Three tales of classic science fiction horror.
Creative Staff:
Story: Various
Art: Various
Colors: Various
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
THE ALIEN UNIVERSE AS ONLY MARVEL COULD IMAGINE IT! Black, white, red – and GREEN! Marvel Comics and 20th Century Studios present a kill-fest of an anthology in chest-rending artistic detail! Superstars Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (Captain America: Cold War, Guardians of the Galaxy) and brilliant artist Michael Dowling (Black Cat, Amazing Spider-Man) kick off a generations-spanning story that will continue through all four issues! Fan-favorite writer Ryan Cady explores the limits of compassion in “Maternal Instincts.” And rising stars Stephanie Phillips and Marcelo Ferreira bring you “The Hunt,” a tale of guts, glory and the most exhilarating of games…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The world of Alien comics has been pretty varied over the years and Marvel is largely working on some shared-universe books these days. Those have been fun and spending time with characters for an extended period works well. With this four-issue series, Marvel is utilize the black, red, and white approach to tell some standalone tales as well as one that will go over the course of the whole story. That works well for me since we get some short takes and some creatives getting to just play in something that’s tighter to work with rather than trying to adhere to the usual tropes or designs of an Alien story.
The multi-issue story kicks off here with Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing on the script with Michael Dowling on the artwork with Chris Sotomayor. The tale here is intriguing as it gets underway as we deal with a Socialist generation ship looking to make a new start that gets sidetracked by living up to its principles in helping a small ship in distress that they come across. It’s told mostly through the view of the android on it with Siostra as they exist in servitude to the People. Of course, the Weyland-Yutani ship has an Alien queen on board it and that starts to change things quickly for the Forward as they have to make hard decisions of survival. It lays out a lot of basics and while some of the dialogue will sound corny to our ears, I appreciate it trying to work some future slang as it does here. It mostly just sets up the dread of what’s to come in the story, however.
The second tale is a standalone one that comes from writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Marcelo Ferreira with colorist Pete Pantazis. This is an interesting piece that introduces us to four wealthy individuals from different backgrounds that Weyland-Yutani has worked with and taken a lot of money from in order to hunt Xenomorphs. The company has set up a preserve for them and created specialized body force fields to protect them on the hunt. There’s a good bit of character material mixed in so you get a decent handle on who everyone is and why they’re there and just how easy it is to hunt these things when you’re so protected. Of course, there’s a twist (or two) within the story to up the danger level a bit more and I like the concept behind it because you so rarely see people fighting back against the company in this kind of way.
The third tale is a standalone one from writer Ryna Cady and artist Devmaly Praminik. This is a really fun piece with some additional green color to it as we get a research ship that got impacted by the Xenomorphs. It’s told through the view of the ship’s computer, Mother, as it knows it has to self-destruct to stop the spread of the contagion. But it also has to try and get the lone survivor, a little boy named Joshua whose mother was taken by the Xenomorphs, off the ship if it can without carrying the contagion further on. It’s done effectively with it guiding the kid through the danger and all that comes with it so there’s some good tension to it and the uncertainty as to whether the kid would survive. The bond that’s created here works quite well and the way Mother tries to do the right thing while also knowing it may have to sacrifice the kid is damn effective.
In Summary:
There have been a lot of decent and solid anthology-style books the last few years done under this kind of color design and concept and Alien figures in very well with it. The three tales here are all engaging and I want more of the first one while the two standalone tales deliver a strong story and work their concepts well. I’m looking forward to seeing what teams come together for the next three issues while digging more into the ongoing storyline to see what they come up with. There is a lot to like with this book if you’re a fan of the overall premise and can get into short-form storytelling because it’s tight with great artwork and some good ideas at play.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: February 21st, 2024
MSRP: $5.99
