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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #14: MOST OF THE TiME iT’S TRUE

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This fantastic cover by Styx (real name Steve Kane and not to be confused with classic cartoonist Leslie Harding who also went by that moniker) welcomes us to the 14th edition of Dark Horse International’s Aliens monthly, the matte paper lending itself perfectly to this dark image. Inside, we’ve another 48 pages of a somewhat mixed bag but the highs have kept me going again this month.

Editor Cefn Ridout’s editorial hypes an import comic as a suitable replacement for the lack of Predator material in the comic despite the fact specialist shops weren’t as prolific in the UK at the time, especially over here in Northern Ireland. As always, I’ve included this page so you’ve access to all the credits for the issue and turning over we come face-to-facehugger with the 12-page second part of Michael Cook’s Crusade.

In the recap of part one we’re told those weren’t Colonial Marines but employees of a corporation called Minecorp. This wasn’t clear at all last time. Anyway, the company thinks there are profits to be made if they can suss out why London remains clear of aliens after the Earth War, but the people they’ve sent actually seem less concerned about that than they are about helping the tribe they’ve met. Not that the dialogue helps work this out.

The speech is still awful, the overuse of ellipses an attempt to make it feel like they’re in natural conversations, to give the illusion of speech patterns, but instead it’s just broken. The fact there are no captions means the story relies completely on that dialogue too. So from what I can gather London had broken into tribal warfare long before the aliens arrived, even though the comic’s editorials these past two months gave me the impression this happened because of the alien war.

The Minecorp troops need guides and in return they’ve brought food and weapons for the tribe they’ve met. However, one night another tribe infiltrates their camp and kidnaps some of them, including a small child. They take them across the Thames to a large church but floating in the water, almost dealt with incidentally by the story are loads of alien eggs.

Of course when one of these pops up in an Alien story someone has to be stupid enough to look in and that’s exactly what happens here. Then back at the camp we finally get a little bit of character development. Foston’s wife was on the missing recon team, Channon says she’ll go with him even if they don’t have a guide and upon hearing this one of the unnamed tribeswomen agrees to help as she can read the stars and mythical stones to predict the future.

Meanwhile, the archbishop of the church appears to be the leader of a group of Christian fanatics. Seeing Beresford with a facehugger attached he simply tells the rest he’ll attend to it. Instead, he sneaks the body away and inside the tower presents him to an Alien Queen, albeit a very badly drawn one. While reciting the Lord’s Prayer the newborn alien bursts out of Bereford’s chest on a page the editorial described as “horrific”. If I didn’t know better I’d say Cefn was describing the apparently psychedelic art.

In the ongoing prose story Tribes the marines are up against a fanatical religious group who see the aliens as gods, and Crusade follows on from previous lead strip Sacrifice, which saw a priest go up against an alien on her own to test her Christian faith. Then, to add to all of this our Colonial Marines strip this month begins with Vasquez frozen to the spot in fear as an alien approaches and inside her head she’s reciting the Lord’s Prayer!

Perhaps there was a theme being explored across various Dark Horse US Aliens comic strips at the time, some form of larger arc the UK writers wanted to explore too? If that’s the case then I can understand, but if not this is all beginning to get very repetitive and unimaginative. Just as Crusade was beginning to get interesting too. I’ll wait to see how it develops next month. Next up, a one-page reprieve with a look at The Abyss Special Edition.

Dave Hughes has a much more positive view of directors’ cuts than Jim Campbell had previously. The Abyss’ new cut contained almost double the amount of new material as the Aliens Special Edition. This is also how I found out about the rat scene, when one was pushed into breathable liquid. Shockingly it was filmed for real with actual breathable liquid that was in development! Given how the rat reacted I can completely understand why it’s been cut in the UK where we have stricter animal cruelty laws in entertainment.

Despite some online rumour mills, the rats did all survive and received plenty of loving aftercare. But still, imagine if someone suddenly held you underwater without you knowing you could breathe! Even with that particular liquid I still think it was unnecessarily cruel. It could’ve been achieved with special effects and well-timed edits. Cameron has since made a name for himself in his endeavours to protect the planet and all life on it so I’ll assume he never meant to be cruel. I’ll hold on to that belief.

Our 8-page sixth chapter of Chris Warner’s Colonial Marines is next and after Vasquez’s prayer comes this double-page spread showing the potential of Tony Akins’, Paul Guinan’s and Matt Hollingsworth’s art. It’s the same team but it feels more solid than before, especially in its depictions of the new alien race apparently controlling the xenomorphs, the latter thankfully looking more horrific and less cartoon-like as you can.

Unaware they’re being watched on camera by one of the humanoid aliens, this page shows the chaos of the suddenly escalating situation for the marines. It’s an all-action chapter that doesn’t move the plot forward but does see off quite a few of the peripheral characters in more and more horrific ways, not least of which is this accidental death when one marine is grabbed from above and fires their weapon in desperation. These small chunks are great fun every month.

On the Motion Tracker news page we find out the toy competition from last month which required people to buy a handful of Dark Horse International comics is now going to be printed in full in Aliens. No reason is given but Star Wars had been cancelled after surprisingly poor sales. Then it’s on to eight pages of the “mind-blowing conclusion to Horror Show”, according to the cover. So, is it?

On the moon the inhabitants of Luna City live with daily guilt over the loss of their loved ones down on Earth during the recent Earth War, hence why the creatures are infiltrating everyone’s nightmares in the sleep clinic/entertainment company we’ve been introduced to. It’s an intriguing set up that’s produced quite the boring strip so far, but here on page one I find myself feeling for the father of one of their ‘patients’. Is something interesting finally happening?

His daughter is the same person who had the shark/alien dream previously. After a dream involving an alien infiltrating the apparent hospital and chasing her (in which she finds herself outside and back in deep water with the alien in place of the shark), she awakens to find the whole lab has been seized in a rebellion and all the patients are awake. Somehow, her father helped them but it all happens off-camera (as it were). As a reader I immediately felt cheated. The only thing that actually happens and we’re just told about it?

That hyped conclusion sees revenge taken out on the doctor who was not only lying to these people about their treatment but also sexually abusing them. We (and he) are left not knowing if the above is real or part of the virtual reality. It doesn’t make up for the rest of the story but it’s a good idea, despite looking more like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors than an alien egg. Personally, I’m glad to see the back of Horror Show.

Much, much (much!) better is the latest part of Tribes, the comic’s serialisation of the novella released in the States. It’s really interesting when it’s written from the Alien Queen’s perspective and Rat’s near fatal escape is real edge-of-the-seat stuff, no exaggeration. I honestly thought she was a goner and she’s my favourite character so it was an exciting read! Again, the italics in her part of the story are intended as flashbacks to the horrors her father forced upon her as a young child and they add to the scares.

One of the aliens dies in a suitably horrifying way, its elongated head slowly sliced in half by a cutting wire as it pushes itself through, trying to get at Rat just beyond. Then, when she sees an x-ray of one of the religious fanatics she recognises the image of the alien inside from an x-ray of her own brother her dad proudly showed her as a child. This is very much Rat’s story and it’s terrific. Writer Steve Bissette’s tale should be on the silver screen!

Alien Vs Predator II isn’t the all-action conclusion you’d think from the cover headline. The Alien Queen was already captured and these final two pages are more about the apparently shocking reveal that one of the Predators is actually a human woman working alongside them. But wasn’t this already obvious from chapters right back at the beginning? I thought that was the whole point of the story and the reveal would be why she was doing this.

So it’s a disappointing ending and makes me miss the separate Predator strip even more. Good news comes on the letters page though. It’s revealed to a reader who has the same opinion as me of the Colonial Marines strip that, with AVP II over and Tribes concluding in two months, more pages will be given to that strip soon. We also find out there’s a comics adaptation of the original Alien film to purchase, written by Vampirella’s Archie Goodwin (whose work I’m enjoying in the publisher’s Dracula) and drawn by Walt Simonson who adapted Jurassic Park.

Colonial Marines and Tribes really carried this issue and boy, did they do a good job of it! Worth the price of admittance, those two. But Crusade could be opening up into something more than I’d previously thought, at least storywise, and we’ve a new two-part Aliens strip called Backsplash beginning in #15 too. Things could be on the up again. We’ll find out if that’s the case on Tuesday 26th August 2025.

iSSUE 13 < > iSSUE 15

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #13: WE JUST GOT OUR ASSES KiCKED

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Back in the early 90s Dark Horse US published a monthly Aliens comic depicting the Earth War starring the Hicks and Newt characters from the second movie. Of course, after Alien³ this was no longer canon but the company’s UK branch was about to start publishing sequel stories anyway. I don’t know if volume one of the comic under previous publisher Trident covered the war but no spoilers please, I’ll read them eventually for the blog.

The UK exclusive strip Crusade picks up after the war but very little background is given to us. Editor Cefn Ridout seems to assume everyone knows about it already. A recap would’ve made all the difference, especially as sales were climbing with new readers coming on board. “As if the opening of London’s own Alien War in August weren’t enough” for Aliens fans? Ah the 90s, when our comics seemed to forget there were readers outside England. The editorial above shows you all the credits for the issue and then we’re launched into 12 pages of Crusade.

It’s fair to say first impressions aren’t great. Coming as it does after Paul Johnson’s artwork last issue and Chris Halls’ cover may be unfair to artist Christian Gorny (Heavy Metal, Haarmaan, Narcangel) whose work in other titles is acclaimed. Mike Cook’s (2000AD, The Real Robin Hood, Dead Meat) story doesn’t get off to a great start either. It’s confusing (not helped by the comic’s lack of background to the war) with dialogue that ’s trying too hard to make it seem conversational between friends, which has the opposite effect and comes across stilted and broken, although Woodrow Pheonix’s (Sonic the Comic, Manga Mania, Dracula) lettering does give it a nice journal feel at times.

From what I can gather London was spared from the alien infestation and the reason remains a mystery. The city is desolate, cut off from the rest of the world and inhabited by Mad Max-like tribes. Elsewhere, Colonial Marines are sent down from orbit to alien hotspots for quick hit-and-run raids. One of their recon teams has gone missing over London, which resides in a country they describe as an “A-grade shithole” that was mainly used for toxic waste before the war.

I say “from what I can gather” because it’s difficult to follow. I couldn’t tell you the name of one individual, there are no main characters standing out and their interactions all feel forced. No one feels remotely real. Instead, they’re just plot points to move things along. It doesn’t help that a lot of the time characters are seen from behind or from strange angles so you’ve no idea who’s talking anyway.

At times the art looks unfinished, such as the second two examples above. At times an interesting scenario tries to squeeze itself in, such as the fact the recon team were shot down by powerful weaponry, something the tribes simply don’t have and the aliens obviously have no need for. So there’s a mystery in there to be solved but I just don’t know if I care enough. Then it just stops. No cliffhanger, it just stops. This strip was made for this comic, it’s not like it was an American strip unceremoniously snipped in half, so there’s no excuse.

There’s still potential in this post-Earth War storyline but so far Crusade isn’t living up to it. This is harsh, I know. I pride myself on positivity on this blog and I’ve loved Aliens so far. Even the worst strips (I’m looking at you, Hive) had moments of redemption but there are none to be found here. Well, except for a moment when a sound effect seemed to indicate the TARDIS was arriving!

On to the Motion Tracker and on the first page of this month’s news we can see the early days of UK Aliens and sci-fi cons, complete with promises of star guests that they simply couldn’t fulfil, expensive tickets and low turnout. I remember those days here in Belfast after Doctor Who returned over a decade later. There’s also a column about toys which always confused me when it came to ’18’-cert films. Collectibles I can understand, but Aliens, RoboCop and Terminator all had children’s toys produced (this was before the days of the RoboCop TV series or cartoon).

What irks me is how there was less of a demand for the female characters among the mainly male buyers. Even for the Alien films?! Films rooted in their lead female characters and themes? I may be a man but geez, men can be such [censored]. On the other news page the comic has the audacity to run a competition with one question in this comic, a second question in Star Wars and the answer in Total Carnage! I wonder if anyone actually entered?

Our eight pages of Colonial Marines finally sees some alien action for our main characters as Lt. Henry and his marines enter the sun gun complex and are immediately at a disadvantage when acid dripping down from a dead alien body above melts through some of their protective suits, forcing them to strip and adding finding new ones to their plans. Henry is convinced this is a hive and thus they can’t waste time retreating to retrieve more from their ship.

This chapter is all about their slow infiltration, building tension as they inch their way inside, now knowing the xenomorphs are behind the loss of communication and instantly putting pressure on each individual member of the team. This is unfortunately undone somewhat when the motion sensor picks up movement and it ends up being a human survivor hiding in a vent. Sound familiar? There’s nothing original here but for the most part it’s executed brilliantly.

As you can see the chapter ends with Vasquez freezing on the spot after all of her previous bravado, showing she’s a different character than her sister in the film. Although, at one stage someone does ask if she’s looking forward to delivering payback for what the aliens did. But how does she know they killed her sister? Ripley, Hicks and Newt were the only survivors. Two of them died before waking up and the third not long after! And it’s not like the company would’ve let on. An oversight perhaps on the part of writer Chris Warner but nothing that spoils this enjoyable little tale.

On to more information about those aforementioned toys with a full-page advert (albeit black and white with poorly reproduced photographs) for Forbidden Planet. Again, these aren’t the kinds of collective figures you can buy today, they are actual toys. Some even sound like the kind featured in The Real Ghostbusters range also by Kenner, with Bishop having a rotating gatling gun, Hicks a mechanical arm for some reason and the A.T.A.X. is a marine in an alien bodysuit!

Moving on, back in the 90s my copy of Alien³ on VHS got a lot of screen time and so did the Alien War trailer before the film. I remember thinking it looked incredible, with James Horner’s searing soundtrack adding to the intense atmosphere. In 1993 it proven to be so successful in Glasgow it was being moved and expanded to a larger building in London. Dave Hughes chatted with its creators Gary Gillies and the appropriately-surnamed John Gorman about the experience.

Am I the only one who reads their reasoning behind halving the experience’s length and thinks it was really a way of getting more paying punters in? Unfortunately, it never became the envisioned franchise spoken about here and after it was closed following a flood in 1996 it never reopened, apart from a short stint in Glasgow again at the turn of the millennium. (Later in 2008 they opened a similar experience in Glasgow unaffiliated with the Alien films.)

Part two of Horror Show also takes up eight pages and surprisingly it concludes next issue. But… nothing’s happened! It also looks like it’ll end with no real aliens taking part, which is a waste of David Roach’s great art. Maybe the point was to introduce this virtual nightmare entertainment company for future stories? It begins with a young woman dressed in a sub-par alien costume sneaking into a nest to destroy the alien queen. Ridiculous? Well, if you’d been paying attention you’d know this is just the young woman’s nightmare.

The company managers are getting angry that all the nightmares they’re recording in their fake dream clinic always end up including the aliens, even if the original scenario had nothing to do with them. Set after the Earth War there seems to be a mass sense of guilt about those that died down on Earth while these people survived in lunar orbit.

This is interesting but unfortunately its reveal towards the end of the strip is spoiled by the recap of what happened last month telling us. Confusingly, one of the volunteers is also called Hicks (it’s not him) and two pages are printed in the wrong order. One of the doctors is sexually abusing the sleeping volunteers, while in their dreams it’s the aliens claws that are all over them. It’s a particularly creepy moment but not much else occurs.

In the next chapter of Steve Bissette’s prose story, Tribes, Rat is the most interesting character by far, albeit in a tragic way. Her job is to be captured by the aliens! She sets herself up in a small space just outside their hive and makes a noise, but she’s sealed herself off with wire-like meshes that slow the aliens down so they don’t rush to an instant kill. By the time they’ve got through to her and she hasn’t put up a fight they’ve calmed down and take her away for implantation instead.

As we know, their captives wake just before the egg placed in front of them opens, this small window of time allowing Rat to send a beacon to her teammates. All the way through this part of the story parentheses appear that act like mental flashbacks to her childhood, echoing the sexual assault she suffered at her father’s hands; a lifetime of abuse and suffering ultimately preparing her for a job no one else is capable of (or wants). It’s horrific and makes for compulsive reading.

This small but still interesting cutaway of the Colonial Marines transport ship Sulaco from Aliens is part of a two-page introductory Technical Readout, the first in a series of features from the always-fascinating Lee Brimmicombe-Wood about the spacecraft. These should make for an interesting series over the coming months. Also coming next month is the final chapter of Alien Vs Predator II, so as previously promised I’ll talk more about that next time.

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag this month. Two stories have been as entertaining as we’d expect, in fact one surpasses previous chapters. On the other hand the other two are completely missable. But this can happen in an anthology comic and with stories ending and others beginning all the time, the Marines and Tribes will see me through until the next shake up. We’ll take a step closer to new tales with the next issue on Tuesday 22nd July 2025.

iSSUE 12 < > iSSUE 14

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #12: HEY MAN, i DON’T WANNA RAiN ON YOUR PARADE

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Cefn Ridout’s editorial begins by describing Paul Johnson’s cover as “provocative” and a reminder of the pathological horror in the films. I agree. Aliens #12 from Dark Horse International already has my spine chilling. As I explained last month, anything involving a baby or young child like this will always terrify me. I wonder what people thought when they saw this on their shop shelves back in 1993.

Elsewhere in the editorial (presented here to give you the full issue credits) it sounds like the H.R. Giger interview, which I was really looking forward to after seeing the headline on the cover, will be another rant about Alien³, something I’m getting tired of at this stage. Let’s hope it’s better than that. We’ll find out further below. But first up are the last 12 pages of the UK exclusive strip, Peter Milligan’s Sacrifice.

The first half of this evokes a wonderfully creepy atmosphere and I just love the alien’s entrance and Ann’s reasons for being there, which I detailed last month. It takes what should be a ridiculous set up of one person going up against the alien with nothing but medieval-style weaponry and gives it real heft and purpose. Can her mother forgive her? Does evil really exist? By extension, does her god?

But in the end she finds she isn’t as alone as she thought. Inspired by her words and her bravery the villagers have come to her aid and trap (albeit temporarily) the alien in netting, giving her some breathing room. Even our scar-faced villain Ricketts comes good but pays the ultimate price as the sacrificial lamb of the piece before the alien falls foul of their trap. This is something I have a problem with, though.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the end result and its originality for an aliens story. Its acid blood also slowly leaks out and begins to melt the spikes, allowing it to writhe closer to freedom again. But where did the trap come from? Okay, Ann was gone for hours but if the villagers had been out there making it both she and the alien would’ve heard them. Was it always there? If so, why was it not mentioned before so it didn’t feel like such a handy coincidence? It makes no sense and it’s disappointing as a solution.

Ann is pulled into the pit by the alien’s tail and pulls out her grenade to sacrifice herself. But first she must know the truth. She must know if it really is the devil, to look it in its eyes and know if her faith was even real. Of course, we know the aliens don’t have visible eyes but the image from Ann’s dreams comes back to haunt her as she sees the glow of the villager’s fire torches reflected in this simply superb image by cover artist Paul.

The spikes behind its head giving the impression of horns is a nice touch too. Indeed, while the story has suddenly taken a turn for the worse the art remains sublime. It truly has been revelatory and a key factor in the chilling atmosphere these past few months. But Paul isn’t finished yet. The story may have had a silly resolution but you can’t fault the visuals of it.

Such a shame this is followed up by Ann somehow surviving that explosion despite being in the pit! We also find out she’s now in a relationship with Masters. Yep, the man who wouldn’t listen to a woman saying “no” gets the woman! This in particular has not aged well. It does have a refreshingly bleak ending when she doesn’t find her “god”, but overall the conclusion has not lived up to what came before.

The Motion Tracker news pages by Dave Hughes make the mistake of taking one negative review in an earlier issue of this comic and concluding that the Aliens Special Edition was “divisive”. No it wasn’t! This reminds me of silly online headlines I read now when a Doctor Who episode gets almost universally praised, even getting nearly 100% on sites such as Rotten Tomatoes, but because one or two “fans” give pointedly critical reviews the episode is described as “controversial” or “divisive”. Rubbish!

Speaking of negative reviews, the graphic novel of Hive is announced. I won’t go into that again, you can read back over previous issues to see what I thought of it (it ran from #1 to #9). There’s an interesting Egyptian-themed teaser image for the upcoming Stargate movie which I’ve never seen before. Finally in the details of movies coming out that might interest readers, the comic makes the sacrilegious decision to name Iron Eagle as the definitive Louis Gossett Jr. movie when surely it’s Jaws 3-D.

On to the Colonial Marines strip and it takes up eight pages in the middle of the comic, with things get off to a light, fluffy start.

As you can see it’s full of the usual tensions we got in the film. There’s nothing original here although it’s told in a fresh way with a set of believable characters, even if some of them do seem like copies of those we’ve already seen. This month’s story is basically the next stage in the infiltration of the sun gun complex but it’s highly enjoyable, especially our main character, Lieutenant Joseph Henry.

It’s interesting that the synthetic human isn’t going and I suspect (as does Henry by the looks of it) that there’s more behind that reason than just his cost.  Elsewhere, it appears those cheap 70s sci-fi aliens are somehow controlling the xenomorphs rather than being a separate group of antagonists. It rather depletes the threat of the comic’s title species if I’m being honest. The fact they sometimes look like spoof versions of themselves doesn’t help either.

Let’s hope I’m wrong and the addition of these new aliens doesn’t dilute our regulars too much.

So, on to that interview with the original designer of the aliens and their world, the incredibly talented H.R. Giger. I know his artwork is rather twisted and often his non-Alien work can be quite sensuous, but there are points in this chat that just feel damned creepy. I mean, wanting to make this alien killer more erotic?! I also agree with the decision made not to use his updates to the creature as they would’ve changed too much, especially his plans for its mouth/teeth and hands.

At least David Fincher is talked about positively here. The amazing special edition of Alien³ (which is not a “third sequel”, the clue is in the name) also reinstated the ox and the film can now be seen as Fincher originally intended before all of the studio interference, making it possibly my second favourite of the series after Aliens. I’m not sure who wrote this piece but as a reader they come across a bit obsequious. Were they hoping Giger would read this and be so grateful of their sucking up he’d hire them? I jest of course, but you get my point.

Replacing the Predator strip is the first part of Horror Show, an eight-page Aliens strip written by Sarah Byam (Billi 99, Black Canary, What If), drawn by David Roach (Nemesis the Warlock, Batman and Demon, Tales of the Jedi), coloured by Alex Wald (Shaolin Cowboy, American Splendor, Playboy) and lettered by Phil Owen (Dark Horse Comics). A character who is very clearly a pastiche of Orson Welles runs a company that uses technology to research people’s fears. They pay his company to place them into a realistic nightmare scenario as a form of therapy, to help them overcome it.

In reality the dream sequences are being recorded and used to create virtual Total Recall-like horror entertainment for profit. We see someone attacked by a shark and lose a leg, only to be confronted by an alien, their near-meltdown being music to Orson Masch’s ears. Even an alien costume turns up. This could be an interesting ‘Aliens meets Total Recall strip’, but I have this niggling feeling this could be another Hive, a strip that also reduced the aliens to a man-made version of some form.

In the continuing publication of the Tribes novella the team are infiltrating a hospital that was formerly an alien hive. However, in an interesting twist they suspect the hospital staff of leading some form of pro-alien religion and the reader discovers a doctor who appears to be gestating an alien queen inside themselves. However, they’re trying to delay it to a specific time. We don’t know why yet.

The Technical Readout feels like a bit of a cop out this month, being little more than a paragraph about the Colonial Marines and a quick sketch. On the Bug Hunt letters page a reader has the terrible idea of treating Alien³ as a Dallas-style dream sequence and the comic’s recent changes have been met with high praise. The call for Aliens: Countdown’s artist Denis Beauvais’ return is met with the news that his Frankenstein strip will be appearing in Dracula (it didn’t). Of course, with hindsight we know that comic would be cancelled in a few months, so will we get to see any of that strip before then? We’ll find out in its real time read through.

This issue may have struggled to reach the heights of the simply amazing #11 but that’s not to say it isn’t without its highlights. Paul’s artwork always shines, Tribes is the best read this time and Colonial Marines is still enjoyable and has bags of potential. I’m very hyped to see what the new exclusive UK strip is next time, to see more of Lt. Henry and his crew and to see if the Mars-based Schwarzenegger movie can work its magic into Horror Show. I’ll catch you (or if not, a facehugger will) on Tuesday 24th June 2025.

iSSUE 11 < > iSSUE 13

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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #11: WE’RE iN SOME REAL PRETTY SHiT NOW, MAN!

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This comic is never short of fantastic covers and Colin MacRae’s introduction to #11 of Dark Horse International’s Aliens is no exception, depicting the next chapter in the Colonial Marines epic from across The Pond. (Erroneously credited as Colin MacNeil, this was corrected in #14’s editorial.) The first thing I noticed upon scanning through the issue is the page count. Just as the publisher’s Dracula gained four pages, it appears Aliens has permanently lost the same amount, the free comic given away over the past two issues disguising the fact somewhat.

As you can see another change has occurred with Cefn Ridout taking over as editor from Dick Hansom, and his first task is to give the readers a shake to get more interesting correspondence for the letters page. In his very first paragraph he even uses the accidental reprint of a previous Alien Vs Predator II chapter to comic effect in this regard. He’s definitely off to a good start! All credits for this issue are also above.

Our UK strip, Sacrifice started off fine but unremarkable, however it really kicks into gear this issue. The atmosphere is palpable! It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted, especially those with kids. I don’t personally, but ever since my mate had her’s I find scenes like this below particularly horrific. There’s even a season one episode of ER I now find more terrifying than most horror films!

After this, Ann no longer cares if she lives or dies and she slowly walks back to the compound. Masters is the one person who seemed to care about her but got all creepy last time, and when he approaches her she punches him square in the face. She may be a priest but sacrificing babies to the alien has rightfully pushed her over the edge. However, Ricketts (the guy with the grotesquely scarred face) attacks her, calling her a murderer because the alien attacked and killed villagers because it didn’t get the baby.

It’s here the strip takes a horrific turn I simply was not expecting. Not only is the question of the mysterious generator room answered, but so is my own about how many babies would be needed, a plot point I previously thought made no sense. But it wasn’t meant to make sense. I was expertly fooled by writer Peter Milligan. They’re not some form of devil worshippers. Their devil is very real for a start. The story explains all with these two pages below, the second one delivering a shock after turning the page.

The whole point of living, of trying to survive against the alien is brought into question if this is the way, and as a priest Ann’s struggles with this feel very real. We also find out Ricketts’ disfigurement occurred when he tried and failed to save his wife. He almost becomes a sympathetic character. Almost, until he does something that genuinely shocked me, I can’t lie. Something that proves this is truly a horror comic.

Ann’s mum sacrificed herself to save her daughter from an alien and the guilt has driven her ever since, so she decides she’ll face the alien instead. Ricketts is delighted, it’ll save them a few babies, and to this he earns a well deserved knee in the groin. (I may have inwardly cheered.) She’s lost her faith, but if the alien is proof evil exists then in her eyes God should too. She needs to look it in the eye to confirm her own beliefs. Masters gives her a grenade and she has her cross and a makeshift spear, and in a ‘knights of the crusade’ moment she’s ready.

The story has me gripped. And horrified. But that’s the point of a good Alien story, isn’t it? The themes are very similar to Alien³’s and I can’t wait to see what happens next, especially since the comics checklist (which gives details of the next issue) says the climax is next month. 

Much like the Dracula comic at the same time, Dave Hughes’ news pages covered Alien³’s takings in the cinema the more favourable UK numbers are covered. I was in awe of The Lawnmower Man at the time which also really benefitted from a longer special edition, and even Gary Oldman’s Prince gets a shout out. On the first page is another funny competition and the comic knows fine rightly most people entering it shouldn’t really be getting their hands on the prize. I’d never heard of Charles Dutton’s sitcom Roc, but I’ve now found out all of the second season’s 25 episodes were aired live! That’s pretty damn incredible. 

I think Dave perhaps meant “flawed epic” in the ‘Alien Stars’ column? More memories are stirred of seeing sequels to Poison Ivy loitering on late night telly when we first got satellite TV, and the cover to K2 never intrigued me enough in the video store. If only I’d realised who was in it. More fond memories too of that transition period when widescreen videos started to make their impact, and I can find no evidence of a film starring Bill Paxton called ‘Twisted’. It’s somewhat familiar, obviously! (Although there’s no mention of Helen Hunt.)

Our 8-page chunk of Colonial Marines this month could be seen as little more than that classic Aliens moment of the marines’ first foray into the seemingly deserted colony in the film, only reworked to a Sun Gun setting. But that doesn’t take away from the lovely, slow-burn atmosphere expertly portrayed here. This story is taking its time and works all the better for it.

As I read these pages I’m imagining the characters’ voices crackling over their comms, and in a change from the film it’s the waste disposal team that have been sent in first to check the levels of toxic waste; no one is even considering this has anything to do with aliens. Typically, the head of the team is all about profit and doesn’t care for the marines. That is, until they come across familiar, organic materials covering the walls inside. Then, of course, a piece of that wall begins to move.

Our main character, Lt. Joseph Henry suddenly realises what’s happened. As do the marines. He orders the disposal teams to evacuate but we know it’ll be too late. The strip could easily have rushed through this bit but it took its time and as a result, after the intensity of Sacrifice, this issue really isn’t pulling any punches in the atmosphere stakes.

Time for a breather and the Technical Readout details a random crane machine, proving Lee Brimmicombe-Wood can bring enjoyable details to even the most seemingly random and inconsequential bits of fictional tech. Lee gets a thank you at the end of the next feature, Jim Campbell’s Under the Knife. It’s a piece detailing an anonymous doctor’s autopsy of an alien body and it’s brilliantly written. Think a doctor’s breakdown of a dissected body can’t be compulsive reading? Think again.

Jim expertly walks the fine line between keeping the mystery of the monsters (and thus their fear factor), and giving readers just enough juicy details to keep them glued to the page and feel like they’re learning more than they actually are. Trust me, you’ll want to take five minutes out of your day to get stuck into this one. Let’s hope Jim returns to bring us something similar in future issues, perhaps for the facehugger. A little gem hidden away in this issue.

Another gem is Rites of Passage, the wordless two-part Predator back-up strip. It may only be eight pages, and it’s basically one fight scene but it makes an impact. Pitting a seemingly defenceless tribesman against the technologically advanced alien may seem familiar all these years later after the excellent Prey movie, but I can imagine how thrilling it’d have been in 1993 discovering this fight isn’t as one-sided as we (and the Predator) may have assumed.

Ian Edginton’s story is still thrilling today. We don’t even know this man’s name but we cheer him on as he uses his ingenuity to defend himself, before going on the offensive and taking out the alien’s weaponry in an exciting double-page spread by penciller Rick Leonardi, inker Dan Panosian and colourist Greg Wright. I also love how much character there is in this version of the Predator when it’s free of its helmet.

There are moments when you genuinely believe our hero is going to lose, making the eventual win all the more worthwhile. When another Predator arrives it looks closely at him and leaves, and you feel its look is its way of showing respect for the victor. We come back to the beginning of the story and the man is now an elder with familiar items attached to his shield and spear, and he sees another falling star in the night sky. Excellent stuff.

The Aliens Vs Predator II debacle is mentioned in the editorial and discussed on the letters page, but is this month’s chapter another attempt by Cefn to get readers writing in as he joked earlier? Have a read and see if you spot anything strange about this.

The strip is only two pages long as usual but I think they’ve been printed in the wrong order. The first thing I noticed was our lead character throwing her weapon at the alien Queen and being without it at the end of page one, but she has it again at the top of the next page. The first caption on page two is also a quick recap of the last chapter, the story flows from page two to page one better, and the end of page one is clearly the cliffhanger. Oh dear.

Prose story Tribes reads so much better this month, beginning with an excellent description of life inside an alien hive and then concentrating on the characters, building them into real humans in my mind. Most intriguing are MOX and Rat. The former is a psychotic human almost killed in battle but kept alive and sedated in an armoured shell until he’s needed to go berserk. The latter is an infiltration specialist who appears to have developed the skill of being silent as a child because of her abusive father.

Because it’s a novella being broken down into bite-sized chunks it’s another slow burn, something this comic seems to do incredibly well. It’s building up organically and I think it reads all the better for it. The conclusion should be all the more powerful after getting to know the people involved and caring about what happens to them. It’s also building an interesting plot and even an insight into the aliens themselves. Much improved and I’m looking forward to more.

On the inside back cover is the full-page advert for the refreshed #6 of Dracula which you can see in the review of #5 of that comic, and that just about wraps things up for another month. The best issue so far. No competition. Of course, you need to have read the previous chapters in all the stories to really appreciate them, but the emotional investment this issue brought has really surprised me. I’m locked, loaded and ready for #12 on Tuesday 20th May 2025.

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ALiENS #10: i HAVE SCARY DREAMS

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Last month I lamented about how my copy of this next issue of Dark Horse International’s Aliens didn’t have the free comic packaged in with it after last month’s ended on a cliffhanger. So when I picked up #10 I ignored the banner along the top. However the 12 middle pages here, while not separate from the main comic this time, are presented like an additional comic and contain the concluding chapter to Aliens: Countdown.

A closer look at the cover reveals no less than six stories inside and Countdown is included. Boasting about a free comic but also including the name of it in the list of the main comic’s strips is a bit cheeky, but you can’t deny it felt like value for money! There’s a catch with the so-called “free” bit of Countdown though, which we’ll get to in a bit.

We no longer have a lovely glossy cover. Instead, the outer 32 pages are of a thicker paper stock that’s somewhere between matte and gloss, akin to the 90s’ Thunderbirds The Comic or the last year or two of The Dandy, while the inner pages are the usual matte grade. The editorial (shown above with full credits for this issue) has a lot to promote Aliens-wise but instead dedicates most of itself to new comic Total Carnage and the change of editor, what with Dick Hansom off to launch Jurassic Park.

Cefn Ridout (Doctor Who Magazine, Black Widow, Speakeasy) will be in charge and is left a comic at the top of its game with so much content. It all kicks off with the 12-page second part of the exclusive UK strip, Sacrifice. It turns out our lone survivor of the spaceship crash, Ann McKay is a priest. This seems to shock the male members of the village, which is a bit weird considering how far in the future these stories are set.

Ann thinks giving a service will help ingratiate her with the strange and inward-looking villagers although, given the flashbacks to her mother in a scene which I’m going to assume involved one of our aliens, she’s clearly looking for forgiveness for herself. It doesn’t help. The villagers still disdain her and she barely escapes an accident with a combine harvester (no, really) that was clearly an attempt to kill her.

The one person who likes her is Masters, who propositioned her last month. Here, in a part of the story that I literally cringed at, Masters tells her he won’t respect her wishes, he won’t wait for her consent, he’ll keep pushing until she loses her faith and they can be together. Then she kisses him! Okay, so she then runs off because her vows tell her she shouldn’t have done that, but really? He said all that and she fell for him?! If this was written today it could be accurately described as “tone deaf”.

Anyway, the rest of the story sees Ann track the men carrying a small bundle to the altar and as predicted they’ve got a baby they’re sacrificing to the alien. Yes, it’s horrible and this is meant to be a horror story, but it’s a cheap trick to pull at the heart strings and it makes no sense. (Where are they getting so many babies from?) Unfortunately the promising start last month is becoming uninspired and in the case of the scene with Ann and Masters, just ridiculous.

It ends with Ann grabbing the baby and running from the alien, tripping and falling off a cliff and down to a river while the alien breaks into the village. The art is lovely and in particular the alien itself looks suitably scary. If partnered with a good story Paul Johnson’s work could elevate the comic even higher. Let’s hope for better things from the next British strip soon.

Due to the sheer amount of content, Motion Tracker’s news has been shortened to one page and it all feels rather rushed, like they had two pages of material ready to go and decided to include it all in half the space. But at least it’s answered a niggling question I had about 15 years ago, when I wondered where I’d seen the font used in the Knight Rider sequel series (2008/9). Having that particular word spelled out in the title of the movie above certainly helped.

Colonial Marines continues across ten pages in the middle of the comic (with Countdown sandwich in the middle of it) and we’re introduced to some of the crew Lt. Joseph Henry is taking to the Sun Gun. This was a chance to embellish the roster of characters with personalities so we’d care about them and it does this very well, but they just had to go and introduce a relation to a movie character, didn’t they? In this case it’s Vasquez’ sister!

Writer Chris Warner really didn’t need to do this. The other characters are realistic, three-dimensional people already, there was no need to basically bring back a fan-favourite movie character. Much like Predator: Cold War there’s no need, the original characters are well written enough. For example, Joseph himself is brilliant. After sympathising with him last month he’s now more in his element and comes across as relatable and quippy. The fact this façade is hiding personal pain just makes him all the more believable.

Sergeant Nyland is no-nonsense military and she feels Joseph’s reputation makes him unsuitable for restraining a bunch of marines, all of whom are on this mission to serve time, eg. for insubordination. Mr Beliveau is in charge of the Sun Gun’s crew and also all-business. The story is clearly setting everyone up as hard-edged, get-the-work-done types who are going to crumble when up against the aliens, while Joseph’s more human approach will save the day. I’m here for it, I like the guy so much already that I’m looking forward to seeing his influence on the crew and marines.

Then there’s a somewhat larger synthetic character than we’re used to. 

Having the free Countdown comic stapled right into the middle of the Colonial Marines strip highlights something else about this story. Countdown tries so hard to translate the magic of the Aliens movie to the page that it’s ended up reading like a cut-and-paste job. Whereas, Vasquez’ sister aside, Colonial Marines takes the essence of the film and crafts something new yet familiar from it. It’s much more successful at paying homage to the film as a result.

Back at the Sun Gun the crew has been decimated by the aliens and just before the xenomorphs finish them off a new race of aliens arrive! I’m not sure how I feel with these pulp sc-fi people suddenly appearing from a 1970s episode of Doctor Who, but this is all we get of them so we’ll have to wait until next time to see how this developments. Are the xenomorphs going to be relegated to third place in the story, as some form of basic movie monster playing second fiddle to these new aliens? Let’s hope not.

Now, speaking of the strip I was comparing this to.

In the middle of the issue is the 12-page “free comic”, the concluding chapter of Countdown. To make it removable they’ve given it a cover, a page summarising the last issue and a couple of adverts. The thing is, when these 12 pages are removed the rest of the comic only has 44 pages remaining when it’s had 52 from the beginning. Looking back on #9 I see it was actually 48 pages. So pages were taken away in order for the publisher to make room for the supposedly free gift. You see what I mean when I said I questioned the word “free”?

It’ll be interesting to see if the main comic returns to 52 pages next month. One thing I know for sure is that the Countdown art by Denis Beauvais remains superb. Unfortunately there are some panels where the speech balloons point to the wrong person, making things confusing until you realise the error. This is compounded by the fact it was already difficult to keep up with who’s who because the characters are two-dimensional copies of the movie’s. In the end I just went along for the ride and enjoyed Denis’ work. Highly recommended for that alone.

No mention is made of the error with last month’s Aliens Vs Predator II reprint and it appears the mistake wasn’t noticed, because this issue’s instalment clearly follows on from incidents we should’ve seen last month but didn’t. After that, taking up only three pages but with a lot more content is part one of what is described as an “ongoing Aliens novel”, Tribes by Steve Bissette (artist on Swamp Thing, Sgt. Rock, Heavy Metal)

Tribes was actually a previously released (in the States) small novella with full-page images drawn by Dave Dorman (Star Wars, G.I. Joe comic and toy packaging artwork, Magic: The Gathering cards) that have been shrunk down so much it’s hard to make out the details, which is a crying shame. Although you can enjoy his full-page cover this month. The story involves a specialist infiltration unit and there are a lot of hints about their mission and people we’ve not met yet, meaning the cliffhanger about one of them doesn’t hit. Would it have been better to have a prose story written for the monthly comic format instead? Time will tell. There are great descriptions of a hive and of a character’s POV while being rescued from a face hugger but it sometimes tries too hard in its word use, like the author had a thesaurus on standby.

Finally, Predator: Rite of Passage is part one of a two-part story, so the species’ return to the comic is temporary but still very welcome. Just the eight pages this month but it’s a goodie! Written by Ian Edginton (Dark Horse’s The War of the Worlds, Star Trek: Early Voyages, Batman: No Man’s Land), pencilled by Rick Leonardi (Vigilante, Batman Beyond, The Amazing Spider-Man), inked by Dan Panosian (X-Men, Operation Nemesis, Alpha Flight) and coloured by Greg Wright (who we’ve seen in Aliens already with Newt’s Tale), there’s no letterer needed because there’s no speech.

What it does have is atmosphere and an interesting set up. An elder tribesman sees something fall to Earth and remembers seeing the same thing happen years ago. Staying in this earlier point in his life, he goes on a hunt and his fight against a lion mirrors that of a Predator hunt, with the human in the Predator role. He returns victorious only to see a familiar scene for fans of the franchise.

After breaking down upon seeing the horrors in front of him, he spots large footprints and begins tracking whoever is responsible. After a long time he walks past a cave, completely unaware that a Predator is inside and has been leading him there all along, tracking his every move. It’s a simple story but it’s presented so well that I’m all-in. It’s a shame it’s only two parts long but it just means I’m super excited to see the climax next month.

The comic is in fine form and a perfect example of Dark Horse understanding the difference with the UK market. I’m just hoping for a few more pages next month to help balance out the main stories and features more. It did feel a bit cramped this time around. Aliens #11 will be reviewed on Tuesday 22nd April 2025.

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