Superman vs. Aliens

When an object from outer space enters the Earth's atmosphere, Superman assists in bringing it down safely. But imagine his surprise when a robot voice speaks to him from the object in the language of Krypton! It seems that when their planet was about to be destroyed, the inhabitants of a city domed it over, and launched it into space. However, when he gets there, Superman finds the city in ruins, and only a few sick survivors. Sending the survivors back to Earth, he sets out to find out what happened, and finds the Aliens. But, Superman has a problem, being away so long from Earth's sun, his powers are beginning to wane. And worse, did the people he sent to Earth carry the seeds of an Alien invasion that could kill all life on his adopted planet? Sometimes crossovers are good, and sometimes they are bad. (The last one I read was a stinker!) But, this one definitely works! I thought that the creators did a good job of using Superman as you would expect him to act, and the Aliens as you would expect them to act, and combining them together in an exciting adventure. Overall, I really liked this graphic novel, and give it my highest recommendations!

I first picked up this crossover when it was published in 3 parts. I could hardly wait for the next one to come out,especially after what happened in book 2. This melded the then-current storylines of Superman with the Alien menace in a logical way. A probe of Kryptonian origin crash-lands on Earth & Superman intercepts its tranmission before it runs out of power. With the help of Dr. Kimbel(from the space research section of Lexcorp),Superman takes an experimental hyper-space craft to the probe's point of origin,a place called Argo City. Once there,his powers begin to fade because there is no yellow sun to keep his powers going. He finds some people that are in need of medical attention & sends them back to the Lexcorp space station in the space craft with the hope that the craft will be sent back to him. He then encounters his first Alien & is wounded when the Alien attacks his forehead with its double jaws & the acid blinds Superman. He is saved by a young girl named Kara(shades of Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl from the Silver Age) so the mystery deepens:is this Argo City from Krypton or not? I won't reveal the answer but the rest of the series has Superman trying to find a way back to the Lexcorp space station because he found out the people he sent there were infected by Aliens & since Lois Lane is on the station,she & the other station personnel are in danger. Before its all over,Superman & Kara face off against a lot of Alien warriors,face huggers & the Alien Queen. Dan Jurgens wrote a good story & Kevin Nowlan's art took a little getting used to(especially where the charcters' eyes seem to be either closed or not open all of the way because of the way the pencils & inks were used to create shadowing) but the art was good for the most part. I defintely would recommend to pick up this book because this book(besides the first Batman/Aliens book) is the best of the DC Heroes/Aliens crossovers.

I usually avoid crossover books between companies. And I've never had much interest in "Aliens" or "Predators"... or movie tie-in comic creations for that matter. "Superman/Aliens", however, is a whole different thing altogether.Firstly, it is a "real" Superman story set in the continuity of time when it was published. Most crossovers are too light-weight because you know that ultimately it's all "just an imaginary story" and you can always go back to your beloved character next month and nothing's changed. Not so with this book. This story matters on many levels. There were many references made to previous Superman storylines like the "Exile" story where Superman regrets having to commit murder and the "Doomsday" stories. Not surprising since this book is also by Dan Jurgens, the man responsible for guiding the Superman books for close to a decade. (Note: The only other crossover that "mattered" was "Aliens/WildC.A.T.S" wherein the whole Stormwatch team was killed and that set the ground for "The Authority" series.)Secondly, we get a great Silver-Age concept - Superman is depowered. Before reading this, I was apprehensive. I mean, what can the Aliens do to the near-invulnerable Man of Steel anyway? I thought it was going to be a one-sided fight with the odds on Superman. Turned out it was the other way round. We have a depowered Superman against a whole horde of acid-dripping, man-eating Aliens and he's not even armed like Sigouney Weaver in the movies! The result is a great Die-Hard style story.Thirdly, we see the return of Kara. I'm a huge fan of the original Supergirl since watching the movie as a kid. And I was devastated by her death in 1985 during the "Crisis on Infinite Earths". In fact, George Perez's drawing of that infamous cover where a teary Superman carries Kara's lifeless body in his arms is one of the images that has been forever burned into my subconscious mind. Granted, there was a Supergirl in the comics - but like all purists, the Matrix/Linda/Supergirl just wasn't the real McCoy to me! Thus, in this book, we have a Kara of Argo City who may or may not be the One...Dan Jurgens writing is solid as usual and his artwork is even more amazing here when inked by the talented Kevin Nowlan - though I must admit that it takes some getting used to. But then, Nowlan's darker inks are perfectly suitable for this story. It's a lot more violent and bloody than the typical Superman tale and we have a Supes debating within himself the dark act of unavoidable-murder as a "final solution" - thus making a far darker Superman tale than we're used to.

Superman/Aliens is definitely one of the finest examples of the Dark Horse/DC versus crossovers. Combined with great story telling, great artwork, and many twists, this is one of the finer examples of crossover writing.When a chunk of what appears to be Krypton is discovered drifting deep in outer space, Superman takes it upon himself to investigate, through means of Lex Luthor's space program, no less. What he finds there is a horror beyond all imagination...what remaining people there were are long dead...victims of monstrosities beyond the likes of which Superman has ever seen. With only one survivor there, his means of escape destroyed and his powers diminishing from being away from the yellow sun of Earth, hope fades fast for Superman and the lone survivor 'Kara'. When a shocking turn of events overtakes them both, what will happen to the man of steel in the end?This book has many great twists in the story, and the horror of the Aliens is very real...despite all his powers, Superman is quickly becoming weak, and the Aliens are quickly becoming a match even for Superman. There is a sense of urgency and dread throughout the entire book, and the great writing will keep you glued to the pages all the way through the end. This is the best DH/DC crossover to feature Superman yet, and I highly recommend it to any fan of Superman, Aliens and DH/DC crossovers. You will not regret it!

At first, I wasn't really certain if an "Alien vs. Superman" title would work. I pictured the "man of steel" bumbling into the standard hive situation only to tear through those poor xenon as they tried to protect their own. That seems to be the favorite in crossovers such as this, with the superheroes simply going in a "romp" those poor unfortunates without superpowers. ( Personally, if I wanted to throw my money away, I'd do something constructive like burn it.) In this case, however, the situation was hardly in Superman's favor.From the beginning, the creators found a way to level the playing field a bit, putting Superman on an all "too human" playing field for him to simply overwhelm. In fact, he seemed to be having problems just matching up with our beloved Aliens. The situation, as it was laid out, worked for me, too, and wasn't really too far of a stretch, either. I would go into more detail, but that's what the book is for. From there, it just got worse and worse for everyone's favorite kick-around boy, leading to Superman actually getting a bit touchy-feely with one of those wonderful throat molesters. I liked the title alot and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Aliens (I would say the Aliens movies, but we all know that some were a bit lacking). Buy it for your kids and give them nightmares worth remembering!