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Aliens: Salvation (Hardcover)
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Aliens: Salvation (Hardcover)
Aliens: Salvation
Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: September 2nd, 2015.
Written by: Dave Gibbons
Illustrated by: Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan
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Originally published by Dark Horse Comics as a one-shot way back in 1993, Aliens: Salvation is back in print, now as a hardcover edition. Written by Dave Gibbons, illustrated by Mike Mignola and inked by Kevin Nowlan, this one has stood the test of time as one of the more interesting and unique Aliens comic books - if you haven't read it before, now is the time.
When the story begins, we learn how Captain Foss of the Nova Maru could have saved everyone but instead saved only himself and a devoutly religious man named Selkirk. Through Selkirk's narration we meet the rest of the crew on the ship: Stutz, Lee, Boyd and Dean. They tease him for his religious beliefs but he doesn't lash out or strike back. A day like any other aboard the ship soon turns sour, however - Foss shows up in the mess hall while the others are eating, something happened to the cargo Stutz is responsible for. He says he checked it, Foss knows otherwise and he shoots him dead on the spot. Foss is injured, he grabs Selkirk and heads to the escape shuttle, leaving the others alone on the ship.
The pair crash lands on a planet but they have trouble finding the food and water they need to survive, they have only a few rations from the escape shuttle. Selkirk fishes while Foss, more or less immobile, deals with his pain. When Selkirk heads into the ship to pull anything of use out of it, he hears gunfire - Foss has unloaded on something that he's seen in the surf. The alien is very dead, but that doesn't stop Foss from firing and firing and firing. It's then that Selkirk figures out what the cargo on the Nova Maru really was. Foss takes the last of his drugs and sleeps while Selkirk starts to see all of this as an answer to his many prayers - he sees this as an opportunity to find salvation. See, if the alien cargo washed up on shore, that means that the Nova Maru most have somehow landed on the planet too. If he can find that ship, he can find more food and more water. Unfortunately Foss' grip on reality quickly slips, leaving Selkirk no choice but to defend himself against the captain. What he does next is worse, but a man's got to eat.
The next morning Selkirk heads out to find the Nova Maru. It takes him some time and the trek isn't easy, but he finds it and so too does he find Dean. She gives him water, he tells her what happened to Foss - and while at first it seems she was the only survivor, they quickly learn that the alien that washed up earlier was not the only one aboard the Nova Maru. Some of their cargo survived too, and that cargo is on the hunt…
It's easy to understand why this has remained one of the more popular entries in Dark Horse's Aliens series. The script is heady, smart and unique - by telling everything from Selkirk's perspective we not only get the action and horror elements we want out of an Aliens story but we get really strong introspection and character development as well. As the story progresses and he continues to see everything as either a reason to give thanks or a test of his faith, it becomes increasingly inevitable that he will find the salvation he seeks, but that it won't necessarily be how he expects it. There's good suspense here, really well written narration and just a lot of great ideas at work here. It's dark, but a good Aliens story needs to be, don't go into this one expecting light and breezy because, no, this is pretty heavy stuff.
The artwork from Mignola (who contributes a new cover to this hardcover edition) is also top notch. Inked with beautiful, dark, thick lines by Kevin Nowlan and colored by Matt Hollingsworth, there's just some really wild design work here. Mignola's take on the aliens is awesome, but in addition to that we get some interesting human character design, some great large panel outer space pieces, and the chance to see him go wild with creature design as Selkirk starts walking the planet. The art team also works in some interesting, and admittedly quite disturbing, religious imagery into the visuals. When Selkirk first encounters Dean on the planet he sees her with arms outstretched, in a Christ pose - subtle things like this make it stand out and add to symbolism and ideas behind the story in great ways.
This has been reprinted a few times now - it was once collected with Sacrifice one shot and it was also included in one of the Aliens Omnibus collections - but if you don't have it, this affordably priced hardcover is a no brainer. It's a story worth going back to, one that you'll appreciate just as much on repeating readings as you will the first time out.Posting comments is disabled.
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