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Aliens, Comic Reviews

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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Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #9: ANOTHER GLORiOUS DAY iN THE CORPS

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I’ve been excited for this ninth issue of Dark Horse International’s flagship Aliens comic for a few reasons. First up, it includes the free gift mini-comic, a rare treat when buying classic comics. Secondly, Hive finally comes to its long overdue conclusion. Thirdly, the epic Colonial Marines strip I remember from the one issue I bought as a teenager begins. But there’s something else above and beyond all of that.

This issue contains the first British strip, never before printed anywhere else in the world. This must’ve been a hugely exciting development for readers, given the success of Marvel UK’s comics with similar mixes of imported and original stories, such as Transformers. The promise here is that every single issue will include an exclusive from now on and even decades later I’m excited by the prospect.

The excitement for the American Colonial Marines strip is tempered somewhat though, knowing I’ll not get to read the end. Unfortunately the comic would be cancelled before it’s 24 parts played out, but I’m still here for it and to experience it as readers would’ve at the time. The features pages have had a freshening up too as evidenced with the editorial above (where you’ll find full credits for this issue), and then it’s straight into the very-90s-UK-comic painted art of Sacrifice: Part One.

I remember not being a fan of this art style at the time in a friend’s 2000AD but it’s grown on me in the years since. Back then I didn’t like the lack of inked outlines and sometimes found them hard to follow, but now I think they look glorious. For Aliens, artist Paul Johnson is a very welcome addition to the inside of the comic after his previous covers for #2 and #3 (and this issue’s is his too).

For the first few panels of  the story I thought it was set underwater (teenage me would’ve been lost, no doubt) but Peter Milligan’s (Eagle, Egypt, Skin) story begins in a more familiar setting with a crashing spaceship. Of course I assumed the ship had been in distress because of an alien but we soon find out this story’s alien is actually already on the planet where Ann McKay finds herself as the lone survivor of the crash.

Sacrifice: Part One is 12 pages long, a typical length for a British strip and it’s certainly the star here, even if the story seems made up of several clichés pasted together. After stumbling upon a set of man-made stone blocks covered in blood and an alien nearby, Ann runs, falls and knocks herself unconscious. She awakes some time later and soon finds herself in a settlement filled with strange people acting strangely who don’t like strangers. You know the type from any horror film set in a remote village.

Sacrifice has definitely got potential and as the first British strip commissioned it’s got my attention

Ann finds out the alien has been stalking the settlement for nine months and it doesn’t take a genius to work out the link between the fact it didn’t chase her, the blood covered blocks (clearly altars) and the name of the story. So we’ve creepy people sacrificing one of their own to the alien on a regular basis and an alien who has decided it’s a good enough arrangement that it doesn’t attack? It can’t be that simple. It can’t be that bizarre!

The characters might be clichéd (we even see a nighttime scene of the villagers heading to the altars by torchlight carrying something that looks suspiciously like a baby) and the dialogue is stilted, but the art is superb and there’s an atmosphere and a mystery about it that intrigues me. Perhaps the alien just can’t get into the settlement and the sacrifices made are in vain? But why didn’t it chase Ann?

This final page is of Ann’s recurring nightmares of an alien floating above her bed. She’s imagining it with eyes, curious as to what the alien sees in her after she didn’t tell the one kind villager that she saw the blocks. She’s scared but can’t understand why. Sacrifice has definitely got potential and as the first British strip commissioned it’s got my attention.

Of course, Hive also had great potential during the first few issues but now I can’t wait to see the back of it and its characters. So it’s with great delight that I turn to the final chapter. Again, Kelley Jones‘ and Les Dorscheid’s art of the aliens themselves is superb and I’d love to see them team up to do a story involving likeable humans and a more interesting plot. Narrative captions wouldn’t hurt either, so I was glad to see their occasional use here.

Even though they’re meant to be taken from Dr Mayakovsky’s scientific journal on ants they help explain things that the plot and art sometimes struggle to. It’s only in the story recap (before the strip) that I realise the ship that landed last time belonged to the team’s rivals and not the main characters. The captions are a simple fix and ultimately allow the art to shine. So anyway, this is the final part and despite the story going downhill previously these final nine pages manage to be even more terrible. 

Basically, Mayakovsky sends synthetic human Gill to the ship to ask for help off the planet, but when he realises they’ll take all of the alien jelly from him he orders Gill to self-destruct and blow them up instead! But then he contacts his own ship and tells the captain he can have it all if he just rescues them? This makes no sense. Then, with rescue on the way he and his lover Lish overdose on the jelly to enter a state of euphoria and start making love instead of doing anything to try to delay the aliens getting to them.

So they’re all dead and I’m trying my best to not be glad about that, because we’re meant to be rooting for the humans and terrified of the aliens. But I was cheering the xenomorphs on by the end. To add insult to injury the art on the last two pages above looks very rushed. In particular that chest buster looks awful, like a child has drawn it. I don’t know what happened to the saving grace of the strip but boy, am I glad Hive is over! 

No matter how bad that got over the past few months, I could always rely on the Motion Tracker news pages to bring me some retro goodness and it doesn’t disappoint again. There are a couple of funny ‘shock’ headlines to begin with and that story regarding Sigourney Weaver shows just how much the world has moved on. These were the days when actresses were less likely to be hired for movies and TV just because they were brunette!

I wonder if that list of directors would’ve had a different order just a few months later after the release of Jurassic Park? Especially with innovation being a key factor. The comic gives away a copy of Alien³ on VHS despite panning the video’s pan-and-scan 4:3 ratio elsewhere in the issue. It also categorically states a Terminator 3 would be impossible, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it first mention of a movie that would spawn a future TV obsession of mine. These sorts of things are the reason I love looking back via these pages every month.

Written by Chris Warner, artist on the comic’s Aliens/Predator crossover, our second new strip, Colonial Marines: Part One is 12 pages (the strips are more evenly distributed this time around) and we’re treated to an exclusive Technical Readout of the corps before it for context. It kicks off on board a Sungun, a device set up on an asteroid by another huge corporation which literally fires barrels of toxic waste into a nearby sun. Clearly in the future universe of Aliens we’ve just taken our shit elsewhere. An autopilot dumpster arrives and there’s no response when it’s hailed. So far, so ‘Aliens’.

Elsewhere, Lt. Joseph Henry of the Colonial Marines is in trouble for striking a captain. Despite the fact the captain had been beating up a young female prostitute, only Joseph is in trouble. Recently his mum had died and because he was so far away in deep space he couldn’t be with her in her final hours, nor was his powerful military father who chose the job over her. The fact she died alone is eating away at Joseph, so I can’t blame him for punching the captain given what he was doing! In fact, I like him already.

His punishment sets up our story. Ordered to fly a team of replacement workers to an unfinished communications array in deep space, he’ll stay with them for a full year. So that’s an area of space where they can’t call for help, then. Plot point one established. But first he has to drop off a company executive to something called a ‘Sungun’ where an inspection is due to take place. Plot point two established. So exactly how are things going at the Sungun where they’d just docked the unmanned ship? Let penciller Tony Atkins (Terminator, Wonder Woman, Fables), inker Paul Guinan (Boilerplate, Chronos, Barb Wire) and colourist Matt Hollingsworth (Preacher, Catwoman, Death: The High Cost of Living) fill us in.

There we go, the plot is established and it’s so very in keeping with what we’re used to with this franchise. However, there’s a very likeable, relatable character in the middle of it all. Let’s hope the rest of the cast fall into that category. If they do, then we’re sure to be in for a great ride for the rest of the year. In fact, for the rest of the comic’s real time read through here on the blog!

For some reason the Aliens Vs Predator II strip is a reprint of the one from two issues ago. Hopefully that’ll be rectified next time, but before we finish off let’s take a quick look at that free eight-page comic. Originally printed one page at a time in Dark Horse Insider in the States it treads a very familiar path in two ways.

Firstly, the art by Denis Beauvais (videogame The Revenant, Aliens novels, Predator comics) is gorgeous throughout. Because this was created for publication at a rate of one page per month the love and detail that has gone into every one is nothing short of spectacular. However, the script by Mike Richardson (who also wrote Newt’s Tale in our previous seven issues) is sorely lacking.

The problem is that the story itself is nothing more than a series of scenes from the film in a different order with different characters. There’s a lot of recycling here. But just look at that art! For a freebie this is just stunning to look at, if not to read. What a shame that my next issue doesn’t contain its free comic with the second half of this, I’d just love to see more of that exquisite artwork by Denis. If you’d like to, you can also check out his official website.

After two great new strips this month there’s hype for more new stuff to come! According to the Dark Horse Comics Checklist, Aliens #10 replaces Hive with a new Predator strip (great, because I’ve already been missing it) and there’s a prose story joining the mix too! I’ve suddenly remembered there was one in the issue I bought as a teen so it must be a regular addition. Given how great the prose stories were in my Marvel UK and Grandreams Annuals I’m eager to see what Aliens does with the format. We’ll find out when #10 comes to the blog on Tuesday 25th March 2025. I can’t wait!

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