Alien vs. X-Men #2: Cable Calling

Alien vs. X-Men #2 opens with more of Beast’s transmission than issue #1 gave readers a short glimpse into. He explains how the X-Men were taken down by the Xenomorphs and how they discovered what they can do. All of this reads less like a ton of exposition and more as establishing the stakes for the story.

That trend is continued with the arrival of Cable and his group, who explain how in their timeline the aliens took Earth. Cable dialogue is all about tension. It’s not the facts of what he says that matter, more the stark reality he’s laying out for Professor X and the rest of the mutants in the mansion during that scene.

The issue rarely relies on the art to tell part of the story, and with so many words on the page, it moves rather slowly. While dialogue does a decent job of establishing tension, the pacing doesn’t help.

Geraldo Borges and David Messina both bring a messy style of line art, intended to portray the chaos happening in the story. A couple of different panel layouts are used, but the visuals mostly shift between using standard white space overlaid with panels to break down scenes and full backgrounds similar to splash pages with panels on top.

Visually it moves a little slower in some scenes than others, letting the dialogue take its time while action speeds up the pace. That said, there isn’t too much action in the issue. Alien vs. X-Men #2 is mostly dialogue, which makes page turns slow, and most of the panel transitions are dramatic without a lot of oomph aside from the occasion gruesome cut-away scene.

Andrew Dalhouse and Rain Beredo’s colors walk the line between shiny and grimy in the second issue of Alien vs. X-Men. The powers of mutants and ones copied by Xenomorphs shine on the page while the environments are dark and gritty. There is an almost 90s vibe to the colors specifically, which fits the tone of the story.