The premiere of Alien: The Eighth Passenger took place in 1979 but it was not until 1986, coinciding with the premiere of aliens: return, when Dark Horse released the stories of the xenomorphs in comics. Panini Comics brings together the first years of publications in a large format and with more than a thousand pages.
From the heart of hell… I stab you
Quote a phrase taken from the work Moby Dick written by Herman Melville in the mid-19th century, and which has been honored in the cinema by films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it is not free when we talk about the Aliens that populate the pages of the comics that we have in hand within this macro volume. No one who comes close to these stories can doubt the lethality of these beings, much less their resistance to the most adverse conditions and their ability to survive when they seem to be on the ropes.
Those who face a xenomorph must be very aware of the need to ensure their death because the slightest margin of confidence will turn against them, because even defeated, on the verge of a lock that pushes them into the void of space, the alien he can take our lives, he will die killing if necessary.
We have witnessed, during the chronicle of the multiple films they have starred in, the way they are organized, the hierarchy they follow, their protective behavior towards the hive of which they are a part. They are capable of making sacrifices to protect their queen, the one who perpetuates the species by laying the eggs that, when they hatch, will give life to the first form they acquire, that of the face huggers. Once they place their seed in another living being, the gestation of the definitive creature will begin, that death machine that has been producing so much terror for more than four decades. And when it came to bringing those stories to this format, Dark Horse chose to embrace what we had already been able to experience in the first two films.
What could be and the cinematographic canon did not allow
As we delve into the reading, the first thing we find is a story that has as protagonists Corporal Hicks of the Space Marines (Space Marines) and Newt, the girl who rescues Lieutenant Ripley in the second film of the saga. All fans of the franchise know what happened to Hicks and Newt because we could see it in Alien 3 (1992), so this adventure stopped being an official canon very soon. The worst thing about this first arc of the volume is the recoloring that it suffered later since it was originally published in black and white. The ending is somewhere between happy and bittersweet and even though it remains an anecdote now, it’s worth reading. The script is in charge of Mark Verheiden (producer and scriptwriter for film and television) and the drawing is the work of Mark A. Nelson (with some works for the main publishers in the USA).
Verheiden also signs, along with cartoonists Denis Beauvais and Sam Keith, the following two miniseries. The same protagonists, Hicks and Newt, who are joined by a certain lieutenant who is the quintessential scourge of xenomorphs, Ellen Ripley. Her appearance is made to wait until the end of the first one, but her presence eclipses any other. Once again we know that these pages are no longer part of the canon of the saga but maintain the terrifying and claustrophobic tone that characterizes Aliens so much. Beauvais and Keith could not be more different, the first with a drawing tending towards realism and with clean lines contrasts with the second with its dirtier and darker lines.
What should stand out
After a handful of loose stories we find two miniseries of four numbers each that represent an important turning point. In Genocide and Colmena we find much more adult and convoluted plots that study different ways of approaching the xenomorphs, without abandoning a theme that has been constant in the franchise, the use of one way or another of the virtues of the aliens, well as a lethal weapon or as an object of study, to find corporate benefit in either case. That everything goes for the interests of a few who are not those who usually suffer the consequences of those who have the bad luck to cross their paths in those beings. In the first one, script by John Arcudi and drawing by Damon Willis. For the second Jerry Prosser on the word processor and Kelley Jones on the pencils.
After that short illustrated novel that is Tribes, we find Newt’s Story, telling its origin and part of what we already saw in theaters in Aliens: The Return, by Mike Richardson and Jim Somerville, just before giving way to the final stretch. of the volume with the adaptation in three parts of the film Alien 3, directed by Steven Grant and Christopher Taylor. It is a faithful adaptation to the last of the scenes, the one that ended the character of Ellen Ripley… before they decided to recover it in the fourth film of the franchise, Alien: Resurrection.
To finish off the large hardcover volume, we find some curiosities, such as the mini comics that appeared accompanying the figures launched by Neca under the name of Aliens: Space Marines. In addition, a multitude of illustrations, original pages or covers for tradepaperback reissues, as well as articles and interviews with the authors of these comics. We cannot say that they have all aged equally well, but they are part of the history of the Aliens saga.
Marvel All Alien: The original stage 1
Title: : Marvel All Alien: The original stage 1
URL : Milcomics
Author : Mark Verheiden, Denis Beauvais, Paul Guinan, Anina Bennett, Mike Richardson, Damon Willis, Jerry Prosser, Dave Dorman, Jim Somerville, Steven Grant, Simon Bisley, Steve Bissette, Sam Kieth, Mark Nelson, Kelley Jones, John Arcudi
Format : Paperback
ISBN : 9788411501545
Description : As Marvel launches a new xenomorph invasion, rediscover the legacy of the Alien comics! Some familiar faces star in stories that expand the myths of the movies. As Hicks and Newt embark on a deadly mission to find and destroy the creatures’ homeworld, a deadly outbreak leaves Earth overrun by aliens. Billionaire Daniel Grant sets his sights on an alien queen, and scientist Stanislaw Mayakovsky must recover one of the galaxy’s most precious substances, alien royal jelly. But can even Earth’s greatest fighting force, the Colonial Marines, hold off the most terrifying and relentless creatures of all? Jesus Salvador Gomez
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