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Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer: Randy Stradley
Artist: Phil Norwood
Cover: Raymond Swanland

“Aliens vs. Predator pt 1”: Dark Horse is taking us back in time this week and re-releasing one of their ground breaking titles for only one dollar! The original Aliens vs. Predator #1 hits shelves this week, and even comes with a brand new cover from their hot new artist Raymond Swanland. This title is part of their #1 for $1 promotion, as eleven other titles ranging from Yosagi Jojimbo, Star Wars: Legacy, and even Sin City: The Hard Goodbye will be available at this great price.

Aliens vs. Predator #1 begins on the planet Ryushi, where a rancher colony has been set up and we are first introduced to Machico Noguchi. However, she’s not the hard as nails, kick ass warrior that we see now in Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War. She’s the hard as nails, kick you in the balls, executive that has just taken over a new position and is trying to find her place among the workers who don’t see her as one of them yet. To compound her already growing list of problems with the new job, the colonists are about to receive some new and very unwelcome visitors as a ship crashes planet side. Little do any of them know that they have set up shop on one of the Predators’ hunting grounds, and it’s time to test a new group of young bloods as they have begun seeding the planet with their most deadly enemy/prey: the Aliens. So it doesn’t take long for things to go from bad to “Oh my god! What’s this on my face!” When some of the local herd are found stumbling around and sick after coming across face-huggers, the dead specimens are taken back to the compound’s lab for study while the ranchers speculate over what to do about the herd.

To keep what happened to the herd a secret, the doctor is lied to about where the face-huggers were found, and ventures out to the false location he was given to investigate. He ends up finding more than what he ever planned, because the Predators’ ship has just landed, and he is spotted while trying to spy on them. They quickly give chase, and let’s just say that the poor guy didn’t stand a chance against one Predator, let alone ten of them. While back at the compound, two pilots have discovered an open hatch that shouldn’t be, and upon investigation they run into an Alien queen and some of her brood. Talk about a bad day at work!

Randy Stradley tells this story from Noguchi’s point of view as well as third-person, and the back and forth is flawless.  There was definitely effort put into the human cast which moves the story, and some are just as interesting as the title characters, giving it a deeper level of substance. Phil Norwood’s artwook still holds up, and is given some treatment as the issue has been re-colored just like the re-release of Aliens vs. Predator #0 in the Hunter Edition of the recent Aliens vs. Predator video game. This was a pretty good idea on the part of Dark Horse, being that the story is a bit over twenty years old and the coloring touch up gives it a more crisp look, and that’s due to technology that wasn’t available during the title’s original release.

This series is where it all started, and where Randy Stradley and Phil Norwood introduced one of the greatest movie character combos ever imagined. So if you have never read this story, or just wondered how it all began, I’d suggest snatching it up for this great price of $1, because you’ll definitely get your money’s worth and then some.

Infinite Speech
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