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The Aliens (from the movies and the Dark Horse comics) are unknowingly brought onboard SkyWatch, the United Nations orbital platform, where they engage in massacre after massacre, as Aliens are wont to do.  Mistaking the Aliens for Daemonites (bad-ass villains commonpalce in the WS Universe), Grifter leads the WildCATS on an extermination/rescue mission on SkyWatch. 
  

The very best part of this book was the pacing, which was just brilliant. This might be the best-paced comic that I've ever read.  At the least, it's the most inematically-paced one I've ever read.  It read *exactly* like an Aliens movie, which is a very good thing.  Every time the Aliens appeared on-panel the hair on the back of my neck rose.  

Along with the brilliant pacing, the art by Sprouse and Nowlan was brilliantly moody.  Appropriately dark in many places, the duo captured the sheer terror of an Aliens adventure spectacularly.  Their version of the Aliens themselves was also fantastic.  The creatures from Sprouse and Nowlan resembled the ones from the movies right down to the acid-dripping teeth on each beastie. Character-wise, Sprouse and Nowlan do a fine job.  Each character looks as he or she ought to, save maybe for Zealot, who seems to have a rather small head in many panels.  Still, I think I like the towering, gigantic version of Zealot better than the petite supermodel version.  It's more in line with what a fearsome warrior ought to look like, in my opinion.  Depuy's colors are also perfect, capturing the eerie mood of Skywatch and the Aliens themselves in  
wonderful fashion.  From a visual standpoint, this book was beautiful.  
  

As much as I liked most of the story and the art, one thing bugged me about this one-shot.  StormWatch, or the lack thereof.  From everything I had read, this would be SW's last stand, which it was.  Unfortunately, we never got to *see* their last stand.  Everything happened before the issue started, apparently.  I really wanted to see Fahrenheit, Fuji, Hellstrike, and Winter go out in a blaze of glory, as I'd really grown to love them under Ellis's care.  Sadly, they seemed to be mere afterthoughts to this story.  Fuji, Hellstrike and Fahrenheit appear in a grand total of four panels.  Winter appears more, and does get a proper send-off, but I was disappointed in the  
lack of screentime for the SWers.  Finally, this comic left me very sad.  I hadn't realized how much I had grown to love the characters in SW, but seeing so many of them dead left me feeling very, very sad.  Month in and month out, they were characters that I enjoyed reading about.  Now they're dead.  It's a real shame to see them gone forever, but it's nice to see an inter-company cross-over that means something.  SW is in disarray and SkyWatch has been destroyed.  The status quo of the WS Universe has definitely been shaken up.  
  

Ellis handles the WildCATS rather well; none seem mischaracterized or have moments of complete stupidity.  They're competent, if a bit rusty, soldiers. Also, I enjoyed the fact that this one-shot didn't devolve into an all-out slugfest between the Aliens and the 'CATS, because that would have been cheap and pointless.  Also, I don't think the 'CATS could have won (given the overwhelming number of Aliens), thus having them win would have shredded any credibility the story would have had.  Instead, Ellis writes a story that seems very plausible, given what we know about the Aliens.  

It's disappointing that the SW characters appear so little here, but Ellis, Sprouse and Nowlan craft an extremely interesting story anyway.  
  

Score:  A-  
 
 
  

*** SECOND OPINION ***  

By Gary Lau  
  

United Nations' super-human police force StormWatch headquarters, known as the SkyWatch, has been infested with THE Aliens.  Cole Cash, aka Grifter, mistakes the alien infestation as daemonites and convinces fellow Wild Covert Action Team-mates, Zealot, Spartan, Maul, Warblade and Void to go and investigate.  

For those who've been enjoying Warren Ellis's run on StormWatch, they would know that the main reason that Dark Horse's Aliens franchise was brought in was to make the demise of the second volume of StormWatch a spectacular and memorable event.  And perhaps it was more of a marketing appeal factor that led to the WildCats being used instead of just StormWatch.  

What follows is the original WildCats team (sans "exotic dancer"- Voodoo) jumping into the swamp without knowing its true depth.  Ellis provides an edge of your seat atmoshpere as pages slowly build up to when that first splash of aliens jump the unsuspecting Wildcats.  Ellis' pacing in WildCats/Aliens just oozes suspense.  In fact, one could very well parallel Ellis' amazing ability to match the same frightening "feel" to the early Aliens films.  Right to where the queen rears her ugly head!  
  

Another point of interest, especially to regular readers of StormWatch, is that there's also a "deja vu" feeling to this alien invasion story. Remember that this crossover follows the 3 parter "Bleed" storyline where StormWatch were audience to an alternate world where that world's StormWatch had to fight against a horde of invading aliens.  

The art for WildCats/Aliens is simply marvelous.  Chris Sprouse's pencils from cover to page 44 fit Warren Ellis's pacing like a glove.  All the WildCats and StormWatch characters were perfectly rendered, as were the salivating and sleek black Aliens.  Then there's Kevin Nowlan's inks.  Being a big fan of Kevin Nowlan, it was interesting to see his inks on Chris Sprouse's pencils in WildCats/Aliens were less "influential."  As those familiar with Nowlan's spendid inking style know, he does have a tendency to "over-power" his penciller, thus making everything he inks look like something he pencilled as well!  Perhaps Sprouse was really tight with his pencil work here, though you could still see some of Nowlan's trademarks in the eyes.  Laura Depuy's colouring should also be commended here as well.  Her choice of colours are just perfect, permeating that sense of dread and acid like a deadly perfume.  

There really isn't much fault one could find with WildCats/Aliens.  Maybe the minimal ramifications to the members of WildCats is a little hard to digest.  Apart from Maul aka Jeremy Stone's acid-scorged hands from ripping one of the aliens in half, none of the others really got scratched.  It seems a bit too amazing that Zealot can cut up all those Aliens without a little bit of acid spray near her porcelain and precious skin. 
  

This isn't really a fault, but as a fan of StormWatch from its inception, this reader also found it sad that some of his favorite characters died in such horrible ways.  Reading WildCats/Aliens was like seeing the aftermath of a bloody war.  Corpses laid around like cheap decorations.  You somehow feel like you missed a monumental episode or something.  Like an Aliens/StormWatch crossover...  

Together with Warren Ellis's thrilling pacing and smart dialogue and Chris Sprouse and Kevin Nowlan masterful brushstrokes, WildCats/Aliens is a beautiful crossover.  Highly recommended.  
  

Score:  A   
  

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