crossover crisis

Back Issues [Crossover Crisis]: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors

Dr. K2 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’ve been looking at multiversal crossovers every Thursday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Published: August 2009 to December 2009
Writers: Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric
Artist: Jason Craig

The Background:
Although it is regarded as one of the best slasher properties around, Paramount Pictures became embarrassed with their Friday the 13th franchise (1980 to present) and sold (some of) the rights to rival studio New Line Cinema back in the early-2000s. This led to the long-awaited clash between Friday’s iconic killer, Jason Voorhees (Various) and New Line’s Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) after years in Development Hell. Despite mixed reviews, Freddy vs. Jason’s (Yu, 2003) box office gross of nearly $117 million made it he most profitable entry in either franchise and naturally led to talks of a sequel. Unfortunately, these fell apart due to rights issues surrounding fellow horror icon Ashley “Ash” Williams (Bruce Campbell), but the three horror heavyweights did meet up in Freddy vs. Jason vs Ash (Kuhoric, et al, 2007 to 2008) courtesy of WildStorm and Dynamite Entertainment. Based on Jeff Katz’s film treatment, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash proved successful enough to warrant a follow-up the following year that was originally envisioned as a twelve-issue story before being scaled back. Katz returned to co-write the story, which he envisioned as a massive conclusion to the Freddy vs. Jason trilogy and a love letter to all three franchises. Fellow writer James Kuhoric was adamant about ensuring all the returning characters felt familiar to series fans, with special emphasis put on the clash of personalities between Ash and Tommy Jarvis. The two also sought to redesign Jason, giving him a Grim Reaper-like visage, and make the most of the unrestricted nature of the new format to show more over-the-top kills on a much larger scale. Although some saw The Nightmare Warriors as an improvement on the first crossover due to its larger scale, it was also criticised for being somewhat mindless and predictable and for struggling to juggle not just the titular horror icons but its extended cast of characters.

The Review:
The Nightmare Warriors opens twenty-four hours after the end of Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, with undead killer Jason Voorhees still trapped under the bumper of Ash Williams’ beloved Oldsmobile, still with a machete blade where his left hand once was, and still missing his trademark hockey mask, beneath the frigid depths of Crystal Lake. Cursed with eternal unlife by the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, Jason is compelled to return to the world of the living at the urging of his mother, Pamela, though it’s once again dream demon Freddy Kruger assuming Pamela’s form to reactivate Jason and set him against Ash for besting them in the previous crossover. At that same moment, a group of government agents, led by Director Gordon Russell, arrive to secure the area, intent on securing the Necronomicon for themselves, deeming its power to open rifts and raise demons more enticing than the unkillable Jason. Within mere panels, his team find and thaw out the book and spirit it back to base, while a separate team dives into the lake to retrieve Jason and nullify him. Unfortunately for the frogmen, Jason bursts to life and slaughters them all, shrugging off their bullets and high-powered shock lancers and dicing them to bloody pieces, then retrieves the remains of his mask and heads out to find Ash at this “mother’s” bidding. Spreading of Ash, the story jumps over the Franklin, Michigan and ahead six months; Ash’s narration once again brings us up to speed on his life: after defeating Freddy and Jason, he and surviving girl Caroline (or “Carrie”) settled down into suburbia, despite the dramatic age gap between them. Their domestic bliss is interrupted by the first of many returning faces when Doctor Maggie Burroughs (also known as Katherine Kruger, Freddy’s daughter and noted child counsellor) drops by. Since the events of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (Talalay, 1991), Maggie has been working with another prominent Elm Street character, child psychiatrist Doctor Neil Gordon, to identify special “focal magnets” for the supernatural who can combat dark forces.

Ash initially refuses Maggie’s offer to join the other survivors, as the Pentagon resurrects Freddy.

Although she’s come to the right place, given Ash is the “Chosen One”, Ash has given up his Deadite-slaying ways and has no interest in joining their crusade to pre-emptively target the dark evils of the world and Maggie leaves empty handed. Ash heads out on a beer run, blissfully ignorant to the fact that Jason is tearing into his house and attacking Carrie. Although she desperately fights back, she’s no match for Jason and her head ends up cooking on the barbecue. On the drive back, Ash catches wind of this when he gets a vision of Freddy – not unlike the visions suddenly striking Stephanie Kimble, “Dream Master” Alice Johnson, and her teenage son, Jacob – between the panels, but he arrives too late to help and is pegged as a murderer by Carrie’s family. As a mysterious individual watches on, Ash fights off Carrie’s dad and makes a run for it as the cops arrive, hopping on the first train out of there to go find Maggie. Although Maggie seems to sense her father’s return, she allays the fears of her lover, Neil, since they’re protected by the dream-blocking powers of Hypnocil. She also assures their two psychic recruits, Rennie Wickham and Tina Shepherd, that they have nothing to fear and excites them with the prospect of new recruits joining their cause. Neil, however, isn’t completely sold on Maggie’s plan, especially after seeing a similar group of survivors butchered by Freddy in the past, but Maggie convinces him with her words (and her allure) that the survivors of Freddy and Jason’s rampages are special, crucial, to stopping such monsters. Their new recruits turn out to be Alice, Jacob, Stephanie and her father, Steven Freeman (referred to as “Stephen”). Just as they arrive, Stephanie suffers a massive seizure, bombarded by visions of Jason, who adds a bunch more bodies to his kill list when he follows Ash. Meanwhile, at the Pentagon, Director Russell and his team’s hard work translating the Necronomicon with some pretty futuristic technology sees them return Freddy to the real world, now fully mortal and free of his burns. Although Freddy gives Director Russell the run-around and plays coy, he gives them enough to confirm the book’s power and Russell orders a strike team to intercept Jason, who’ve they’ve tracked to Maggie’s house.

As the group struggles to co-exist, Freddy is joined by a revitalised Jason and a sadistic Maggie!

Jason makes a dramatic entrance shortly after Ash arrives looking to avenge Carrie’s death; Stephen’s incredulity about the entire thing turns to abject terror at the sight of Jason, who unceremoniously caves his head in, but the others are saved when the mysterious onlooker, Tommy Jarvis, bursts in to spirit them away in his jeep. The strike team arrives soon after and subdues Jason with sleeping gas, bringing him into custody at last. Chastising their efforts and clashing egos with Ash, Tommy warns about Jason’s brutality and power and begs them to leave it to him given his past experience, but Maggie won’t hear of it. She touts Rennie’s empathic power and each of the group reveals some of their past experiences with both killers and their special abilities, such as Alice sporting dream-based powers and Tina being somewhat telekinetic, and Ash naturally boasting off his Deadite-slaying past. Maggie desperately calls for he and Tommy to set aside their egos and focus on using the Necronomicon to put both monsters down for good, stating that her father oversees the project to research it, but the group remains divided. At the Pentagon, Jason is wheeled into a Deadite holding cell and once again falls prey to Freddy’s influence. Somehow possessing the Necronomicon’s power along with his dream powers, Freddy brags of his plot to use Russell to finish what he started in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. Although Jason still wants to kill Freddy, he’s convinced to join forces with Freddy mentions Tommy’s name and Freddy uses the magic words – “Klattu! Verata! Nikto!” – to restore, repair, and upgrade Jason’s body and mind, turning him into Freddy’s long-haired, dual-machete-wielding General. Later that evening, Ash and the others (sans Tommy, Stephanie, and Jacob) enter the Pentagon using Maggie’s credentials and are immediately locked up on Director Russell’s orders despite their warnings about Freddy. As Ash questions Maggie’s relationship with Russell, she’s brought to Freddy, who can freely shift between a normal human and his burned form and has physically merged with the Necronomicon, effectively making him a God. In a dramatic moment, Maggie murders Russell with Freddy’s glove and reveals that she’s been working with Freddy the whole time, the two apparently in a very sexual incestuous relationship.

As Jason leads the Deadite army, Freddy kidnaps Jacob and spreads fear and death through the nation!

Although Neil believes it to be some kind of brainwashing, Maggie goes the whole hog and kills him and Rennie, rechristening herself Kathryn Kruger and being transformed by Freddy into a claw-handed murderess. Thanks to Tina’s psychic powers, Ash and the others are alerted to the betrayal just as the Pentagon goes on high alert after Jason leads the Deadite army in a jail break. Although desperate for some payback, Ash is convinced to flee by Tina and Alice; when he tries to retrieve the Necronomicon, he’s attacked by a claw-wielding machine controlled by Freddy but a combination of Tina’s psychic powers and Ash’s bravado brings it down. Tommy is aghast to see Jason leading the medieval dead on a killing spree throughout the nation’s capital, though his attempts to stop the masked killer are for naught as he’s quickly captured by a couple of bat-like Deadites and brought to Freddy, leaving Jason and the Deadites free to carve up congress. Back at the Stabe Hotel, Jacob is seduced by Stephanie in a nightmarish ruse by Freddy, who binds and tortures him until he cries for his mother. Sensing his plight, Alice uses her powers to transport herself, Ash, and Tina into Jacob’s nightmare, but they’re unable to keep Freddy from kidnapping Jacob and challenging them to confront him at the White House. Thankfully, they’re able to put Stephanie back together in the dreamworld and save her life, though the experience of being skinned alive in the nightmare leaves her traumatised. At the White House, the Deadites hold off the military and the cops and allow Freddy to address the nation, first using the guise of President George W. Bush and then reverting to a less despicable visage, his own burnt form, to dictate his “No Kid Left Alive” policy and declare war on the children of America.

When Freddy sets Stephanie and Kathryn against his enemies, Alice passes her powers to Jacob.

Ash galvanises Alice, Tina, and Stephanie and they gear up to go rescue Jacob; they find Washington swarming with Deadites and blood raining from the skies and their resolve falters when Alice chastises Ash’s plan of simply fighting their way to victory. Luckily, the military arrive and cause a big enough distraction; their wholesale attack upon the Deadites and Freddy’s focus on repelling their forces allows Ash and the others to slip past the undead defences, but the distressed Stephanie is lost when she wanders off and has her untapped Voorhees blood awakened by Freddy’s influence, turning her into a mindless killer like her…I wanna say uncle?…that sees her don her own hockey mask and set out to fulfil her birthright and kill Jason. In the Oval Office, Freddy brags of his superiority to the captive Tommy but, annoyed by the kid’s defiance, prepares to kill him when Jason intervenes, wanting the kill for himself. This is again enough to turn the two against each other; Freddy orders Kathryn to kill Jason and the two get into it, with Kathryn cutting chunks out of Jason and even impaling him on a flagpole, but the fight is interrupted when Ash comes crashing in in a tank, crushing Kathryn and blowing Freddy clear out of the Oval Office with a cannon shot. As Ash and the others rescue Tommy and Jacob, Freddy literally pulls himself together out on the lawn where he’s confronted by Alice; when Freddy mocks her chances and boasts of his immortality, she allows herself to be killed since she has a terminal disease, but her death passes her Dream Master powers to Jacob and releases the spirits of the original Dream Warriors and Freddy’s mother, Amanda. Suitably empowered, Jacob and the Dream Warriors dispatch of Freddy’s Deadite forces, bringing Freddy to his knees in defeat once more.

Tommy and Ash set aside their differences to defeat Freddy and Jason once more.

However, as Amanda prepares to bring Freddy’s soul to be judged by the Almighty, Freddy drops the ruse and guts Jacob; Ash and Tommy clash one last time as they try to get their priorities straight and ultimately agree to let Tommy have his wish to be the one to finish Jason off. Tommy attacks Jason with all his anger and strength but is, of course, physically outmatched by the revitalised killer; drawing strength from all the pain and death Jason has caused, Tommy pummels him with a rock but falters when he sees Jason’s unblemished face. The normally silent monster utters the words “Yew… daie!” and leaves Tommy with a shoulder injury and facing certain death. Luckily, Stephanie impales Jason with two machetes to the back, distracting him long enough for Tommy to behead him with a massive shard of glass and triumphantly hold up his severed head. As Tina desperately tries to stop Jacob from bleeding out, Freddy feasts upon both the souls of the Dream Warriors and of Jason himself; Ash thrusts the Necronomicon into Neil’s hands and demands he find a passage to end the nightmare and buys him time by battling Freddy once more but all hope seems lost as Neil can’t read the book’s language. However, the spirit of his former lover, Nancy Thompson, arrives to help and, together, they speak the cursed words, opening another vortex. Although Freddy’s power is such that he can resist the portal’s pull, the Dream Demons (revealed to be dwelling within the Necronomicon) express outrage at his failures and remove his powers, leaving him vulnerable to one last quip from Ash and a shotgun to the chest, which sends him flying into the vortex. Nancy and Neil share a tearful farewell and, as the nation recovers, a victorious Ash and Tina share a completely random kiss and he parts ways with Tommy with a mutual respect. However, Jason’s body disappears from the battlefield and the story ends in Springwood, 1964, where a random cop caught in the Necronomicon’s vortex blindly signs Freddy’s arrest warrant, apparently changing Freddy’s past despite him laughing from the clouds? It’s a bit confusing, if I’m honest.

The Summary:
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors suffers from a lot of the issues that plagued the last crossover; the story is a bit of a mess, with twists and turns that pop up seemingly at random just to drag the story out to six issues, and with some underdeveloped themes and conflicts. Like, I must have missed when the Pentagon conjured enough Deadites to need a prison for them, and I’m not sure why Director Russell thought he could manipulate Freddy so easily, plus it’s really out of character for Maggie to suddenly be so on her father’s side that she not only kills in his name but is turned on by his affections. The art is also quite inconsistent again; it picks up from issue four but there are a lot of instances where the artist is again simply copying shots from Freddy vs. Jason and I had a hard time recognising a lot of the returning characters. Stephen looks more like a scowling Marshall Mathers III/Eminem than his film counterpart, I kept mixing Stephanie, Rennie, and Alice up and I just don’t think enough was done to visually make them stand out from each other. Alice, for example, should be far older than she’s portrayed here, which would’ve helped. I genuinely forgot Jacob was even in this until he was kidnapped, and I can’t say I cared much for Tommy’s characterisation; get him being gung-ho about wanting to end Jason, but I like to think he would see the benefits of joining forces with the so-called “Nightmare Warriors”. I did enjoy seeing him clash with Ash; I genuinely think the story might’ve been stronger with more focus on those two being an odd couple pairing and placing more emphasis on the Ash/Tina relationship since she randomly kisses him at the end despite there being no chemistry between them prior to that.

The interactions between Ash and the returning characters is the best part of this bloated crossover.

Ash is a little different here than in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, at least initially. He’s settled down with Carrie and is happy to leave his past behind, but he’s brought back into the fight when she’s killed by Jason. Unlike the opening of the last crossover, I enjoyed this death since Carrie lasted a little longer and her death pushed Ash into joining up with Maggie and gave him a greater personal stake in the battle against Freddy and Jason. It’s not one that’s fully realised since Ash tangles more with Freddy, which I get as it’s fun seeing them trade insults as well as blows, but he doesn’t really fight with Jason all that much and, unlike the last crossover, there’s no three-way dance between them this time. Ash is also a little more contentious this time around; he clashes with Tommy, of course, but also aggravates Alice with his misogynistic attitude and inability to think of a plan beyond just ploughing through what’s in front of him. The Deadites get a little more play this time around, with Jason leading the medieval dead and them chattering away as they’re killing and being killed, but they primarily exist to be cannon fodder for the military, Ash, and the Nightmare Warriors. Speaking of whom, I did enjoy seeing these surviving characters return, even if they’re not as strong or visually interesting as the Dram Warriors. The only really useful one was Tina, and even she just blasted doors open and levitated stuff; Alice only became useful by dying and even then Jacob was attacked before he could finish offing the Deadites, meaning the returning characters were more like fan service than anything else.

More gore, more fan service, and more action doesn’t necessarily amount to a better story.

I don’t mind this; a story titled Freddy vs Jason vs. Ash should be heavy on the fan service, after all, but it does mean this story is even more bogged down with exposition than the last one as we need a recap on what everyone’s been up to since their last appearances. As before, Jason trumps Freddy in terms of kills; he hacks, bludgeons, and slaughters too many people to count here and it’s just as gruesome and glorious as you could ask for, but he is also once again relegated to being Freddy’s minion. At least this time he gets a visual upgrade and even speaks, but he doesn’t seem any more intelligent and the plot point of Stephanie “becoming a Voorhees” amounts to a mere distraction. Although the story makes a dramatic show of Jason’s beheading, we know he isn’t really dead as “only a Voorhees” can truly kill him and, as Pamela states, he can “never die”. Freddy is basically the same as in the last story, being a master manipulator but sporting incredible (and ill-defied) dark powers thanks to the Necronomicon. Having absorbed the book into himself, he can freely manipulate the waking world as he does the dream world but does little with this except send Jason and the Deadites on a killing spree, bring his enemies to him to absorb their souls and power, and mock his foes rather than just kill them. Seeing him take on Bush’s guise and revel in his Godhood was fun, and the story is far more creative with his powers and his dialogue, and I really liked seeing him reduced to a snivelling wretch after being stripped of his power. However, I still don’t really get the ending and I think The Nightmare Warriors confused itself by trying to be bigger and more grandiose than any other film in the franchises. Ultimately, it’s more enjoyable than the last crossover due to the fan service, cameos, and increased gore and action, but still falls short of being anything other than a novelty read for fans of these three horror staples.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors? How do you think it compares to the last crossover between these three? What did you think to the returning characters and the fates that befell them? Did you like seeing Jason get an upgrade and Freddy become all-powerful? What was your interpretation of the ending? Which film in the three franchises is your favourite? What other horror crossovers would you like to see? Drop a comment below or on my social media to share your thoughts and feel free to check out my other reviews of both franchises, and the rest of my Crossover Crisis content!

Back Issues [Crossover Crisis]: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash

Dr. K2 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’ve been looking at multiversal crossovers every Thursday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Published: November 2007 to March 2008
Writers: James Kuhoric and Jeff Katz
Artist: Jason Craig

The Background:
Despite being regarded as one of the best slasher franchises, Paramount Pictures became embarrassed with their association with the Friday the 13th films (Various, 1980 to present) and eventually sold (some of) the rights to rival studio New Line Cinema. This meant that the long-awaited showdown between Friday’s iconic killer, Jason Voorhees (Various), and New Line’s Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) could finally emerge from years of Development Hell. Freddy vs. Jason (Yu, 2003) received mixed reviews but its nearly $117 million box office gross made it the most profitable entry in either franchise and talks of a sequel inevitably came up. Unfortunately, no follow-up emerged on the silver screen, primarily because the main idea involved including horror icon Ashley “Ash” Williams (Bruce Campbell) and no deal could be reached. We did, however, see these three horror heavyweights tangle in not one but two limited edition comic books published by WildStorm and Dynamite Entertainment, who had been regularly publishing Ash’s comic book adventures for some time. Based on Jeff Katz’s film treatment, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash was praised for its covers and artwork and for its incorporation and expansion of all three franchises, though it was criticised for being somewhat predictable. Nevertheless, as alluded to, it was followed up by another clash between the three some two years later, one that sought to weave in even more lore from the franchises but was also met with somewhat mixed reviews.

The Review:
Our story begins five years after the events of Freddy vs. Jason and is narrated by the loquacious wit of Deadite-slaying, S-Mart employee Ash Williams, who not only relates that Crystal Lake has once again reverted back to its “Forest Green” moniker but is also now home to “Super Mega Ultra S-Mart”. Ash recaps what happened in the movie (unstoppable, undead killer Jason Voorhees was resurrected by dream demon Freddy Kruger and the two battled to the death at Camp Crystal Lake when Jason’s murderous ways defied Freddy’s wishes), and then reintroduces us to the two survivors of that epic showdown, Will Rollins and Lori Campbell (referred to as “Laurie”, for some reason), who have inexplicably returned to Forest Green because Laurie can’t shake the feeling that Freddy and Jason are still alive. Of course, basic horror movie odds state that this is a bad idea; both Will and Ash point out that it’s a bad idea, but Laurie won’t be dissuaded and, with snow caking the landscape, they investigate the remains of Camp Crystal Lake. Naturally, Laurie finds blood at the site and, moments later, is horrified to see Will’s eviscerated corpse strung up from the rafters, his entrails spilling to the floor. Hysterical and panicked, Laurie desperately tries to channel her survivor’s instinct, the special qualities that Ash bitterly remarks make such individuals special, attacking Jason with a buzzsaw and chastising his mindless killing, only to end up with a machete to the face as Ash sadly comments that, for better or for worse, the only true “chosen one” is him. Jason takes his newest victims back to his shack, where his beloved mother’s severed head has been joined by Freddy’s, a memento of his victory in Freddy vs. Jason. As we saw at the end of the film, Freddy’s spirit survived and, once Jason enters the shack, he’s immediately forced into a lucid dream state where he relives his childhood torment. He’s enraged when he finds Freddy nailing his mother, but Pamela soothes him, as ever, and convinces Jason that his new “daddy” not only wants to protect him from bullies but can also make him a “normal little boy” like he’s always wanted; all Jason has to do is go back to his childhood home and dig up the Necronomicon Ex Mortis that’s buried there.

With our survivors unceremoniously offed, a similar plot begins that sees Ash thrown into the mix.

With our returning characters summarily killed off, the story jumps over to the Forest Green S-Mart to introduce a new batch of horny, cliché teens; four slackers more interested in making crude dick jokes, pulling pranks on their supervisor, and giving oddball customers the brushoff. The four – Jarvis, Raoul, Davey, and Caroline (or “Carrie”) – are unimpressed to learn that a “senior housewares domestic engineer” is coming in to whip them, and the entire store, into shape for the holiday season. Of course, this is the “Chosen One” himself, Ash Williams, still sporting his robotic hand and embittered by both the influence the Necronomicon has over his life and the losses he’s suffered because of it. Still, he finds solace in kicking Deadite ass whenever they show up and the hope that he’ll one day get to destroy the book once and for all. Ash immediately puts the moves on some teens hanging around outside the S-Mart; as he’s reprimanded for his tardiness and shown around by the manager, the teens wander into the path of the lurking Jason, his vision twisted by Freddy’s influence and driving him into a killing frenzy. The screams attract Ash, and the cops, who immediately target Ash for being an out-of-towner but are forced to release him when the manager vouches for his innocence. Despite the event, Ash gets to work, unimpressed by the store’s presentation and the kids’ lethargic attitude and naivety regarding the dark forces lurking in the shadows. Naturally, Raoul and Jarvis mock his doomsaying demeanour, but Carrie is intrigued by his stories of cursed books and demons; just as he shares more of his experiences, she also clues him in on the local legend of Jason Voorhees, unaware that Jarvis and Raoul are listening in. When Raoul jumps in wearing a hockey mask and brandishing a tomato sauce-splattered hockey stick, Ash nearly kills him before Jarvis intervenes, further increasing the animosity between them and the unimpressed Ash. His mood lifts, however, when he not only sees the S-Mart sells the impressive “Chain Lightning” chainsaw but also when sultry Bree strokes his ego, convincing him to buy supplies for her camping trip, only to ditch him once he’s finished loading up her fancy sports car.

Ash searches for the Necronomicon, unaware that Freddy and Jason are also hunting it.

Meanwhile, Freddy urges Jason to continue towards his goal but the hulking killer can’t help but slaughter a group of carollers he spots in the forest along the way. Wouldn’t you know it, though, Bree and her shit-kicking friends are spending the night in the old Voorhees mansion, unaware that Jason is prowling outside. Ash rolls up soon after on the trail of the Necronomicon and immediately heads to the fruit cellar, ignoring the commotion upstairs as he assumes it’s just the kids getting laid (though it’s actually Jason ripping them to bloody pieces), and finally locating the book just before realising there’s a madman on the loose inside. Ash races upstairs and finds Bree, half naked and in shock, and uncomfortably slaps a kiss on her before delaying Jason with a shotgun blast and making a run for his Oldsmobile. With Bree in hysterics and the car refusing the start, Ash deflects Jason’s machete with his robot hand and is forced to bail when the monster wrecks his beloved car. Thankfully, Carrie suddenly runs Jason down as he’s throttling our hero and all three of them get to safety, much to Freddy’s anger. In Jason’s subconscious, where the hulking killer is little more than a terrified child, Freddy reiterates his mission to retrieve the book and gives Jason license to kill anyone who gets in his way, learning Ash’s name from the depths of Jason’s admittedly empty mind. Ash, Bree, and Carrie head to S-Mart, where Raoul and Jarvis are getting high, and Ash again chews the kids out for being macho assclowns. As Ash desperately searches for a solution in the pages of the Necronomicon, Jason waltzes through the front door and goes on a delightfully gory killing spree, forcing Ash to reload and rearm himself with his trademark chainsaw.

With Freddy’s threat now apparent, Ash comes up with a plan to destroy both undead killers.

Round two between Jason and Ash goes slightly more in Jason’s favour, with Ash being comically battered around the shop, incapacitating him enough for Jason to tear out Bree’s throat and retrieve the book. While the survivors regroup, now convinced of Jason’s threat and Ash’s abilities, Jason brings the book back to his shack and Freddy reads those immortal words – “Klaatu! Verata! Nikto!” – and returns to the waking world once more. Ready to spread a new kind of nightmare with the book’s power, Freddy leaves, considering the two even, but surprisingly makes good on his promise to “fix” Jason. Ash and the others head to Carrie’s place where they take stock of the situation, with Ash even referring to Jason as a Deadite and the group agreeing that “someone” must be manipulating him; but, with little else to go on, they turn in for the night. Thus, Ash finds himself dreaming of being back in the cabin; he even has his old hand for all of five panels before Freddy’s claws burst from it. As before, he races to the work shed and severs the razor-fingered limb with a chainsaw and wry commentary, only to be stunned when his blood forms into tiny, mocking Freddys and then a full-size Freddy, who introduces himself to Ash and then, strangely, states his plan to have Ash and the kids bring him the Necronomicon despite the fact that he already has it. Regardless, Ash fights Freddy off and forces himself awake, discovering that whatever happens in a dream happens in the real world, which is bad news for Davey as he’s pummelled to death by dodgeballs in his nightmare. Relishing his returning strength, Freddy orders Jason (now little more than his obedient lackey) to go kill them so he (as in Freddy) can properly read the book, while Ash has the kids round up some supplies from the S-Mart before heading back to the Voorhees estate. Ash’s plan is for them to stay awake, lure out Jason, and bury him under his own house using explosives; he arms himself with Chain Lightning, steals “some sugar” from Carrie, and heads inside, leaving the others to carry out their part of the plan.

Although supposedly smarter, Jason chooses to defy Freddy, who’s obsessed with the Necronomicon.

Unfortunately for the dumbstruck Raoul and Jarvis, Jason is a bit smarter now and doesn’t fall for their trap; he even taunts them with a finger wag before advancing on them. In the house, Ash is surprised to find Freddy manifested in the real world, suffering a shoulder wound for his arrogance, and even more stunned to find Freddy has already read from the book and enacted his plan to dominate both the waking and the dream worlds. Transforming to his demonic form and conjuring both ethereal Dream Demon spirits and miniature claws, Freddy prepares to cut Ash down but is surprisingly – and bafflingly – interrupted by Jason, now wielding two machetes, who randomly decides to turn against Freddy for no reason. Still, Freddy’s more than willing to oblige and conjures the demonic corpses of Jason’s many victims to swarm the hockey masked killer, with many familiar faces (even some who weren’t Jason’s prey) making a welcome return. Despite their numbers, and Freddy running him through with his own machete, Jason refuses to go down without a fight, but Freddy’s attention is soon turned to Ash when he finds the “Chosen One” has swiped the book during the commotion and made a run for it. In the forest, Ash is attacked by demonic trees and crows but quickly asserts himself with his chainsaw and shotgun, stumbling upon the bludgeoned remains of Raoul and Davey soon after. He’s relieved to find Carrie survived, however, but they’re forced to take shelter in the Voorhees house when the enraged Dream Demon looms over them from the clouds in an awesome visual. Ash frantically searches through the Necronomicon for the passage that will banish Freddy and Jason to the Deadite realm and discovers sketches of the two in the book’s pages, lending more credence to the “Jason is a Deadite” philosophy and only exacerbating Ash’s anger towards the book and all the suffering it’s caused. Ash entrusts the book, and the scared words, to Carrie and prepares to hold the two killers off, only to wind up tangling with Freddy’s nursery rhyme kids and watching, helplessly, as Carrie is taken away by Freddy in a recreation of the end of the original Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984).

After a long and bloody battle, Freddy and Jason are seemingly defeated once more…

Of course, Ash easily fights these apparitions off but, more surprisingly, Carrie is inadvertently saved from Freddy’s leering lusts by Jason. While he’s no match for Freddy’s God-like power, Jason is still switched on enough to snatch the book from Carrie before she can read the magic words, forcing Ash to blow his hockey mask (and half his rotten face) off to protect her. Ash then literally disarms Jason to retrieve the book, but Jason simply jams his machete blade into the stump and swats Ash out of the house, through a window and into unconsciousness, as the estate collapses on him and Freddy, leaving Carrie to run for her life when the demonic Freddy bursts forth demanding his book. After savouring the chase, Freddy gleefully mocks her by cutting himself in a perversion of the Holy Communion and reclaims the book, only for Jason to suddenly return and, despite Freddy’s taunts and impressive light show, splits his head in two with his machete. Naturally, Freddy quickly recovers, freezes Jason with a puff of bloody air, and prepares to use the Necronomicon to send him far away. Just then, Ash comes barrelling in in his bizarrely repaired Oldsmobile and runs Freddy down before beating the piss out of him and blowing his nuts off with his shotgun. Ash’s bravado is nullified when a recovered Jason enters the fray and causes Ash to slip into the icy waters of the frozen Crystal Lake. Freddy duplicates himself to momentarily overwhelm Jason and their fight is interrupted (…again…) by Ash, who breaks free from the ice and blows a hole in Jason’s chest and takes a swipe at Freddy with his chainsaw, only to be quickly overpowered and manhandled by their supernatural strength and powers. Luckily, Carrie finally gets her shit together and reads the passages, opening a vortex that sucks Freddy into the Deadite realm. Although Jason manages to resist the vacuum, he’s forced back to the depths of Crystal Lake by Ash’s Oldsmobile but, regardless, the threat is summarily ended. However, while he revels in this victory, Ash expresses scepticism that the two – and the Evil Dead – can ever truly by defeated and, indeed, the final panels not only show that Jason is alive in the frozen Crystal Lake but that the Necronomicon also foreshadows a future confrontation between the three!

The Summary:
Oh my, is this story quite the glorious mess! First of all, I have to say, while the covers are indeed striking, the interior artwork widely fluctuates between issues and is often almost incomprehensible. Although Will and Lori barely resemble their film counterparts, Ash, Freddy, and Jason are all rendered exactly as they appear in their films, almost to a fault as Jason Craig blatantly copies poses and images from Freddy vs. Jason in some panels. Sometimes, characters are depicted in a quirky, exaggerated manner almost on the verge of caricature; others, they’re a mass of angles and colours and blobs and things appear very rushed. You can guess which style works best for the story. Second, there’s the writing; Ash’s narration is a nice touch and is a unique way to fill in any blanks and to convey his overriding character arc of being this cursed “Chosen One”, but the narrative is kinda all over the place at times. Will and “Laurie” return only to be killed off right away, the new characters are dull and simply there to add to the body count, and a lot of the writing annoyingly pokes fun at the tropes of the Friday the 13th franchise rather than embracing them. I can’t help but feel the story might’ve been better served by having Will and Lori survive; maybe they also work at the S-Mart and they could’ve delivered some of the exposition, and died due to the power boost Freddy and Jason receive here. Instead, we’re left with a couple of jock dickheads and some slutty girls who mock Ash at first and then fall for his charms as soon as the bodies start piling up.

Ash’s bravado sees him underestimate his foes, and their connection to the Necronomicon.

Speaking of which, Ash is depicted quite fittingly here; he’s both bitter and tortured and snarky and proactive, openly telling his horror stories to anyone who’ll listen even when there’s no context or reason for him to and immediately jumping into action whenever a threat emerges. He’s never short of a quip or biting remark and bombards both his undead enemies and his smarmy teenage cohorts with snappy insults whenever he can; he also makes sure to spout all his familiar catchphrases, often when slicing and dicing, and comes up with a decent enough plan to get rid of the two monsters, even if he does underestimate their abilities. Yet, he’s also a complete moron; he easily falls for Bree’s deception, arrogantly assumes he can best Freddy and Jason since he’s killed Deadites before, and is easily distracted by whichever shapely piece of ass is in his view at that moment. The best parts of the story are when he’s matching wits with Freddy, with the two trading more barbs than blows, and going toe to toe with Jason, with Ash’s unique abilities giving him just enough edge to at least hold his own against Jason’s superior strength. Similar to Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy is more of a manipulative presence here; weakened, he must manipulate Jason once again, often using the form of his beloved mother, to restore his power and, consequently, claims only one victim in the entire story. Yet, his threat is constantly emphasised; the Necronomicon promises to increase his power a thousandfold and enables him to bring his dream powers to the real world, and nowhere is this more apparent than in him assuming his demonic visage about halfway through the story. Unfortunately, only the reader is truly aware of Freddy’s threat for the majority of the book; characters are naturally only aware of Jason since he’s a local legend, though this doesn’t diminish Freddy’s importance since he constantly pops up to chastise Jason or make lewd advances towards the characters before enacting his diabolical plan.

Despite some gruesome kills and seeing the three go at it, the story is lacking in key areas.

Of the three, Jason kinda gets a little shafted. Sure, he builds up an impressive kill count here and delivers the story’s most gruesome moments (his wholesale slaughter of the S-Mart customers and employees is a notable highlight), but I didn’t like that he was reduced to Freddy’s pawn once he delivered the Necronomicon. Freddy supposedly reenergised Jason’s brain cells with the book, but we see little evidence of this; sure, he’s a bit smarter and seems a little more aware of what’s happening, but it’s not enough for me to say he’s never shown that level of intelligence before. It’s also incredibly baffling to me that Jason just randomly turns on Freddy; there’s no explanation for this and it just comes across as a bit forced and a way to avoid coming up with a good reason to have them fight again. The fights between the two, and three, characters are pretty good; they’re surprisingly evenly matched despite Jason’s supernatural strength and Freddy’s increased powers and their battles are generally interrupted by characters waking up or interjecting themselves, but there was some meaty, bloody action whenever they got into it. Sadly, I’m not sure it’s enough to really elevate this story; it’s a fun glimpse at what could’ve been in a potential Freddy vs. Jason sequel, but I definitely think another pass was needed at the script and a few of the issues needed addressing. Primarily that the story really is just a retread of Freddy vs. Jason but with elements from the original Evil Dead films (Raimi, 1981 to 1992) thrown in, but also…Freddy has the Necronomicon so why does he need Ash the others to get it? Why does the story flip-flop between calling it Forest Green and Crystal Lake? How did Ash know the Necronomicon was at the Voorhees house? Still, I liked the visual of Crystal Lake covered in snow, the callbacks and references to each film and certain events from each franchise, and the visual of the three going at it, I just think it needed a little bit more to really elevate it to must-read territory.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash? What did you think to the artwork and the characterisations? Were you disappointed that Will and Lori were offed so quickly? Did you like the connection between the Necronomicon and Jason’s origin? Would you have liked to see these three horror icons tangle on the big screen? Which film in the three franchises is your favourite? What other horror crossovers would you like to see? Drop a comment below or on my social media to share your thoughts and feel free to check out my other reviews of both franchises, and the rest of my Crossover Crisis content!

Movie Night [Crossover Crisis]: Freddy vs. Jason

Dr. K3 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m looking at multiversal crossovers every Thursday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Released: 15 August 2003
Director: Ronny Yu
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Budget: $30 million
Stars: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, and Katharine Isabelle

The Plot:
Trapped in Hell and forgotten by the townsfolk of Elm Street, dream demon Freddy Krueger (Englund) resurrects the hulking, immortal killer Jason Voorhees (Kirzinger) to spread fear amongst Elm Street’s youngsters. However, Jason is not so easily controlled and the two supernatural mass murderers come into conflict, with a group of clueless teenagers caught in the middle!

The Background:
Hot on the heels of the forefather of the “slasher” genre, John Carpenter’s Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980) proved to be an unexpected box office success despite its negative reviews. What followed was a slew of sequels, of varying critical and commercial success, and one of the best slasher franchises of all horror. However, Paramount executives became embarrassed with the films and eventually sold (some of) the rights to rival film company New Line Cinema, meaning the long-term hopes of seeing Friday’s iconic killer, Jason Voorhees (Various) go toe-to-toe with New Line’s Freddy Krueger could finally be realised. Production of such a crossover had been stuck in Development Hell for the better part of ten years; attempts to get the film off the ground stalled in 1988 and numerous proposals were submitted over the years before writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, with input from David S. Goyer, finally drafted a filmable concept. Horror alum Ronnie Yu was hired to direct, despite his unfamiliarity with either franchise; although Freddy actor Robert Englund signed on, long-time Jason actor Kane Hodder was recast in order to fit Yu’s vision for the silent killer and former Pamela Voorhees actress Betsy Palmer refused to cameo due to salary disputes. Special make-up effects designer Bill Terezakis designed a new demonic visage for Freddy, while a mixture of practical and digital effects were employed to bring to life Freddy’s nightmare environments and the bloody brawl between the two killers, though the heavier use of CGI drew some criticism. Reviews were generally split down the middle (no pun intended); some enjoyed the mindless smackdown and gory violence, while others criticised the brainless plot and uninspired performances. Still, with a box off gross of nearly $117 million, Freddy vs. Jason became the most profitable entry in either franchise, though plans for a sequel pitting horror icon Ashley “Ash” Williams (Bruce Campbell) against the two never came to pass except in comic books and the decision was made to reboot both franchises rather than bring them together again on film.

The Review:
It’s hard even for me to believe, but there was a time when I couldn’t stand horror movies; I was terrified of them and regularly left the room or hid behind a comic whenever we watched them as kids, and, even now, one of the scariest movies for me was A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984). By 2003, I was still a reluctant horror fan but I distinctly remember Freddy vs. Jason helping to finally break through that mental block because of the sheer spectacle of seeing these two horror icons go at it. The premise is simplicity in itself (Freddy raises Jason from the grave to help inspire fear and return him to power) so you wouldn’t think that there would be much need for exposition but, oddly, you’d be wrong. Not only does the movie open with a demonic Freddy, trapped in Hell, directly addressing the audience, and talking us through a montage of his greatest hits and misses, there are at least two other points where the movie grinds to a halt so Freddy can repeat the plot to the audience. At one point, he randomly spits out his motivation to a victim, which would be fine if Mark Davis (Brendan Fletcher) shared this knowledge with his friends and they used it to aid with their later plan, but Freddy kills him moments later, making these constant reminders of the dead simple plot stand out like a sore thumb.

Wide-eyed Lori faces some shocking truths about her past when Freddy tries to regain his power.

Freddy vs. Jason sits in an awkward place within both franchise’s canon; the last time we saw Springwood, it was a traumatised town where no children lived thanks to Freddy’s escapades, and the last time we saw Jason he was being dragged to Hell by demons and Freddy himself. Now, Springwood is once again a prosperous suburb full of foolish and horny twenty-somethings teenagers; main character and “Final Girl” Lori Campbell (Keena) even lives in Nancy Thompson’s (Heather Langenkamp) house, which has since become closely associated with Freddy, though neither she nor her friends – borderline alcoholic tomboy Gibb Smith (Isabelle) and shallow, conceited Kia Waterson (Rowland) – and fellow teens know of Freddy. Thanks to a town-wide mandate and widespread use of the once-controversial dream-suppressant “Hypnocil”, Freddy has been effectively stamped out across Springwood; all records of him have been censored and the adults take his threat so seriously that they don’t dare to speak his name aloud, causing much confusion for Kia and the others when Gibb’s arrogant and demanding boyfriend Trey Cooper (Jesse Hutch) is brutalised in bed. Throughout the film, Lori learns that she has a closer connection to Freddy than she first thought; her mother was slaughtered by the Dream Demon years ago, her father, Doctor Campbell (Tom Butler), not only covered up the death but has been administering Hypnocil to Freddy’s victims at the nearby Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, and her childhood sweetheart Will Rollins (Ritter) was locked up after witnessing the murder, for which he was also made a patsy. Thus, the events of the film are doubly traumatic for Lori, who’s forced to realise everything she’s been told about her mother was a lie and that her father isn’t the man she thinks he is, to say nothing of her being eyed as Freddy’s latest target simply for living in the house of his former nemesis.

Unfortunately, most of the cast is pretty forgettable and painfully one-dimensonal.

Unlike the purehearted, virginial Lori, Kia is an outspoken and promiscuous young woman who is eager to push Lori out of the rut she’s been in since her mother’s death, party down and meet a guy instead of hiding herself away. Oddly concerned with her looks and never far from a harsh word, Kia’s bullish ways are quickly called out by perennial loser Charlie Linderman (Marquette), a shy and awkward high schooler who has a crush on Lori but inexplicably ends up earning Kia’s affections when he stands up to her. Despite Trey being a complete asshole, Gibb is rattled by his death, especially after finding him literally folded in half in bed, and turns to alcohol for solace; unfortunately, this makes her easy prey for Freddy, who toys with her in the dream world and ends up enraged when Jason beats him to his prey, effectively setting the stage for their inevitable clash. Rounding out the group is Jason Mewes knock off Bill Freeburg (Kyle Labine), a carefree stoner who joins the group after Jason cuts his way through a late-night rave and exists largely to offer some pretty genuine comic relief. This “Scooby Gang” of main characters is aided by Deputy Scott Stubbs (Lochlyn Munro), a newcomer to Springwood who’s also clueless about Freddy and whose claims that they’re dealing with a Jason copycat go unheeded by his superior, Sheriff Williams (Garry Chalk), to avoid unnecessary fear and panic. While Stubbs helps the kids break into Westin Hills to discover the horrifying fate of the kids who wouldn’t stop dreaming, and pick up more Hypnocil, he’s ultimately there to add to Jason’s body count and not much else.

Skeptical Will soon becomes a believer but puts in a questionable performance.

Far more significant to the plot are the aforementioned Will and his best friend Mark, two former Elm Street kids locked up in Westin Hills as patsys for Freddy’s kills. Regularly dosed up on Hypnocil and driven stir crazy by the unstable inmates, the two escape the high security with a ridiculous amount of ease after Will sees the news report of Trey’s death and rushes to check on his former flame. Although both are overjoyed to finally be reunited, Will’s time in the hospital has left him an eccentric, anxiety-ridden ball of impulsiveness; Ritter plays the role with a bizarre flair that sees him smirking even when faced with the two killers and whatever he was going for ultimately fails due to him lacking onscreen charisma. Unlike Mark, Will is completely sold on the story drip-fed by the hospital; he believes Lori’s father killed her mother and has no time for Mark’s tall tales of a Dream Demon. Mark, however, knows all-too-well that Freddy is real since his older brother, Bobby (Zack Ward), regularly spoke of him and his nightmares and was so terrified of both that he was driven to suicide. For much of the early going, Mark openly rants about Freddy, only to inadvertently cause more fear and panic that gives Freddy the strength to cut him up and burn an ominous message into him. Having witnessed this first-hand, Will instantly becomes convinced and works with the group to figure a way out of their predicament; however, his primary concern is protecting Lori, even in the face of supernatural killers, which leaves him bloody and injured and all their friends dead when Lori insists on making Freddy pay for all the pain he’s caused them.

Despite raking up an impressive kill count, Jason’s tragic past casts him as the lesser of two evils.

Of course, all these characters can be as forgettable and one-dimensional as necessary since no one is watching Freddy vs. Jason for anything other than the two killers, and none of these kids is as compelling a main protagonist as Jason! Thanks to his traumatic backstory and the abuse he suffered as a boy (Spencer Stump), Jason is positioned as the lesser of two evils; a rage-filled engine of destruction, he’s portrayed as a “big stupid dog who won’t stop eating” who is easily placated by the voice and appearance of his beloved mother, Pamela (Paula Shaw), and returning to the familiar hunting grounds of Camp Crystal Lake. At the start of the film, Jason is dead and buried and trapped in a never-ending cycle of violence in the darkest corners of his mind, but Freddy assumes Pamela’s form and gives Jason the motivation to regenerate and return to unlife to wreak havoc on Elm Street. However, as polite as it is of Jason to simply walk into Lori’s house and murder one victim before mindfully closing the door on his way out, Jason is more efficient and ruthless than Freddy expected. He builds up a hell of a kill count here, slicing and dicing anyone who gets in his way and pissing Freddy off since all the victims and fear Jason is stirring up are denied him. Thus, Freddy possesses Freeburg and renders Jason unconscious so he can put him down in the dream world; however, even though Freddy is functionally unstoppable in this realm, Jason remains cursed with immortality, forcing Freddy to probe his mind for an edge. This gives us the deepest glimpse into Jason’s fractured psyche than we’ve ever seen before; his thoughts dwell on Crystal Lake and the victims he’s claimed, and on his childhood, where he was left to drown in the lake. This is all the information Freddy needs to torment Jason, preying upon his hitherto-unknown fear of water to almost do the killer in before the teens intervene, setting the stage of their final showdown in the real world.

Freddy’s vicious, spiteful nature perfectly positions him as the clear antagonist.

Thus, Freddy is positioned clearly as the antagonist of the film. Jason may indeed get the blood, being responsible for every kill in the movie save for a couple perpetrated by Freddy, but it’s Freddy who is pulling the strings and targeting his victims with a spiteful purpose. Frustrated at being forgotten, Freddy finds himself powerless and unable to influence the real world; even when Jason’s actions spread fear of Freddy, the Dream Demon struggles to attack his victims in their dreams, but effectively regains much of his lost power simply through the teens’ fear of the unknown. This allows him to go through some of his greatest hits, such as drawing kids into his boiler room, leering through walls, and assuming a variety of outlandish forms to possess and torment his victims. Freddy’s power in the dream world is absolute, allowing him to easily regrow limbs and toy with Jason, who is confused and outmatched by Freddy’s dream powers, but even Freddy can’t kill Jason there and his influence on the real world is severely limited. Given that Jason is a mindless mute, Freddy taunts him and his other victims at every turn, mugging for the camera far too much for my tastes his overall presentation is much more in-line with his earliest incarnations, returning him to his darker and scarier roots but still allowing him to drop “bitch” lines and one-liners to terrify his victims. He is also more malicious; Jason may kill indiscriminately, but only Freddy would torment a terrified mongoloid boy by parading his mother’s severed head on a stick! Freddy also has an all-new form when in Hell or enraged; this is a far more demonic appearance that really emphasises how frustrated and angered he is at being forgotten, but all the scary forms and fancy dream powers in the world can’t help him when he’s forced into the real world and to go toe-to-toe with Jason to put the hulking killer down for good.

The Nitty-Gritty:
There’s a strange disparity at work in Freddy vs. Jason; the two franchise’s iconic themes are only heard once in the opening scene, replaced with an admittedly kick-ass metal soundtrack and soundalike score, and while Freddy gets a montage of clips from his previous films, Jason has to settle for recreating his modus operandi in a dream sequence. Still, to its credit, the film does make the effort of placing Jason on Elm Street and bringing Freddy to Camp Crystal Lake…it’s just a shame that the shot on Jason on the street doesn’t linger long enough and that the script ludicrously places Camp Crystal Lake within driving distance of Springwood despite them obviously being miles apart. Long-time Jason fans may also be baffled by his sudden fear of water; there’s a clear attempt here to associate Freddy with red and fire and Jason with blue and water, a thematic parallel that actually think works pretty well. Yes, neither has shown fear of either element before (Jason is constantly seen wading through or existing underwater, even in this film), but I think it gets a pass as we’re clearly seeing Freddy extract Jason’s deepest, darkest fear in a heightened, nightmare environment and turn it against him. Ultimately, though, neither element plays a big role in their destruction, rendering it an interesting concept that’s sadly not explored too deeply, probably because it might detract from Freddy screaming the plot at the audience!

Despite some awful CGI, many of the gory effects are enjoyable thanks to some fun brutality.

Sadly, these are the things we must suffer through to get to the good stuff in Freddy vs. Jason. For every scene showing Englund out of the make-up, grinning as he sticks pictures of his victims to a scrapbook with his own saliva, we have shit like the God-awful “Freddypillar”, a bong-smoking, worm-like monstrosity that looked terrible back then and looks even worse today. Thankfully, shoddy CGI isn’t a commonplace in Freddy vs. Jason and much of the effects are achieved practically, though they’re no less comical; after Blake (David Kopp) is spooked by Freddy, he’s horrified when his father’s (Brent Chapman) head pops off his shoulders courtesy of Jason, and he then attempts to shield himself from the same fate using his father’s severed head! There are also some odd moments of slowdown and blurry, shaky cam during the otherwise impressive rave scene and, as mentioned, some atrocious performances not just by Ritter and Keena, but even veteran actors Garry Chalk and Tom Butler seem to be hamming it up, though this doesn’t detract from how creepy that little eyeless girl (Joelle Antonissen) is or the comatose patients whisper to Freeburg. Indeed, it’s worth braving the film’s more frustrating elements and forgettable characters to get to the nightmare sequences and the kills. Freddy vs. Jason doesn’t try anything particularly ground-breaking with its nightmare scenes, preferring to largely return the horror to Freddy’s character outside of him comically bouncing Jason around like a pinball, but it certainly brings its A-game when it comes to gore. Things get off to a strong start when Jason bludgeons Trey with his trademark machete (which Jason not only carries on him at all times but almost constantly has in his hand, even when opening doors!) before folding him in two with the bed, and things only escalate from there. Jason gate-crashes a rave in a cornfield, snapping one dude’s neck in the blink of an eye and then splashing arterial spray even when set on fire in easily one of the best sequences of the movie. While Stubbs is simply electrocuted to death, poor Freeburg gets sliced clean in two, Kia gets swatted aside like she was nothing after giving Freddy some lip, and even Linderman goes out a hero as he downplays the seriousness of his injury before promptly bleeding to death.

Although their throwdown seems to end ambiguously, Jason was clearly the winner!

Indeed, the raw brutality of Freddy vs. Jason is almost as entertaining as seeing these two icons finally share the screen; there’s blood squibs and spray abound here, especially once Lori uses herself as bait to force Freddy into the real world and he goes one-on-one with Jason. Despite not having any of his supernatural powers in the real world, Freddy still puts up a hell of a fight, utilising speed and his wiles to dodge Jason’s wild swings. As fun as it was to see the two tangle in the dream world, the finale is really where all that nonsense really pays off; it’s a lot of fun seeing the two trade blows, Freddy take advantage of the various tools and toys at the construction site, and Jason grow more and more frustrated at his rival’s tenacity. Thanks to having mocked him with his mother’s form and forced him to relive his childhood trauma, Freddy faces a suitably enraged Jason; however, Freddy’s brains allow him to stay out of reach, rain pipes onto Jason, and even relieve him of his machete after slicing off his fingers. Momentarily helpless, Jason is mashed up by Freddy’s two-pronged assault and even ends up having his eyes gouged out by Freddy’s trademark glove, but Jason’s relentlessness sees him endure this assault, plunge his hand through Freddy’s torso, and even rip Freddy’s arm off before both are blown into the lake by Lori and Will. Freddy comes back, armless and half dead, ready to make Lori pay only to wind up impaled through the back by his own severed, razor-fingered glove. Sadly, this means that the final blow comes from Lori, who promptly hacks off Freddy’s head while Jason sinks into the lake, his rage and energy apparently spent from the battle. However, Jason rises again not long after, emerging from the lake and palming Freddy’s severed head, though Freddy does deliver a wink to the audience to basically lead the ultimate victor ambiguous (though Jason clearly won!)

The Summary:
I was so excited for Freddy vs. Jason back in the day; even as a tentative horror fan, I knew what a big deal this throwdown was and I remember glancing at some of the proposed scripts online in the years before it was officially announced and thinking how cool it would be to see the two finally go at it. The end result is, honestly, a bit of a mixed bag; on the one hand, Freddy vs. Jason spends way too much time with its teens, many of whom just aren’t that interesting, and endlessly repeating the plot to the audience like we can’t understand the simple concept of Freddy fighting Jason! On the other hand, you need victims for the killers to torment and slice up, so of course you expect them in a slasher movie and, while many of their performances are questionable and the characteristics are shallow, they’re serviceable enough in this regard, even if Monica Keena doesn’t quite fit the bill of the virginal Final Girl. Still, even if these were the greatest teen characters, the selling point is seeing the two killers go at it and, certainly, Freddy vs. Jason delivers. We have to sit through a lot of nonsense to get to it, but the film does a serviceable job of merging these two franchises into one without any major alterations of continuity, and it’s so worth it once the two throw down. While, yes, it is disappointing that the iconic Kane Hodder wasn’t involved, this is one of my favourite versions of Jason; he’s been slowed down a bit and his physicality accentuated, but the portrayal of him as this mindless killing machine who doesn’t know any better and is driven by rage really makes for a surprisingly tragic anti-hero to root for when faced with the more spiteful and malicious Freddy, thankfully returned to his darker roots and played with manic glee by Robert Englund. In the end, it’s Freddy vs. Jason; if you’re expecting something deeper and life-changing then you’re obviously in the wrong room. I paid to see these two chop the shit out of each other and slice up some hapless teens, and the film definitely meets this criteria with some fun and brutal gore, especially once the two start trading blows, ad the film is, overall, far better than it had any right to be given the premise and lengthy development period.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Did you enjoy Freddy vs. Jason? Which slasher were you rooting for and were you satisfied with the ending? What did you think to the merging of these two franchises and the constant repetition of the main plot? Which of the teens was your favourite and how important do you think these characters are in a slasher movie? What were your favourite kills in the film and did you enjoy seeing Freddy and Jason go at it? Would you like to see other horror icons have a showdown like this and, if so, who? Whatever you thought about Freddy vs. Jason and horror crossovers, leave a comment below or on my social media and check back my other Freddy vs. Jason content across the site!

Back Issues [Crossover Crisis]: Jason vs. Leatherface

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In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m looking at multiversal crossovers every Thursday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Writers: Nancy A. Collins and David Imhoff – Artist: Jeff Butler

Story Title: “Goin’ South”
Published: October 1995

Story Title: “A Day in the Life…”
Published: November 1995

Story Title: “Face Off”
Published: January 1996

The Background:
Following on the heels of John Carpenter’s Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), which popularised the “slasher” sub-genre of horror cinema, Friday the 13th (Cunningham, 1980) proved to be a box office success, justifying the release of numerous sequels. Immediately, the slasher franchise became synonymous with its unstoppable, machete-wielding, hockey mask-wearing killer, Jason Voorhees (Various), a horror icon who has transcended the genre, becoming a mainstream figure who has branched out into videogames, toys, and various comic books. These would explore Jason’s complex mythology and pit him against other horror icons and, in fact, this latter gimmick was used in his very first comic book appearance as Jason ended up befriending Jedidiah Sawyer/Leatherface and his cannibalistic family in this curious and oft-forgotten three-issue series. Leatherface, of course, first appeared in the highly controversial and influential Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper, 1974), to which all masked slashers owe a great debt. Thanks to a myriad of sequels, remakes, and requels, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has suffered from the law of diminishing returns at times, though Leatherface and his iconic chainsaw remains a prominent horror figure. Given their childlike demeanours, violent bloodlust, and their unsettling family relationships, I guess it made sense for Topps Comics to have the two square off in this limited series, especially as the legal issues surrounding the long-awaited clash between Jason and Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund) wouldn’t be resolved for some time.

The Review:
Our story begins as most Friday the 13th films do: with a bit of context about Crystal Lake, affectionately known to the locals as “Camp Blood” thanks to the actions of Pamela Voorhees and her zombie-like killer of a son, Jason. Given that this comic was published in 1995, the most recent film was Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (Marcus, 1993), one of two ultimately unsuccessful attempts to finally do Jason in for good, which explains Jason’s somewhat odd-looking appearance. He’s kind of a mixture of his look from Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (Hedden, 1989) and Jason Goes to Hell, meaning his bulbous head is kind of eating into his mask. He also starts the story still chained to the bottom of Crystal Lake, indicating that this comic book takes place sometime after Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (McLoughlin, 1986) rather than after Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (Buechler, 1988) since he hasn’t decayed enough to resemble his look in that film. Honestly, trying to figure out where or even if this comic fits into the already spotty Friday the 13th timeline (or with that of the equally troublesome Texas Chainsaw Massacre films) is a fool’s errand; it’s better to just say it’s an alternative tale that takes place after Jason Lives and the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Anyway, the story sees Crystal Lake abandoned due to Jason’s many rampages; in its place is a big industrial factory that pumps its waste into the lake, contaminating it so badly that its owners, Linhart Amalgamated, decide to cut their losses and ditch the lake entirely so they can build a fancy business district on its foundations. Naturally, they do this on the cheap, but the dredging is successful and sees the polluted water and its toxic waste loaded onto containers and transported across the country via barge, truck, and train.

When Jason finds himself in Texas, he’s welcomed into the grotesque Sawyer family.

This sees Jason forcibly extracted from his underwater prison and reanimates him, just as the local crazy warned, and he bursts out of his confinement in such a rage that he chops up a train-hopping hobo and his doggy! Jason then barges into the control carriage and kills the relaxing train conductors, splitting the head of one right down the middle with his machete! The train consequently derails and dramatically explodes, leaving Jason lost in the woods of “Sawyerville” in Texas, where he’s just about to hack up some poor randomer when he’s interrupted by Nubbins Sawyer/The Hitchhiker and Leatherface, who are also chasing the terrified man. Encouraged by the Hitchhiker, Leatherface and Jason immediately go at it, with Jason somehow able to deflect Leatherface’s chainsaw with his machete and knock it from his hands. However, the two brutish killers share an intense look as they clash weapons and Jason chooses to behead the victim and peacefully hand Leatherface his chainsaw, earning him the admiration of the Hitchhiker. Against his very nature, Jason is compelled to follow the two back to their humble abode, which is adorned with decorations made from the flesh and bones of their victims, which are also cooked up for the family to eat by Drayton Sawyer/The Cook. When the Hitchhiker and the Cook applaud Jason’s killing skills and berate Leatherface, the hockey masked killer wanders upstairs to find the unmasked Leatherface blubbering. Sensing a kindred spirit in the hulking cannibal, Jason silently invites him downstairs to join the family for dinner, specifically the Cook, the Hitchhiker, the bloated corpse of Aunt Amelia, and decrepit former butcher Grandpa Sawyer. Though struggling with the alien emotions bubbling within his enraged mind, Jason feels so comfortable and accepted with the cannibalistic misfits that he communicates his name to them by writing on the wall with “Kool-Aid” (that’s most likely just blood) and being welcomed to the family.

When Jason sees the way the Hitchhiker treats Leatherface, it unearths some bad memories.

Jason stays with the family, even resting in his own bedroom, where his dreams are dominated by flashbacks to when he drifted out to sea and almost drowned as a child. Tensions quickly rise as the Hitchhiker insults Jason by demanding he take off his mask and eat some scrambled brains, and then attacks Leatherface after being reprimanded by the Cook, which gives Jason a flashback to the violence he suffered at the hands of his abusive father. The Cook briefly placates Jason with a tour of the house, showing off the macabre kitchen, where fresh bodies hang on meat hooks, human meat is stored in the freezer, and more bodies are cooked up in the smokehouse. The Cook takes an immediate shine to Jason, approving of his friendship with Leatherface and sharing his dreams to one day serve his unique food to the social elite. After showing off his long-dead dog to Jason, the Hitchhiker is ordered to the family gas station, where he creeps out a travelling couple. He then rushes back to recruit Leatherface to pick up the “groceries”, but the Cook suggests he take Jason out instead to show him their ways. The Hitchhiker attacks the man with a hammer, bashing his brains in, and admonishes Jason for throttling the woman to death too quickly as the Sawyers enjoy hearing them squeal and, while the Cook is disappointed that the dead bodies aren’t younger, it’s a successful trip for the cannibals. The Hitchhiker then excitedly shows off his art collection to Jason, a room full of dead bodies that have been turned into chairs and other furniture. He delights in showing off a lamp, plant pot, and chair all made from skulls and bones and his pride and joy: a corpse dressed up as Santa Claus with a red lightbulb for a nose! When Leatherface sneaks in and accidentally destroys the Hitchhiker’s chair, the maniacal Sawyer beats his dim-witted sibling mercilessly, berating him the entire time and again causing Jason to remember how his own father routinely beat and demeaned him before his mother (strangely called “Doris” here) cleaved his head in with a machete. Accordingly, Jason defends Leatherface, though the Hitchhiker is less than impressed since he can’t actually feel pain.

When the relationship breaks down, Jason finds himself ostracised and longing for home.

When Jason moves to stab the Hitchhiker with a bone, Leatherface steps in and Jason retires to the house, troubled by his hesitation and recent behaviour. He ends up in the attic, longing for simpler times at Camp Crystal Lake, and the Cook comes to find him and apologise for the Hitchhiker’s behaviour. He also reveals that he set aside his dreams to look after the family as a promise to their mother, his sister, Velma, suggesting a degree of inbreeding in the family, and asks Jason to help him get Grandpa downstairs for dinner. The Hitchhiker continues to scold Leatherface, however; after accusing the mongoloid of reading his comic books, the Hitchhiker beats him in a rage, again compelling Jason to defend his friend. This time, it earns him a switchblade to the chest, which naturally doesn’t faze the hulking murderer, and Jason tears the house apart in pursuit of the maniacal Hitchhiker. Angered at Jason’s outburst, which sees Aunt Amelia beheaded, the Cook tries to stop him with a meat cleaver and a chase ensues, with Jason smashing into the kitchen and preparing to eviscerate the two before Leatherface bursts in with his chainsaw whirring. After a moment’s hesitation, Leatherface strikes, slicing Jason’s stomach and rekindling his rage; incensed at the betrayal, Jason buries his machete in Leatherface’s shoulder and the two go at it. Leatherface suffers a deep cut to the wrist but fails to land a blow of his own before the Hitchhiker bashes Jason’s head in with a hammer. Although the Hitchhiker is eager to treat Jason the same as anyone else, the Cook doesn’t feel right about eating him; not only did he genuinely like Jason, he suspects his meat wouldn’t be too appetising so he decides that he deserves a decent send off. Despite their differences, Leatherface angrily insists that Jason keep his mask on and the family drive Jason’s brained body to the nearby lake, where they tie cinder blocks to his angles, put his machete in his lifeless hand, and dump him in with a ceremonial kick. This is enough to spark Jason back to life; he cuts through his bonds and rises from the lake, briefly tempted to slaughter the Sawyers for their betrayal, but deciding that he’s had enough of strange people and strange places and begins the long walk back to Crystal Lake and the comfort of the familiar.

The Summary:
This was an interesting anomaly of a comic; there’s definitely some crossover appeal between Jason and Leatherface and I think the story did a decent job of painting the two as kindred spirits, but I don’t think it fully lived up to this potential. This was more like Jason Meets the Sawyers since, while he does fight Leatherface very briefly twice throughout the story, he’s more touring their house and being welcomed into their family. I think one thing that’s kind of crucial for any crossover is seeing each character in the other’s location, but we don’t get that here as Jason spends the entire story in Texas, mostly in the Sawyer house, and I think it might have benefitted from having Jason and Leatherface spend more time together, killing randomers, and then demonstrating their differences in their methods. Leatherface is, essentially, a butcher, artist, and child-like figure but the comic only really delves into the last aspect of his personality. While this works in creating parallels between the way the Hitchhiker treats him and the way Jason’s father abused him, it doesn’t always land as the comic is understandably more interested in pairing Jason with characters who can actually talk beyond animalistic grunts.

While the two don’t fight much, they’re positioned as thematic parallels and the art’s suitably gory.

The artwork is pretty good; very exaggerated and stylised, but suitably gory and I really enjoyed the depiction of the Sawyer house, though it does seem like the story suffers from padding a bit as it stops to explore the Cook’s unrealised dreams and the Hitchhiker’s art collection. Because of this, I wonder if it might’ve been better as two thirty-page issues rather than being a three-issue arc as then we could’ve gotten to the titular fight a little faster. When Jason and Leatherface do fight, it’s very brief and not very bloody; neither really inflict much damage on each other and it just suddenly and anti-climatically ends when the Hitchhiker bashes Jason’s brains in. I enjoyed the text boxes that tried to explore Jason’s mindset and conflict over why he’s spared the family and chosen to stay with them, but at times it seems to be openly criticising the paper thin plot and the nonsensical reason behind why he would choose to stay with them. The narrative also suffers from repetition and constant flip-flopping; one minute Leatherface and Jason are buddies, sharing an unspoken bond, and the next Leatherface is attacking Jason with a chainsaw since he dared to raise a hand to the Hitchhiker. Similarly, the story repeats the same thread of Jason stepping in to defend Leatherface from the Hitchhiker more than once and it’s not really clear why the second time leads to a bigger falling out other than the story needing to end. Consequently, things get a bit muddled and boring considering it’s only three issues long, which is again why I think a two issue special would’ve been better. Still, it’s a fun little curio; the artwork is good, the gore is enjoyable, and the attempt to shed some light on Jason’s childhood and somewhat humanise him through Leatherface was admirable, if flawed. I’d actually like to see this done again, perhaps with a painted, gritty art style and a tighter plot, but it was inoffensive enough, if a bit forgettable.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to the showdown between Jason and Leatherface? Were you disappointed that they only fought a couple of times and that it was rather brief? Did you enjoy seeing Jason interact and bond with the Sawyer family? What did you think to the Hitchhiker and the focus on exploring the family’s…unique lifestyle? Which horror icons would you like to see clash in a comic or movie? What’s your favourite Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre film? Whatever your thoughts on this horror crossover, feel free to leave them in the comments or on my social media.

Movie Night [Crossover Crisis]: AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem

Dr. K3 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m looking at multiversal crossovers every Tuesday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Released: 25 December 2007
Director: The Brothers Strause
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Budget: $40 million
Stars: Steven Pasquale, Ian Whyte, Johnny Lewis, Reiko Aylesworth, Kristen Hager, and Tom Woodruff Jr.

The Plot:
Following the last clash between Xenomorph and Predator, a “Predalien” (Woodruff Jr.) hybrid begins a bloody rampage in a small Colorado town. While former convict Dallas Howard (Rasquale), his troublesome younger brother Ricky (Lewis), and soldier Kelly O’Brien (Aylesworth) desperately try to survive as their town is overrun with viscous alien drones, a lone Predator, “Wolf” (Whyte), is dispatched to remove all traces of the creatures from the town by any means necessary.

The Background:
Starting life in the pages of Dark Horse Comics with a three-issue short story courtesy of writer Chris Warner, the Aliens vs. Predator concept quickly expanded into multiple follow-up stories, an expansive toy line, and videogames. After a lengthy stint in Development Hell in which notable figureheads from the Alien franchise (Various, 1977 to present) openly criticised a crossover between the two horror icons, Paul W. S. Anderson won over the studio with his pitch and turned a tidy profit with AVP: Alien vs. Predator (ibid, 2004). Though the film was subjected to largely negative reviews, brothers Colin and Greg Strause were brought in to helm a follow-up, having previously unsuccessfully pitched a similar crossover and making a mark in Hollywood with their work as visual effects supervisors. Excited at the prospect on working on such a film, the two insisted that the bulk of the film’s effects were achieved practically, with CGI being used sparingly to render alien spacecraft, the more elaborate sets, and to bolster the practical effects wherever possible. Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. created the monstrous Predalien suit, which incorporated visually recognisable aspects of both species and was brought to life using an animatronic head and practical suit. Despite the brothers’ attention to detail and clear love of both franchises, and making a respectable $130.2 million worldwide gross, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem failed to impress critics: many have cited it as one of the worst films in either franchise and critics dismissed the film as a mindless, violent mess akin to a videogame that suffered from dull human characters and poor lighting. While some were impressed by the film, especially compared to the first one, plans for another movie was indefinitely suspended and fans would have to settle for the 2010 videogame as a quasi-third entry as both franchises have continued on separately on the silver screen.

The Review:
As a big fan of both the Alien and Predator franchises, and of their crossover comic books and videogames, I was left pretty disappointed with the first AVP film. While I believe that the premise of pitting these two iconic extraterrestrial monsters against each other has a lot of potential, and should be a license to print money, the execution of their long-awaited clash fell flat thanks to a by-the-numbers, toothless effort on behalf of all involved. Despite some decent practical effects and an interesting expansion of the Predator lore, the film just played things far too safe and couldn’t live up to either the standards of its predecessors or the expectations set by other meetings between the two. Unfortunately, AVP: R had a bit of a mountain to climb in that regard as many audiences went into it with low expectations after the last film and because it picks up immediately where AVP left off, meaning the entire film beyond the opening sequence is set on then-modern-day Earth. And in the suburbs, no less! While I’ll never agree with the decision to set the conflict between the two creatures on Earth in the mid-2000s rather than in the far future and on another world, at least AVP: R doesn’t shy away from the gore and immediately delivers something new by quickly accelerating the birth of Scar’s (Whyte) progeny and bringing to life a truly gruesome Alien/Predator hybrid, the Predalien.

Sadly, AVP: R falters with its human characters, who are far too generic to make an impression.

After slaughtering the Predator’s on their shuttle and causing it to crash-land in the forests of Gunnison, Colorado, the Predalien immediately sets about establishing a nest for itself in the sewers under the town, while the ship’s payload of Facehuggers gets to work impregnating the unsuspecting townsfolk…including a little boy, showing that AVP: R really isn’t pulling any punches compared to the last film. One of the things I criticised about the first film was the strength and quality of its cast; however, at least AVP had Colin Salmon and Lance Henricksen to add some gravitas to the proceedings. AVP: R is completely robbed of this benefit, giving us a cast of no-name television actors who struggle to offer any kind of dimension or intrigue to the largely expendable human characters. The film ties to focus itself around Ricky, a normal, everyday high schooler who works a shitty job, is the target of farcical jock-like bullies, and pines after the unreasonably attractive Jesse Salinger (Hager). I guess we’re supposed to like and connect with Ricky because he’s just a regular kid, but he’s basically just every semi-rebellious, resentful teenager you’ve ever seen. While he’s not very appealing by himself, I ironically didn’t mind the relationship between him and his older, far more interesting brother, Dallas. A former convict with a no-nonsense attitude who’s trying to turn his life around, Dallas might be burdened by desperate attempts to make him appealing (he’s a rugged ex-con, he shares his name with Tom Skerritt’s Alien character, he shares an awkward flirtation with Kelly, and he even gets the iconic “Get to the chopper!” line) but at least he demonstrates a brief glimmer of character through his practical, if blunt, solutions to the escalating horror. Kelly is shoehorned into the mandatory “tough female protagonist” role made synonymous with the Alien films by Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver); sadly, like Lex Woods (Sanaa Lathan) before her, Kelly struggles in this role; she’s not nearly dynamic or captivating enough to be a strong female protagonist, despite her being given a layer of vulnerability and maternal appeal in her strained relationship with her young daughter, Molly (Gade). Kelly is barely seen processing the death of her husband, Tim (Sam Trammell), before she’s flirting with ex-cons and blasting shotguns and Xenomorphs and it seems she’s primarily there in a half-hearted attempt to call-back to the far ore memorable Ripley and to have someone in the group who can pilot them to safety in the finale.

Gunnison is caught not just between the Aliens and Predator but the rampage of the monstrous hybrid.

Gunnison is naturally a central focus of the film; the Xenomorphs nest and rampage through the town and its inhabitants are picked off and impregnated by them for the first half of the film, with the town’s homeless and gung-ho hunters particularly suffering in the early going. Law and order is maintained in the town by Sheriff Eddie Morales (John Ortiz), a childhood friend of Dallas’s and former problem child himself who makes efforts to help him get his life back on track but who’s soon overwhelmed by the sudden invasion of bloodthirsty biomechanical monstrosities. Completely out of his depth, Morales calls in the National Guard (who are promptly slaughtered) and desperately radios for military aid; however, he refuses to heed Dallas and Kelly’s advice that Colonel Stevens (Robert Joy) is misleading them with the promise of an air evacuation and therefore dooms himself and his posse, who are so terrified that they’re focused only on escaping rather than using rational thought. Gunnison is also home to some disreputable characters; bullies Dale Collins (David Paetkau), Mark (Matt Ward), and Nick (Michal Suchánek) give Ricky more than his fair share of grief, with Dale beating him in the street for giving him backchat and eyeing up his girl, Jesse. Despite their differences, they’re forced to band together when they’re attack by a Xenomorph in the school pool and hunted through the school corridors, with the bullies soon paying for their misguided machismo. For all the focus AVP: R puts on the mutual attraction between Ricky and Jesse, it’s absolutely brutal when she is unceremoniously cut in half by Wolf’s shuriken-like Smart Disc; her death is so spontaneous that it’s both shocking and amusing and indicates just how much more ruthless AVP: R is compared to its predecessor. However, nowhere is this more evident when the Predalien stalks through a maternity ward at the local hospital, where it uses its proboscis to lay a bunch of Chestbursters into the bellies of the pregnant women in there! While this kind of cruelty may understandable frowned upon by some, I’m actually a big fan of shock value and AVP: R certainly delivers in that regard thanks to being unapologetically gory and violent.

Wolf comes to clean up the Alien infestation and proves to be the film’s most interesting character.

Similar to the last film, and true to the nature of the concept, the Predator takes an active role as an anti-hero throughout the film’s events, however I’d argue that Wolf is such a presence here that he’s almost portrayed as the film’s primary character. After the Predator shuttle crashes and the Facehuggers and Predalien escape into the wild, Wolf picks up the signal (giving us our first live-action glimpse of the Predator home world) and immediately sets out to contain the outbreak. An accomplished hunter and veteran, Wolf is far more capable and experienced compared to the rookies seen in the last film; carrying the acid scars on his face and missing a mandible, Wolf is portrayed as something of a “cleaner” and damage control for unwanted or unsanctioned Xenomorph infestations, but comes across more like a detective in his investigation of the crash site, which sees him arm himself with two shoulder cannons, and his meticulous destruction of all traces of either species using a corrosive blue goop. Though largely surreptitious and focused on this mission, Wolf does stray to partake in a little hunting, recreating scenes from Predator when interrupted by the Gunnison search party in the  forest (actually skinning his victims rather than just stringing them up as in the last film) and bringing undue attention to himself by causing a blackout when picking off Xenomorph’s at the town power plant. However, humans are of little interest to this Predator, meaning we’re thankfully spared any awkward and cheesy team ups between Wolf and Dallas; indeed, Wolf is largely nonplussed when the townsfolk get caught in the crossfire between him and his prey and he’s perfectly happy to blast their heads off if it means containing the outbreak. Sporting all the tried-and-true weapons and tactics associated with the alien hunter, Wolfe is given the tactical and technological edge that the humans sorely lack; he can view multiple spectrums and review recorded footage from his fallen comrades using his helmet, has all the tools and toys of his predecessors (but with two shoulder cannons), and is far more adept at dealing with Xenomorphs than any other Predator we’ve seen before.

Led by the grotesque Predalien, the Xenomorphs swarm through the sleepy, unassuming town.

As before, the Xenomorphs are portrayed as being more stereotypically and recognisably “bad” compared to Wolf, who’s firmly entrenched as a bad-ass anti-hero. Alien acid severs limbs and melts faces, and Facehuggers and scurrying to the sewers to set up a nest. The fully-grown Xenomorphs seem largely unfazed at their urban settings, easily skulking through town in the dead of night to pick off victims and being framed in a suffocating, near constant darkness that really helps to add to their terror (when you can actually see them, that is). In a nice change of pace, AVP: R doesn’t rely on the cliché of a Xenomorph Queen and instead has the creatures directed by a far more mobile and altogether more versatile and horrifying alpha, the Predalien. A hulking, drooling nightmarish mish-mash of Alien and Predator biology, the Predalien is framed very much like the original Xenomorph drone (Bolaji Badejo) and a figure of disgusting, uncomfortable sexually-charged horror rather than some disposable, squealing drone. Although I often think of the Predalien as being a masculine counterpart to the Alien Queen, it’s actually an asexual creature, able to impregnate multiple Chestbursters directly into a host using its proboscis. Not only does the Predalien sport the mandibles and dreadlocks of a Predator but it also rips the spines out of its prey much like the alien hunter; seen as an abomination by Wolf, the two have a deep-rooted instinctual hatred of one another and their inevitable conflict is so brutal that it would be a fight to the death even without the impending threat of nuclear destruction.

The Nitty-Gritty:
AVP: R tends to get a bad name primarily because of its poor lighting; when I went to see it in the cinema, I don’t remember it being that dark or difficult to make out what’s happening but it’s hard to deny that sections of the film are all-but impossible to see since they’re bathed in a pitch-black darkness. On the one hand, I don’t actually mind this; it recalls the dark atmospheric horror of the first Alien film and returns these creatures to their roots as frightening monsters rather than lessening their threat through over exposure, however I think the Brothers Strause went a little too far into the dark, perhaps in an attempt to keep the film from upsetting the censors by adding unnecessary monster horror to its gore, swearing, and violence. Fiddling with your TV settings and the lighting in your home can improve things, for sure, but it’s a shame that so much of the film, suits, and brutality is lost to this impenetrable blackness. Unlike the last film, AVP: R is unapologetically R-rated; characters swear throughout the film and blood and gore are far more prevalent, bringing the film more in line with the standards set by previous entries in the series. As alluded to, this also can be taken as a detriment as the Brothers Strause go super dark by having Chestbursters burst out of children and pregnant women, but these films have always had some uncomfortable gory scenes and I’m certainly not going to complain about this considering how toothless the first AVP film was. I also have to commend the Brothers Strause for their clear affection for the source material; this is evident right from the start, where the film’s credits are a mixture of both franchise’s fonts and the ambient sound is a mash-up of the classic motion tracker beeping and the Predator’s thermal vision, and the amalgamation of the franchises continues to be felt throughout the film in Brian Tyler’s score.

The increased focus on gore and recreating both franchise’s atmospheres is very much appreciated.

As ever, the main appeal of the film are the practical effects used to bring both species to life; again, this is why the low lighting is such a drawback as the Aliens finally include their most memorable design (the rigged skull variant from the second film) and we never really get a decent look at the Predalien thanks to the all-encompassing darkness and wash of rain throughout the movie. Still, the suits, puppets, and animatronics are as good as they’ve ever been and sometimes benefit from the darkness; Wolf sticks very closely to the classic Predator look defined in the first two films, though with a more visually interesting helmet and sporting the battle scars of his many hunts. The cloaking effect is much improved this time around, as are the CGI blasts used to represent his shoulder cannon projectiles, both of which harken back to the first two films and Wolf even uses the trajectory tracking system seen in the first Predator. Best of all, his face more resembles the classic Stan Winston design rather than the butt-ugly travesty we saw in AVP, and we get an all-too-brief glimpse of the Predator home world, a searing hot planet of ancient pyramids and structures that just cries out to be revisited in more detail some time, and the additional toys Wolf gets to play with. Wolf has the spear and the gauntlets but also has little mapping devices that double as laser traps he to cover his back and cut down any Xenomorphs, he can charge up his gauntlet to burst through solid concrete, has a slick razor-sharp whip, and he’s also easily powerful and adept enough to hold multiple Xenomorphs off at once. The Aliens not only have their signature squeal, but we also get to see them feeding on human brains; they’re also slimier and more grotesque than ever, though none more so than the Predalien. This thing is absolutely abhorrent to look at, drooling and stomping about with a real weight. In many ways, it reminds me of the Newborn (Tom Woodruff Jr./Joan La Barbara/Archie Hahn) in that it’s an even more monstrous variant of one of cinema’s classic creatures, though the Predalien enforces its will far more aggressively than the Queen, striking Xenomorphs when they try to eat or act before it and slashing at its victims with its huge claw-like hands and prehensile tail.

Sadly, the brawl is interrupted by a nuke that kills the town and puts an end to the alien threat.

Many of the human survivors are whittled down in their efforts to arm themselves thanks to Wolf using them as bait and picking them off simply for being armed; the National Guard and absolutely massacred by the Xenomorphs as well, and the remaining survivors split up after disagreeing about Colonel Steven’s evacuation plan. Colonel Stevens directs the survivors to the centre of town on the pretence of an evacuation but it’s actually to ensure that the Aliens all congregate on ground zero of his tactical nuclear strike, which obliterates the entire town and all traces of the alien infestation save for Wolf’s shoulder blaster. Before the town is destroyed, however, Dallas, Kelly, Molly, and a wounded Ricky fight their way to the roof of the town hospital (which has been partially converted into a horrific Alien nest) to get to the helicopter and escape the incoming blast in tense scenes awash in darkness and flickering lights that recall Ripley’s desperate last-minute escapes as much as Kelly’s drive through the wrecked streets calls back to Ripley’s rescue of the Colonial Marines in their armoured transports. Barely able to fend off the skulking Xenomorphs with their weapons, Dallas covers their escape by wielding Wolf’s repurposed shoulder cannon, but ultimately it comes down to a one-on-one, hand-to-hand slugfest between Wolf and the Predalien. This takes place on the rooftop of the hospital, in the dead of night, and amidst a torrential downpour with their destruction an inarguable guarantee since we know Stevens has a missile inbound. And yet, as in the last film, actually seeing the Predator go at it with the Aliens and that horrific hybrid are the highlight of the film despite the low lighting; overpowered by the Predalien and ready to fight to the death, Wolf discards his weapons and battles his rival in a test of strength that sees him rip out its inner mouth, stab it through the head, and be left impaling on its spear-like tail. Unfortunately, Wolf is incinerated along with his foe and the entire town by Stevens’ missile; although our human protagonists escape, the shockwave causes their helicopter to crash and they’re apprehended by military police shortly afterwards. In the aftermath, Colonel Stevens recovers Wolf’s damage cannon from Dallas and presents it to Ms. Yutani (Françoise Yip) of the Yutani Corporation, awkwardly implying that they were somehow able to reverse-engineer enough technology from this one weapon to eventually become a universe-spanning colonising force alongside the Weyland Industries some two-hundred years in the future.

The Summary:
I’m a firm believer that AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem isn’t as bad as people make it out to be, but also that it still has plenty of undeniable flaws that keep it from being classified as under-rated and which also make me hesitate to rate it much higher. I’ve always enjoyed that the film veers back to the horror atmosphere that popularised each franchise; the swearing, blood, gore, and shocking violence all make quite an impact and make this film the extreme other end of the spectrum compared to the first AVP movie. I also enjoy Wolf’s character and presence throughout the film; in many ways, I almost wish that we’d followed him more as he’s far more interesting a character than any of the disposable humans, but I would be surprised if we ever saw something like that in a live-action movie. I also really enjoyed the Prealien; as much as I love the Xenomorph Queen, she’s very played out and it’s nice when the franchise uses a similar concept but in a different, uniquely grotesque way and the Predalien is such a striking character design and vicious concept that it really helps to up the ante in a more visceral way. In these regards, AVP: R is worlds better than its predecessor; the tone, presentation, and atmosphere are far more in line with what I expect from each franchise and I would choose to watch this one out of the two on any day of the week…but sadly it’s still a mess of a movie. The film’s just way too dark, there’s no denying it; some scenes are just a blank screen of darkness with the vaguest hint of movement and the sounds of gnashing, slobbering teeth, and the impressive practical effects are almost entirely lost in this death shroud. Furthermore, the characters and setting are just awful; an urban environment might be something different from the franchise but a present-day setting just doesn’t work for this concept and the lack of any strong, recognisable faces and human protagonists means it’s almost impossible to give a damn when they’re in danger or die. Overall, this was a step in the right direction in many ways but the execution again fell short of the mark; it’s a shame that we probably won’t see a proper Aliens versus Predator film set in space and in the future and that we’re left with these two largely disappointing live-action adaptations as the premise has so much potential but the studio clearly didn’t have faith to put the money and effort behind it so we’re left with these sub-par efforts that really could’ve, and should’ve, been much better.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Are you a fan of AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem? How do you think it compares to the first film and other films in each franchise? Were you disappointed that it continued the modern-day setting? Did the poor lighting and shock value of the gore and horror bother you? Which of the humans was your favourite? What did you think to Wolf and his mission to erase all traces of the Aliens? Were you a fan of the Prealien or do you find it to be a little too unrealistic? Which of the Aliens vs. Predator stories or adaptations was your favourite? Would you like to see the two cross paths again in some form or another? Whatever you think about Alien vs. Predator, leave a comment down below or share your thoughts on my social media.

Movie Night [Crossover Crisis]: AVP: Alien vs. Predator: Extreme Edition

Dr. K8 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m looking at multiversal crossovers every Tuesday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Released: 7 March 2005
Originally Released: 12 August 2004
Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Budget: $60 to 70 million
Stars: Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Colin Salmon, Ewen Bremner, Ian Whyte, Tom Woodruff Jr., and Lance Henriksen

The Plot:
When sickly, wealthy industrialist Charles Weyland (Henriksen) discovers a pyramid buried off the coast of Antarctica, he coerces experienced guide Alexa “Lex” Woods (Lathan) to lead a team of scientists, mercenaries, and archaeologists in an expedition to investigate. However, they soon find themselves caught in the middle of a war between two viscous alien races as three Predators (Whyte) come looking to prove their worthy in battle against the ultimate prey, the ferocious Xenomorphs (Woodruff Jr.), whom they breed within the ancient structure.

The Background:
The concept of Aliens vs. Predator originated in the pages of Dark Horse Comics; founded in 1980 by Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics stood out from its competition by by primarily publishing creator-owned titles and achieved mainstream success with its licensed adaptations of horror and science-fiction films, such as the original meeting of these two icons in a three-issue short story, courtesy of writer Chris Warner, which was then followed by multiple follow-ups, action figures, and videogames. Although it appears that plans for a live-action adaptation can be traced back to the late-nineties, these were paused to focus on Alien Resurrection (Jeunet, 1997) and, despite director James Cameron and actor Sigourney Weaver openly criticising the idea of diluting both creatures with a crossover, with director Paul W. S. Anderson spearheading the production after pursuing the project for eight years and winning over the studio with his pitch. While the comic books were set in the future like the Alien films (Various, 1977 to present), AVP was set in the then-modern day, but Anderson strived to maintain continuity by setting the film in the wilderness of Antarctica. Anderson’s focus on continuity and paying homage to the existing franchise compelled him to bring star Lance Henriksen back to play an ancestor of the Bishop seen in previous films, though star Arnold Schwarzenegger was unable to make an appearance. Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI), who had worked on the last two Alien films, created AVP’s special effects, which focused on practical suits as often as possible, which led to ADI re-using many of the suits and animatronics from the previous movies. Although Alien vs. Predator eventually grossed over $177 million at the box office, it was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews; while some found it to be an enjoyably dumb action/horror flick, others saw it as a boring film filled with one-dimensional characters and lacking in either franchise’s trademark gore. The box office was clearly enough to convince the studio to push forward with a sequel, however, and, prior to that film’s release, this “Extreme Edition” of AVP was released on home video and contained a few extended scenes for home audiences.

The Review:
In all honesty, AVP was off to a bad start in my book right away with its rating; while it’s possible to have violent, gory, and sweary 15-rated films, scary monsters and subject matter need to be factored into the equation, meaning AVP lacks not only the iconic soundtracks from its forefathers but also completely wastes its one f-bomb and denies us the signature “Ugly motherfucker” line. This method of playing things way too safe extends to the film’s setting, which, unlike the comic books and videogames, takes place on then-present-day Earth, a decision that works for the Predator narrative but somewhat conflicted with the Alien timeline as we know it back then. It tries to get around this by having the bulk of the plot take place in secluded Antarctica, but it just doesn’t work for me. I feel like the simplest solution would’ve been to set it in the future, perhaps between the second and third Alien film, and have it take place on a remote ice world; you replace Weyland’s mercenaries with renegade Colonial Marines, splice in a bit more of the malevolent designs of his corporation, and maybe throw in an android (Maxwell Stafford (Salmon) would be my pick) and you’d already be on a better path than shoehorning Xenomorphs onto Earth long before their existence was discovered. Instead, we get the briefest tease of a space-based film before a Weyland satellite picks up an unexplained heat flare at a whaling station way down South and then we’re meeting Weyland’s recruits for an expedition to investigate. Just when you feel you can accept the setting presented, AVP immediately throws a few idiotic decisions at you within the first five minutes; Lex is supposed to be this experienced Arctic explorer and yet she’s climbing up a mountain without any face coverings and she somehow failed to hear Stafford’s helicopter land above her. Later, she even rushes out in the dark, bitterly cold temperatures of the whaling station in little more than a body suit, surely inviting hypothermia despite the scattered fires, but these are the least of AVP’s problems.

Lex and Sebastian are stuck between an age-old conflict between two alien races.

Lex is the best at what she does; she’s climbed everything and is highly recommended, so naturally Weyland seeks her out the lead his expedition. A hardened veteran of numerous climbs, Lex believes in being prepared; she’s far from intimidated or impressed by Weyland’s wealth or Stafford’s guns and balks at the idea of heading to the site without proper training or preparation. In fact, she chooses to abandon the expedition entirely when the two ignore her warnings and is only convinced to stay when archaeologist Professor Sebastian De Rosa (Bova) and chemical engineer Doctor Graeme Miller (Bremner) point out that they spend a better chance of surviving with her there and without her and, once they reach the site, she’s quick to enforce her rules to ensure their survival no mater how much it irks Stafford. There’s a subtle romantic tension between Lex and Sebastian, but thankfully it’s not dwelled upon all that much; a down on his luck digger who’s just about ran out of money for his excavations, he jumps at the chance to be a part of Weyland’s team and his expertise is invaluable first in recognising that the pyramid contains elements of Cambodian, Egyptian, and Aztec structures and, later, in translating the hieroglyphics contained within, though his warnings go unheeded by Weyland’s gung-ho mercenaries. Against his better judgement, Sebastian is left with no choice but to go along with Lex’s plan to side (or, at least, appease) the Predators since their true targets are the Xenomorphs infesting the pyramid; her entire character is built around survival, by any means necessary, while he’s more inclined towards braving the odds to find a way out. While I never for a second believed they had any chemistry, it was still a sad moment when Lex was forced to mercy kill him rather than let him suffer the agony of a Chestburster, but I can’t help but feel like this would’ve landed better if there’d been less disposable mercenaries and more time spent on developing their characters and interactions (and a better script…and a couple of better actors to boot…) Miller is primarily part of the group to be the somewhat awkward, likeable everyman who we will feel sorry for when he inevitably falls victim to the extraterrestrial menaces within the pyramid; you know he’s destined for a bad ending the moment he whips out pictures of his kids and, while he lasts a fair amount of time, this eventually comes to pass when he’s cocooned up for a Facehugger buffet.

Stafford and Weyland just about manage to stand out against a bunch of forgettable characters.

Still, at least he shows a bit of character, however cliché, which is a bit more than can be said about most of Weyland’s team; Adele Rousseau (Agathe de La Boulaye) seems like she’s channelling a bit of Private First Class Jenette Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) in her snarky, non-nonsense attitude but she never even gets the chance to put up a fight and is the first of the team to be imploded from within by a disappointingly bloodless Chestburster. Mark Verheiden (Tommy Flanagan) cuts an intimidating figure with his facial scar and surly demeanour and for a second it seems like him and Miller are going to be to odd couple pairing of the group but then he’s unceremoniously offed in a scene that apes the fate of Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt). Thankfully, Colin Salmon is on hand to lend some gravitas and presence to the proceedings; Stafford comes across as an arrogant, conceited mercenary who always believes that he’s right and that his weapons and training are more valuable than expert knowledge, but he’s sadly wasted here. It’s fun seeing his icy demeanour crack as the pyramid constantly shifts and changes around him; I also liked that he ends up giving Weyland some backchat after his obsession costs so many lives and that he met a suitably gruesome end, but I can always do with more Colin Salmon in my films and he was criminally underutilised here. That just leaves Charles Bishop Weyland himself; it’s always a blast seeing Lance Henriksen and he really lends a legitimacy to this farce of a film. Although incredibly wealthy, and powerful and influential enough to do almost anything, Weyland can see the end of his life coming and knows that his legacy will only be remembered as a businessman rather than anything tangible. Having witnessed her father die from his obsession with climbing and exploration, she recognises the condition in the deathly ill Weyland and cautions him about pursuing his fixation when he’s physically incapable of taking the strain; however, just as she earns his respect through her expertise, so too does he manage to convince her that he needs to explore the strange pyramid to feel like his life was actually worth something. His need to show that he’s not out of the fight just yet comes to bite him, however, when he angrily confronts the lead Predator (known as “Scar”) and ends up skewered after forcing the alien hunter to recognise him as a threat, thereby becoming one of only two actors to be killed by a Xenomorph, Predator, and a T-800.

With his comrades easily offed, Scar is left to achieve glory in the great hunt.

More than ever, the Predator is naturally a key character in the film; a novice hunter compared to the Predators we’ve seen before, Scar and his comrades – “Chopper” and “Celtic” (both also played by Whyte) – make landfall hoping to prove their mettle by hunting the ultimate prey. The pyramid is thousands of years old and the film very blatantly shows that the Predators were instrumental in the development of the human race; worshipped as Gods and using ancient humanity as slave workers and sacrificial victims to the Xenomorphs, the Predators are recast as being the inspiration for, at the very least, the Egyptian deities of lore. Scar and his comrades might be much bigger and sport shinier armaments but, without the ritual scar that one earns from a Xenomorph kill, they’re far less experienced than their predecessors. Indeed, these rookies don’t even come equipped with their signature shoulder blasters; these weapons are hidden within the pyramid and act as the trigger to set off the automated process that sees their captive Xenomorph Queen literally thawed out and laying eggs ready for the hunt. Still, that’s not to say that they’re completely useless; they sport all the same weaponry and technology as the “City Hunter” (Kevin Peter Hall), meaning they can bend light to appear invisible, have wrist-mounted blades, an extendable lance, an alternative version of the Smart Disc that appears more like a shuriken, and their razor-sharp net. As ever, they’re also afforded the benefits of their helmets, which allows them to see in a variety of spectrums and stalk their prey, but they’re woefully ineffectual against even a single Xenomorph; only Scar proves capable enough to earn his mark and even then he’s impregnated by a Facehugger with a ridiculous amount of ease and essentially a dead Predator walking for the rest of the film.

Lex and Scar team up against a hoard of Aliens led by their enraged Queen.

With all of her comrades dead, Lex is left no choice but to force a team up with Scar, something he’s understandably disinterested in. not only is there an obvious language barrier between the two, there’s also a cultural one; the Predator clearly sees her (and all humans) as little more than cannon fodder and he’s ready to kill her before she impresses him by killing a Xenomorph. Thus, in easily one of the cheesiest scenes in the film, franchise, and all of cinema, Scar cobbles together a weapon and shield for her and the two literally run off into the pyramid to fight their way out. As is often the case in these types of movies, one of the two monsters are cast as being more recognisably “evil” and, in this case, it’s the Xenomorphs. Vicious, brutal, and animalistic in nature, the Xenomorphs are little more than a swarm of near-mindless locusts intent only on killing, feeding, and defending their Queen. Since the Predators are more recognisably humanoid, and obviously have a twisted code of honour of sorts, it makes sense for them to be the more heroic of the two, but Scar is more of an anti-hero and his partnership with Lex is one of convenience more than anything. Also, it can’t be forgotten that the film makes it very explicitly clear that the Predators bred the Xenomorphs using humans and that the film’s entire events happen because they returned to embark on their great hunt, meaning that they’re just as destructive and dangerous as the more voracious Xenomorphs. Although largely interchangeable and disposable, one Xenomorph manages to stay out from the pack after being scarred by the Predator’s net; “Grid” crops up as a recurring threat throughout the film, but is naturally supplanted by the fearsome Alien Queen once she breaks free from her shackles and goes on a rampage for the film’s bombastic finale.

The Nitty-Gritty:
I’m not really sure that this “Extreme Edition” really makes the best use of its rare second chance to improve upon the theatrical release; this version of the film adds a very brief opening sequence showing a cloaked Predator chasing down some poor fool at the whaling station in 1904 but that really doesn’t add a whole hell of a lot to the film. We know the whaling station’s been abandoned, it’s said in the script, and the fact that a fuckin’ Predator pyramid is hidden beneath it kind of heavily implies that the creatures slaughtered whoever was there a hundred-plus years ago so it basically adds nothing except the short thrill of hearing that iconic Predator gurgle within the first two minutes. There’s a little bit ore time spent with some of the characters at the start of the film, none of which really amounts to all that much; we already know Sebastian is struggling for financing and that Verheiden is an asshole, though I did like the clarification that Sebastian was planning to decline and return to his dig with Weyland’s money). The main addition beyond the useless opening is some extra gore courtesy of some CGI blood; it’s not enough to salvage the film or bring it on par with its predecessors, but it helps to add a bit of colour to the proceedings and at least pretend to be an Alien/Predator film. The issue is, however, that there are fundamental missteps with the entire film from a script and concept level; AVP betrays its gory roots in favour of trying to capture a wider audience, reducing both franchises to a mindless action/monster film full of one-dimensional and forgettable characters. Try as she might, Lex is no Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Sanaa Lathan fails to impress as a tough leading lady. Of course, it doesn’t help that characters are constantly just saying the obvious simply to spell out what’s happening and to have something to say; subtlety was never Paul W.S. Anderson’s strong suit but he abandons it entirely for endless diatribes about the nature of the pyramid and its monstrous inhabitants just in case the kids watching can’t keep track of what’s happening.

When the two monsters actually go at it, it’s a pretty impressive and brutal physical affair.

AVP is a strange contradiction; on the one hand, the film is awash with CGI and green screen, shots, with the Predators’ cloaking effects and shoulder cannon being the most egregious, but, on the other hand, it employs traditional practical effects and composite shots. The result is that, for much of the film, the two creatures are brought to life using men in suits; specifically, the Xenomorphs recall (or are perhaps ripped straight from) Alien Resurrection and the Xenomorph Queen is a bigger and more complex animatronic than the original, though I can’t say that I’m a fan of the woeful redesign of the Predator’s face, which somehow looks even worse than the 1987 original thanks to a misguided attempt to make Scar appear more sympathetic. Other missteps can be found when the Predators slaughter the drilling team on the surface; this scene plays out like a rushed and toothless rendition of its predecessors, made all the more obvious by the bodies being strewn up but not skinned. When the two monsters do finally do battle, however, the film largely delivers; the scuffles we do see are primarily suit-on-suit or suit-on-animatronic action, though some odd creative licenses were made regarding the length of the Xenomorph’s tails and the Predators are disappointingly neutered in these conflicts. Chopper is impaled through the back like a loser and, despite Celtic absolutely dominating Grid during their destructive brawl, he ends up being pounced up and having his brains blasted out. Although Scar dispatches of a Xenomorph with a deft skill and earns his mark, even he’s unable to keep himself from being impregnated, though he is able to use his self-destruct device to destroy the pyramid and contain the Xenomorph outbreak in keeping with the traditions of his people. While I’m unimpressed with the digital coat of paint given to the Predator’s technology, it’s the impotent portrayal of the Xenomorphs that really lets this film down; the incubation time of the Chestbursters has been shortened from days or hours to mere minutes and they pop out with barely a splash of blood, and the only time we really see them splattering gore is when they’re spilling the vivid neon green blood of the Predators.

Although Lex earns the clan’s respect, Scar doesn’t make it and gives birth to an even greater threat…

Eventually, of course, Lex is the only human left standing; armed with the gutted skull of a Xenomorph and a modified spear, she accompanies her newfound partner to the exit of the pyramid, with Scar destroying the entire structure but getting injured following a surprise attack by a Xenomorph. Still, the two manage to escape to the surface, burying all evidence behind them and, in a moment of respect, Scar brands Lex with the sacred mark in recognition of her Xenomorph kill (despite the fact that she got lucky, something I’m pretty sure the Predators would’ve acknowledged). However, the Xenomorph Queen somehow escaped the blast to menace them in the film’s finale; here, the Queen is a combination of a massive animatronic, puppetry, and CGI and the result isn’t actually half bad, making for a pretty impressive last few minutes as Scar and Lex desperately try to fight it off with their weaponry. With Scar having lost his shoulder cannon during the escape, the two have to improvise somewhat; Lex takes cover in a frozen bone yard and the remains of the whaling station, which only riles the Queen up more, but Scar is able to impale her through the head with his lance. Unfortunately for the young hunter, Scar is run through from behind just like Weyland’s android counterpart while helping Lex to tangle the Queen up in a water tower; it’s thus Lex who not only delivers the coup de grâce to the rampaging matriarch, sending her plunging to the frigid depths of the ocean, but who is honoured by the Predator Elder (Whyte). Just like in Predator 2 (Hopkins, 1990), a group of Predators decloak before her and grant her a gift for her bravery before departing with Scar’s body, which I have to give props to as any film that actually acknowledges the under-rated Predator 2 gets a nod from me. While Lex’s fate is unknown (there’s a snowmobile nearby so presumably she uses that to get back to civilisation), Scar is taken back aboard the Predator ship and left on a ceremonial alter in reverence to his accomplishments (such as they are)…only for a disgusting little Alien/Predator hybrid Chestburster to emerge from his chest to set up for the sequel…

The Summary:
As a fan of both franchises, and the concept of Aliens Versus Predator, I was pretty disappointed by AVP: Alien vs. Predator. Everything that made the two franchises great has been stripped away and replaced by a by-the-number monster/action flickthat has none of the nuance of the Alien series or the machismo of the Predator films. It comes to something when the comic books are gorier than the movies and I think AVP really let itself and its honestly impressive practical effects down by toning back the violence and blood and slipping in some unnecessary CGI. Although it massively contradicted the mythology we’d seen in the films up until that point; I enjoyed the flashback to the conflict between the Predators and Aliens; I’ve always liked the idea of the Xenomorphs being the ultimate prey and even the idea that the Predators were frequent visitors to Earth has sone legs, I just find it questionable depicted the Aliens being on Earth in 2004. Still, there are still quite a few elements from the Dark Horse Comics here, most notably the Predator using a strung-up Xenomorph Queen to breed their prey and depositing them across the galaxy. Aesthetically, there’s a few noteworthy elements too; I like that the film’s set in the frozen wilderness as I think it’s important to place the Predators in new environments and the dark, claustrophobic corridors of the ever-shifting pyramid recall the atmospheric, oppressive nature of the first and third Alien film. Scar is a notable highlight of the film, for sure, and I did enjoy his brutal throwdown with the Xenomorph Queen and the inclusion of Lance Henricksen, but the overall toothless nature of the film really stops it from being everything it could’ve been. There’s enough here to like if you’re just looking for a mindless monster romp but, as both franchises are capable of so much more, I can’t help but remain disappointed by the end product, especially as it would’ve been so easy to bring it more in line with the standards set by its predecessors.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

What did you think to the live-action version of Alien vs. Predator? Were you disappointed by the lack of gore, the modern-day setting, and the toothless execution of its titular monsters? Which of the humans was your favourite and what did you think to Lex and her alliance with Scar? What did you think to the alternations made to the Predator lore and the relationship/conflict between the two species? Which of the Aliens vs. Predator stories or adaptations was your favourite? Would you like to see the two battle again in some form or another? Whatever your thoughts on Alien vs. Predator, drop a comment down below or share your thoughts on my social media.

Back Issues [Crossover Crisis]: Spider-Man and Batman

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In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m looking at multiversal crossovers every Tuesday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Story Title: “Disordered Minds”
Published: September 1995
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Artist: Mark Bagley

The Background:
You might be surprised to learn, considering they’re in direct competition with each other, that DC Comics and Marvel Comics have had a reasonably collaborative and amicable relationship over the years. Obviously, there’s been lawsuits and underhanded tactics from both, but not only were legendary Stan Lee and disreputable sham Bob Kane close friends but both comic giants borrowed from and inspired each other and they’ve even collaborated on many joint publications in the past. Having already had Clark Kent/Superman and Peter Parker/Spider-Man come to blows in Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man: The Battle of the Century (Conway, et al, 1976) and Bruce Wayne/Batman test his mettle against Doctor Bruce Banner/The Hulk in Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk (Wein, et al, 1981), DC and Marvel brought together their two most popular characters for the first time in this 1995 one-shot adventure. As is the case with many of these DC/Marvel crossovers, Spider-Man and Batman can fetch a pretty high price for collectors, and it also wouldn’t be the last time that the web-slinger and the Dark Knight crossed in one form or another.

The Review:
Our story begins with Peter Parker wrestling with the guilt and shame of being partially responsible for the death of his beloved Uncle Ben. In a nightmarish revisitation of the fateful night when Dennis Carradine broke into the Parker home and gunned down Ben, Peter (as Spider-Man) is on hand to strike with a furious vengeance, viewing the gunman as some maniacal monster who simply laughs at his murderous actions so hard that he eventually turns into the Joker! Peter awakens in horror, eased through the aftermath of this oft-recurring nightmare by his beautiful and busty wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker. As ever in times of emotional crisis, Peter takes to web-slinging to help clear his head and ventures out into the night reaffirming his commitment to using his powers responsibility in order to live up to the examples set by his doting aunt and uncle. Coincidentally enough, that very same night, Bruce Wayne is also reliving the night that his parents died, gunned down in an alley in a senseless act of violence. Similar to Peter, Bruce’s dream sees him (as Batman) leaping into action, hatred for the inhumane monster boiling in his veins, and awakens to find himself, as ever, alone in his vast mansion with only his heartache and faithful butler and father-figure, Alfred Pennyworth. However, while he appreciates Alfred’s concern and loyalty, he heads out into the night as Batman without a word, determined to ensure that none should suffer as he did from random acts of violence. With our characters and their motivations firmly established, the story jumps over to the Ravencroft Institute, where Spider-Man is accompanying Doctor Ashley Kafka for a visit to the imprisoned Cletus Kasady/Carnage, who’s being held in a specially-constructed cell that keeps his violent symbiote at bay presumably using heat. The purpose of this is similar to the opening panels as Kasady simply taunts Dr. Kafka with a summary of his abusive and disturbing childhood, some of which may be true and some of which may just be another aspect of his twisted personality since Kasady is obsessed with murder, mayhem, and (quite fittingly) carnage.

Batman is less than thrilled when Spidey swings in to help after Carnage breaks free.

Carnage surprises both of them by breaking out of his cage, claiming himself to be a “walking impossibility” beyond logic and reason, but luckily Spider-Man and a security force led by Colonel John Jameson are on hand to subdue the serial killer with their fists and microwave guns, respectively, though newcomer Cassandra Briar proposes a far more permanent (if radical) solution to Kasady’s frequent maniacal outbursts. Utilising a “bio-technic cure” for Kasady’s insanity, Briar has a computer chip installed in his cerebral cortex, which promises to render him for more docile and stable, though Dr. Kafka likens it to the equivalent of a modern-day lobotomy and Spidey remains doubtful that it’ll stick since he’s more than familiar with Kasady’s volatile nature. Similarly, over in Gotham City, Batman puts a stop to the Joker’s latest scheme to infect millions of people with a deadly virus transmitted through bats and returns the Harlequin of Hate to Arkham Asylum (though he’s disgusted when the Joker lands a bite on him during their scuffle). There, Briar proudly shows off how meek and timid Kasady has become from her controversial treatment and uses this success as all the justification she needs to implant a similar chip into the Joker’s head, thus becoming a media sensation for rendering two of the country’s most violent and sadistic supervillains “as harmless as a puppy”. Determined to ride these successes to a wider rollout of her “miracle cure” and receive Presidential approval to eradicate psychopaths everywhere, Briar receives the shock of her life when the Carnage symbiote suddenly bursts out of Kasady’s body after shorting out her chip, taking both her and the terrified and submissive Joker hostage. Thankfully, the Batman is on hand (having disguised himself as a guard) to confront the demented killer, but his usual tactic of goading a villain into discarding their hostages in favour of him fails to work since Carnage has no interest in prioritising Batman over anyone else. Luckily, Spider-Man makes a surprise appearance to whisk Briar out of the maniac’s clawed grip and the two masked heroes take the fight to Carnage, despite Batman’s assertion that he doesn’t need the help.

While the villains’ alliance is short-lived, Batman is soon recruiting Spidey’s help in dealing with Carnage.

Regardless, the two briefly knock Carnage off balance, but he’s able to slip away by firing shards of his symbiote at the nearby cops and strangling the others with his bloody tendrils, creating an effective distraction to cover his escape. Naturally, Batman is less than thrilled to see Spider-Man encroaching on his turf, both out of a desire to keep the web-slinger from getting hurt due to his unfamiliarity with the city’s unique dangers and because he doesn’t need or want his help or him getting in the way, though Spidey naturally ignores this warning. In comparison, Carnage admits to an admiration for the Joker’s “homicidal genius [and] shameless depravity” and uses a small fragment of his suit to short out the chip and return the Clown Prince of Crime to what asses for normal. Although initially confused, frustrated, and angered at the Joker’s babbling and insolence, Carnage quickly gleefully rejoices in the Joker’s commitment to the absurd meaningless of anarchy. However, their partnership is short-lived. When the Joker takes Carnage to his secret, fairground-themed hideout to retrieve the remainder of his virus, joyfully expositing his plan to douse hundreds of Joker-themed jack-in-the-boxes with the toxin and distribute them to kids, Carnage is disgusted since it would take too long for the bodies to start piling up and he delights in getting his hands bloody from up-close-and-personal slaughter. The two come to blows over their differing methods and mentalities, with the Joker easily slipping away through a hidden trapdoor and even attempting to kill Carnage by blowing up his lair. In contrast after Batman contemplates Carnage’s unique brand of madness and sadistic nature in the Batcave and Spider-Man sees first-hand how different things are in Gotham when nobody bats an eyelid when a random civilian is screaming bloody murder in the streets, our heroes finally come together when Batman not only picks Spider-Man up in the Batmobile but even apologises for giving him the brush off.

Though pushed to their limits, Batman and Spider-Man are ultimately victorious and part as allies.

Though he has no time for Spider-Man’s quips and jokes, Batman recognises that he has unique insight into Carnage, and the two are able to track him to the wreckage of the Joker’s lair, where they find what appears to be his dead body but is, in fact, a decoy Carnage set up to trick the Joker. Delighted to have the Batman in his coils instead, Carnage plans to publicly execute Batman on top of Gotham Towers and, while comparing Carnage to Death itself, which passed him by back in Crime Alley, Batman orders Spider-Man to stop Carnage despite the threat to his life. However, it’s the Joker who actually intervenes in the tense showdown; claiming ownership over the Batman and determined to drop his virus on the four of them, killing all of them and everyone else in the city simply to spite Carnage, Kasady’s briefest flicker of fear is all the opening Batman needs to break free from his grip and leap into action. Spider-Man easily webs up the threat and, despite it taking the combined might of Spider-Man and Eddie Brock/Venom and many others in the past, the Batman is easily able to pummel Carnage into unconsciousness since, for all his powers and bloodlust, he’s simply another sloppy punk and a “scared little boy”. With Carnage subdued, Spider-Man chases down the Joker with an uncharacteristic rage; easily manhandling the Clown Prince of Crime, Spider-Man is barely able to stop himself from killing the Joker since he’s too great a threat, too dedicated to violence and chaos, to be left alive. While his better nature prevails and he ultimately spares the Joker, Spidey does deliver a knock-out punch to the cackling villain, finally bringing the story’s combined threat to an end. As if seeing Spider-Man pushed to the point of killing wasn’t surprising enough, Spidey is unusually quiet in his final confrontation with the Batman; weary from the night’s events, the two choose not to ruin the moment with words and instead part ways with a hearty handshake having found a common ground and a mutual respect through their conduct and escapades.

The Summary:
“Disordered Minds” is an interesting approach to take for an intercompany crossover. You might think with characters as wildly different as Spider-Man and Batman that the focus would be on their different methods; if Dick Grayson/Nightwing is an athletic chatterbox and the various Robins are brightly-coloured distractions to throw criminals off from Batman’s darker, more measured approach, then Spider-Man should drive the Dark Knight absolutely batty (heh!) with his constant chatter, quips, and annoying tendencies. Instead, there’s actually not much in the way of banter between the two; Spider-Man mouths off a little in the Batmobile, but that’s about it and the rest of their interactions basically boil down to Batman telling Spidey to fuck off and Spider-Man sticking around because of his innate sense of responsibility. This is a bit of a shame as I would’ve liked to see their contrasting personalities and methods more on show beyond “Gotham’s not what you’re used to sod off!” and “Boy, you’re grim” but the story does have to two united in their shared grief. Both carry a tremendous amount of survivor’s guilt, though for different reasons; Bruce was too young to do anything about his parents’ murder whereas Peter chose not to use his powers responsibly, so both are on the same path towards safeguarding others to ease their guilt and pain but have very different outlooks on the world. This comes up multiple times, with Spider-Man raging against the chaos and violence around him and Batman lashing out at “Death” and determined to rally against it however he can.

While the writing is a bit dodgy and there’s some wasted potential, the art work in phenomenal.

The art is where the story really shines; Mark Bagley is one of the top Spider-Man artists and, thanks to his work on the character and his various run-ins with symbiotes before, has more than proven himself capable of delivering a dynamic and visually exciting Spider-Man and menacing and dangerous Carnage. His Batman and Joker fare really well too, naturally, and the art is absolutely stunning all throughout even if the writing fails it somewhat. We spend no less than eleven pages recapping the origins of Spider-Man, Batman, and Carnage, which is probably great for newcomers but somewhat unnecessary for long-term readers when, normally, a simple text box sums it all up nicely. Thankfully, all of this is rendered in an interesting way through the use of nightmares and Carnage’s dramatic escape from custody, but the writing stumbles a bit mid-way through, too, since Cassandra Briar basically disappears after being rescued despite so much time being spent on her computer chip cure. I feel like a simple story about Kasady or the Joker being transferred across the country might’ve been a much simpler and faster way to get things moving since the chip is easily destroyed by Carnage and doesn’t factor into the plot beyond being a contrived way to get him and the Joker to cross paths. There’s also not a huge amount of interaction between Batman and Spider-Man; they don’t physically fight (which is unusual at the best of times but even more so for a crossover like this), join forces pretty quickly after Batman stops being irrationally stubborn, and it doesn’t really take much at all for them to defeat the villainous duo despite Carnage being so powerful that Spider-Man alone usually struggles to defeat him. there’s a promise of a twisted partnership between Carnage and the Joker but it’s almost immediately squandered simply because Carnage gets impatient, which is in keeping with his character but basically means the villains don’t actually do anything besides compliment each other, scuffle a bit, and then get taken out by the heroes. All in all, this was relatively entertaining and interesting first meeting between my two favourite comic book heroes but it didn’t quite deliver on its potential, despite the fantastic art work and some fun moments.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever read Spider-Man and Batman? If so, what did you think to it? Do you own a copy of the original comic or do you remember reading it when it was first published? Were you surprised that there wasn’t more time spent on contrasting the different methods and personalities of the two heroes? What did you think to the brief team-up between the Joker and Carnage the ease that they were defeated? Would you like to see DC and Marvel collaborate again in the future and, if so, what stories would you like to see? Whatever your thoughts on Spider-Man and Batman, and comic book crossovers of this kind, sign up to share them below or comment on my social media and check back next Tuesday as Crossover Crisis continues!

Game Corner [Crossover Crisis]: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Xbox 360)

Dr. K6 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’ll be taking a look at multiversal crossovers every Tuesday in April in an event I call “Crossover Crisis”.

Released: 16 November 2008
Developer: Midway Games
Also Available For: PlayStation 3

The Background:
Mortal Kombat (Midway, 1992) stood out from the competition at the time with its focus on gore and violence and unique digitised graphics; the game was a massive success for Midway and the first real competition for Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Capcom, 1991) in arcades and on home consoles. However, while the franchise went from strength to strength during the 2D era of gaming, Mortal Kombat struggled to find a footing in the emerging 3D fighter arena, leading to the developers desperately trying to be innovative and appealing in an increasingly competitive business. Since Capcom had seen some success with crossovers with Marvel Comics and other fighting game developers, Mortal Kombat co-developer Ed Boon scrapped plans for a back-to-basics reboot of his violent fighting series in favour of a crossover with DC Comics. While incorporating popular DC characters like Bruce Wayne/Batman and Clark Kent/Superman had the potential to broaden Mortal Kombat’s mainstream appeal, the license carried many restrictions for the developers; Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was hampered by a “Teen” rating, which substantially neutered the series’ trademark violence. This, as much as anything, greatly contributed to the game’s mediocre reception; while some found the title surprisingly enjoyable, despite its bonkers premise, others found the gameplay and variety frustratingly tedious. Although the game received a “Kollector’s Edition” release, this was Midway Games’ last project before they went bankrupt and plans for downloadable content were subsequently scrapped. Thankfully, this wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for the franchise; the association with DC’ s parent company, Warner Bros, saw Midway being purchased by Warner and restructured into NetherRealm Studios, and the ultra violent was not only soon back on track but the new studio also eventually found success with the DC license in a separate series of fighting games.

The Plot:
After Raiden and Superman repel invasions from both their worlds simultaneously in their separate universes, villains, Shao Kahn and Darkseid are unexpectedly merged into “Dark Kahn” and the two universes to begin merging, with catastrophic events. With characters from both universes wildly fluctuating in power, representatives from both worlds come together to stop the merger by any means necessary.

Gameplay:
Mirroring the style and presentation of its mainline series, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a 2.5D fighting game in which players pick from a roster initially comprised of twenty fighters of iconic characters from both franchise’s and battle through the game’s single-player story mode, fight one-on-one against another player or computer-controlled opponent, battle their way through an arcade ladder, or take on a series of increasingly difficult combo challenges. By default, fights take place in a best-of-three format and against a time limit but you can alter these settings (and many others, including the game’s difficulty and the use of blood) in the game’s main options menu to speed up gameplay or make it more accessible to you. Rather than employing different fighting styles and weapon combat like its predecessors, or properly incorporate different variations like in the later games, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe takes a very barebones approach to combat and gameplay options: controls are fully customisable but, by default, you can throw with X or Y, kicks with A or B, toss them aside with a generic throw with Left Bumper, block incoming attacks by holding the Right Trigger, dash towards (but not away from) your opponent, jump in or crouch down to attack or avoid incoming attacks, and string together combos by quickly pressing the attack buttons alongside directional inputs. The game includes a practice mode to help you get to grips with this, and a “Kombo Challenge” feature that helps you practice the game’s tricky combo system, but you can bring up your fighter’s moves at any time by pausing the game. It has to be said that combat is quite a hurdle here; you’ll sometimes jump or dash when you don’t mean to, even when using the directional pad, jumping punches can be very floaty and often miss, and the game seems weighted in the CPU’s favour even when playing on the easiest setting as they have no difficulty pulling off some of the ridiculous combos on offer here.

Unleash your Rage, pummel opponents in Free-Fall, or smash them through walls.

Each fighter can pull off a number of unique special moves with simple button and directional inputs (back, back, X, for example, or left, down, B); while these can be stringed together with combos, they can’t be enhanced like in subsequent games as your “Rage Meter” only allows you to pull of the ever-annoying breakers to interrupt combos and attacks when filled to the first tier and activate the game’s “Rage Mode” by pressing RT and LT at the same time. This will put you into “Rage” mode, which powers up your attacks and coats you in a glowing armour that weakens the damage you receive, shrugs off projectiles, and keeps you from being stunned or knocked over. This doesn’t last for very long but it can easily make short work of your opponent, and activating it will even see you unleash a burst of energy that knocks your foe away, so properly timing the burning of your Rage Meter can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The game also features a few unique gameplay mechanics: if you grab your opponent with the Right Bumper , you’ll activate “Klose Combat” mode, which sees you pummelling or breaking your opponent’s limbs with successive presses of the face buttons. They (and you) can counter these attacks by pressing the right button at the right time, and these quasi-quick-time events (QTEs) also crop up in the “Free-Fall Kombat” and stage transition moments. In some stages, you can send your opponent plummeting down to a new part of the arena; while in free fall, you can mash different face buttons to deal damage and finish them off with RB, but they’ll turn the tide against you if they hit the right buttons. Similarly, some stages allow you to charge your opponent through a way, whereupon you’re asked to “Test Your Might!” in a tug-of-way style button mashing sequence that inflicts more damage the more of the bar you manage to fill. These mechanics can be fun ways to spice up the somewhat lacklustre in-game combat and definitely open up the otherwise bland and empty arenas a bit more since you can literally smash your opponent to new areas, but they’re a far cry from the stage transitions seen in the Injustice series (NetherRealm Studios, 2013 to present).

While you can get up close and personal with foes, the dull finishing moves will leave you disappointed.

Sadly, that’s about it for in-game options; some stages very destructible elements you can smash into, and all of the game’s characters sport special moves befitting of them (Sub-Zero’s ice blast, for example, and Bruce Wayne/Batman’s Batarangs) but, since the game is hampered by a lower rating, there is very little blood and none of the gore you’d expect from a Mortal Kombat. That’s not to say that Fatalities aren’t present, however, they’re just…what’s the word..?…oh yes! Shit. Unlike in subsequent games, you can’t view your character’s finisher inputs from the pause screen, which makes finishing your opponent a real chore, but very few of these moves are even worth your time pulling off. All of the Mortal Kombat characters can execute two Fatalities that will see them murder their opponent in the most PG way imaginable; while some leave the opponent an exceptionally dry and clean skeleton, most boil down to you simply stabbing, shooting, or crushing them with very little bloodshed. The more morally pure DC superheroes will opt to finish their opponent with one of two “Heroic Brutalities”, though many of these would no doubt leave the foe severely crippled or dead since we see the likes of Clark Kent/Superman driving them into the ground and Barry Allen/The Flash pummelling them at superspeed. Unlike in previous (and subsequent) Mortal Kombat videogames, there are no mini games to distract you and is no in-game currency to earn, no player profile or fighter card to customise, and no Krypt to explore to send your coins. There aren’t even alternate skins for the fighters beyond a very minor palette swap when choosing the same character, and the best the game offers is allowing you to view bios, character models, and endings in the “Extras” menu, all of which makes for a very stripped down title even compared to its predecessor, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Midway Games, 2006).

While there’s not much to the arcade mode, the story mode is decent enough, if limited and tedious.

This also means that there are no challenge towers or option combat modes like “Test Your Luck” or tag-team combat to spice up multi-player gameplay; you can play locally or online (well, I assume you can’t do this latter any more) in ranked and “King of the Hill” style matches but the arcade ladder is a standard, ten-fight challenge where the extent of the game’s variety is offering you the choice between facing all Mortal Kombat or all DC Universe opponents or a mixture of the two. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does, however, feature a single-player story mode but, strangely, it only allows you to play as up to eight characters from either side. After picking either the Mortal Kombat or DC Universe story, you’ll take control of a specific character and battle anywhere from three to five opponents as part of the campaign. This remains a great way to familiarise players with the vast majority of the game’s fighters and their unique combos and special moves, but you cannot perform finishing moves when playing the story mode. Although you can’t skip any of the cutscenes, or jump to specific chapters and fights after completion, you can save and quit…which is definitely something, though the game’s difficulty can become frustrating as the computer-controlled characters love to block your attacks, uppercut you out of nowhere, and jump-kick you out of the air, and can seemingly juggle you in an inescapable combo at will! Unlike in later NetherRealm Studios games, the story mode is as basic as it gets; the only time it actually tries anything remotely different is during Major Jackson “Jax” Briggs’ chapter as you’re forced to battle Diana Prince/Wonder Woman without your machine gun, which means you’re robbed of on of your ranged attacks. If you’re defeated, you have ten in-game seconds to choose between continuing and quitting, which is true of the arcade and two-player bouts as well. Unfortunately, winning or losing in two-player mode simply dumps you back to the fighter select screen and, as far as I could tell, there isn’t even a way to select your stage let alone input Kombat Kodes or activate anything interesting to make the fights less of a chore.

Graphics and Sound:
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe looks pretty good, for the most part; the character models are very similar to those seen in Mortal Kombat (NetherRealm Studios, 2011), meaning they hold up about as well, but some suffer more than others. Women, for example, look particularly off; sure, it’s great seeing Selina Kyle/Catwoman’s amply cleavage and Lieutenant Sonya Blade’s nipples poking through her top, but they’re all impossibly sexualised and their hair is very blocky and static. Unlike later NetherRealm Studios offerings, character’s don’t have unique intros or dialogue with each other before a fight; the camera simply pans the arena and zooms in to find the combatants ready to go and, while they do have little animations between rounds, these don’t seem particularly unique to any fighter. Post-fight animations are a little more unique, but there’s a definite lack of variety and character in each fighter which reminds me of the cut-and-paste job seen in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (with the exception of the Joker, who dances and prances all over the place at every opportunity). On the plus side, characters do take battle damage; you’ll see their clothes rip, blood and bruises form on skin, and even uncover Scorpion’s skull as inflict damage on your opponent, which is fun, but the lack of any alternate attires or skins is a major tick in the “Con” column for this barebones title.

Stages are quite bland, but character models and cutscenes are okay, save for the poor endings.

There are some other notable little details on offer, however; when you toss Kano’s dagger at an opponent, it’ll stay stuck in their chest for a bit, you can sheath and unsheathe Baraka’s arm-claws with a press of B, you’ll see Sub-Zero’s icy breath, and there’s even a reference to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Meyer, 1982) thrown in for good measure. Another thing in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe’s favour, however, is that the CGI cutscenes are basically indistinguishable from the in-fight graphics; while the character models might be a little less detailed than in later games and have that action figure sheen that is common in this generation of games, it’s still impressive that there’s little distinction between the two, though the voice acting leaves a lot to be desired (the DC Animated Universe this is not!) and there’s very little to inspire you in the soundtrack, either. Similarly, stages are quite a let-down; the majority of them have this half-and-half theme going on where the DC Universe is split or merging with that of Outworld, NetherRealm, or Earthrealm but, even with that, there’s hardly anything to see or do and the stages are disappointingly bland and empty considering how big they are and the fat that you can navigate them in a 3D space. The likes of Oa, Themyscira, and the Fortress of Solitude probably stand out the most and have a few things to see in the background, but there’s a distinct and disappointing lack of Easter Eggs and visually interesting stages. Probably the most interesting one is the asteroid stage that sees you transitioning above and below thanks to the messed up gravity, but the game continues to bug me with presenting all these passable CGI cutscenes and relegating the arcade mode endings to a series of still pictures with narration.

Enemies and Bosses:
Since this is a fighting game, every character will inevitably be your enemy at some point so it can be useful to get an idea of what each one is capable of by playing through the story mode and completing their arcade ladders. However, there isn’t really too much to distinguish each character; you’ think the Flash would be faster and slippery to control compared to Liu Kang but he really isn’t and, while Jax and Billy Batson/Captain Marvel may utilise powerful grabs, they don’t feel any slower than someone like Kano or Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. Every character has a few simple combos that it’s best to learn so you can leap in, mash X three times or X, X, Y and then hit a special move or a throw to deal some decent damage, and they’re obviously made a bit more unique by their individual special moves. Characters will invariably have a projectile or some kind of range attack, a rush or grapple of some kind, and sometimes even disorientating gadgets like flash or smoke grenades. Some have more special moves on offer than others; Shang Tsung, for example, can toss flaming skulls across the screen and from above, suck his opponent’s health to fill his own, swap places (but not bodies) with them, and pull off a slide while other characters, like Batman, Sub-Zero, and the Joker, have parry moves in their arsenal that can interrupt attacks. Some characters are also a little more versatile than others; Superman can suck enemies in for a big punch, rush at them and smack them out of the air, fry them with his heat vision, freeze them with his breath, and perform flying attacks while Lex Luthor relies on his mech suit to fire missiles and blast away from danger. It’s when playing or fighting against the Mortal Kombat characters that long-time series fans will be at their most familiar: Liu Kang tosses his trademark fireballs and flying kicks, Jax grabs his foe and causes shockwaves, Kane launches himself like a cannonball, Scorpion throws his trademark spear, and Kitana uses her fans and dashes about in the air to be her usual annoying self.

Overcome the largely interchangeable fighters to chip away at the monstrous despots.

The lack of powered-up attacks, unique throws, and the generic effects of Rage Mode mean that you really don’t have to tailor your fighting style all that much against different opponents; Raiden’s abilities don’t really make him all that different from Slade Wilson/Deathstroke as both can be jumped over, ducked under, and attacked even if one has a dash and teleport and the other relies more on ranged attacks. You also won’t have to worry about any secret fighters cropping up in the arcade ladder; what you see is basically what you get but you do have to watch for characters like Sonya stringing together their multi-kick attacks in a cheap-ass combo. The exception to this comes in the form of the game’s big bad, Dark Kahn, who basically just looks like a slightly tweaked version of Blaze from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and fights with a combination of moves from Shao Kahn and Darkseid. Dark Kahn awaits at the end of the story mode and arcade tower and is easily the biggest challenge you’ll face outside of the harder difficulties and opponents getting cheaper and more aggressive. A lumbering, monstrous foe, Dark Kahn can absorb a great deal of damage, gains armour and invincibility frames, and can drain your health bar to nothing in just a few basic swipes to say nothing of his energy barrier, shoulder charge, rising knee, and Warhammer attacks. Your best bet against him is to soften him up with ranged attacks and projectiles and stay moving; hop in, land a combo, and follow it up with a jump kick and then back away to avoid him stringing together his devastating moves in an inescapable barrage. The same is true of Shao Kahn and Darkseid, who act as sub-bosses in the arcade ladder; individually, they’re almost as formidable as their merged form, with both able to stun you with their hammer, fry you with their eye lasers, and smash you into the ground with a leaping attack. While you can’t play as Dark Kahn or perform your finishing moves on him, you can perform your finishing moves against Shao Kahn and Darkseid but, while both of these characters are unlocked after finishing the story mode (and, confusingly, pressing RB on the character select screen rather than adding them to the roster), neither of them have Fatalities of their own. Ultimately, while these three aren’t as impossible or as cheap as other Mortal Kombat bosses and sub-bosses, none of them really challenge your combat skills beyond relying on hit-and-run and spam tactics much like the previous two Mortal Kombat videogames that just ended with this hulking beast that could wreck you if given a chance rather than something that actually requires a bit more skill.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
There’s absolutely nothing on offer in this regard in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe beyond the individual character’s special moves; this game is severely lacking even for a one-on-one fighter as there are no codes or options to spice up gameplay, no weapons to grab, barely anything to interact with in stages, and characters don’t even get buffs or anything with their special moves the closest they get is teleporting, surrounding themselves in a damaging aura for a bit, or tossing bombs or grenades either close, mid-range, or far away.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements on offer in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe; many of these are obtained simply by playing through the story mode, with Achievements popping after certain chapters and completing each (and both) stories. Simpler ones are acquired by performing a ten-hit combat, initiating Klose- and Free-Fall Kombat, and performing one Fatality or Heroic Brutality. Things get a little more complicated and frustrating when you try to perform all of these moments as a handful of them require you to press up, which makes you jump and interrupts the sequence, and in trying to get the 5G Achievements from completing each character’s Kombo Challenge otherwise, you’ll get Achievements for finishing the arcade ladder with all characters and competing in online fights, which are probably impossible to get these days. These involved standard fare that you might expect, as mentioned, and you can fight locally, but beyond unlocking every character’s ending and trying to finish their Kombo Challenges, there really isn’t anything else on offer here once you’ve finished the story mode and a few arcade ladders. There’s no concept art, character models, or extras to unlock, no gear or skins or arenas to unlock, and no downloadable fighters on offer, making for an extremely barebones and lacklustre fighting title that struggles to compete against others in the genre or even its predecessors.

The Summary:  
There was a lot of promise in the concept of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe; after the success that Capcom had with their ventures with Marvel Comics, this could’ve been a great springboard to a more mainstream audience. Sadly the game is let-down at almost every turn: everything from the music to the visuals and the depths of the combat is just lacking, to say nothing of the additional features and options for replayability. It’s interesting revisiting this after playing Mortal Kombat ’11 since that game was supposed to be the franchise’s back-to-basics approach but it’s hard to get more barebones than Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Even some of the 2D games had little extras, mini games or cheats or options to tweak the gameplay, but there’s absolutely nothing here, not even alternate skins for the fighters! The story mode is okay; it’s a paper thin excuse to mash these worlds together but it works, but I have no idea why it’s not a twenty-chapter mode that lets you play as each character from both sides. I’m actually a bit lenient on the lacklustre finishing moves; I get that the game couldn’t show spines being ripped out and flash being melted, but I think a little more effort could’ve gone into these and I really don’t like the term “Heroic Brutality”. The Free-Fall Kombat, Klose Kombat, and stage transitions are somewhat interesting, but the stages are so bland and empty that they’re completely wasted here. similarly, the lack of individuality to these colourful characters and the generic nature of their special moves and the Rage Mode really make this probably the most mediocre game in the entire franchise. Ultimately, this feels like a rushed, budget title that was hampered by pressing deadlines and financial pressure and a complete waste of the DC license. If you can get it cheap, give it a try and nab some easy Achievements, but otherwise you’re better off playing NetherRealm’s later games as this is just such a throwaway disappointment of a game.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

What did you think to Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe? Were you disappointed by its use of the DC license? What were your thoughts on the game’s story and its depiction of these worlds merging? Which of the game’s fighters was your favourite and why? What did you think to the Free-Fall and Klose Kombat features? Were you disappointed by the lack of special features and the Rage Mode mechanic? Which characters or features would you have liked to see added to the game? Which Mortal Kombat and/or DC Comics videogame, movie, comic, or other piece of media is your favourite? Are you a fan of multiverse stories and crossovers? Whatever you think about Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, sign up to leave a comment down below or leave your thoughts on my social media and be sure to check back in next Tuesday for more Crossover Crisis content!

Back Issues [Crossover Crisis]: Dark Horse Presents #34-36

Dr. K9 Comments

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’ve been looking at multiversal crossovers every Wednesday in April in an event I’ve dubbed “Crossover Crisis”.

Writer: Randy Stradley – Artist: Phill Norwood

Story Title: “Aliens vs Predator: Aliens”
Published: November 1989

Story Title: “Aliens vs Predator: Predator”
Published: December1989

Story Title: “Aliens vs Predator”
Published: February 1990

The Background:
Founded in 1980 by Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics separated itself from the heavy-hitters like DC Comics and Marvel Comics by primarily publishing creator-owned titles. In 1988, the company achieved greater mainstream success by publishing licensed stories and adaptations of horror and science-fiction films and franchises, the most prominent of these being the merging of the Alien franchise (Various, 1977 to present) and the Predator films (Various, 1987 to present). About a year before a Xenomorph skull appeared as a trophy in Predator 2 (Hopkins, 1990), the two alien species clashed in this three-issue short story that was the brainchild of writer Chris Warner. This story served as the basis for a five-issue follow-up that greatly expanded upon the premise, which soon exploded into a slew of additional publications, action figures, videogames, and (eventually) live-action movies that pitted the two creatures against each other.

The Review:
Our story begins “some time in the future” where the commercial transport vessel Lecter is making its way to the ranching outpost of Prosperity Wells on the planet Ryishi. Pilots Scott and Tom provide the entirety of the story’s narration, and are deeply engaged in a debate about the ethics and morals of mining other worlds for their resources, especially after humanity used up Earth’s in such a short space of time. Tom believes that it’s irresponsible to strip other worlds of their resources as it could stunt or even prevent the evolution of entire species, while Scott believes that it’s absolutely necessary to ensure the long-term survival of the human race.

Against the backdrop of a philosophical debate, Predators forcibly harvest Xenomorph eggs.

Their debate is briefly interrupted by what they assume is a meteor but is actually a Predator spacecraft darting through the cosmos. Scott and Tom’s discussion about the morals of harvesting unintelligent species for food and such are paralleled by the Predator’s harvesting on Xenomorph eggs aboard their ship; as Scott delivers a lecture about survival of the fittest and the strong overpowering the weak, the eggs and their Facehugger contents are scanned and processed and placed into pods to be seeded on other worlds. The eggs are all being forcibly harvested from a captive Xenomorph Queen, here an allegory for the “bitch” that is Mother Nature, who has no choice but to pump out egg after egg and watch as they are summarily processed and shot into space in a clean and efficient system.

Broken Tusk fends off a challenge by the upstart Top-Knot.

As Scott and Tom move their philosophical debate on to the merits of technology versus man’s primal nature, the story introduces us to a Predator warrior known colloquially as “Broken Tusk”. As Broken Tusk arms himself with all the standard Predator weaponry we’ve come to know and love over the years, Scott and Tom endlessly comment on the difference between passive leaders and active combatants. Broken Tusk observes a bout of ritual combat between other Predators and we catch a glimpse of just how many worlds have been seeded with Xenomorphs by the creatures in order to give them something worthwhile to hunt. When upstart Predator “Top-Knot” wins the bout, he’s not content with just choosing which hunting ground he gets to visit and challenges Broken Tusk’s position, which results in the rookie being bested by his superior.

The Predators engage in a successful hunt and gain their ritual markings.

One of the Predator’s seeding pods touches down on a marsh-like alien world; the automated, tank-like vehicle drives around the environment dropping off Xenomorph eggs in its wake before finally exploding, ensuring that many of the native creatures become impregnated by the Facehuggers. As Scott and Tom move their discussion to safari hunts and the like, Top-Knot and his hunting party make landing to begin their hunt, quickly and efficiently moving through the foliage and tracking their Xenomorph prey by following the exploded dead bodies. Soon, the Predators are attacked by the full-grown Xenomorphs; despite the Aliens’ greater numbers, the Predators have the benefit of their advanced weapons and their absolute devotion to the thrill of the hunt. They emerge victorious, having suffered only one casualty, and Top-Knot brands one of his subordinates with the Xenomorph’s acid blood for successfully executing his first kill.

The Summary:
The original, three-issue run of Aliens vs. Predator is basically just a prelude to greater things to come in the subsequent Aliens vs. Predator (Stradley, et al, 1990) comics series. Consequently, it’s quite the brief and tantalising glimpse into this shared universe of the two popular, sci-fi/horror franchises, but establishes a lot of the themes for how these franchises would crossover going forward. Rather than being set in the present day or on Earth, like the Predator films tend to be, Aliens vs. Predator takes place in the future like the Aliens films; it also heavily borrows from the aesthetics of Alien (Scott, 1977), especially in the depiction of the Lecter, which is essentially the same kind of vessel as the Nostromo. Similarly, the Predator’s spaceship and appearances are heavily inspired by what we see in the first two films, but the comic greatly expands upon their society and depiction even while utilising a philosophical debate between two humans for the entirety of its dialogue.

The story provides a glimpse into the Predator’s society and lore.

Aliens vs. Predator took the idea of the Xenomorphs being this biomechanical infestation, a swarm of vicious insect-like creatures, and really ran with it; because they lack the higher levels of intelligence seen in the Predators, they are reduced to being forcibly bred specifically for young Predators to test their mettle. The visual of the Xenomorph Queen being strung up and held captive is a powerful one, and one that subsequent comics, and movie and videogame adaptations would heavily borrow from, and is a humbling visual considering how formidable the Alien Queen was depicted in Aliens (Cameron, 1986). The implication is clear: The Predators, with their greater intelligence and superior technology and weapons, were easily able to overpower and capture a Xenomorph Queen and make a regular routine of harvesting her eggs for their own ends. They’re so efficient at it that the entire process is completely automated, with the eggs being forcibly removed, processed, and seeded without any manual intervention on the Predators’ part. Predator society is expanded upon greatly here; we see the hierarchy and feudal nature of the species, with ritual combat being the norm and the younger, less experienced hunters having to fight against their peers for recognition and the chance to hunt. Like lions and other members of the animal kingdom, it’s common for the young upstarts to challenge their betters in an attempt to claim the top position. While this doesn’t go well for Top-Knot, as he’s easily bested by Broken Tusk, he’s still dispatched to lead a hunting party, so it seems as though making the challenge isn’t necessarily a sign of disrespect. During the hunt, even the inexperienced Predators are formidable and capable warriors; while we don’t get to see much of their traditional strategies (there’s no cloaking, no need to modulate their prey’s voices, and very little use of the plasma cannon), we do get to see them working in a co-ordinated effort to eradicate their prey. Although the Aliens are fast and strong and have the numbers advantage, the Predators are keen hunters and superior warriors, meaning they are victorious with minimal effort, and the honour that comes from killing a Xenomorph is of high standing in their society (which, again, would be a crucial plot point in later stories).

A decent story, but clearly just a taste of greater things to come for this crossover.

However, it has to be said that the concept of bringing together the Aliens and Predator franchises probably sounded better on paper than it worked in execution. I have read the subsequent comic series, and it’s definitely a lot better and more in-depth, but I didn’t want to get into that without first tackling the three-issue arc that kick-started this entire sub-franchise and Aliens vs. Predator, while a novelty, is really just an appetiser for the main course. Dark Horse Comics teased readers by framed the first two stories as Aliens and Predator tales, so the actual Aliens on Predator action doesn’t kick in until right at the end, and it’s very brief when it does happen. I applaud the creative use of Scott and Tom’s philosophical debate as a parallel to the events of the story, but I found myself tuning the text boxes out and focusing more on the visuals. While the art does tell us a lot about what the Predators and even the Xenomorph Queen are thinking and feeling, I am not a massive fan of the art on show here. It’s both messy and yet simple, oddly coloured (I get that we hadn’t seen much of the Predator society or their ships but there’s a lot of odd purples and yellows and blues here), and it’s not that easy to tell the Predators apart. Obviously, this is in keeping with the aliens as depicted in the movies, which had very subtle differences, but I think for a comic you need a little more than just a barely distinguishable broken tusk or hair being styled differently. It’s also a little disappointing that we don’t get more variations of the Xenomorphs; considering they were all born from alien lifeforms, it’s a little odd that they are just carbon copies of the drones seen in Aliens, but again I can understand why this decision was made as it makes sense to focus on the familiar visual of a Predator we recognise from the movies fighting Aliens as they appear in the films. Overall, it’s a fun little novelty that’s worth checking out as long as you read it as a prelude to the longer, far more exciting and visually interesting follow-up.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever read the original, three-issue Aliens vs. Predator story? If so, what did you think to it? Do you own a copy of the original comics or did you pick up the collected edition as I did? Were you also disappointed by the brevity of the story and the artwork or did it get you excited to see subsequent clashes between the two aliens? Which of the two creatures, and franchises, was/is your preference? Which of the Aliens vs. Predator stories or adaptations was your favourite? Would you like to see the two battle again in some form or another? Whatever your thoughts on Aliens vs. Predator, and comic book crossovers of this kind, sign up to drop a comment down below or share your thoughts on my social media.

Back Issues [Crossover Crisis]: The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans

Dr. K1 Comment

In April of 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking, twelve issue Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) was published. This event, which was easily the biggest in DC Comics at that point (and for many years), saw the destruction of the “Multiverse”, an infinite number of parallel worlds, and the awkward establishing of one unified DC canon. Over the years, DC have returned to this concept again and again, retconning it, expanding upon it, and milking it to the point of excess but that doesn’t change how influential this massive crossover was. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m looking at multiversal crossovers every Wednesday in April in an event I’m calling “Crossover Crisis”.

Story Title: “Apokolips… Now!”
Published: January 1982
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Walt Simonson

The Background:
As I’ve mentioned on a couple of occasions, DC Comics and Marvel Comics have had a surprisingly collaborative and amicable relationship over the years that has led to some inter-company friendships, homages, and co-publications between the two comic book giants. By 1982, both Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men and DC’s Teen Titans were seeing a resurgence in popularity thanks to both teams featuring an exciting new creative and character line-up. Over in Marvel Comics, writer Chris Claremont had revitalised Marvel’s Mutant team by introducing a group of diverse and multi-cultural new characters while the New Teen Titans, under the pen of Marv Wolfman, had been aged up and also included some of the title’s most synonymous characters. With so many similarities between the two teams, and considering the success of the two titles were selling at the time, a crossover between the two was a smart business move for both parties.

The Review:
“Apokolips… Now!” begins at the Source Wall, an impossibly large stone wall that represents the edge of the known universe and which is comprised of the legendary Promethean Giants, who were turned to stone for trying to breach the boundaries of the cosmos. There, we find Metron, the generally impartial intellectual of the New Gods, conversing with all-mighty Darkseid, who gifts him with the “Omega-Phase Helmet”, a highly advanced crown that allows Metron’s Mobius Chair to achieve the impossible and penetrate the great stone wall in order for them both to achieve their heart’s desire (Metron for knowledge and Darkseid for power).

A normal day at the X-Mansion is interrupted by a vision of Jean.

The story then jumps to Westchester, New York where Professor Xavier’s X-Men are engaging in a training session within the Danger Room, an exercise that grates on Logan/Wolverine’s patience despite his respect for the professor. After impressing Xavier with their teamwork, the Mutants retire for dinner and the story takes the opportunity to catch us up not only with the current X-Men roster and their powers (the aforementioned Wolverine, Scott Summers/Cyclops, Ororo Munroe/Storm, Piotr “Peter” Rasputin/Colossus, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, and Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat) but also the tragic rise and downfall of Jean Grey, who attained incredible cosmic powers as the Phoenix that eventually corrupted and consumed her. The X-Men’s memories of Jean are extracted by Darkseid and the Phoenix briefly assumes a corporeal form where she begs for help from Cyclops much like Barry Allen/The Flash did in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Raven and Starfire are spooked by Phoenix while Robin is jumped by Deathstroke!

Meanwhile, over at Titans Tower (yes, in this story, the Marvel and DC universes again exist in a shared world rather than being separate, parallel worlds), Rachel Roth/Raven of the New Teen Titans finds her dreams interrupted by a prophetic nightmare of a woman, taking the shape of a flaming bird, destroying their world. When Garfield Logan/Changeling assumes the form of a similar bird, Koriand’r/Starfire randomly loses control of herself and attacks him; well aware of the threat that the Phoenix poses, Starfire summons the remaining members of the team (Wally West/Kid Flash, Donna Troy/Wonder Girl, and Victor Stone/Cyborg) away from their procrastinations, personal lives, and crimefighting antics to bring them up to speed on the Phoenix’s destructive power. Dick Grayson/Robin, however, is kept from joining his team mates when he butts heads with one of Darkseid’s Parademons only to be attacked by Slade Wilson/Deathstroke the Terminator, who not only reveals that he’s in cahoots with Darkseid but is easily able to knock Robin unconscious thanks to his superior physical and mental abilities. The X-Men discover that Jean’s parents and other areas across the world have also witnessed visions of Jean and mysterious incidents all linked to Jean’s past. After locating Robin, Starfire relates Phoenix’s legend as the “chaos-bringer” and a cataclysmic force; although Robin points out that cosmic threats are a little out of their league, and the more pressing issue of Deathstroke’s current plot, he promises Starfire that they’ll do everything they can to track down and stop Phoenix. The story then introduces us to Ravok the Ravager, another of Darkseid’s henchmen who he recruits as part of his plot to siphon the Phoenix’s vast cosmic powers.

Both the X-Men and Teen Titans are captured with a ridiculous amount of ease.

Weary from pushing himself too far, Xavier enters a deep sleep and barely has enough time to defend himself when Starfire bursts into the X-Mansion and attacks him in a rage. Xavier’s unparalleled psychic powers are subdued by a combination of Cyborg’s ultrasonic blasts and Raven’s dark “Soul-Self”, however Robin is disturbed and irritated at his team’s recklessness in breaking into the mansion and attacking Xavier without provocation. His reprimanding is interrupted by the arrival of Ravok and his Shock Commandos, who storm the mansion looking for the X-Men but quickly adapt to defeat and kidnap all of the Teen Titans but Changeling, who follows along undetected. While investigating New Mexico, the X-Men comes across Deathstroke and one of Darkseid’s “Psi-phons”; although they easily destroy the Psi-phon and are able to fend off the Parademons, Deathstroke quickly recovers from Wolverine’s initial attack to take each of the Mutants out with a “fear ray” that grounds Storm, a “toxi-grenade” that renders Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and even Wolverine unconscious while a Parademon blasts Cyclops, and overpowers even Colossus’ hulking metallic form. Deathstroke and Ravok bring their captives to all-mighty Darkseid, who waits at the Source Wall and immediately sees through Changeling’s deception to subdue him, and then kills Ravok for his ineptitude with his destructive “Omega Beams”.

Darkseid summons Dark Phoenix but the heroes quickly join forces to confront the New God.

Darkseid secures his captives to a gigantic machine, the “Psychon-Wave”, which painfully and forcefully draws upon their superhuman powers and the Mutants’ memories of Jean, concentrating them on the breach in the Source Wall to bring Dark Phoenix back to life. He then regales the inquisitive Changeling with the reason for this plot (basically, he wants to use the Phoenix to transform the Earth into a new Apokolips that will allow him to conquer first New Genesis and then the length and breadth of reality itself). Hungry for destruction, Phoenix willingly accompanies Darkseid through a Boom Tube to begin this plot but, quite ludicrously, the heroes’ restraints disappear when Darkseid departs! Freed from captivity, the Teen Titans and the X-Men immediately agree to work together to stop Darkseid and Phoenix despite Wolverine not being happy about working with kids. While Shadowcat tries to flirt with Changeling and Kid Flash comments on the diversity of the X-Men, Cyborg, Xavier, Starfire, and Cyclops locate and acquire the Mobius Chair, which Shadowcat and Changeling accidentally activate to provide them with a means of escape. Tensions are stirred when Colossus sees Shadowcat flirting with Changeling and when Starfire kisses Colossus in order to learn Russian, but the team are soon carried back to New York in order to fulfil Cyclops’ solemn vow to make Darkseid pay for violating Jean’s memory and peace. They follow Phoenix’s unique psychic trail to a series of underground tunnels beneath the city where they are attacked by Deathstroke’s Parademons once more. Rather than waste time in a pointless battle, Robin and Cyclops give the order to collapse the tunnel and blast an escape route for their two teams, which conveniently brings them out right at Darkseid’s main base.

Dark Phoenix threatens the Earth’s safety so is subjected to a psychic attack.

Impressed at the tenacity of his foes, Darkseid dispatches Deathstroke and Dark Phoenix to hold the two groups off while he complete his work; although Starfire attacks Dark Phoenix in a fury, her starbolts succeed only in further empowering the corrupted Jean, who vehemently resists Nightcrawler’s attempts to reason with her and equally overwhelms even Raven’s Soul-Self. Dark Phoenix then powers up Darkseid’s “Hellpit” and Darkseid boasts about how this will transform Earth into Apokolips within mere minutes. Interestingly, he actually offers the X-Men and the Teen Titans the opportunity to yield and join his cause, which isn’t something I’ve ever seen Darkseid do before, but Shadowcat and Changeling opt instead to use their powers to try and disrupt and destroy the technology powering the Hellpit. For their insubordination, Darkseid commands Dark Phoenix to destroy them but they are saved at the last second by the combined power of Raven, Xavier, and the Mobius Chair. After Cyclops subdues Deathstroke and Robin spirits Shadowcat and Changeling out of danger, Dark Phoenix is bombarded by a psychic assault that simultaneously drains her rage and hatred and overwhelms her with love and affection.

Darkseid is defeated when the Phoenix Force is unleashed against him.

Drained, and close to unravelling, Dark Phoenix is easily goaded into reabsorbing the blast she fired at the Earth to sustain herself. When Darkseid moves to intervene, he is assaulted first by Kid Flash and then the combined forces of Cyborg, Wonder Girl, Colossus, and Starfire, who force his Omega Beams back into his eyes and therefore keep him from stopping Dark Phoenix from empowering herself and thus sparing the Earth. However, still at risk from being consumed by her raging power, Phoenix heeds Darkseid’s advice to focus her energies through a physical form and bonds herself to Cyclops. This, however, proves to be her undoing as Cyclops channels her powers with his undying devotion to his lost love and then turns the full Phoenix Force against Darkseid. The chaotic, flaming energy blasts itself, and Darkseid, across the vast cosmos of the universe to return to the Source Wall and thus imprison the New God within the Wall alongside the doomed giants of yore. Victorious, the two teams revel in how close they came to being destroyed and how fantastic their triumph was, while Scott finds some solace in Storm’s suggestion that Jean’s good soul ultimately saved them in the end. Finally, Metron returns to his chair and bids farewell to the imprisoned Darkseid, commenting that everything has returned as it once was as is to be expected.

The Summary:
“Apokolips…Now!” is quite the chaotic story; considering how many characters it has to juggle, it’s honestly surprising how coherent the story ends up being. If there’s one thing that always puts me off about team-based comics, especially X-Men and the Teen Titans, it’s the sheer abundance of characters and lore a single issue has to deal with so to mash the two together is no mean feat. The result is that no one single character from either team really gets any focus; indeed, many of the characters have next to nothing to do and the focus is, instead, on the meeting of the two teams rather than a bunch of separate interactions between them.

There are a lot of characters who don’t always get time to shine and whose interactions are a bit limited.

This is best seen in the fact that neither Robin or Cyclops get much of a chance to act as a field leader; Nightcrawler is basically a non-factor, and Wonder Girl may as well not be there. Sure, most of the characters are assumed to be busy in fisticuffs with the Parademons and the Shock Commandos but we don’t really get to see much of this. Indeed, we’re even denied a proper fight involving Deathstroke; he takes out Robin with a ridiculous amount of ease, subdues all of the X-Men largely single-handedly, and his fight with Wolverine all takes place off-panel! These days, I like to believe that you’d never see that happen given how prominent Deathstroke and Wolverine are but, in this, Deathstroke is little more than one of Darkseid’s minions who gets taken out pretty quickly to continue the focus on Dark Phoenix. Indeed, Jean’s presence gets more play here than a lot of the other characters; her death was still relatively new at the time and hadn’t been driven into the ground yet so her reappearance is a particularly emotional moment for the X-Men, particularly Cyclops. However, while it’s pretty cool to see Dark Phoenix enamoured with Darkseid and willing to commit global destruction on his behalf, it’s not really enough to elevate this story for me.

While the art is great, the story is just okay and wastes a lot of potential.

I’m not entirely sure where Metron went or what happened to him when he breached the Source Wall and Darkseid’s plot basically boils down to every other plan he has (he’s either seeking out the Anti-Life Equation or trying to conquer the universe, it seems) and, again, he really doesn’t do all that much. This isn’t entirely out of character for Darkseid, who typically allows his underlings to do his work for him, but it’s kind of weird to see him team up with Deathstroke. Like…did Darkseid pay Slade off? I can’t help but feel Trigon might have been a more suitable villain for the New God to ally with. Overall, it’s a pretty decent tale; we don’t get to see the X-Men and the Teen Titans facing off against each other (the closest we get to that is when the Teen Titans attack a weakened Xavier), which is a shame, but it’s fun seeing the teams co-operate. There’s a little tension in the brief Colossus/Shadowcat/Changeling “love triangle” but that’s about all the dissention we get; I would have liked to see how Robin and Cyclop’s leadership styles differ and more interactions from Kid Flash, Wolverine, Wonder Girl, and Storm. Instead, the comic is all about the spectacle of seeing these different comic publisher’s heroes and villains interact in as unspectacular a way as possible. A fun adventure, to be sure, but maybe a little too “safe” and it could very easily be any one of a hundred other X-Men or Teen Titan stories with a few tweaks…but at least the artwork is good.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever read The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans? If so, what did you think to it? Do you own a copy of the original comic or do you remember reading it when it was first published? Were you disappointed that the two teams didn’t come to blows or were you happy to see them just working together with no issues? Would you have preferred to see different characters in each team’s line-ups? What did you think to Darkseid’s plan and the return of Dark Phoenix? Would you like to see the X-Men interact with Marvel heroes again in the future and, if so, what stories would you like to see? Whatever your thoughts on The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans, and comic book crossovers of this kind, drop a comment down below and check back next Wednesday for the final instalment of Crossover Crisis.