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wyrmbergmalcolm's review
4.0
This graphic novel combines 3 DC/Dark Horse Aliens crossovers books: Batman/Aliens, Batman/Aliens II and Batman and Superman Vs. Aliens And Predator. It also includes WildC.A.T.S/Aliens that had only been published as a comic, or as part of another TPB.
Batman/Aliens
The first story sees that brooding caped crusader in the middle of a jungle looking for a missing employee of Wayne Enterprises. Instead he finds a team of mercenaries and a hidden spaceship with something really nasty on board. At this point, the Xenomorphs are a completely unknown entity and none of the character knows what they're getting into. What follows is a pretty good Aliens story with Batman doing his best to survive. Although a little more violent that usual Batman fare, this is quite tame for an Aliens story, with the gore setting as quite low. Also, I know Batman's quite fast and pretty strong, but how he's able to grapple xenomorphs time and time again and come away pretty much unharmed get less believable every time (yes I know it's Batman vs. Aliens and believably is not the first thing to pick up on, but still). I did enjoy the story and the appearance of a crocodile-born xenomorph was pretty cool.
Batman/Aliens II
This one I have as a TPB so am struggling to know if I count this whole book as 1 book or 3. In this one Aliens have been brought to Gotham leaving Batman to grapple with the xenomorphs once again. This time he does have a special suit to help him not die immediately. This one's upped the gore factor a little, but also given more thought to providing a story. As usual with these things, there's a secret facility who wants to use the xenomorphs as weapons, this time by splicing their DNA with that of some of the choice residents of Arkham Asylum. Always a good idea that... This leads to a ridiculous, but very enjoyable confrontation between these hybrids and the caped human.
Superman and Batman Vs. Aliens and Predator
Despite the long title, this was quite an interesting story surrounding a long-isolated group of Predators and their traditional alien game. Following separate leads, Batman and reporters Louis and Clark meet up and do their best to salvage the situation despite Superman's unswerving intent to not take any life, even if it's a Xenomorph.
This story takes place after both heroes have had their individual stories chronicling their encounters with xenomorphs and Yautja so both know what they're up against. Having Louis Land there as well does add a fragility to the human representatives. Unfortunately, even though this is chock full of all of these elements, there wasn't a lot to the story itself and the Aliens, for the most part, were mostly just... there.
WildC.A.T.S/Aliens
Not knowing anything about WildC.A.T.S. I did struggle to care about the characters in this one. I felt that some introduction would have benefited here to bring the reader up to speed about any of the related stuff going on in this story. This was another base-under-siege story with Aliens verses a team of super heroes. Again, the characters have no idea what they're facing which did help bring up the tension. This time though, as I didn't know who anybody was, I didn't know if any of the character deaths, or discovered bodies had any significance beyond them being know by members of the super team. The really interesting premise of having xenomorphs being born of super heroes features the super attributes of their birth places was unfortunately woefully underused. Only one alien got to demonstrate its power and briefly at that. I felt that was a missed opportunity. Imagine a hoard of xenomorphs where each creature has a super power. Oh well.
It was okay for what it was but nothing to make me want to find out more about WildC.A.T.S.
Batman/Aliens
The first story sees that brooding caped crusader in the middle of a jungle looking for a missing employee of Wayne Enterprises. Instead he finds a team of mercenaries and a hidden spaceship with something really nasty on board. At this point, the Xenomorphs are a completely unknown entity and none of the character knows what they're getting into. What follows is a pretty good Aliens story with Batman doing his best to survive. Although a little more violent that usual Batman fare, this is quite tame for an Aliens story, with the gore setting as quite low. Also, I know Batman's quite fast and pretty strong, but how he's able to grapple xenomorphs time and time again and come away pretty much unharmed get less believable every time (yes I know it's Batman vs. Aliens and believably is not the first thing to pick up on, but still). I did enjoy the story and the appearance of a crocodile-born xenomorph was pretty cool.
Batman/Aliens II
This one I have as a TPB so am struggling to know if I count this whole book as 1 book or 3. In this one Aliens have been brought to Gotham leaving Batman to grapple with the xenomorphs once again. This time he does have a special suit to help him not die immediately. This one's upped the gore factor a little, but also given more thought to providing a story. As usual with these things, there's a secret facility who wants to use the xenomorphs as weapons, this time by splicing their DNA with that of some of the choice residents of Arkham Asylum. Always a good idea that... This leads to a ridiculous, but very enjoyable confrontation between these hybrids and the caped human.
Superman and Batman Vs. Aliens and Predator
Despite the long title, this was quite an interesting story surrounding a long-isolated group of Predators and their traditional alien game. Following separate leads, Batman and reporters Louis and Clark meet up and do their best to salvage the situation despite Superman's unswerving intent to not take any life, even if it's a Xenomorph.
This story takes place after both heroes have had their individual stories chronicling their encounters with xenomorphs and Yautja so both know what they're up against. Having Louis Land there as well does add a fragility to the human representatives. Unfortunately, even though this is chock full of all of these elements, there wasn't a lot to the story itself and the Aliens, for the most part, were mostly just... there.
WildC.A.T.S/Aliens
Not knowing anything about WildC.A.T.S. I did struggle to care about the characters in this one. I felt that some introduction would have benefited here to bring the reader up to speed about any of the related stuff going on in this story. This was another base-under-siege story with Aliens verses a team of super heroes. Again, the characters have no idea what they're facing which did help bring up the tension. This time though, as I didn't know who anybody was, I didn't know if any of the character deaths, or discovered bodies had any significance beyond them being know by members of the super team. The really interesting premise of having xenomorphs being born of super heroes features the super attributes of their birth places was unfortunately woefully underused. Only one alien got to demonstrate its power and briefly at that. I felt that was a missed opportunity. Imagine a hoard of xenomorphs where each creature has a super power. Oh well.
It was okay for what it was but nothing to make me want to find out more about WildC.A.T.S.
bekahlee10's review
5.0
I liked this better than the collection with Superman because of the intelligence behind it. Don't get me wrong. I loved watching Superman battle these creatures, but with Batman there was a darker tone and a lot more thought. Instead of being able to just fight them with godlike powers, Bats has to get creative, which creates a connection between him and Ripley from the original films. It's great because that original spirit that so many people love is replicated here, and It really plays up the things I love most about the Dark Knight in the first place. Also I love the explanations behind the xenomorphs' appearances on earth for this storyline. The writers didn't phone it in and really explored the potential of what might happen if certain people became aware of the existence of these death machines. In the second part, you almost get an idea of what would have happened if the Weyland company had their way in the films. Bottom line it's a great book for fans of both Batman and the Alien franchise.
silky_octopus's review
3.0
This one is a bit of a mixed bag. The two best stories in it for me were the first Batman vs Aliens story, and the WildCATS vs Aliens story - the latter of which is an AU work rather than one intended to fit in with the main Stormwatch comic I think, based on the deaths of several notable characters. The second Batman vs Aliens story was interesting, right up to the point where hybrid alien-villain creatures trained as special forces in a secret project appeared at which point it felt like the story was going from creepy to ... well, silly. The Superman and Batman vs Aliens and Predator story suffered from art I didn't particularly like, and a story that felt as if it was being drawn out for longer than really felt necessary, although it was interesting seeing Batman and Superman comparing notes based on their past encounters.
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