Comic Review 151 // Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus Vol.1

Am I a sucker for reading all these Aliens, Dark Horse comics or can I just not find anything else to read at the moment? Who knows? What I can tell you is that I have now moved onto the Aliens vs. Predator series and it is going to get crazy!

Title: Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus, Vol. 1

Editor: Chris Warner

Author: Randy Stradley

illustrator: Glenn Fabry

Fluff: Mankind's two ultimate nightmares come together in mortal combat, and whoever wins - we lose. On the remote planet Ryushi, a small ranching community becomes an unwilling participant in a deadly ritual: extraterrestrial Predators have seeded Ryushi with Alien eggs in order to create the ultimate hunt. But what the Predators don't know is that an Alien queen egg is amongst those they've sent as potential hunting stock, and when the Predators arrive, the hunters become the hunted amidst a monumental swarm of Aliens, and they may need to turn to the very same humans they regard as little more than potential trophies to give them any hope of survival.

Style: Kindle

Page Count: 446 pages

Review

First up is a bit of important info. These comics have actually been made into novels by Steve and S.D Perry. Not sure if all of them have? But I have picked up the first volume which contains Prey, Hunter's Planet and War, so expect the book reviews soon.

So up first Aliens vs. Predator, set on the cattle farming world of Ryushi. It is a straightforward story and this is one of its strengths. The Predators chose this world to seed with Alien eggs, unknowingly allowing a Queen egg to be among the chosen eggs. They also failed to realize that Humans have now settled on this planet and between the three sides all hell breaks loose. This leads to an iconic three-way battle, with Machiko Noguchi (the lead character) teaming up with the head Predator to kill the Queen.

A great opening story that set's the pace. The artwork is dated but the story is still epic, would have made for a great film or tv series. 

Then we have a short tale title Blood Time. And shows a behind the scene of Predator on a ritual hunt and what happens to cheaters!

Duel is next up and heads back to Ryushi. Here a group of  Marines searching for Noguchi, encounter a Hunting Pack of Predators and unknowingly rescue an infected Predator, leading to the first Xeno/Pred hybrid. This Hybrid proves deadly and it is only by teaming up that they can survive this fearsome new horror.

This was a great tale and I really enjoyed it.

War is the sequel to Aliens vs. Predator and has Machiko back. But that is not all it is a cross-over from Aliens as well, in comic form, it is called Frenzy, whilst in book form, it is called Berserker (on my to-read list). In this, we find the Max unit team saved from deep space only to discover the world that saved them is the newest hunting ground for the Predators. So of course, chaos reigns and we have Humans vs. Aliens vs. Predators but at least this time the humans have a murder robot to help out. Solid enough story and it was nice to have some proper cross-over action happening.

Eternal - Okay a bit of a meh tale finally, in this story we are sent to Tokyo, where a scavenger manages to get his hands on a crashed Predator ship. Using this resource he manages to create a technology empire like no other. He also is super old having used the technology and the eating of hearts to stay alive 736 years. How he managed all of this is never really explained. Also, a lot of the technology didn't make sense either, the fashion and cars all harkening to the 19th century. Ultimately I am very confused, but it is safe to say soon his greed leads to a bloom of Xenomorphs and a hunting pack of Predators. Honestly, you can skip this story and not miss out.

Old secrets is a one-shot story, merging the tales of St. George and the Dragon into a Pred/Xenomorph story. It's cute, a bit silly but truly a solid piece of storytelling. Let's be honest if someone on earth is hiding Xeno eggs it would have to the church!

Then the final tale The Web. Once again tracing its origins to the first tale, we follow another survivor of Ryushi. His tale is a darker one and without spoiling the plot, he is totally insane! It is a great, fun, insane finish to this book.

Overall a surprisingly strong outing from Dark Horse, I am excited for volume two. As always I hope you enjoyed and will support my blog by using the link below.

Amazon link: Aliens vs. Predators Omnibus Volume 1

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