them the telling of a good story.
It also gives us one of the Alien franchise’s coolest scenes. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a human had a xenomorph surgically removed before it was fully gestated, Brian Wood and Stephen Thompson do a bang up job showing it. As an added bonus, the issue also kind of addresses/acknowledges the accelerated gestation times we saw in the horrible AvP movies.
Much of the issue is free of dialogue, but Thompson choreographs the central sequence so well that it’s not really needed. When the characters do interact, however, Hollis completely steals the show. I’m still first and foremost a Zula Hendricks fanboy, but the good doctor has officially won me over.
I do wish that Wood had addressed the arguable hypocrisy of our heroes’ actions a bit more directly, but Hendricks’ closing narration is vaguely haunting enough that I’m sure it will come up soon.
So once again, Aliens: Defiance continues to make its case as one of the best (potentially THE best?) Alien franchise comics. Great story, fantastic art, and you get to see an android punch a baby xenomorph in the face. What more could you ask for in a comic?
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