Customer Reviews

Superman/Aliens

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Superman/Aliens is definitely one of the finest examples of the Dark Horse/DC versus crossovers. Combined with great story telling, great artwork, and many twists, this is one of the finer examples of crossover writing.

When a chunk of what appears to be Krypton is discovered drifting deep in outer space, Superman takes it upon himself to investigate, through means of Lex Luthor's space program, no less. What he finds there is a horror beyond all imagination...what remaining people there were are long dead...victims of monstrosities beyond the likes of which Superman has ever seen. With only one survivor there, his means of escape destroyed and his powers diminishing from being away from the yellow sun of Earth, hope fades fast for Superman and the lone survivor 'Kara'. When a shocking turn of events overtakes them both, what will happen to the man of steel in the end?

This book has many great twists in the story, and the horror of the Aliens is very real...despite all his powers, Superman is quickly becoming weak, and the Aliens are quickly becoming a match even for Superman. There is a sense of urgency and dread throughout the entire book, and the great writing will keep you glued to the pages all the way through the end. This is the best DH/DC crossover to feature Superman yet, and I highly recommend it to any fan of Superman, Aliens and DH/DC crossovers. You will not regret it!

At first, I wasn't really certain if an "Alien vs. Superman" title would work. I pictured the "man of steel" bumbling into the standard hive situation only to tear through those poor xenon as they tried to protect their own. That seems to be the favorite in crossovers such as this, with the superheroes simply going in a "romp" those poor unfortunates without superpowers. ( Personally, if I wanted to throw my money away, I'd do something constructive like burn it.) In this case, however, the situation was hardly in Superman's favor.
From the beginning, the creators found a way to level the playing field a bit, putting Superman on an all "too human" playing field for him to simply overwhelm. In fact, he seemed to be having problems just matching up with our beloved Aliens. The situation, as it was laid out, worked for me, too, and wasn't really too far of a stretch, either. I would go into more detail, but that's what the book is for. From there, it just got worse and worse for everyone's favorite kick-around boy, leading to Superman actually getting a bit touchy-feely with one of those wonderful throat molesters.
I liked the title alot and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Aliens (I would say the Aliens movies, but we all know that some were a bit lacking). Buy it for your kids and give them nightmares worth remembering!

I usually avoid crossover books between companies. And I've never had much interest in "Aliens" or "Predators"... or movie tie-in comic creations for that matter. "Superman/Aliens", however, is a whole different thing altogether.

Firstly, it is a "real" Superman story set in the continuity of time when it was published. Most crossovers are too light-weight because you know that ultimately it's all "just an imaginary story" and you can always go back to your beloved character next month and nothing's changed. Not so with this book. This story matters on many levels. There were many references made to previous Superman storylines like the "Exile" story where Superman regrets having to commit murder and the "Doomsday" stories. Not surprising since this book is also by Dan Jurgens, the man responsible for guiding the Superman books for close to a decade. (Note: The only other crossover that "mattered" was "Aliens/WildC.A.T.S" wherein the whole Stormwatch team was killed and that set the ground for "The Authority" series.)

Secondly, we get a great Silver-Age concept - Superman is depowered. Before reading this, I was apprehensive. I mean, what can the Aliens do to the near-invulnerable Man of Steel anyway? I thought it was going to be a one-sided fight with the odds on Superman. Turned out it was the other way round. We have a depowered Superman against a whole horde of acid-dripping, man-eating Aliens and he's not even armed like Sigouney Weaver in the movies! The result is a great Die-Hard style story.

Thirdly, we see the return of Kara. I'm a huge fan of the original Supergirl since watching the movie as a kid. And I was devastated by her death in 1985 during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths". In fact, George Perez's drawing of that infamous cover where a teary Superman carries Kara's lifeless body in his arms is one of the images that has been forever burned into my subconscious mind. Granted, there was a Supergirl in the comics - but like all purists, the Matrix/Linda/Supergirl just wasn't the real McCoy to me! Thus, in this book, we have a Kara of Argo City who may or may not be the One...

Dan Jurgens writing is solid as usual and his artwork is even more amazing here when inked by the talented Kevin Nowlan - though I must admit that it takes some getting used to. But then, Nowlan's darker inks are perfectly suitable for this story. It's a lot more violent and bloody than the typical Superman tale and we have a Supes debating within himself the dark act of unavoidable-murder as a "final solution" - thus making a far darker Superman tale than we're used to.

I first picked up this crossover when it was published in 3 parts. I could hardly wait for the next one to come out,especially after what happened in book 2. This melded the then-current storylines of Superman with the Alien menace in a logical way. A probe of Kryptonian origin crash-lands on Earth & Superman intercepts its tranmission before it runs out of power. With the help of Dr. Kimbel(from the space research section of Lexcorp),Superman takes an experimental hyper-space craft to the probe's point of origin,a place called Argo City. Once there,his powers begin to fade because there is no yellow sun to keep his powers going. He finds some people that are in need of medical attention & sends them back to the Lexcorp space station in the space craft with the hope that the craft will be sent back to him. He then encounters his first Alien & is wounded when the Alien attacks his forehead with its double jaws & the acid blinds Superman. He is saved by a young girl named Kara(shades of Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl from the Silver Age) so the mystery deepens:is this Argo City from Krypton or not? I won't reveal the answer but the rest of the series has Superman trying to find a way back to the Lexcorp space station because he found out the people he sent there were infected by Aliens & since Lois Lane is on the station,she & the other station personnel are in danger. Before its all over,Superman & Kara face off against a lot of Alien warriors,face huggers & the Alien Queen. Dan Jurgens wrote a good story & Kevin Nowlan's art took a little getting used to(especially where the charcters' eyes seem to be either closed or not open all of the way because of the way the pencils & inks were used to create shadowing) but the art was good for the most part. I defintely would recommend to pick up this book because this book(besides the first Batman/Aliens book) is the best of the DC Heroes/Aliens crossovers.

Forgive me. I'll do my best, but I'm not up on recent, and not-so recent comics so some of what is in here will go over my head. It's been a long, long time since I've immersed myself in comics minutia, I've just remained a casual comic reader, however I do like the Aliens universe so I'll do my best.

This trade paperback collects the three issue Dark Horse/DC Comics mini-series crossover. As this graphic novel starts Clark Kent and Lois Lane have been given granted permission to visit Lexcorp's space station by Dr. Kimble, the head of Lexcorp's space program because they (Lexcorp) have detected an incoming object from out of our system. Kent and Lane are given a lift out to it's incoming site. However, while listening in on the incoming object's transmission, Kent realizes that it is transmitting in Krytonese, so he does a little sabotage via his heat ray, forcing the helicopter to set down. This gives Kent the chance to escape the company of the others in the helicopter and ditch his civvies and get out to the crash site where he manages to rescue the object before it dies, because, I think, it's kinda, sorta, maybe organic, or partially organic, I think. And dying is which it would have done if Superman hadn't been there.

It turns out that this object is a distress buoy and there is a possible Krytonese city out there that is in need of help. Realizing he needs to get there, Kimble lets him use a space ship, which they have handily lying about (?), to zip over to the planet to see what's happening. Landing, he finds it a lonely place, there is a nearby city, but it is in ruins. Although he is far from any sun, and he is rapidly losing his powers, he travels to the city anyway. After all, what can go wrong? However, although everything on the planet seems dead and deserted, unknown to him he is being followed. Then he lucks out and discovers several survivors, they are in bad shape, so he packs them into the spaceship and sends them back to Lexcorp. Then he finds himself attacked by an Alien, and since he is losing his powers, it can cause damage to him. Then he is rescued by another survivor from the city, a blonde called Kara.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the people that Superman has sent back have had their Aliens hatch and in due course chaos reigns.

And back on the planet Superman has to struggle with his vow to never kill a sentient being while being caught between the Aliens siege on the city and its inhabitants fight for survival. The story then goes back and forth as Superman and Kara try to escape, with Superman steadily losing his powers, and the attack on Lexcorp's space station, where the humans are losing.

Seeing as the dynamic duo Jurgens & Nowlan had three issues to tell their story, the story is pretty tight, and fairly interesting. As far as the DC Universe continuity is concerned, others have mentions it is pretty much in line with what was happing with Superman at the time, and that Kara is, or was Supergirl, but who had died ten years earlier during "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline, I don't know, don't ask me, I have never understood comic book continuity, anyway, it doesn't get in the way of the story.

As far as the Aliens universe goes, we can count this as an imaginary story, a good one, but imaginary none-the-less.

Artwise, I liked most of what I saw except for a few things. The figures at times look a little too posed, and look a little too much like fashion models. I also didn't like the way these two drew lips. Honestly, they were all pursed, pouting, or looking like the character has sucked a lemon. Others may have not noticed, but I did, and it got in the way at times, especially in close-ups.

Other than that, this was a great book, I enjoyed it, after all, I originally bought it for my father, who recently passed away. I found it again amongst his effects, and this is part of a series of books that he read, and liked, and that I'm gonna review for this site.

Trivia note: Jurgins was originally born in Ortonville, Minnesota, and I have lived in Ortonville, Michigan. Yeah, who cares? Anyway, this review is for George Baumgart (1930-2010) a man who liked comics and didn't care what anybody thought.

I have also reviewed these other comic, and graphic novels for this site:

Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946
Cartoons-of-the-Month
The Complete Saga of the Victims
Creepy Creatures (Goosebumps Graphix)
Green Candles (1 of 3)
Green Candles Volume 2
Green Candles Volume 3: Don't Forget Me
Halo: Uprising
Ju-On Volume 2
Polly and the Pirates, Volume 1 (v. 1)
Rapunzel's Revenge
The Secret of the Swamp Thing

When an object from outer space enters the Earth's atmosphere, Superman assists in bringing it down safely. But imagine his surprise when a robot voice speaks to him from the object in the language of Krypton! It seems that when their planet was about to be destroyed, the inhabitants of a city domed it over, and launched it into space.

However, when he gets there, Superman finds the city in ruins, and only a few sick survivors. Sending the survivors back to Earth, he sets out to find out what happened, and finds the Aliens. But, Superman has a problem, being away so long from Earth's sun, his powers are beginning to wane. And worse, did the people he sent to Earth carry the seeds of an Alien invasion that could kill all life on his adopted planet?

Sometimes crossovers are good, and sometimes they are bad. (The last one I read was a stinker!) But, this one definitely works! I thought that the creators did a good job of using Superman as you would expect him to act, and the Aliens as you would expect them to act, and combining them together in an exciting adventure. Overall, I really liked this graphic novel, and give it my highest recommendations!

In the graphic novel Superman Aliens by Dan Jurgens and Kevin Nowlan, the Man of Steel travels to a remnant city from Krypton. But when he gets there he finds a city in ruins with only a handful of survivors. He sends some back in his ship before he finds out that the place is overrun by a malevolent alien life form. Realizing that the survivors he sent to Earth were hosts for the Aliens Superman must find a way to survive and return to Earth before his diminishing powers are completely drained.

A very well written tale for either fans of Superman or Aliens. The art is another matter. Fro his first appearance, the long-haired Clark Kent resembles Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller more than he does any previous depiction of his character. And if that wasn't enough, Lois Lane appears to be a sixteen-year-old with an attitude and a Veronica Lake haircut (for you younger readers that means her hair is pulled forward to cover half her face). Then the evil scientist from Lexcorp looks just like a cousin of mine (and I don't think she would be flattered by the comparison).

So if you like Superman or Aliens then this is an entertaining story. You just have to try and not pay too much attention to some of the character depictions. If you can manage that I am sure you will enjoy the story.

I have always had a peculiar relationship with Aliens.
This H.R.Giger creation has always struck an inner chord with me and has never left me since the first movie Alien way back in 79. I have collected the various dark horse comics related to Aliens with Dark Horse (1rst print) and the first crossover for this one Aliens/Predator as well as seeing all the movies.

Fast Forward 12 years later with a job, a wife, two kids a car...The life Bill Shatner screamed about on Saturday night live...While surfing the net (not at work , of course:-) I find that the crossovers had expanded to a few select DC superheroes.
Superman is easily comicdom's most sacred cow monolith that all other characters compare to eventually. Remember those Marvel/DC crossovers of the 70s?

Superman the icon of light , truth, justice and the terran way vs. the most driven , single minded , agressive , ruthless, acid dripping parasite/predator of the sci fi universe the 20th century has to offer.

No matter what the reviews would say I had to see this matchup.

I was not dissapointed.

The elements in the story were logical, a possible link to his lost homeworld as bait, his depowering being mandatory- or else there would be no challenge, the obvious greed of Lexcorp-The Company by any other name.

The story itself to me essentially centered on one thing (WOULD SUPERMAN'S ETHICS STAND IF HE COULD NO LONGER AFFORD THEM?). This story centers around Superman prime canon that life, ANY life, is sacred and worth preserving. Boy do the Aliens ever challenge that one!

The art is well done to support a basically creepy story, which is not the usual stories associated with the Man of Steel. Seeing the predicament of the Son of Krypton in the story woke up the nightmares of long ago inside me. To see such a mighty symbol being vulnerable almost like us is, well, disturbing.

But this being Superman you know he'll eventually triumph. All in all I was not dissapointed. Well worth buying.

4 stars.

Superman vs. Aliens? Say what? Yep, and it works well thanks to Jurgens' competent story-telling. Clark Kent and Lois Lane, as guests of Lex Corp., witness the landing of a probe seemingly of Kryptonian origin. Supes then jets off in a hyper-craft to investigate....only to discover the probe was from a civilization *similar* to Krypton's -- and has been decimated by the Alien scourge. As Supes' power wanes, he and a girl that he has encountered must find a way off the corrupted asteroid. Neat ending which should not disappoint.

Superman Vs Aliens written by Dan Jurgens and illustrated by Jurgens and Kevin Nowlan . Two super comic publishers unite for an explosive unparalleled issue two characters with extreme popularity and totally diverse beings in one epic comic book. Superman who believes in the values that make him what he is for which is truth, justice and the American way going into battle with aliens(xenomorphs) that have no value and will stop at nothing to multiply and survive with their own kind. Superman is the man of steel of like no mortal man on earh but these aliens instead have acid for blood and a mouth that can slash into one tiny nibble. The story begins with LexCorp space divison detecting an approaching object nearby that they soon discover to be an orb. They contact Louis and for an account of what is to happen and transpire as a news report. Clark Kent then goes along for the ride as per usual, and then soon realises that this probe is from Kryptonia and immediately finds out that he may not be alone after all on this other planet. He needs to find the probe and intercept it for what it is and find out what it's carrying and saying as a parasitic lifeform. He does precisely that and then finds that indeed there are Kryptonians out their in that little planet that have been thrust in the middle of an ocean of outer space. So the story unfolds the illustrations are beyond real they almost jump out of you and into the page. He travels to this planet called Argos city thrown from Superman's home planet Krypton when it exploded. What is left however is an infestation of thousands of hungry fierce parasitic xenomorph lifeform stopping at nothing to kill the man of steel with absolutely one scheme to dominate earth with their own kind. Superman's powers have been greatly diminished because of his distance from a yellow sun and this is one mean ugly bunch of acid spitting flesh ripping double jawed parasitic lifeform leech bugs not of course always forgetting the face huggers who are of course quicker than a speeding bullet. This is one adventure that Superman is finding a little uneasy and slightly out of his comfort zone is here to kill or not to kill and this is one dilemma that he's facing constantly the will to maintain his firm oath and the desire to save probably the only remaining remnant of another Kryptonian in the name of Kara a young feisty brave young girl. This story is a gigantic conflict not only superman and the aliens but superman and inhimself. Superman as usual is epic; his exaggerated virtues of the common man remain steadfast. The art is perfect the anatomy the impact of the pictures is truly exuberating. His battle is won but also lost he lost the only other person that was from where he came from which was of course Kara and he did however manage as usual to save earth from it's impending doom. I recommend this story to anyone that enjoys Superman here and he is at his finest he is vulnerable and still able to maintain what he stands for which in the end again is truth justice and the american way for the world to know of him as a brightly garbed costumed hero.I thoroughly enjoyed it out of all of it.