Batman: Aliens 2 (Paperback)

The story starts out well enough...early in the 20th century an explorer and his party high up in the mountains discover a hive of Aliens on Earth. After mass casualties, the explorer returns...obsessed with the Alien he is carrying inside him, and making sure to preserve it. Fast forward to the present, in Gotham...the explorer's underground facility is found, and huge plot hole or two later, one very old alien is loose in Gotham under the control of one of the explorer's cohorts, who herself is holding a dark secret.

Decent enough, but when an organization raids Arkham Asylum for some of Gotham's worst (resulting in one of the most hilarious and memorable Joker lines in recent history), the story just takes a turn for the worst. Soon, after another plot hole, we have Alien mutant hybrids running around that talk, wear army fatigues, and carry guns.

I almost threw the book down in disgust near the end, but I forced myself to finish it. It was probably too much to ask to see a Batman/Aliens sequel that was as good as the original, which is the case with most comic book sequels, but they definitely could've done better than this. It seems that Alien Resurrection not only ruined the movie franchise, but the comic franchise as well, in that this book has the same general idea: cloned, mutant Aliens that are horrible mockeries of the original creature. I could've lived with Aliens that had taken some of the characteristics of the villains, but not the mockeries that were in this book.

Maybe I'm being too hard on it...it is a comic book after all, and comic books are all subject to fantasy and interpretation...but is it too much to ask to leave the Aliens the way they were meant to be, and not follow in the footsteps of the abysmal Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator comic, or the Alien: Resurrection ideas?

I don't recommend this comic to anyone, unless they are die-hard Alien or Batman fans. Even then, unless you like either Batman or Aliens no matter how awful the story is, you probably won't like this comic. I'm very sorry to say that this is one of the worst Dark Horse/DC Crossovers I have ever read, and certainly one of the stupidest Alien mutations I've seen yet in the comics.

I just happened to come across this "graphic novel" which collected all the issues of "Batman vs Aliens #2" one day. I took a glance at it and picked it up right away. I did not regret it at all.

The overall story and writing is terrific and you'll have no problems following it. The story starts in the past, goes to the present and then jumps around at various points to explain the plotlines involved. There will be some interesting surprises in this story involving the Aliens.

The art was solid as well. I had no complaints over how all the characters were drawn.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars was the ending. The comic spends a lot of time building to a climax, but I felt the ending was a little abrupt and readers are lefting hanging like Batman is at the end of the story. Perhaps they are setting up for Batman/Aliens #3?

But other than that, this is worth a pickup. Check it out!!