Aliens: Resistance

When word broke a couple months ago that Brian Wood had been accused of sexual misconduct, again, I figured that his career was over.  Turns out that I was right because Dark Horse, who have been publishing the majority of his work over the past five years, stated that they would not be pursuing any further projects with him after these new accusations came forth.  They meant it too: The Wood-written “Aliens:  Colonial Marines” miniseries, which had already had its first few issues solicited was summarily cancelled.  The collected edition of his “Aliens: Rescues” miniseries is still slated to come out in February 2020, but that’s cold comfort after reading this one.

“Aliens:  Resistance” is both a follow-up to Wood’s “Aliens:  Defiance” maxi-series and the “Alien: Isolation” videogame.  This is because it features former colonial marine Zula Hendricks from the former, and Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda from the latter.  As people who have survived the xenomorph menace, and felt the knife of Weyland-Yutani in their backs, they’ve teamed up to put a stop to the company’s latest alien bio-weapon plan.  This time it involves eleven hundred colonists at the mercy of Aliens.

Wood introduced another memorable female protagonist into the “Aliens” universe with Zula in “Defiance” and if you want to remember the writer’s better days you should go read both volumes of it.  “Resistance” suffers because its short length doesn’t give its co-protagonists much to do besides be propelled by the fairly generic plot. Artist Robert Carey’s atmospheric but blocky art doesn’t do them or the action any favors either.  The ending does offer up a surprisingly dramatic twist that does its best to implore the reader to come back and see how it’s resolved in “Rescues.” Do I feel the need to do so? No, I can think of better ways to show respect for the end of Wood’s career.