Aliens vs. Avengers #1: In the 616 No One Can Hear You Scream…

I LOVE the endless promise of possibility in comics. I love the idea that anything is possible in this medium, an endless melting pot of infinite ideas that can spawn the fantastic, amazing or uncanny. Avengers and Conan lets go! Ultraman and Avengers, X-Men and Star Trek? Sign me the hell up! Now while I very much understand that the idea of one or two large corporations owning all the best creative IP is in fact NOT a good thing, but you know what? Every now and again there’s a perfect storm of circumstances. In this case it’s the fact that Marvel currently has the rights to Earth’s Mightiest heroes which isn’t exactly news, but they have also own the rights to former 20th Century Fox franchises from Planet of the Apes to Predator AND everyone’s favorite perfect killing organism the Alien Xenomorphs, all of which have great comics you should check out about each of them. Now and then that often forced synergy between comics and movies produces something startling. This comic is one of those things.

Enter Jonathan Hickman. Last week I wasn’t happy with him (I’ll leave it at that), this week he’s creative lord genius and master of all he surveys! Never mind the perfect organism, he, artist Esad Ribic and the rest of the creative team on this book have created the perfect opening comic based on an idea that seems ludicrous when you first hear it. Ah, but that’s Hickman’s gift is he can sell you the idea of the ludicrous like it’s the tallest drink of water and you’re a person dying of thirst. Here’s how…

I’m going to try very hard to avoid specifics because I REALLY REALLY want you all to go out and buy physical copies of this comic because it’s just that good but let’s set the scene. What makes this work is Hickman attacks the subject by asking the question… what if we lost? The establishing shot from the creative team is a brilliant cinematic opening dragging in the Galactic Empire of Wakanda, Shi’ar Empire AND even throwing in the Prometheus android legacy to boot, with an aged T’Challa’s ominous word ringing in your ears… SURVIVAL! The idea that a world seeded with 4 queen eggs and 10 impregnated hosts is doomed, supers or no, mutants or no, technology or no and you can only watch in horror as Esad Ribic shows you the world fall in his gloriously shadowed and moody colors, there is even a nod to Krakoa, through sheer weight of xenomorph numbers and not without some arrogance on the part of some of it’s inhabitants, Earth is lost…except well it’d be a real short comic if that was completely true right?

Next another wonderful conceit, somehow the old man at Weyland Yutani in Chicago knew what was coming and so Chicago stands the last city on earth and that’s where the bulk of our story takes place. From creepy old man Yutani who knows more (obviously) than everyone else, to a very tired and aged Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers who talk of dying and promises to dead friends lost. There’s a strong almost overwhelming sense of tragedy, doom and high drama about the situation the last living heroes on earth find themselves in. There’s a plan that involves Valeria Richards and last ditch effort to stop the aliens with a plan involving a virus and for a second there’s glimmer of light in the darkness but this is Hickman and he says not so quick, time to zig when you expect him to zag and tragedy strikes, people die, there’s violence, and that magical key ingredient a surprise!! I’m not going to spoil it but I’ll say this: it involves Miles Morales and finally an interesting use for (redacted) and boom there’s all of a sudden possibility and glimmer of hope. I’ll be cryptic and also say that’s the cleverest way to bring back a homage to your favorite color spider suit Jonathan you sly dog, well done!

I really am at a loss for words about what to say about Esad Ribic on art here. This is page for page an absolutely flawless opening issue from the artist. I mean why he hasn’t been drafted to do a stand alone Alien comic years ago is beyond me. Ribic’s style is moody dark, apocalyptic and a perfect marriage to the nature of the subject with colorist Ive Scorcina’s brilliant colors from the stark cold blues of space and horror of the second page to the explosive fall of earth in twilight colors to the last city of Chicago standing colored in the last dying orange embers of dusk feel like they echo the colors of the Alien films themselves. Ribic infuses drama into almost every page. His facial expressions are often dramatically uplit, the characters expression highlighted in the moment, deeply expressive eyes are feature throughout the issue adding to the gravitas of the spoken word on page. His Xenomorphs are inky, blue , black unstoppable killers thanks to Scorcina that actually occupy much less time on page than you would think, with the bulk of the issue focused on the human stars of the book, but the feeling of them being unstoppable is carried through nonetheless. A highlight of the book is Ribic’s aged Hulk and there’s a confrontation between Hulk and Xenomorph which is so gorgeously drawn and colored by Scorcina that it feels like it was plucked straight from the overactive imagination of a 12 year old comic reader and brought to life by Michelangelo! It’s a thing of such perfectly wild comics beauty, one can’t help but look at it, grin and go: (EXPLETIVE) YEAH!! COMICS. Cory Petit is as always a consummate pro on letters with perfect speech and narration placement.