Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Geraldo Borges
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Cover Art: Ryan Stegman & Marcelo Maiolo
Alien vs. X-Men #2 is an interesting follow-up to this crossover battle. It does a good job explaining how the Xenomorphs evolved and why they’re still dangerous to all of mutantkind. I really like how Gillen is handling both IPs. I was afraid both companies wouldn’t let either property get the short end of the stick. They give and take pretty well for billion-dollar companies. I will say I am a bit disappointed that this main story doesn’t get room to fully breathe. I wish Gillen had the entire comic to tell this story.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Hatching A Plan For The Aliens
The X-Men (who haven’t been taken down by the xenomorphs) are being shown what happened to the rest of the team that died. Beast logs the events in a video diary. We never saw what happened, but we saw the results as the Earth-bound X-Men fended off the mutated xenomorphs from last issue. This is what I mean by this story not having the entire comic. We get an explanation of what happened last issue, then we get more of the actual story. In this issue, Cable and Co. tell everyone what will happen if the X-Men don’t stop the xenomorphs because they are from the time when that happens. Having taken out Multiple Man, the xenomorph population will skyrocket from 24 to 30,000. Cable and his crew take some X-Men on a rescue mission while they deal with the xenomorphs.
The Enemy Of My Enemy Is—Still My Enemy
The biggest moment of this issue is when Cable and his team reveal their true colors. The “cure” that Cable and his team were talking about was actually getting rid of the X-Men AND xenomorphs, because get this: they are actually Sentinels! They deploy the cure by burning Nightcrawler and a xenomorph-incubated Wolverine, and shooting his own daughter. So Cable and his team coming to save the X-Men and humanity was actually the Sentinels coming to get rid of both. 'Twas a “kill two birds with one stone” type of thing. I like this because I am looking forward to the next issue with all three groups (hopefully) fighting at once.
The Art
I am conflicted about the art. On one hand, I am not used to how some of the characters like Storm, Xavier, Beast, and Logan are drawn/designed. On the other hand, most other X-Men or X-adjacent characters are fine, and the xenomorphs are drawn really well. That said, I’m not surprised my favorite page in this issue is of a few X-characters and the xenomorphs. Cable and his team tell the X-Men what the future looks like if the xenomorphs aren’t stopped. Borges does scale really well. He frames the panels in a way that highlights his art, and also does a great job showing the stakes. The characters are nicely drawn. The xenomorphs look incredibly intense. Finally, Dalhouse’s colors are well separated. I really like the choice to use a white background up top to contrast with the art. Your eye is drawn right to the characters in the foreground.
Final Thoughts
Alien vs. X-Men #2 is an exciting issue. It’s what I would go to the theaters to watch, just in comic book form. The Xenomorphs are intense. I was really unsure of the Xenomorphs keeping their amazing presence from the films, but I am thankful they have. I can understand how all of the players are in the story, but I hope they all do enough. My biggest gripe is that I don’t think this story has enough space to get fleshed out. I hope the next two issues really get the chance to drive the story home in a satisfying way.