Watch How The Mightiest Fall — Reviewing ‘Aliens Vs Avengers’ TPB

One of the deadliest alien species out there has come for Earth, leaving nothing but complete destruction in its wake. With the clock ticking toward extinction, the remainder of humanity and Earth’s mightiest heroes must rally one more time.

Worlds collide in Aliens vs Avengers — an epic tale from Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribić, Ive Svorcina, and Cory Petit. (This of course is the reuniting of Hickman, Ribić, and Svorcina after their stellar work on Secret Wars back in 2015.)

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Books of this nature are an iffy prospect at times. No matter the creative team and their previous works, mashing up any franchises, concepts, or corporate IPs can be a dangerous recipe. Plenty of room for it to go horribly wrong.

Thankfully, there is plenty to enjoy about this series among some down spots.

Timelines. Invasions from other dimensions. Machines raining destruction upon all of humanity. Those are some Hickman hallmarks right there. Beyond those wild out there concepts, another core element here is the spirit of heroes and humans shining through even in the face of their potential extinction.

Essentially, the series posits what if the work of android David, and his doppelgangers, never stopped? It took over to the point of the Aliens film universe being wiped out, leaving bored machines with a taste for destruction and wishing to see all of humanity gone, and turning their gaze to the multiverse. It’s such a comic book, and science-fiction as a whole, thing that it just flows so smoothly.

One of the intriguing parts of this series has been how it picks and pulls from stuff that Hickman has done in the past or wanted to play with. Mutants on Mars was part of the pitch for the Krakoan Era, he led in the comics years ago. Naturally, the mutants fled the Earth for their second home of Mars when things hit the fan.

Mister Sinister is a favorite devious toy for Hickman, having played with him in the aforementioned Krakoa stuff but also the “alternate universe” stuff of Secret Wars. The amoral mad scientist is a perfect character to have been playing with the Xenomorphs and, for the millionth time, betraying mutant kind.

Unfortunately, the ending leaves a lot to be desired from my perspective.

The final bits are overly wordy, just buckets of exposition and a lot of telling without showing going on here. It almost feels like four issues wasn’t close to enough and this final issue was speedrunning through the plot. A lot is thrown on the page at once, including a whole slowed-down history of the former Empire of Wakanda. In the end it kind of just leaves things in a hanging pattern, beyond the main threat having been silenced for the moment.

The sense of artistic scale feels appropriately epic. Together, Ribić and Svorcina are really hitting the rougher and moody tones.

Everything feels very light but also hefty at the same time, their presence on the page is full. Roughness is an essential part of their recipe. It’s fitting that this story is bringing elements of the film into the universe, because it would be easy to describe this artwork scale as “cinematic.” Personally though, I prefer not to make that comparison because these mediums are so different. There are films that would give anything to look as good as what Ribić puts onto the page.

There’s plenty of vision and thought are put into how to lay out every page, never leaving any room really unused.

He fills even the open spaces with details or well-crafted set pieces, allowing the world, even as broken as it is, to fill lived in and worn. At the same time, there is a blurry effect because the full detail of what is in the background isn’t as important. In Bar Sinister we see a bevy of X-Men bodies suspended with face huggers upon them. While we can make out Colossus clearly, others aren’t as defined because we don’t need to know for sure which mutants were killed or sacrificed.

Svorcina’s color palette, which relies upon more natural or toned-down elements, plays into this. Shadows and darker hues have a larger mission to accomplish here as they set the overall tone. This is a darker story, after all, and the inherent hopelessness and horror needs to be clear. It must be palpable at all times, which is what he accomplishes here.

At the same time, the flashes of brighter or vibrant colors work against this backdrop. It creates something unique and foreign compared to the more toned-down surrounding colors. This is not a flashy colorful superhero story after all, but the aftermath of what happens when the “fun” flashy times are over.

Dialogue is flowing freely and prolifically, as there is a lot to impart upon the reader. Giving it the right tonal range, emotional punch, and steady presence is what Petit does best. He allows the words to really stand apart but also together, as the reader takes it all in. It’s laid out in every panel so that it won’t overwhelm, no matter how many words might or might not be there.

It’s still a very fun and engaging tale that revels in things Hickman excels at and suffers from those he notoriously struggles with. What is promised on the package is pretty much what you get upon reading.

Aliens Vs. Avengers is now available from Marvel Comics, both in single issues and the collected edition out today.