Target This

Successful television shows focusing on pure action are rare to see today. It seems every season there are three more coming on the air, usually as mid-season replacements for shows the network actually wanted, and they're gone before too long. Mostly such cancellation is truly warranted, as there's a good reason the show was never supposed to air in the first place.

Not so with FOX's Human Target. Based on the I assume little-known DC Comics character Christopher Chance (I didn't even know that much until the end of the first episode when the DC logo flashed on the screen), Human Target is a heady ride of thrills and chills that never lets down unless it's to unleash a witty repartee. Leading the way is uber-hunk Mark Valley (Boston Legal, Fringe) as the aptly-named Chance, as he's constantly taking chances to protect the clients who hire his bodyguard services. Right from the opening scene of the series we get the full feel for this character, an American James Bond (Daniel Craig style, thank you) with the right words and a plan for every scenario. The only thing we don't know is why he continually risks everything to save his clients, seemingly with no regard for his own well being. That will probably be something explained in future episodes.

The Bond connections link fast from the opening credits, which seem to borrow heavily from the Bond psychadelic themes that are so well known (complete with femme fatale ink-blot) and giving it a slightly American action hero twist. That's the best I can explain it, but it sure looks good. And add Bear McCreary's always good themes to the mix, and you've got an entertaining soundtrack. Bear's work may not be as unique or innovative as his work on Battlestar Galactica with it's booming crecendoes or Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles' blend of old-meets-new score, but it's good and I never doubt Bear's skills to set the mood and get me excited for some action with a few notes.

I'm sure someone out there thinks Mark Valley is just a pretty boy, but I tell you he is perfectly cast here. Carrying off Chance's charm and bravado may seem like an easy assignment, but the character is so complex and multi-faceted (while, yes, at first appearing simple) that it's a credit to Valley that not only does he pull it off, he truly becomes Christopher Chance. Chi McBride can only play one character type, but he does it well. That's all I'll say about that. What may really get geek fans watching this show, however, is third member of the cast, Jackie Earle Haley. Movie snobs might know him as the Academy-award nominated actor for playing pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, but the rest of us know him (and love him) as Rorschach, one of the few reasons that Watchmen was, well, watchable. Once again he's inside a character so completely that if you hadn't seen his name in the opening credits, you'd never know who he was. A true chameleon, there doesn't seem like much wrong Jackie can do.

The show's not without it's problems. With only three principal characters, the show's main method of survival will probably rely on more guest stars than a Law & Order marathon. And no, while sci-fi geeks will love that Battlestar actors Tricia Helfer and Donnelly Rhodes (A better space doctor than McCoy, you heard it here first) appeared in the pilot, getting higher-rated actors to appear would no doubt attain a more mainstream audience and pay the bills. Also, with the possible exception of Chance's mysterious past, there doesn't seem to be anything akin to an overarching plot to attatch episodes to, raising questions as to what keeps us watching, what keeps the story moving forward.

But this was just the pilot, and it's early. Hopefully fans will watch, hopefully FOX won't cancel another promising series before it really hits it's stride. Come on, FOX.

Take a Chance.

They Have a Plan

They were Created by man
They Rebelled
They Evolved
There are many copies
And they have a plan

No, this isn’t a review of the new Battlestar Galactica straight-to-DVD movie (if I can make it through more than just the first 45 minutes of the film, maybe that’ll be my next project. Until then…) but instead of the DVD release of a show that I assume not as many people watched, FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, season two. The show began airing on Sunday, January 13, 2008 and ran with decent if unspectacular ratings before being ignobly canceled after just two seasons. It’s a damn shame, too, since season two was so good I would have been frothing at the mouth waiting for the third season to be released, had the cancellation not occurred.

Season one ended on such a shocking cliffhanger that it’s impossible not to wonder how I actually survived the months between my DVD viewing of the two seasons. Not only had the covers of Sarah Connor (300’s Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekker, Heroes) been cracked by a couple of Russian-related moogs intent on doing them harm, but Agent Ellis’ (Richard T. Jones, Vantage Point)  FBI team learns just what happens to a group of heavily-armed agents who go up against Cromartie, a T-888 sent back in time to kill John Connor. (Hint: The FBI doesn’t do so well). Oh, yeah, and friendly Terminator Cameron (Summer Glau, Firefly) was in a car that got, well, car-bombed. Season two picks up immediately following the events, and stuff gets crazy…

In the confusion, the would-be assassins fail to realize that Cameron didn’t exactly die in the bombing. And stuff gets even better from there. After dispatching of the assailants, Cameron’s programming resets, leading to an outstanding sequence of her pursuing her former ally John Connor through the streets of Los Angeles. Almost as good is Cromartie letting Ellis live, leading to Ellis questioning what he believes and leaving the FBI to search for information on the Terminators another way, through the private company of Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson of Garbage fame). And so begins the second season of Terminator, which takes everything that was great about the first season and stretches it out over a longer run of episodes and almost makes the perfect show out of it.

After the first episode, our weary heroes need to find a new home and base of operations (their old one kinda burned down) and new obstacles arrive: John learns about girls and relationships with schoolmate Riley (Leven Rambin, All My Children), and a list left on their basement wall in blood by someone else from the future leads them on jobs throughout the city from a nuclear power plant to a Japanese computer company suspected of creating the new Skynet program. It’s not all good though, and one storyline in particular takes up far too many episodes, four, for what it ultimately provides to the plot. Still fantastic episodes abound on these six disks, starting with the opener, Samson and Delilah. Allison from Palmdale tells a bit about the girl Cameron was modeled after; Goodbye to All That finds John and his uncle Derek Reese (Brian Austin Greene, 90210) protecting a future Resistance hero from a current Terminator; The Tower is Tall but the Fall is Short sees our heroes seeing a therapist, but not for the reasons you might think; Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today shows us a south-of-the-border shoot-out with Cromartie, Complications has Derek’s lover Jesse from the future (Stephanie Jacobsen, BSG: Razor) bringing Derek to interrogate a suspected future Skynet collaborator (Richard Schiff, The West Wing); Self Made Man, about what happens when you overshoot when time traveling; The two-part Today is the Day flash-backs Jesse to her final days on a friendly-Terminator driven submarine; And the finale episode Born to Run is an absolute treat, with another cliffhanger ending that will drop your jaw on the floor and curse out FOX for not bringing this great show back for one more undeniably awesome season.

Despite obviously sinking most of the show’s budget into the special effects department (and the effects look GREAT on TV) executive producer Josh Friedman had some great talent to work with. Besides all the great technical work and writing  his crew did, standout among the behind the scenes  belongs to Bear McCreary. Musicman for such outstanding sci-fi shows as Battlestar Galactica and Eureka, Bear had the unenviable task of creating a score for the series but remain true to the score of the first two Terminator movies. In that, Bear succeeded spectacularly, creating a sound that was obviously new, but managed  to hearken back to the 80’s, when the stars of the show were Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, and the Governator. It’s just a perfect thing that many composers would have screwed up somewhere, but not Bear. He’s just that damn good.

Acting was something Friedman had in good supply on the show too. Everyone had their moments, but you couldn’t get much better than Headey as Sarah Connor unless you had Linda Hamilton return (the Linda Hamilton from twenty years ago, mind you). Headey however does her damndest and succeeds in harnessing Sarah’s distrust, fear, anger and frustration without it seeming too much. She epitomizes sexy without going too over-the-top, and for that alone she should be lauded. That she’s that and more is icing on the cake. And Glau is perfect for the tinman-like Cameron, creature without a heart who just might be the one who kills John Connor if she malfunctions again. Brian Austin Green returns from the first season with a jacked bod and great storylines. Not entirely trusted by anyone in the house, Green really pulls it off as Kyle Reese’s brother, and really comes through as the level-headed, warm-hearted member of the house. Jones is actually disappointing as Agent Ellis, what began as an interesting character in the first season got relegated to second-tier status the second time around, and except for some great interaction with the other characters, Jones is wasted in much of the season. Of course, that may be because of the trifecta of new talent that stole screen-time from him. This was Shirley Manson’s first acting job. No, really. She’s perfect as Catherine Weaver, an executive with a secret and an interest in the Terminators and where they come from. If Manson doesn’t go back to Garbage, I hope she gets more parts like this. Levin Rambin is actually pretty good once you get past her first few scenes. She has good chemistry with John Connor and although her character gets put through the wringer writing-wise, you really end up liking her. Maybe it’s the smile, the cocky attitude, the pain under the skin, but I really felt connected with the character, even if it wasn’t a character the show particularly wanted. And Stephanie Jacobsen is serviceable, though not all that great, as another resistance fighter from the future and seems to play double agent, working sometimes with Derek while secretly spying on the Connors and their allies.

The best acting jobs on the show might belong to Thomas Dekker as John Connor and Garret Dillahunt (Last House on the Left) as the Terminator Cromartie. John undergoes a transformation during the show’s second season, the reasons for which are eventually explained to us over the course of the season.  The result is an even better performance than he had done the first time around, and he really comes front and center , beginning to become the man he was born to be. Dillahunt doesn’t do much through the first half-dozen episodes, but it’s the second half of the season where he shines through. Watching his performance throughout the season was just a joy, and if you ever watch this show (and you should!) remind yourself to ask why this man’s not in more things this good. He, like Dekker, are too good to pass up.

The show’s not without it’s flaws - so few shows are - but my biggest problem is with the time-travel aspect. Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but in the original movies it was very difficult to send people (or terminators) back in time, but during the course of the show no fewer than ten characters were sent back to the “current” time period. It gets a little weird when you suddenly have all these characters who all the sudden are from the future. If it was so damn easy, why didn’t Skynet just send an army to the past and be done with it? It’s not bad, just seems off to me. That, plus the unusually poor four-episode side-track I mentioned before, are the majority of my problems with the show.

You know what’s really scary? Not that this show didn’t get picked up by FOX, but that FOX picked up the Joss Whedon show Dollhouse to run another season (and get canceled to boot) rather than give this show another chance, despite similar ratings. After the somewhat disappointing Terminator:Salvation, I might still hope that people will remember this show and just how good it is, because FOX has made sure that by canceling it, there probably won’t be more smart and well-planned entertainment like this on network television. SyFy, see if you can pick up the rights to this series, because what Terminator really needs is the old SyFy treatment like it’s likewise geek oriented BSG.

500!

When you do something 500 times, chances are pretty good you've done it well. From Stan Lee to Chris Claremont to Ed Brubaker to Matt Fraction, Marvel has done quite well by their most Uncanny of superhero teams. The X-Men turned 500 last week, and with it came a new beginning, different yet all to familiar to longtime readers.

The heroes everyone wants are here: Cyclops, the mild-mannered boss-man; Wolverine, the hard-edged maverick; Angel, the winged avenger; Storm, the African weather goddess; Colossus, the metal man; Beast, the blue-furred genius; Nightcrawler, the elf; even psychic former super-villain Emma Frost is still here. All in all, not much seems to have changed with this super group; aside from changing coasts (trading in dreary Westchester for hip San Francisco) there isn't much different about this new group.

But things are quite different: for one, the local government is absolutely in love with them. The mayor happens to be quite smitten with Warren Kenneth Worthington III (Angel) and she's openly embraced the X-Men to make their homes on the west coast. They've spared no expense building a new headquarters that makes the Xavier School look like a basement studio, Angel's vast sum of loot paying the way easily. This is indeed a whole new beginning, no more "To me, my X-men" lines, just a real team, pulling together for one another, caring for one another as people and a diminishing race.

The Mayor has news for the team. Apparently, Japanese filmmaker Kingo Sunen (who first made his appearance way back in 1977 in the Eternals futuristic movie in San Francisco. Casting former mutant The Blob, Freddie Dukes, in the lead role (the unrecognizable Dukes is portrayed as a "weight loss guru") series) wants to film his new sci-fi film in San Francisco to use the Dreaming Celestial he's obsessed with as his backdrop for the movie. Which is fine. Until it's revealed that another artist, one Guy deMondue, has decided to create art due to the recent mutant influence and bases his art on decommissioned Sentinels.

That's right. Sentinels. Remember when I said some things were very much the same?

It leads the team to attend the art unveiling, where there are more X-Men fan boys than at your average national convention. Every one's dressed up as Marvel Girl, Professor X, Banshee, Angel and Psylocke, and the heroes fit right in. (Interestingly enough, no Wolverine costumes are shown, yet there's one woman dressed up as Mystique. Hmmm) This is until an old villain returns from the dead and wreaks havoc over everything.

It's a fantastic new beginning for this team, thanks much in part to the writing. I love both Brubaker (Captain America, Daredevil) and Fraction (Invincible Iron Man, The Order), and their excellent work at making this new start both simple and complex all at the same time. They're not going to make it easy for the X-Men to settle into their new homes, and you just know they had to take from personal experience for the fan boy convention sequence. The writing in itself would make the book fantastic. But with beautiful pencil art by Greg Land (Ultimate Power, Birds of Prey) and Terry Dodson (Wonder Woman, Songes: Coraline) and colors by Justin Ponser (X-Men: Phoenix Endsong) sealing the deal, it's hard not to immediately add this title to you new favorites pile.

Am I gushing enough? I'm so enamored with this title, my complaints almost have no real merit. There's one person who shows up at the end who I felt I should know, but don't because I hadn't paid too much attention to the X-Men universe until recently. It's a small thing, and his story will likely be fleshed out later in this run, but it's disconcerting that I should feel a sense of foreboding, but only if I knew who this character was supposed to be. Also, there's not enough X-Men in this story. Except for cameos by Cannonball and Pixie (Pixie??) no secondary X-Men are shown. No Warpath? No Hepzibah? No Iceman?? Shame, shame! Bring these characters back into the fold! I want more mutants, damn you!

Despite these minute transgressions, X-Men 500 is exactly what they've been hyping so much about these last few months. It's a new beginning, a new hope, and yet familiar enough to attract old and new fans alike. Buy it. You won't regret it.

We're Sorry...

Were you expecting a new review here? Fully intending my next entry to be all over Uncanny X-Men #500, I've been thwarted by the fact that I've yet to be able to put my hands on a copy. Since I never had a backup plan in place, no review this week! So sorry! Instead of cobbling something together last-second, I've decided to wait until I get this landmark issue this week, so look for a new Latest Issue soon!

- Gianni

Detective Distress!

With this upcoming post, I had a conundrum: Which medium of the comics world was I ignoring more and had to correct; Independent web comics that were collected in print, or DC comics? As you see, I had to get some DC going on this site again, lest Dan Didio come down to my apartment and roast my Batarang over a slow-cook fire.

Detective Comics #846 features the return of Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Thomas Elliot, also known as the murderous Hush, forever bandaged and mentally disturbed. Hush has come back to town to once again attempt to get revenge on Wayne/Batman, in ways that will only unfurl in the coming issues.

For the time being, Batman is not alone. Catwoman is also in this issue, and figures to play a prominent part on the road ahead. They come across one another when Wayne (undercover as two-bit thug Lefty Knox) tries to take down a gang led by a fairy-tale-reciting Doctor Aesop. When he's cried "wolf" a few too many times, Wayne has to be rescued by Catwoman, who happens to be in the area. The two resolve to team up and take down Aesop together, at least until the next argument hits.

Much of the book tells the origin of Hush, who actually wanted the life of Bruce Wayne, but on his terms. Whereas Bruce's parents were killed by chance, Thomas had no such luck in his future, so he tampered with the brakes on his parents' limousine. Furious when Bruce's father saved the life of his mother, and further avoiding vengeance when Bruce's parents are not killed by his hand, Thomas truly and insanely hates Bruce Wayne for the life that he has, both as a magnate and as the superhero crime fighter.

What's left is his revenge to be wrought, and he makes himself known to the Batman in the end. There are many questions to be answered in the next four issues, not the least of which is how this evenly-matched opponent of Batman plans to succeed. There's nothing worse than a villain who knows you so entirely well that he can predict your every action, and Hush is that kind of bad guy.

The pen of Paul Dini (Countdown, Madame Mirage) more than makes this title worth reading. His extensive work with the character of Batman and his history of writing for the Batman TV shows (and the creation of such characters as Harley Quinn) are readily apparent in his writing. He knows perhaps more about the Dark Knight than anyone else in the industry (or at least has been so submerged with it that he just oozes Batman know-how) and his writing is fantastic, coherently telling a story good enough to eat. The dialogue is great, the pacing is wonderful, even the back story is solid, all without giving away too much for a first issue.

Sadly, the artwork doesn't live up to the writing talent. I'm sure Dustin Nguyen (Manifest Eternity, The Authority) must have talent. I'm just not sure it's with drawing comics. Not that his style doesn't suit Batman in any way, shape or form. His dark shadows and detailed backgrounds match Bats perfectly. It's just that the artwork is so darned sloppy! I hate looking at the art, and that's three quarters of why I'm reading in the first place!

Fortunately, Dini's writing is good enough to pass this otherwise-dud. Detective Comics retains it's luster and will hopefully keep my comic needs sated until the next big storyline comes along. Until then, arrivaderci!

Wanted: Great Entertainment

The August issue of Details Magazine contains the following quote: "James McAvoy made out with Angelina Jolie, and you didn't." Frankly, I don't need Details to tell me that my fantasies haven't played out quite as expected, but the first trailer I saw of Wanted made me lean back and go "Whoa."

It was lust at first sight; all that violence; all that action; all that Angelina. Even the aforementioned McAvoy seemed to fit the part, and when you add a deep-voiced superstar like Morgan Freeman to the mix, you have a truly intriguing story, cast, and overall movie you just HAVE to watch.

Imagine to my surprise, then, that Wanted, directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch), was actually based on a miniseries written by Ultimates scribe Mark Millar and drawn by Alex Ross wannabe J.G. Jones (Final Crisis). Even more astounded now, I decided I had to see both, starting with the sure-to-be-fantastic movie.

One thing to remember with Wanted: The Movie is very much based in reality. Even the opening sequence, where we see man leap through a plate glass window out of a high-up office tower over to ANOTHER tower a few hundred yards away to eliminate his would-be assassins, you hardly feel like you've left the modern-day world. This is also true when you see people shoot bullets out of the air, curve bullets or do other fits of daring-do... normal people wouldn't be able to do these things, but our heroes can.

And that brings us to McAvoy, playing the role of Wesley Gibson. Wesley is like you or me. He hates his job. He hates that his best friend is fucking his girlfriend when his back is turned. He hates his father for abandoning him at eighteen weeks old. He hates his ergonomic keyboard. He takes medication for severe panic attacks. Okay, maybe not QUITE like you or me. Wesley is used to being pushed around. He's never been the assertive type, used to being stepped on and never sure how to stop it. Along comes Fox (Jolie) who tells him his father was killed in our opening scene not too long ago, and after a bit of wild driving, she brings him to the Fraternity, led by the great Freeman as Sloan, who would train Wesley to be good enough to kill the rebel assassin who killed his dad.

First of all, the action sequences are fantastic. The only real hiccup is the driving scene with Jolie and McAvoy being chased by the bad guy (King Kong's Thomas Kretschmann) in which the camera gets a little too close and obscures some of the action. Besides that, though, the movie's action scenes are flawless, constantly letting blood and bending the fabric of reality to make everything both believable and unbelievable at the same time. I always knew Jolie could act, and McAvoy is fantastic as both the sniveling worm he starts as and the hardened killer he becomes. Other strong performances include Kretschmann and Common, who plays one of Wesley's trainers. Sadly, it seems that Morgan Freeman mails in his performance, though it didn't hurt the movie any with him at only half-strength. There are also some scenes that are a little TOO out there (animal rights activists will have trouble with a couple of scenes, though a slight reminder that this is just a movie should alleviate those concerns) and ridiculous, but nothing that detracts from the final product.

In all, Wanted is a fantastic movie. It's got acting, action, mythology and just plain bad-assness, all the while rooting itself in the real world in a completely believable fashion. I highly recommend it to any who haven't watched it yet. And if you have, make definite plans to pick it up on DVD, which it probably will by this Christmas.

I wish there were an easier way to compare the movie and the graphic novel well. I definitely liked the book, but I LOVED the movie so much more. However, it's hardly an even playing field, as the two mediums are so different that their disparate traits outnumber their similarities by a wide margin.

First of all, the majority of the story takes place in New York City (in the movie, it was Chicago). It starts off the same though, with anger and violence ripping through the first few scenes before we even get to Wesley. It's obvious from the start that there are some issues that take place in the book that don't place in the movie (racism, gender degradation, homosexuality, even excess violence).

But probably the most pointed difference between the book and the movie is that in the book, the Brotherhood are in reality a league of super villains. (Note: That wasn't a spoiler, if you read the FIRST ISSUE you'll see I'm right; they lay it out up front) Years ago, they organized, teamed up on the population of super heroes, and killed all of them. Then they wiped the memories of these heroes from the minds of the populace and now they run the world like a black-curtained Illuminati. As a member of the Fraternity, you can destroy, kill, rape, and rob with impunity, never being blamed for your actions. And Wesley's in since his dad was The Killer, a super assassin who never missed. Obviously, this changes the whole scheme of the universe, but I still liked the movie's ability to ground in reality, while the books seems far-fetched and full of holes.

Jones definitely loves his celebrity faces, as the main characters in the story look like Eminem, Halle Berry and Tommy Lee Jones. His art is actually very good, though some flashback sequences are drawn by Dick Giordano (The Phantom) and don't work as well. Jones is definitely the superior artist, and the vulgar and violent undertones are done well here.

Disappointing though is Millar's writing, which doesn't adopt the redemption story in the movie and instead the message the book seems to be trying to get across is "Fuck the world". On top of that, uninspired characters (Sucker, Fuck-Wit and Shit-Head are some such villains who don't amount to crap) and a general plot malaise don't quite live up to the clever dialogue and occasionally hilarious one-liners. If this had been more like the movie's story, instead of ANOTHER super-hero story, it might have been a little more original and stood out from the acres upon acres of indie super stores that exist out there today.

I picked up the Assassin's Edition of the Wanted novel, which includes some fantastic concept art, storyboards, covers, character dossiers and creator interviews. These are almost worth the price of admission alone, but I guess it depends on how much you like extras.

So there you have it! For once, the movie is BETTER than the book! Who'd a' thunk it? I hope you enjoyed this review, we're looking forward to the next Latest Issue!

Nighttime Readings...

Does anyone these days even pay attention to the Alien franchise anymore? After Jean-Paul Jeunet successfully ran the franchise into the ground in 1997, two Predator crossovers have yet to revive the popularity of what might be one of the scariest movie monsters ever conceived. Fortunately, it seems redemption is on the horizon. Dark Horse Books has not only begun releasing new novels based on the Aliens universe (and bringing in top-selling authors such as Diane Carey, John Shirley, and S.D. Perry, to boot), but have also begun to re-release their archives of Aliens comic books - some never before collected - in their new Omnibus series of books.

Back in the nineties, it seemed like Dark Horse just might challenge for an upper echelon spot among the Marvel and DC titles dotting the landscape. With unique titles such as Hellboy, Ghost, and The Mask, and with license agreements for Predator, Star Wars, Terminator, and Tarzan, there seemed no stopping what has since become one of the largest independent comic companies in the United States. And the Aliens license was right there, with multiple series exploring more and more about not only the Aliens universe, but also the basic functionality of how the "bugs" tick. What drives them? This was the overlying question many comic writers asked themselves when they compiled these books.

When I first glimpsed the Omnibus series, I have to admit; I was intrigued. Though I owned a number of the collected trades already (my copies of Rogue and Genocide are worn to shambles by now) I was interested to see what was included in these collections, if they were as complete as they could be.

Oh, boy, were they.

I picked up Aliens Omnibus: Volume 2 and was immediately awestruck when I opened to the table of contents and read the third title listed: Aliens: Colonial Marines. The first issue of Colonial Marines had been printed in January of 1993, and I'd had a chance to read my cousin's copy of issues 1 and 2. Eager to read the rest, I searched comic shops all over Boston... without luck at all. I so desperately wanted to finish the story, but had no means to do so, and by the time the Internet came around, I'd completely forgotten my longing to complete the series. Now I had it in front of me, never before collected, and just waiting for me to plunk down my $24.95 (plus tax) to read it en masse. I was ready.

But there were two other stories included as well, both brimming with promise, and, good reviewer I am, I'll review all three in this special edition of The Latest Issue.

In the first story, Aliens: Genocide, Earth is in a delicate time. The planet is just recovering from an invasion of acid-blooded, face-chomping, bug-like aliens, and Everyone is doing their part to help the world recover. Of those people is multi-billionaire and all-around grease ball Daniel Grant, CEO of the Grant Corporation, one of the strongest companies to emerge from the post-war ashes to help rebuild the world. Grant isn't truly an evil sort, but he's definitely one who expects things to go without a hitch, so he's understandably upset when his company's new wonder-drug, Xeno-Zip - derived from the medical breakthroughs discovered from studying the alien biology - triggers something of an abnormal reaction in a small percentage of people, creating berserkers and hyper speed-freaks. This reaction is due to a synthetic element in the drug, created to mimic something that can't be found on Earth: An alien Queen's Royal Jelly.

Naturally, the army loves Xeno-Zip, side effects and all, so Grant strikes a deal with them: Help me get Royal Jelly from the Alien home planet to perfect my commercial formula, and I'll supply the army with an unlimited supply of the "flawed" drug. This introduces Major Alex Lee, the youngest holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor and an honorable soldier who fully questions the need for this mission to exist. Add in a hidden saboteur who would like nothing more than to see Daniel Grant fail and an inter-species Alien war, and you've got a fairly compelling five-part story that doesn't skimp on the alien-human violence.

As one of the better written stories in the bunch, John Arcudi (The Mask, Gen 13) deserves a lot of credit. The story paces smoothly, with character development readily moving the story forward, as Grant becomes a more sympathetic character and the soldiers themselves gaining some face-time to grow. On top of that, the art is exceptionally consistent, with Damon Willis and Karl Story (Batman, Aliens vs. Predator) doing terrific work on pencils and inks, in that order, and my personal favorite Arthur Suydam (whose covers for Marvel Zombies, Black Panther, and Wolverine have lately been fantastic) bringing his unique color scheme to this title to complete an all-around good look that is consistent throughout all five issues. My only complaint with this story is the seeming lack of drawn-out battles with the alien species: with the exception of one shown battle, most of the fights are short and not-t00-sweet. We at the Latest issue like to know who's getting killed when, even if that character never uttered a word the entire time, as it was in the second Aliens movie.

We loved Rogue, though. It was a fair reminder of just how good Dark Horse can get when they bring in the right talent to get the job done. A plus mark for the first third of the book.

We wish we could say the same for Aliens: Harvest. It brings a unique idea to the table: Dr. Stan Mayakovsky builds an android replicate of an Alien with the intent of stealing into a hive and stealing Royal Jelly, which has become a precious commodity on the black market. Of course, Stan doesn't care about that, he just wants enough to stop the cancer that has ravaged his body, and let his partners do what they will with the rest.

To complete his task, Stan builds XL1, or Norbert; A synthetic alien design with advanced intelligence and one mission: infiltrate the alien hive, and commandeer the favored royal jelly (stop me if you've heard this before). XL1 certainly comes in handy when Mayakovsky and his team become stranded on the planet surface, facing hordes of alien legions.

With the exception of the alien android XL1, there really isn't anything about Harvest that stands out. The writing of Jerry Prosser (one of the co-creators of Dark Horse, The Crow) is mediocre at best, confoundedly difficult to understand at worst. I could forgive the equally awful artwork by Kelley Jones (Batman, Sandman) if the writing was a little better. At least the art was unique. I wish I could say more about this title, but honest to heart, I just wanted to get this bad part over with before I got to the part of the book I really wanted to see.

Aliens: Colonial Marines starts off great. A deep space waste-disposal facility is our first destination, as the crew not-so-merrily launches barrel after barrel of toxic waste into the local yellow star. It's the ass end of space, and the crew is trying to finish the current shipment before the local administrator for Alpha Tech stops by to supervise their work and drop off a replacement security detachment. Knowing this is coming, the crew is shocked and appalled when they observe a new ship, the Laing, coming in to make an unscheduled delivery. They never know until the last second that the Laing is home to a whole nest of Aliens, at least not until it's too late.

This brings us to USCM base Dover, where a young Lt. Joseph Henry is sitting in the brig, punishment for striking a superior officer. Henry has always been one to dismiss authority, probably caused by the precipitous relationship shared with his father, head of the Joint Services Committee, and one who was never around during Henry's youth. Henry learns he has been tabbed to run a platoon of untrainable goldbrick marines and take them to a hard labor station to try to work them into reasonable soldiers. Aided by no-nonsense Sergeant Nyland and gigantic synthetic Liston, Henry is also bringing administrator Beliveau and his hand-picked security team to that very waste disposal facility. This leads to a race against time to see who's manipulating the aliens and leads to some very frantic firefights. At least that's the idea.

The first three issues are great. Chris Warner (Barb Wire, Aliens vs. Predator) is very dialogue heavy, but once the action sets in, he's as good as any writer out there. And he's helped by the best part of the book, penciler Tony Akins (Heartbreakers, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi) who by far does the best work in the entire book, with solid art and recognizable characters. It's a joy to read the first three chapters for his work alone.

However, that's when the honeymoon ends. I don't know if this crew were first signed to do the whole series, but after these issues Dark Horse made a change, with Kelley Puckett (Batgirl, Supergirl) taking over the script and Allen Nunis (X-Wing Rogue Squadron) doing the artwork. There's not much to say, but I will anyway: Bad dialogue, lousy and inconsistent artwork. They traded in Warner and Akins for these schlubs? Fortunately, Akins makes a quick one-time return to drawing in issue 7, and Dan Jolley (Obergeist, Firestorm) takes over writing duties in issue 9, to finish the series. Also, John Nadeau (X-Wing Rogue Squadron) begins in issue 8 to create images far superior to that of Nunis and even Akins. The last three issues in the series are by far the best, though they might have been better if not for the mediocrity that preceded them.

This series has troubles, doubt me not. First and foremost, while the truly main characters are fleshed out and humanized to great extents, many of the "grunts" who are portrayed here never are. Rake, Rosemas, Chen, Cvercko, Maryland, Beech, Bateman, Berganza, Carrano, Koo, Forsyth, Dinkel, Vormitag and Boston are all just names, not characters with pasts or stories to tell. Even potentially intriguing characters like Carmen Vazquez (little sister of the more famous Vazquez as portrayed in Aliens) are poorly used. They're all just backdrop. To top it off, it seems none of the artists really synced up with how any character was supposed to look; With the exception of the "minority" characters, none of the secondary people seem to differentiate from one another, resulting in confusing glances from the reader as to wonder who the hell's dialogue he just read. Top that off with Nunis' bad art, Puckett's bad writing, poor layouts and the apparent cutting of the series from twelve issues to ten (which might have solved some of the character problems) and you have a purely bellow-average scoring series that could have been much more.

I wish I loved this book more. Genocide was fantastic, Harvest was atrocious, and Colonial Marines was just so-so. Better and worse series have existed than these three, but for a barometer of what the Aliens franchise is capable of, check out this book.

Just don't pay full price.