The first issue of Aliens Vs. Avengers was a shocker, throwing us not in your classic no-stakes throwdown between franchises, but immediately and almost completely wrecking the Marvel Universe. But Aliens Vs. Avengers #2 leans even further into writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić’s strengths by embracing the whole mythology of the Aliens series. That’s right, Prometheus lovers, your time has come.
In fact, issue #2 — and spoilers past this point — begins nearly directly with a riff on a scene from Alien: Covenant, with three versions of the android David destroying the planet of the Engineers, the aliens (lower-case) who seeded life throughout the known universe. And getting there, it feels like such a no-brainer for this team. Milky-white analytical androids? Characters called “engineers” who secretly created the universe? In retrospect, Hickman has been writing an Aliens book his entire career at Marvel.
And while it’s highly necessary to understand the continuity of Aliens and its prequels to get the plot here, arguably more so than understanding the Marvel Universe, you don’t need to know anything to get the emotion. Each issue so far has led to a heartbreaking loss of characters as they sacrifice themselves against the xenomorph threat. And that grounding, taking superheroes and putting them in the most dire circumstances possible to show how they are, indeed, heroes, elevates this above some of Hickman’s more cerebral work.
Yes, he ended issue one by giving Miles Morales a new, black and white costume that involved circles — a favorite of Hickman and his pencilers. Yes, there are near-silent pages as impossible gods and monsters view the span of the universe. But Hickman is also laying out the emotional stakes here. These are characters with history who love each other, dealing with the biggest, most overwhelming threat they’ve ever faced. In a comic book universe where the world ends nearly every week, those stakes can seem missing. Here, they’re present and palpable.
Where this title goes next is, of course, TBD, as it has been a non-stop rollercoaster ride of surprises so far. But wherever Hickman and Ribić want to take it? I’m on board. This has been one of the most surprising expansions of both Marvel mythology and Aliens mythology in a long time. Or to use the phrase the androids use in reference to the xenomorph, time and again: the perfect organism.
Aliens Vs. Avengers #2 Rating:
Aliens Vs. Avengers #2 Official Synopsis:
EARTH SURRENDERS?! Overwhelmed by Xenomorphs, the survivors abandon their home planet! But so many are dead. So many wounded. And a terrifying few…CHANGED. The Avengers…must avenge.
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