Writer: John Byrne
Artist: John Byrne
Colorist: Matt Webb
Cover Art: John Byrne
Continuing with the concept of “one-shots” Dark Horse has released “Earth Angel”. My first thought in seeing the title was a relation to an oldies song also called “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)” by the Penguins released in 1954. Sounds like an unlikely relation for the extreme metal fan, but growing up in the 80’s I got to watch “Back to the Future” a few times, so the song kind of sticks out in my head thanks to the end of that movie. So I wasn’t too surprised when the Aliens script was sort of a 1950’s styled horror script.
In this short story written and drawn by John Byrne we see some young kids stumble upon a crashed space ship. This makes sense for the 1950’s time frame because people were still going bonkers for the UFO crash at Rosewell in 1947. Hell, people still go bonkers for that today! So the alien obsession was pretty rife in that time frame. Here we see a different alien species crash, but the pilot has a Facehugger attached to his face. Of course these people have no clue what that thing is. Eventually it falls off and the Chestburster comes out and all kinds of havoc ensue. Byrne throws in some biker gang tangent for good measure to play up that 1950’s cliché as they encounter the Alien. The attempt to tie it into the greater Aliens saga seemed kind of random and out of place, at least in my opinion. It’s not a terrible story, but it does feel like it goes by way to fast to really have any lasting effect. Maybe a one-shot wasn’t the greatest decision for this piece, or maybe they should have had a double sized issue to really develop the story and characters more. You don’t ever really get into the human characters, because there simply isn’t enough time. The art for the series is very well done overall and definitely added a quality atmosphere to the read. Even though it was a bit rushed, I felt the art did add a significant amount to it.
Overall it’s not a bad issue. It didn’t really wow me in anyway, but the story is kind of cliché, but I think that’s kind of the point. I just wish there wasn’t an attempt at the end to wrap it into the main saga, I’d rather this be a totally fluke encounter that can be sort of ignored… like a random “what if” kind of fun story. But the end makes it seem like we need to consider it in context and realize that the Aliens have been around for centuries! I don’t know, just felt a bit off for me. The story certainly had enough action to keep me entertained and the cliché factor was all in good fun, so if you’re feeling a bit of nostalgia for the old alien stories from the 50’s, I think this will live up to your expectations.
Overall Rating: 2.7/5