Saturday 28 November 2015

Aliens Vs. Zombies #4 - Zenescope Entertainment

ALIENS VS. ZOMBIES No. 4, November 2015
Despite some of the narrative’s set pieces, such as the protagonists finding themselves surrounded inside a cemetery or later trapped within a derelict underground tube station, being decidedly clichéd for a horror genre comic book based upon a modern-day zombie apocalypse, Issue Four of “Aliens Vs. Zombies” arguably still provides a somewhat faultless reading experience. For whilst there is still a little character development as Raxus and Nova begin to work out their differences as the last two survivors of their species, and the low-life delinquent Tavon once again demonstrates that he is the real monster of the story, this twenty-four page periodical never wavers from its relentlessly brutal and blood-soaked depiction of a planet being grievously ravaged by the ever-hungry walking dead.

Indeed the action to Joe Brusha’s script simply never lets up throughout the magazine to the point where any perusing bibliophile must surely feel as exhausted as dark-jacketed hero Colt does, having spent the best part of his ‘screen time’ running, jumping and battering zombies with a piece of mangled lead pipe. There truly is no time whatsoever for any of the title’s leads to grab a breath as the Pennsylvania-based publisher ensures the carnivorous horde ruthlessly chase them through a local graveyard, descend upon a deserted school bus the party momentarily hole up in and then finally, rather obstinately pursue the crew of the extra-terrestrial spacecraft through the city’s deadly streets until the book’s concluding cliff-hanger; "We don't have enough firepower to get out of this."

Fortunately however, this seemingly constant endangerment of the “alien scientists tasked with tracking the interstellar virus” and their human companions, isn’t in any way a tedious mindless romp. But is instead actually driven by the insanely selfish desires of aspiring ‘crime boss’ Tavon and his foolhardy belief that providing he has possession of the alien’s satellite dish “the planet don’t need saving” and he’ll “be on top when this is all over.”

Equally as fast-paced as this comic’s plot is the wonderfully dynamic artwork of Vincenzo Riccardi. The penciller’s panel count becomes especially prolific as both the book’s action and suspense increases, and yet the quality of his illustrations don’t drop one iota as a result. In fact it is hard to recall a better drawn magazine which is so packed full of shambling corpses being beaten, slashed and shot to pieces…
The regular cover art of "ALIENS VS. ZOMBIES" No. 4 by Jason Metcalf and Wes Hartman

2 comments:

  1. Stunning review, Simon, which only makes me more determined than ever to buy this series when it is released as a TPB.

    Staying with zombies, I thought I'd let you know that I have just bought the Marvel Zombies Complete Collection TPBs volumes 1, 2 and 3. What I love about these books is that they feature every Marvel Zombies comics and spin-offs in chronological order. I've been after these for a very long time but now with my birthday money I was finally able to buy them. I'm in for some very happy reading! :-)

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I certainly think you'll enjoy this - I know I am. I've just bought the actual issues of "Marvel Zombies" initial run, and plan to review them once I've finished this mini-series, so please do join in with your thoughts - perhaps we'll make it through the entire run before 2017 :-)

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