Man, you gotta love crossovers. No matter how ridiculous they can be at times, ya gotta love ’em.
These days readers don’t get treated to the kinds of crossovers that readers had back in the 90’s and early 2000’s when it came to cool DC and Marvel crossovers. But this is not about Marvel or DC per say, this crossover is about Predators and Aliens. Yes, Xenomorphs and vicious space bounty hunters! What more do ya want!?
Now, before I go through with the review, I have to say that I love the Aliens and Predator crossovers. It’s always cool when readers get to see them crossover with other characters from other properties. Hell Alien and Predator have gone head to head against Batman, Superman, Green Lantern , The JLA, Wild C.A.T.s, Magnus the Robot Fighter, The Terminator, Witchblade, The Darkness, Vampirella, Tarzan, Ghost, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Archie (yes, Archie) and many others. But there is one character of interest that they have made a reunion with and that is none other than 2000 A.D.’s Judge Dredd.
The comic begins with a flashback to Mega City One , five years ago where a civilian calls up Judge Dredd to report a hostage situation . The culprit behind this operation was Dr. Reinstot. The purpose for the kidnapping of orphans was to experiment , splice and fuse their DNA with various animal strands. Before the reader gets to see Dredd unleash his lawful fury , the story takes a quick change of pace into the present. In the present, Dredd and his team are in the jungle chasing after a fugitive named Archbishop Emoji. But as they are attempting to apprehend Emoji, far behind in the distance of the jungle there are Predators who are observing Dredd and his squad. As soon as Dredd attempts to take Archbishop Emoji in , Judge Anderson psychically detects other people in the jungle and suddenly they are attacked and captured, but it is not the Predators that capture them.
As the story progresses , Dredd and his Allies are all chained up and surrounded by Their human animal spliced captors. It is then that an enemy from the past enters the fray and it is revealed to be none other than Dr. Reinstot. The comic started to pick up speed when motivations of the Predators are waiting to be revealed as well as Reinstot and his obsession of his newest breakthrough that ties into a certain group of Xenomorphs. By the end of the comic, all hell starts to break loose.
John Layman does a good job at writing A Dredd based comic, that just so happens to have Alien and Predator involved, and intertwined within the story. It really reads like a Dredd comic, like it would fit in continuity if one wanted to consider it part of the canon. The art by Chris Mooneyham is perfect for this book and its story, it matches everything that makes up an Alien vs Predator vs kind of series in the very classic Dark Horse comics type of fashion. It’s very gritty, patchy, dark, and heavy, which fits the story well. The colors by Michael Atiyeh help cement the overall feel of Mega-City One when displayed while also capturing the claustrophobic feel of the jungle whenever characters are shown wondering about. The gunfight is displayed wonderfully especially when Archbishop Emoji gets hit, makes for fun cinematography and pyrotechnics.
I loved this issue, and I can’t wait to see the next issue along with the ending of this limited series crossover. I personally feel we need more crossover property comics every now and then since the big two don’t do that with each other anymore. It’s what makes comics fun, it’s what makes reading comics fun, taking those what if ideas of fiction characters interacting with other fictional characters and making cool short crossover stories that you and friends can read, laugh and talk about. Again, I can’t wait for the next issue. Props to Dark Horse for still making these crossovers happen and I hope to see many more of these crossovers continue with IDW, 2000 A.D., DC Comics and more.
Newsdesk