Surprisingly good and excellent value. This is virtually the definition of “High Concept”, take the monsters from two very successful science fiction film franchises and have them go head to head, the rest should be simple. As anyone who was unfortunate enough to have seen the film will know it is possible to make a complete hash of the concept. The stories in this book, for the most part, get it right, the creative teams have realised that it is neither the Aliens nor the Predators who are interesting, it is the human cast that has to carry the story. The first and longest story in the book, Blood Time, sets up the essential concepts very well. The Predators seed planets with Alien eggs, they come back to hunt the Aliens. This time there is a small human colony on the planet Ryushi and they are caught in the middle. It is essentially the same story arc as the film, except it is done with intelligence, care, craft and most importantly, the unlimited budget available to comics. The escalating fight between the Aliens and the Predators, with the struggling human group fighting both is excellent. It gives enough scope to the human cast to allow the reader to care, and in the person of Machiko Noguchi an excellent action heroine.
Other stories in the book are a bit variable as the writers try to grapple with the essential limitations of the concept, Eternal, is the best of the rest, a clever and nasty twist on the concept that has a real bite. The omnibus is well produced, the stories are reprinted in colour and it is satisfyingly hefty,Dark Horse have developed a very smart way to capitalise on their back catalogue.
