A one man passion project.
Creative Staff:
Story: James Stokoe
Art: James Stokoe
Colors: James Stokoe
Letterer: James Stokoe
What They Say:
After a horrific accident strikes a space station, an engineering officer must use all available tools—a timer, utility kit, and his wits—to survive an attack from the deadliest creature known to man.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s been a good couple of years for the Aliens property at Dark Horse Comics with a range of titles that have explored different concepts, big and small. As someone who has enjoyed far too many of these books since they first got the license back in the 90’s, the arrival of Aliens: Dead Orbit is an interesting one as it’s essentially a one man project of James Stokoe. I’ve not read any of his prior work so it’s definitely a strong introduction to him as he’s doing everything here down to the lettering. That reinforces the view that it’s something that as a creator he wanted total control over and we know Dark Horse is pretty good about empowering its creators to explore things in new and interesting ways, which just ramps up the interest in this all the more.
The series focuses on an engineer officer named Wascylewski that’s part of a team on a space station that’s fairly far out at this point in time. Knowing how these things go, Wassy is the only one to really try and connect with but we get a pretty good lead-in here as we see the captain and others of the crew in how they work this kind of shit job with the expected humor and gruffness that comes from being isolated in space. While the book starts off some time later in the larger story, the bulk of what we get here has the crew dealing with a ship that’s come into the system they’re in that’s not responding to hails but has some signs of life aboard it. While they’re wary of raiders after past experience, we know there are rules to be obeyed in these situations and that means shuttling over to the massive cargo ship and figuring out what’s going on.
Yes, there’s the obvious setup predictability here. But it’s the kind of thing that works well thanks to Stokoe’s design work as this is a densely illustrated work that reminds me of Geoff Darrow’s material from the indies 80’s scene and the like. It’s thoroughly engrossing in how rich and lived in this world looks and that’s made worse once they cross over and discover a truly torn up ship in so many ways. The discovery of the remaining members of the crew there in cryotanks leads to its own creative moment (eww!) and it sets up what you know will come, but does it in a way that’s pretty damn haunting. Stokoe’s built some really impressive visuals here and some neat tricks along the way, especially with what Wassy initially thinks he sees and what the reality of it is, or is it?, and that means we’re going to be up for quite the ride as this gets into full gear.
In Summary:
Aliens: Dead Orbit grabbed me from very early on just for its visual style in bringing us this cramped and claustrophobic world with all of its detail. As the crew and our lead character come into focus, a collection of people that will be killed soon enough, the sense of dread builds quickly and effectively. Stokoe’s pacing is spot on here and what we know of the cast is engaging with the lives they lead and what they have to deal with. The mystery of the new ship and the arrival of the xenomorphs inside hopefully has a flashback tale to be told as I want to know the journey of this ship and its crew but I’m also excited to see how things unfold on this station once it gets running. I’m definitely excited to see where this goes as Stokoe has everything lined up perfectly.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 26th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
