BW Media Spotlight

In the last few installments of Free Comic Inside we looked at the last of the Aliens minicomics packed with the Aliens toyline. Practically an alternate continuity to have more cast members to turn into toys joined with the belief that boys don’t want those cootie-ridden “girls yuck” as leader, the minicomics were maybe eight pages long and had story arcs going through a few issues. That means to get the complete story you had to buy more figures. Sneaky tactic, really.

However, at some point the line changed. Ripley and her friends were gone because in the pop and geek culture worlds the Xenomorphs had gained a different enemy besides the Space Marines and Earthlings. They got Predators.

First showing up in Dark Horse Presents #38, Aliens Vs. Predator was a huge crossover series for Dark Horse. Both franchises were owned by 20th Century Fox and licensed by Dark Horse Comics, so why wouldn’t you take that opportunity? Alien was a slasher movie in space with aliens while Predator was a slasher movie on Earth with aliens attacking beefy soldiers instead of teenage girls. Both races are hunters. Both are killers…you know, for kids. The comics were a hit…but the movie adaptation apparently isn’t good. Remember, I’m not really big into either franchise, though I did enjoy the first two Predator movies when I saw them and really never saw any of the Alien movies.

Meanwhile Kenner has the license for both action figures, so why wouldn’t they follow suit? The toys may actually be a benefit to the Predator franchise. To fill out the ranks and show mom and dad that they aren’t the same figure each time (the same reason Playmates gave the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles different colored bandana masks), each Predator had their own armor, their own look, their own action figure, just as they had done for the Xenomorphs to fill out the enemies. Dark Horse and Kenner may be the reason these lines continued past their second movie by showing the variety that was possible. The toyline would include one double-paged one-shot minicomic showing for the younger audience just how the backstory came about and why these two forces from movies the kids weren’t allowed to watch yet came together to kill destroy each other. For some reason this is considered the eleventh issue of the Aliens (Space Marines) comic despite having none of the humans from that line. So to end this series of reviews let’s read the last issue in this series.

Aliens (Vs Predator/Space Marines) #13

FINAL ISSUE

Kenner/Dark Horse (1992)

“The Ultimate Battle”

Also the name of the two-pack this came with.

WRITER: Dan Thorsland

PENCILER: Brandon McKinney

INKER: Karl Kesel

COVER ART: Joe Philips

LETTERER: Dan Nakrosis

EDITOR: Barbara Kesel

There is no colorist listed at the Aliens Vs. Predator fandom wiki page I’m using for the research side. For the comic side, a toy review sit called OAFE posted the whole minicomic minus the credits page. Here’s where you can read along. It’s double the pages but the same size as the other twelve, so it won’t take long.

Continue reading →