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Aliens Vampirella #6
Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
Released on: February 10th, 2016.
Writer : Corinna Bechko
Art : Javier Garcia-Miranda
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Picking up where the first five issues left off, it all comes down to this, the big finish! Sarah is safe, along with Jean and the other members of her crew, orbiting above the planet free from aliens and vampires alike. She did, however, just see something terrible happen right in front of her eyes on the video monitor - she knows the aliens are down there and that they're basically killing machines. Jean wants to break orbit and head back home, but she's determined to send down a drill ship and rescue as many survivors as she can, Vampirella included.
Back on the planet itself, Vampirella is being held at gun point by the humans that are still alive. The vampire that helped her out in the last issue is suggesting that they feed on the survivors so they'll have the strength to deal with the alien threat, but that's not Vampirella's style. Before that all gets out of hand, the alien shows up, kills off one of the humans, and at that point they realize that they've all got to work together if they want to survive.
Vampirella figures there's only two aliens, if they work together they can kill them both… and then the facehuggers emerge from the eggs. That's not good. Sarah and Jean leave the ship with enough explosives to blow the planet to Hell and back. In order to make it, the survivors - two humans and two vampires - are going to have to get to the escape pod and meet the ship in orbit, but to get there, they'll have to face those things out there… those terrible bloodthirsty aliens!
Bechko's script brings this mix of sci-fi, action and horror to a pretty damn satisfying conclusion. There are a few unexpected surprises lurking in the pages of this final issue and at the same time the earlier threads of the story are tied together nicely. Things are left open enough if they decide to do a sequel but for now, this marks the end and it's been a good read. The story has put entertainment front and center but at the same time has been able to deal with themes of xenophobia and discrimination in interesting and appropriate ways and the end result is a comic that's a fair bit smarter than you might think.
Javier Garcia-Miranda's has been decent, but again, some of the backgrounds are too sparse and some of the panels are less claustrophobic and atmospheric than they should be. Nice detail and flow on the aliens and facehuggers though, and the human and vampire characters are really well rendered. Wrap it all up underneath a slick cover from Gabriel Hardman colored by Jordan Boyd and this last issue of Dynamite and Dark Horse Comics' Aliens Vampirella series winds up a winner.
