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Aliens: The Original Comic Series (30th Anniversary)
Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: April 27th, 2016.
Written by: Mark Verheiden
Illustrated by: Mark Nelson
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In celebration of the 30th anniversary of James Cameron's follow up to Ridley Scott's original film, Dark Horse Comics has released this collection that brings together the original six black and white issues of their first Aliens series from 1988. Along with this, we also get the very first Aliens short story from Dark Horse Presents #24, also from 1988, and the short story Aliens: Lucky from the third issue of A Decade
of Dark Horse published in 1996.
The story, entitled Outbreak in the various collected editions that it is received over the years, is set a decade after the events depicted in Aliens (the movie). Hicks and Newt still have trouble coping with what they were put through, and Newt has actually been institutionalized, the after effects of her mental trauma seemingly incurable. With no other option, the doctors in charge of her care decide to completely wipe out her memory so that she can move on with her life.
Meanwhile, Hicks is racked with guilt - his entire squad was butchered by the xenomorphs. When he's given the chance to lead a team to the alien's home world, he takes it. His mission is to recover some of the eggs that they spawn from but he's more interested in destroying the hive that he comes across, for all the good that it'll do him. When Hicks finds out that Newt's going to have her memory wiped, he busts her out and takes her with him to the home world, completely unaware that his ship is being followed.
Back on Earth, an alien queen is being used by a corporation intent on using the eggs for their own devices, all while a strange cult that sees in the aliens a chance to get closer to God. To do this, the willingly allow the facehuggers to impregnate them, which quickly leads to - as the title implies - an outbreak of aliens on Earth.
AS the story progresses, Newt falls in love with Butler, one of Hicks' men, while the whole team winds up in danger when they learn who was in the ship that was following them to the home world. They're attacked by that rival team but before that can mean as much it would otherwise, that rival team is forced to take shelter inside one of the alien hives. Proving that the road to Hell really is paved with good intentions, Hicks and his team gather what is left of their weapon and head inside to save those who would see them dead, only to learn the truth about their rivals the hard way. Newt's relationship with Butler suffers a similar fate while Hicks' obsession with killing as many of the xenomorphs as he possibly can winds up putting everyone in danger…
In Lucky, we learn the story of a man named Kanako who is alone on a ship that he once shared with his other teammates. The rest of the crew? They've fallen victim to the aliens, but he's managed to stay alive… for now. He's running out of food and he's running out of water and, well, there's still an alien on board. We learn through some flashbacks how he wound up being the only one left alive and about his true nature.
Verheiden and Nelson proved very early on that they were taking the task of following up the hit film very seriously indeed. The end result of their efforts has gone on to be rightly recognized as a classic, one of the best, if not the very best, of the countless Aliens comics that have followed in its wake. Hell, this could be one of the best licensed/movie sequel follow up comics ever published. They really do everything right. Verheiden's script explores the characters that we got to know in the film, introduces a few new ones, plays directly into the continuity established by the movies and does it all with a maturity befitting a dark science fiction/horror series geared towards an adult audience.
Nelson's artwork complements the writing perfectly. All of this material is presented in black and white and the series is no worse off for that fact. Really, coloring the art would have probably just distracted us from how rich the detail is and how damn impressive it all is. The shadowy atmosphere, the way that he uses bloody trails in place of panel borders on certain pages, the almost fluid movements afforded the human characters and the penchant for gory nastiness all go a long way towards sucking you into the world that Nelson and Verheiden have created here. It's great stuff and it makes you wish that these guys would come back for another go at the Aliens universe. Until then, they've left quite a mark on the franchise - it's a series that any Aliens fan should consider essential.
This collection also includes some interesting 'bonus features' starting with an introduction from Mark Verheiden. Here he talks about landing the writing gig, working with Nelson, what he tried to bring to the Aliens mythos and more. Additionally, there's a gallery of covers and inside front covers from the series, and an afterward from Mark Nelson where he share his thoughts on the work, talks about illustrating the series and more. Some uninked pages of pencils follow the afterward. All in all, a nice package for an enduring and remarkably well done continuation of what the feature film Aliens gave us.
