ALIENS VS. AVENGERS #3: Mars Attacks

Hickman chooses an identical starting point for this issue as in issue #2 but the outcome is very different as the Engineers, in a different multiverse make short work of the David’s at a critical moment in time, before we are catapulted back into the one where our escapees from the fallen Earth have to make the risky choice to land on Mars even though they are unable to make contact with anyone on the surface. Once again the genius of this series is how Hickman, Ribic and Svorcina can layer the moment and imbue a familiar sense of dread that makes this comic feel like it could stand side by side with any of the Alien franchise movies, yet perfectly blends the superhero genre into the mix.

Sorry folks if you were looking for some wonderful Mutant utopia, an Arakko made verdant by a burgeoning and expanding mutant population, its just not to be. In fact quite the opposite as once again Hickman reminds us all of why Nathaniel Essex, the man known as Mr. Sinister, is the absolute worst. His Sinister retains a camp sensibility and his absolute delight in the perfection of the xenomorph lifecycle as a perfect extinction machine organism feels spot on. Sinister cares for nothing but Sinister, Mars/Arakko has fallen and as tragedy strikes the last ship of humanity, an acid injured and fallen Carol Danvers prepares to die it seems everything is lost. But of course we only on issue 3 here so…enter the X-Men or rather the handful that’s left.

Hickman gets the chance to have Carol deliver a tragic but uplifting ” no one left behind” monologue, as we see that Wolverine, Emma Frost, Armor and Manifold are the lone survivors of mutant kind, and Hickman uses them as a device to explain why Mr Sinister does not get attacked by the Xenomorphs, while Logan gets to have one of his killers know killers moments before relenting to Carol’s need to go back and see if anyone survived Sinister attack, their return to the spaceport shows Tony Stark’s tragic fate as the last page reveal ties us all the way back to issue #1 and the beginning of the series in that typical Hickman circle back style. There’s still some mystery as Miles’s fate remains unknown, because we never see him fall, only Tony but let’s see.

Ribic and Svorcina deliver another beautiful to look at nightmare of an issue. Svorcina separates the opening featuring The Engineers with an overall blue palette from the mars scene which has an overall orange hue. Ribic gets to have some fun doing classic sci-fi stuff Like a ship making planetfall and landing which again feels very intentional like a callback to the Nostromo landing on Acheron in the first movie. Svorcina uses a red palette for Bar Sinister which is perfect. Ribic’s more expansive vistas in the issue really capture the scale and majesty of the spaceport while emphasizing the emptiness of it. There is lot’s of talking once again allowing Hickman to show off his excellent character work but there is also an excellent action scene from the art team too as Sinister sets the xenomorph’s on earth’s last heroes. What’s worth noting here is, no ones pretty in this, our heroes are old, grizzled, Armor’s dark circles around her eyes, Manifold’s unkempt hair and beard are all tell tale signs of survival that add to the gravitas to the situation. Cory Petit rounds off a near flawless issue with a perfect performance in the lettering department.