Twenty years after Aliens, things are not looking much better.
Creative Staff:
Story: Phillip K. Johnson
Art: Salvador Larroca
Colors: Guru-eFX
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
Gabriel Cruz gave his life to Weyland-Yutani–In the case of an alien attack he barely survived, almost literally! Recently retired, Cruz is trying to patch things up with his abandoned son with the help of his friend, a Bishop-model android, but his re-entry into civilian life is not going smoothly…and his encounters with the deadly Xenomorph are far from over. Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca team up to tell an all-new tale of the titan of horror and science fiction that has scared audiences for decades. No one is safe. No one is innocent. And no one can hear you scream.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having read the various Aliens comics over the years since Dark Horse first got the license, I can say that I was not happy but not surprised that the property ended up at Marvel after all the merger stuff. I don’t doubt that Marvel can do good work with it as I’m enjoying most of their Star Wars original works and expansions, but I also know that Alien is its own kettle of fish. But there’s the potential that’s here by starting with a clean slate by putting all the past works in a “legends” category and moving forward anew. Which Phillip K. Johnson does seem to do here with a dialogue-heavy opening installment that’s spending its time on and around Earth to set things up. It’s complemented with some solid artwork from Salvador Larroca and while we do get some time with aliens it’s a pretty human-heavy piece and just kind of general living stuff at that.
Taking place in the year 2200, twenty or so years after the events of Aliens, we’re introduced to the just-retiring head of security of Epsilon orbital research station that’s around Earth. Cruz has been a long-time member there and is responsible for a lot of why it works as well as it does for Weyland-Yutani at this point. But what we see is that he’s been going through therapy for some time over dreams/nightmares that he’s been having about the Xenomorphs and a mysterious humanoid queen of sorts that’s disturbing looking. Amusingly, he does these sessions with a Bishop model who is more than happy to transfer his files and knowledge down to one on Earth where Cruz is retiring at. Even more amusing is that the other Bishop he deals with is far more laid back and mellow because of the differences in how the two locations and people are there, which is a kind of surreal moment.
For Cruz, one of the things he wants to do the most upon begging back on Earth is to reconnect with his adult son Danny. The problem is that Danny holds a heavy grudge against Weyland-Yutani over the death of his brother and it’s driven a huge wedge between the two men that still exists, one that drove away Danny’s mother and Gabriel’s wife years ago before she died. The two are not able to reconcile at all because men be men in how they’re presented here, but also because Danny is part of a group looking to bring down Weyland-Yutani and is stealing corporate secrets from his father here in order to do it, the only reason he even visited. That sets the stage for bad things to happen on Epsilon toward the end as that group of terrorists make their move, but the majority of the book is dealing with Gabriel and his desire to get back into “the life” with what family he has left after serving Weyland-Yutani for so long.
In Summary:
With what Danny discovers aboard the station, it’s easy to imagine how this will go in that the place is in chaos and lockdown while the things Weyland-Yuatni experimented on there are set free and Gabriel will return to try and rescue his son. The twists and turns that come will be what’s interesting and to see who will survive and if reconciliation actually happens before someone gets offed. Johnson’s script does a good job of digging into Cruz and his family issues but also the darker nature of his dreams and what they mean. Larroca’s artwork is good – I enjoyed his time on Star Wars for a while for example – but with so little time with the xenomorphs here, it’s mostly a family/character drama with some light science fiction elements to give it a bit more personality. I’m definitely going to keep going to see where it goes, and what else Marvel has in store for this longtime favorite property of mine.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Marvel Comics via Marvel Unlimited
Release Date: March 24th, 2021
MSRP: $4.99
