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Aliens (comics)
Aliens vs. Predator: War
First blood or last breath -- those are the only choices in Aliens vs. Predator: War! The Predators converge on the seed planet Bunda for the biggest bug hunt yet, each taking position to draw first blood. Machiko, a human who has been inducted into the Predator clan, is forced into a duel in order to claim her rightful place in the upcoming hunt. But when a new group of humans shows up, what began as sport becomes serious business.
200 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 1996
2 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Randy Stradley
395 books35 followers"Nearly thirty years of writing and editing comics, and this is what I have to show for it."
—Randy Stradley, pointing to this biography.
More to come, folks!
—Randy Stradley, pointing to this biography.
More to come, folks!
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 28, 2020
This is the sequel to two different comic book series, the original Aliens Vs. Predator and Aliens: Berserker. Machiko from the original AvP is living with the Predators when she comes across the survivors of Berserker when they land on a planet the Predators are going on a bug hunt on. It's about as fun as you'd expect 90s comics crossing two properties would be.
November 14, 2023
Not as good as the first entry in the AVP series, but fun, for what it's worth. This is for those who are curious of Machiko's adventures after the events of the first series. The art, story and even the covers themselves aren't as strong, but like I said, still a fun entry.
October 21, 2024
Nice crossover of these two franchises. Recommended
August 27, 2016
Reprints the four-issue series written by Randy Stradley, with art by Mike Manley (#1-2), Jim Hall (#3) and Mark G. Heike (#4). The collection also includes three prelude stories: "AvP: Blood Time" (from Dark Horse Comics #25) with art by Phill Norwood, AvP: Duel #1-2 with art by Javier Saltares and AvP: War #0 (collecting the strip from Dark Horse Insider vol.2 #1-14) with art by Chris Warner.
Nowhere near as innovative as the original story that introduced us to Machiko Noguchi, this is a good sequel to Aliens: Berserker which shows that Weyland-Yutani is still after the information the crew of the ship Nemesis retrieved from DS 949. When the company finds out that three of the crew survived, and were rescued by a ship from the survey on Bunda, an enterprising executive named Lucas Briggs comes over with his two bodyguards.
Meanwhile, the Predator hunting party with which Machiko has been living with for a year (since the events of Aliens vs. Predator ) are planning a big hunt, which happens to be on Bunda. When Machiko sees a visiting Predator wearing a Colonial Marine flag (from the end of AvP: Duel), she starts having suspicions. But when she hears a distress call from Bunda, she knows that the Preds are hunting humans, and she decides to side with her species. Chaos ensues.
A good story, and interesting to find out what happened to characters from previous stories. It's like an entertaining sequel to your favorite movie.
Nowhere near as innovative as the original story that introduced us to Machiko Noguchi, this is a good sequel to Aliens: Berserker which shows that Weyland-Yutani is still after the information the crew of the ship Nemesis retrieved from DS 949. When the company finds out that three of the crew survived, and were rescued by a ship from the survey on Bunda, an enterprising executive named Lucas Briggs comes over with his two bodyguards.
Meanwhile, the Predator hunting party with which Machiko has been living with for a year (since the events of Aliens vs. Predator ) are planning a big hunt, which happens to be on Bunda. When Machiko sees a visiting Predator wearing a Colonial Marine flag (from the end of AvP: Duel), she starts having suspicions. But when she hears a distress call from Bunda, she knows that the Preds are hunting humans, and she decides to side with her species. Chaos ensues.
A good story, and interesting to find out what happened to characters from previous stories. It's like an entertaining sequel to your favorite movie.
July 4, 2024
This was interesting. It is the take on Aliens & Predators before the movies changed all the background and worldbuilding. It feels very much like a nature documentary about Predator society from Machiko (Survivor from the first mini-series) point of view. Lots of Alien V Predator fighting and or hunting. There is some corporate intrigue with another group of survivors and everyone ends up on the same planet and of course chaos ensues.
July 24, 2022
This trade paperback collects Aliens vs. Predator: Blood Time (originally published in Dark Horse Comics #25), Aliens vs. Predator: Duel, and the titular miniseries Aliens vs. Predator: War (whose issue #0 was originally titled Aliens vs. Predator 2 and released in Dark Horse Insider #1-#14). Got all that?
Blood Time is quite short and told entirely through visual storytelling and narration boxes. The basic story is that a bunch of Predators are on a hunt and one of the Predators tries to screw over one of the others by stealing his kill and leaving him for dead. When he returns he’s horrified to see the other Predator alive and being tended to, and the leader of the hunt has him stripped of all his armor and weapons and marooned on the planet as Xenomorph food. There’s also a cute little narrative device where many of the narration boxes from the beginning of the story are actually repeated at the end with drastically altered meanings. I got a kick out of that.
Aliens vs. Predator Duel is a two-issue miniseries that follows a group of space marines sent to investigate a distress call on the planet from the original Aliens vs. Predator miniseries. The plot is basically your standard “Aliens fight Predators and humans get caught in the middle” but it’s told very well and having the Xenomorph that gestates in a Yautja take on characteristics of the Predators was an inspired choice that would have lasting effects on the franchise as a whole. Overall, it’s a nice, small story that makes the world feel bigger and also a great bridge from the original miniseries (which was at this point buried by a bunch of irrelevant follow-ups that never reached the same level of quality) to Aliens vs. Predator: War.
The five-issue miniseries that gives the collection its name, Aliens vs. Predator: War, is much longer than either of the other stories. It ties quite a few continuity threads together, reintroducing the protagonist of the original miniseries (Machiko) and having her travel with the Yautja hunting clan depicted in Blood Time. And apparently the other human characters in this are from some of the Aliens comics, but that doesn’t mean much to me since I haven’t read them. I might try to get around to at least some of those eventually. Perhaps unsurprisingly I enjoyed the earlier issues where Machiko was trying to fit in with the Yautja better than the later issues where she did a mutiny to rush to the rescue of the other human characters she didn’t even know.
Though they’re of drastically different scales, Duel and War are pretty easily the best stories we’ve gotten in this comic line since the original miniseries, and as an entire entity the graphic novel is probably my favorite AVP comic so far.
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Check out my compilation review of the Alien and Predator franchises on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...
Blood Time is quite short and told entirely through visual storytelling and narration boxes. The basic story is that a bunch of Predators are on a hunt and one of the Predators tries to screw over one of the others by stealing his kill and leaving him for dead. When he returns he’s horrified to see the other Predator alive and being tended to, and the leader of the hunt has him stripped of all his armor and weapons and marooned on the planet as Xenomorph food. There’s also a cute little narrative device where many of the narration boxes from the beginning of the story are actually repeated at the end with drastically altered meanings. I got a kick out of that.
Aliens vs. Predator Duel is a two-issue miniseries that follows a group of space marines sent to investigate a distress call on the planet from the original Aliens vs. Predator miniseries. The plot is basically your standard “Aliens fight Predators and humans get caught in the middle” but it’s told very well and having the Xenomorph that gestates in a Yautja take on characteristics of the Predators was an inspired choice that would have lasting effects on the franchise as a whole. Overall, it’s a nice, small story that makes the world feel bigger and also a great bridge from the original miniseries (which was at this point buried by a bunch of irrelevant follow-ups that never reached the same level of quality) to Aliens vs. Predator: War.
The five-issue miniseries that gives the collection its name, Aliens vs. Predator: War, is much longer than either of the other stories. It ties quite a few continuity threads together, reintroducing the protagonist of the original miniseries (Machiko) and having her travel with the Yautja hunting clan depicted in Blood Time. And apparently the other human characters in this are from some of the Aliens comics, but that doesn’t mean much to me since I haven’t read them. I might try to get around to at least some of those eventually. Perhaps unsurprisingly I enjoyed the earlier issues where Machiko was trying to fit in with the Yautja better than the later issues where she did a mutiny to rush to the rescue of the other human characters she didn’t even know.
Though they’re of drastically different scales, Duel and War are pretty easily the best stories we’ve gotten in this comic line since the original miniseries, and as an entire entity the graphic novel is probably my favorite AVP comic so far.
---
Check out my compilation review of the Alien and Predator franchises on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...
December 11, 2020
After lugging these around in boxes over the course of many years, house movings, and blossoming from a grumpy youth into disgruntled adult, myself dusty and shelf-worn, I was glad to crack open the box and the plastic sleeve, and relive some of the action and eye candy, especially the art of #1 and #2 in the series. Three stars for brutal and fun, but the cross over stories tend towards tacky.
December 16, 2024
Not as good as the first Aliens Vs Predator, but it was nice to see Machiko again.
July 27, 2020
Una obra puramente noventera. Pero se agradece la historia de la humana cazadora.
May 16, 2017
This is the third and final arc of this title that is written by Randy Stradley, the original writer and creator of the crossover.
The protagonist from the first arc returns. She has integrated into Predator alien society. She is confronted with where to place her loyalties when she discovers the hunters have been fighting the marines from the second arc.
The premise is solid. Stradley clearly loves this world he's created. Unfortunately, like the first arc, it becomes convoluted and rushed at the end. Again, artists change. The illustration isn't entirely fantastic even when it is consistent. I assumed it was a comic from the eighties by its style.
Of Stradley's three original stories, I think this one could have been the strongest. Instead, it is overlong, melodramatic, and needlessly complicated. The payoff is rushed.
The Aliens continue to be severely underpowered compared to the menace they represent in their own series. In this arc, the Predators are also written with a lot less physical threat than they had in the original film. To enjoy this line at all, I think one needs to imagine both of these alien creatures as of a separate world than the roots from which they were inspired.
Still, the book was enough for me to enjoy, and I like Stradley's ideas. As a whole, I think his premise was strong for the entire arc of this character. The book suffered a lot in all the changes of illustrators. I'm still giving the book three stars, though that is generous in this case.
I may have stopped reading this series if it were not that Book 4 includes two stories, both with art by Alex Maleev, one of my three favourite comic artists of all time. One of them is also written by Maleev. A quick scan of the pages shows that Maleev did successful drag this series into its own decade. I look forward to seeing what he does with it.
The protagonist from the first arc returns. She has integrated into Predator alien society. She is confronted with where to place her loyalties when she discovers the hunters have been fighting the marines from the second arc.
The premise is solid. Stradley clearly loves this world he's created. Unfortunately, like the first arc, it becomes convoluted and rushed at the end. Again, artists change. The illustration isn't entirely fantastic even when it is consistent. I assumed it was a comic from the eighties by its style.
Of Stradley's three original stories, I think this one could have been the strongest. Instead, it is overlong, melodramatic, and needlessly complicated. The payoff is rushed.
The Aliens continue to be severely underpowered compared to the menace they represent in their own series. In this arc, the Predators are also written with a lot less physical threat than they had in the original film. To enjoy this line at all, I think one needs to imagine both of these alien creatures as of a separate world than the roots from which they were inspired.
Still, the book was enough for me to enjoy, and I like Stradley's ideas. As a whole, I think his premise was strong for the entire arc of this character. The book suffered a lot in all the changes of illustrators. I'm still giving the book three stars, though that is generous in this case.
I may have stopped reading this series if it were not that Book 4 includes two stories, both with art by Alex Maleev, one of my three favourite comic artists of all time. One of them is also written by Maleev. A quick scan of the pages shows that Maleev did successful drag this series into its own decade. I look forward to seeing what he does with it.
May 26, 2024
Last time we saw Machiko she joined a predator tribe, this follows on from that, we dive a little into their lore. The thing is there isn't really much to it, Machiko feels out of place with the Yautja because she doesn't fit in and isn't treated equally, she also felt that way with the humans so she's kind of depressed.
Then it kind of ends, with essentially a repeat of the previous ending I get that you can't do much in the AVP universe but this felt very lackluster as nothing really happened. It felt like a play by numbers, as if it was a tick box exercise instead of story that someone came up with. I will say it did pass the time rather quickly though, so it wasn't a terrible read just lacked a bit of imagination.
Then it kind of ends, with essentially a repeat of the previous ending I get that you can't do much in the AVP universe but this felt very lackluster as nothing really happened. It felt like a play by numbers, as if it was a tick box exercise instead of story that someone came up with. I will say it did pass the time rather quickly though, so it wasn't a terrible read just lacked a bit of imagination.
November 12, 2025
Yeah I mean it’s alright. I don’t really like Predator when it’s in the future but you can’t help it when xenomorphs are involved (except that’s what they did with the movies, though it didn’t work, and predator badlands was pretty solid)
I think that the storyline of this ranch planet leaves a lot to be desired in terms of potential areas. Very wide open spaces or very close corners stuff in this story and there isn’t really effective. I am starting to think that perhaps stories from this era of comics just doesn’t do it for me. Is there a better AVP comic out there? This one is quite historic of course.
I think that the storyline of this ranch planet leaves a lot to be desired in terms of potential areas. Very wide open spaces or very close corners stuff in this story and there isn’t really effective. I am starting to think that perhaps stories from this era of comics just doesn’t do it for me. Is there a better AVP comic out there? This one is quite historic of course.
September 18, 2024
Another adventure with the girl who ran away and joined a group of Predators to hunt and possibly b accepted n2 their culture. Machiko is a Ripley-esque heroine to me. I have followed her adventures since I was a little kid. Alien vs Predator: War is another yarn in a tale of Weylan-Yutani screwing over it's employees for possible future technologies. Machiko is nearing the end of her time with the Yautja, but along the way she meets her mate and fights injustice. It is a fun ride but not her start nor the ending of her story.
March 9, 2021
A strong continuation of Machiko Noguchi's character from the first book which does a much better job of narrating the goings on on the Predators' ship. The story itself is a little thin and features some characters from another story Aliens: Beserker which I've not read so I didn't care about them as much as I should have.
The artwork is on par with the rest of the series, it's nothing special but does clearly show what's going on.
The artwork is on par with the rest of the series, it's nothing special but does clearly show what's going on.
September 17, 2018
A very evocative and interesting story - kept me riveted as a child and as an adult, I got it as a gift for my warrior-woman partner!
June 21, 2019
I've read this many times over the years... love the AVP universe. Originally bought this book back in the 90's
January 3, 2020
Interesting and strong start that peters off towards the end. Good worldbuilding, though.
May 31, 2020
I remember getting this during Summer Break in 1995 - I did several sketches of the Predator / Alien in the following few years.
September 9, 2024
Buen cómic que se desarrolla correctamente, pero por desgracia tiene un desenlace muy precipitado.
November 26, 2013
Far better than most of the Aliens vs Predators comics that seemed to be popular back in the mid-90s (before the execrable Paul W. S. Anderson film ruthlessly killed all interest), War brings together the protagonist of the original AvP comic with the survivors of a straight Aliens story called Berserker. (Sadly I can't find the comic version of it here on Goodreads, just the novelization by S. D. Perry, because it was damn good and the best of all of these Aliens or Predator comics I've yet read). There's the usual "company is trying to screw us over to turn a buck" theme, so AvP: War certainly won't win any creativity awards, but it remains enjoyable thanks to the previously established characters and the hope they may make it out alive. An abrupt and less than satisfying conclusion suggests the writer ran out of time to tell the tale he wanted, however, and lowers this one's final rating.
3 Weyland-Yutani Pay Days for AvP: War.
3 Weyland-Yutani Pay Days for AvP: War.
February 18, 2014
A sequel to the original Alien Vs Predator comic as well as one of the Aliens comics. It's fun and action packed, but there's not a lot of the social commentary of the original comic. Oh well.
December 31, 2017
Typical comic book blood splatter fare.
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews