A decent start.
Creative Staff:
Story: William Gibson
Script and Art: Johnnie Christmas
Colors: Tamra Bonvillain
Letters: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
This is the official adaptation of the original screenplay for Alien 3, written by William Gibson, the award-winning science fiction author of the cyberpunk cult classic Neuromancer. You’ll see familiar characters and places–but not all is the same in this horrifying Cold War thriller!
After the deadly events of the film Aliens, the spaceship Sulaco carrying the sleeping bodies of Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop is intercepted by the Union of Progressive Peoples. What the UPP forces don’t expect is another deadly passenger that is about to unleash chaos between two governmental titans intent on developing the ultimate Cold War weapon of mass destruction.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’m not one of the haters of Alien 3 (or Alien Cubed as it’s written on the posters and whatnot). Sure, it’s bleak as hell, kills off beloved characters, and makes you want to hide under a blanket and sip hot cocoa and read comics until the sadness goes away, but it is also visually interesting and distinct, and it has Charles S. Dutton. Show me a bad performance that man made. Go on, I dare you.
Oh, yeah, it also has the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann, and dude’s dreamy.
Moving on: despite not being a hater, I was excited to read this adaptation. I devoured William Gibson’s works when I was a teenager, and the thought of him playing around in the Alien universe made me hopeful. The result for this first issue, though, is a bit of a mixed bag.
After the events in Aliens, the Sulaco makes its way back to Earth, minus a few dozen marines and a corporate stooge. Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop sleep the sleep of the just in their cryotubes. Unfortunately, the Sulaco’s flight path takes it just beyond the border of Earth-controlled space into the territory of the Union of Progressive Peoples. A UPP interceptor patrol docks with the Sulaco, and the crew has fourteen minutes to find anything worth stealing before the ship leaves their territory.
Almost immediately, a facehugger attacks the crew. Somehow, someway, a xenomorph egg had been laid in the android Bishop’s torso (or what was left of it) and it jumped the first person to breach the cryotube. The interceptor crew end up leaving their comrade and take off with the top half of Bishop.
After that, the Sulaco finally makes it to a Weyland-Yutani space station. A couple of W-Y suits are already on the scene and cause immediate friction when they take over the operation. The man in charge of the station, Colonel Rosetti, accuses the suits of sending a code to the Sulaco that nudged it off course into the UPP territory. If this is true, then W-Y made a serious breach in the tenuous treaty between Earth and UPP, which could lead to nuclear war.
For the most part, this issue works to establish the world and the characters. Although this was written as the third movie in the franchise, Gibson’s story introduces new elements to the already-established universe, namely the Union of Progressive Peoples, and the story uses a goodly amount of dialogue to help the reader understand the politics at work here and the existence of this cold war between Earth and the UPP, and because of that, the pacing is a little wonky.
The comic gives us something exciting in the beginning—the alien attack, but then it slows down considerably to introduce the new characters and the political situation. That’s necessary, but it also means that the comic starts off with a bang, but ends with a whimper. I didn’t mind it, but it also didn’t knock my socks off. It also makes me wonder if my excitement over Christmas using Gibson’s original script plus my own affection for the franchise might not have carried me through the slower parts. If I weren’t a fan of both Gibson and Alien, I might not be so forgiving.
Right now, the potential for what’s to come is more intriguing than what’s actually on the page. That often happens with first issues. This isn’t to say that the writing here is bad. Christmas does a fine job adapting the script to the comic book form. The art is also solid. It’s more cartoony than photorealistic (which I like), but it also captures the likeness of the actors well. The colors also do a good job of matching the palette of the original two movies, which creates a nice sense of connection here. It looks like an Alien movie. With any luck, the next issue will pick up the pace and really get the story going.
In Summary:
William Gibson’s Alien 3 #1 is a bit janky in terms of pacing, and suffers a bit from first issue-itis, but it’s a solid start with potential to grow. The cold war politics that Gibson’s story injects into the Alien universe is interesting and opens up intriguing story possibilities, and that’s enough to make me come back for issue two. Dr. J gives this a…
Grade: B
Age Rating: 14+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 14th 2018
MSRP: $3.99
