Aliens Vs. Predator Omnibus Vol. 1
© Dark Horse Comics
Mania Grade: A-
Written By: Various
Art By: Various
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Pages: 456
Price: $24.95
Buy it now!
Written By: Various
Art By: Various
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Pages: 456
Price: $24.95
Buy it now!
Aliens Vs. Predator Omnibus Vol. 1
By: Tim JansonDate: Monday, August 20, 2007
With Marvel and DC Comics having enjoyed so much success with their Essentials/Showcase Presents Omnibus reprints, Dark Horse Comics has jumped on the bandwagon with their own massive tomes of reprint material. One of the things that really made Dark Horse a success when they started out over twenty years ago was the licensing of popular characters from film into comics format such as Aliens, Predator, and Star Wars. They continue to enjoy enormous success with these licensed properties today.
Aliens Vs. Predator Vol. 1 is one of the first of these omnibus editions presenting 456 pages of story and art. Now the Dark Horse Omnibus books are a bit smaller than their Marvel and DC counterparts, and they are also a bit more expensive. But, the Dark Horse books are the only one of the three being presented in color. The biggest complaints the people seem to have about the Essentials/Showcase Presents books is that they are in black and white. The material in this book was originally presented in the previous graphic novels: Aliens Vs. Predator; Aliens Vs. Predator: War; Aliens Vs. Predator: Eternal, as well as stories from Dark Horse Presents.
What we will learn is that the Predator race, known going forward as the Hunters, have been hunting the Xenophobes for a long, long time. In fact, the presence of the bugs on so many worlds, and in so many different climates, is basically the fault of the Hunters who have basically colonized worlds throughout the galaxy with the Alien’s eggs for the sole purpose of hunting them when they’ve matured. Now that’s quite a sport!
The best story in the book is Aliens Vs. Predator: War and the events take place directly following the Aliens Vs. Predator lead story. Machiko Noguchi is a human female who helped a hunter kill an alien and was accepted into Hunter society. Well, accepted is the wrong term…more like she’s tolerated, but she is trained in Hunter lore and combat skills by the clan chief, Topknot, and even accompanies them on their hunts for the bugs, including the capturing of an Alien Queen. The Hunter’s regular plans entail capturing queens and keeping her prisoner as they harvest her eggs and place them on various worlds. When the Hunters bring the eggs to a human outpost, Noguchi has to decide if her loyalty is to her new society or to her species.
Aliens Vs. Predator: Eternal is another excellent storyline, taking place on modern day Earth. A wealthy man has exploited the finding of a Hunter spacecraft, even unlocking the secrets of their cloaking ability. After many years his scientists have finally managed to open the ships cargo bay…that is filled with egg-like objects…
It’s interested to note the difference in art styles in the book, or perhaps more accurately, the difference in printing. The earliest story dates to 1989 – 1990 and was still done in traditional panel style comic art. Moving up to the more recent stories where the art is printed right to the edge of the page and is without borders. It’s really quite a difference when you have the two to compare side-by-side.
Next up is the aforementioned Aliens v. Predator 1 which removes some of the horror aspect of the Aliens digest and replaces it with the Predator action genre. The book is an interesting read that feeds on previous Aliens stories. Again the book is essentially sequential in it's story telling and has a main protagonist as described in the review. I was locked on the story and it is quite a worthwhile read. So much in fact that I have pre-ordered November's Alien v. Predator Omnibus 2. As for the final book in this AvP Omnibus trilogy thus far, Predator 1, is the only book I would recommend for the completest. The first story is spectacular and tells the story of Dutch's brother (Arnie's character from the Predator 1 movie). It is also a "sequel" of sorts that builds on the first movie and many aspects of this story were used in the Predator 2 film (although not some of the coolest). While the story of Dutch's brother searching for his sibling's fate post Predator1 (film) is engaging the continuation of the story throughout the digest gets stale and the character's ability to not just survive but kill Predators en masse ends the "realism" of the character.
In conclusion, if you like the characters from the movies and the genre, buy these. They are better than the sequels in the theaters. Now I am hoping dark Horse gives this treatment to the Terminator franchise. Those who are Star Wars fans, you can find similar Dark Horse Omnibuses for that series.