Review: ‘All Against All’ Is A Stunning Sci-Fi Universe

Earth is centuries dead. Interstellar war swallows the galaxy. And on one tiny research station, one faction is about to learn why Earth may have been the most dangerous place in the universe.

Alex Paknadel, Caspar Wijngaard, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, and Ian Chalgren created this vision of the future, the collected edition out this week.

The Operators rule the galaxy with their might, including the genetically designed bodies that their parasitic forms pilot. But now they are challenged by another race mightier than they are. That means Director B’Tay, the Operators’ chief geneticist, will need to provide his race something new and mighty to win the war. Unfortunately for B’Tay, he’s underestimated the deadly Earth beasts in his menagerie, including the deadliest of all- a human they call Helpless

This series will be on all my “Best Of’s” at the end of the year. Paknadel, Wijngaard and Otsname-Elhaou have created an unforgettable sci-fi world, populated with monsters, aliens, beasts and one of comics’ most terrifying takes on humanity.

The elevator pitch for this series was essentially “what if the Predator was a human, and the aliens were the hunted.” This issue is so much more than that. This is first of all, a top notch example of how to do world building right. The Operators’ culture is fascinating, and the focus on them through the series grounds them. That doesn’t make them likable by any means, because Paknadel goes to great lengths to show how despicable they are.

Paknadel doesn’t just do great world building, he crafts interesting characters too. Helpless is an absolute force of nature, a feral monster that’s just as intelligent as his captors. It makes him a figure we want to root for as the story progresses.

B’Tay is sympathetic, even with the amoral methods, as he’s our de facto protagonist- I want him to get his comeuppance but not to receive any serious harm. Other characters remind me of a horror movie- you get to know them enough to like or dislike them, hoping for karmic fates for all. It’s done so well that you’re invested quickly and drawn in for the entire length of the story.

Wijngaard does absolutely beautiful work throughout the entire series. He depicts the Earth creatures all as grotesque and monstrous because the Operators are our point of view. They don’t understand that the deer are diseased or that they’re mixing predators that would never be found in nature together. They just see them acting on their instincts as bizarre and horrifying, which Wijngaard sells. That’s on top of his already great storytelling- especially as he integrates color into what he’s doing.

Otsmane-Elhaou reinforces the alien setting with his letters. The font, captions and balloons are all non-standard, but not so much so that they take away from the reading. He also gives each of the operators their own unique speech color, which goes with each one’s unique body.

This is easily one of the best creator owned series of the past five years, and one that I hope gets some sort of thematic follow-up, since a sequel is pretty unlikely. 

Pick this one up today. If you missed it in singles, the collected edition is the perfect way to make sure you don’t miss out.

All Against All is available now in a collected edition from Image Comics.