Books : Superman/Aliens 2: God War

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- By Big Barda's Bikini & Orion's Underwear
Superman is vacationing on New Genesis. Darkseid captures a spacecraft that passes too close to Apokalips. While Superman enjoys not having to rescue anyone, Darkseid discovers the aliens and hatches a plan against New Genesis.

Soon New Genesis is under attack from Parademons. As Superman and the New Gods fight them off, they are astounded when the attackers suddenly stop and aliens burst out of their chests. Superman goes into a rage while the New Gods try to stop the flood of aliens. Then Superman and Orion take the fight to Darkseid and the Alien queen.

I have never been a fan of the Darkseid or New Gods stories (they should have been wiped out in the Crisis) and this one is not much better. Since this is not an Elseworlds tale, there is not a lot of room for maneuvering in the plot. Needless to say it is a minor skirmish in the great war between the two worlds (as they all are). I was surprised at Superman's vacation attitude. It is not explained why he is there but he seems completely unconcerned about anything that mike be happening in his absence. There was also the gratuitous "Big Barda strolling in her Bikini" scene that was followed by Orion posing in his briefs.

I felt the Aliens were not handled well either. There is no menace, only one scene of stalking, and the resolution was unresolved. Barda got away from the aliens on New Genesis but were they stopped? No one bothered to check. Darkseid seemed very careless about breeding face-huggers and chest-bursters. There are scenes on Apokalips that shown many aliens have burst forth but the story does not account for any of them. All in all this was a disappointment.

Rating:

- Decent, but doesn't live up to the first crossover
Most crossover sequels never do live up to their predecessors, but as far as most DC/Dark Horse Crossovers have been as of late (completely abysmal), Superman/Aliens 2 is rather good.

Superman visits old friends on New Genesis, but a shadow of a threat looms in the form of Apokolips. Darkseid has somehow managed to get a hold of Aliens, and he sees the creatures as a means of permanently wiping out New Genesis. Testing the creatures on his own people first, Darkseid is satisfied with the results and launches a massive attack on New Genesis that fails miserably...or does it? Soon, the thousands of beaten Apokolips soldiers have Aliens rip from their chests, to Superman's familiar horror. Chaos ensues and the fate of New Genesis is in the hands of Superman and the New Gods.

This is a pretty good crossover...there are no ridiculous mutations or hybrids like in recent books. Unfortunately, the Aliens are made a mockery of by the New Gods...the Aliens do not really get the respect they deserve, as they are easily fended off and beaten in most encounters. The overall story itself serves as more development in the Apokolips vs. New Genesis storyline, but overall the Aliens factor in almost as a minor inconvenience rather than a horrifying threat.

It can't be expected of a sequel to live up to the predecessor in most crossovers, but Superman/Aliens 2 isn't a bad attempt. The first crossover is one of the best DC/DH ever pulled off, and it would be hard to top it. I enjoyed this comic and recommend it to any Superman/Alien fan, just don't expect the Aliens to do much.

page 1 of 1