Writer- Brian Wood

Artist- Tristan Jones

Brian Wood continues his dive into the Aliens-verse with the second issue of Defiance. Picking up shortly after the events of the first issue, Zula Hendricks has gone rogue from the colonial marines with a squadron of Weyland-Yutani androids. Their common goal being to track down the xenomorphs they encountered on a salvage mission and exterminate the threat.

Hendricks, still recovering from severe injuries she received on a mission prior to the start of the series has been hiding her condition from Davis-1, and the rest of the autons, also designated Davis. As their ship approaches a science station that seems abandoned yet shows an odd heat signature, they decide to investigate. After arriving on-board and finding a dead alien warrior, they continue the plan of resupplying their weapons cache and searching for survivors. Within minutes they are surprised by what they find to be the cause of the heat signature in the form of a queen alien and her egg room. Hendricks gets to have a moment of redemption during a crisis which she desperately needed to boost her broken warrior spirit.

Wood brings the good here again, particularly in the way he subtly writes the shadow of distrust between Hendricks and the androids. Do they think she is weak and unsuitable for their mission? Does she believe it is impossible to trust synthetic beings? All is implied without much dialogue, which is a strength of penciller Tristan Jones. He manages to convey characters feelings through quiet images such as looks between each other very well. His portrayal of the aliens, particularly his version of the queen, are maybe the best I have seen in comic form. The scope of his art is truly cinematic, and his ability to capture the minute details of the equipment and tech of the Aliens-verse is superb. Together they are telling a stand out tale in a comics franchise that has been watered down a bit over time.

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