ALIENS: DEFIANCE – Ben’s Horror-Comic-Athon October 2018 #1

In the spirit of Halloween, Ben is reading one horror comic every night before he goes to bed. Will they keep him up? Or will they put him to sleep? We’ll find out…

It’s October 1st. I had thought about doing a podcast episode every day of October leading up to Halloween. Then I remembered . . . there are other things in life that I need to do.

It would be one scary comic every day. Or at least one comic that was MEANT to be scary every day. But I dismissed that idea even as I assembled a pile of horror comics. Comics featuring monsters on the prowl and on the loose and on the go or whatever.

And so, as I picked up a graphic novel containing the second half of the Aliens: Defiance series recommended to me by my buddy JS Earls, I realized I may not be able to podcast every single day about this stuff, but I sure as heck could READ one every single day. And maybe journal about it?

Challenge diminished . . . and therefore accepted.

ENTRY ONE:

ALIEN DEFIANCE – Dark Horse Comics; Brian Wood, writer; Tristan Jones, Ricardo Burchielli, Tony Brescini, Stephen Thompson, & Dan Jackson, artists; published 2016-2017

Aliens: Defiance was an interesting story. Each issue was actually labelled “Episode 1” in the story’s title, and at first I thought that was a bit strange. But then as I read along, it made sense. This read like a TV series. In the “pilot episode” we’re introduced to our main characters and some of the main problem that’s going to drive the story engine. And the story engine itself, once it gets going, is enough to carry the series. But each issue is a self-contained story along the journey, with the bigger story creeping along in the background.

The story: basically, a disgraced and injured marine ends up on a mission with an android who is gaining self-awareness and a moral compass. Together, they change the parameters of their mission. They are going to follow the path of the Xenomorphs and wipe out any trace of them before the company can get samples.

And it works. This was a well paced series with interesting twists and turns. I liked it quite a bit.

This blogging journal journey thing through the comics I read this month is starting out strong.

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You can read the rest of this series here: Ben’s Horror-Comic-Athon October 2018

While Ben’s not podcasting daily for the entire month, The Comic Book Time Machine will be going daily for a week at the end of October. Don’t miss our WEEK OF WEIRD, as we explore some weird comics from October 25-31!