Free Comic Book Day 2009 heralds the re-launch of two of the quintessential Dark Horse movie-to-comics franchises - the Fox blockbusters Aliens and Predator! Featuring a flip-book format with two covers and two stories - each devoted to one of mankind's deadliest adversaries - Aliens/Predator opens the airlock to a new universe of terror!
Date Available: 05/02/2009
BONUS REVIEW by RICK BERG
Well Aliens and Predators are making a come back in comics. About time? Maybe. Unexpectedly, John Arcudi's Alien story has more in common with a college text book than an Alien story. He relates through the main character’s research paper the still unknown "Cultural Biology" of the Xenomorphs and mentions their previous failed infestation of Earth. There is no feeling of dread or terror found in nearly every Alien story, instead we merely get a rehash of the excellent Aliens Hive theory from 15 years ago and a very very cheap scare even for a horror comic. Not much action or foreshadowing to grab a new reader in for a FREE introduction to the new series. Zach Howard's art is very competent and he at least knows what an Alien should look like. B-/C+.
The next half of the book is what seems to be an extremely typical Predator story. Hero is fighting bad guys, and then Predator shows up and starts killing everything. Except blam! Plot twist involving assassin Predators?? Terrific. Unlike Aliens, I feel I would enjoy reading more and found Javier Saltares' gritty artwork nearly perfect for the high octane action sequences. A-. Nothing super groundbreaking for either franchise, yet for FREE its way better than reprints.
