Script: Mark Vehelden
Art: Sam Kieth
Cover Art: John Bolton
What happened? Judging by John Bulton’s cover art you would think this was going to be one of the best illustrated series in the Aliens line so far! Unfortunately, as you can see above, John Bulton is not the artist of the series. I know I usually start off with the story and writing, but the art is such a shocking shift, I think it’s a good place to start this time around.
One thing that Dark Horse has done consistently so far is have a column in the back of the comic where they post letters from people and answer them. I typically peruse these at the end of an issue just to see what other people think. Well, apparently I’m not alone in my criticism of Sam Keith’s art. I, like many others, agree that his art is basically inappropriate for an Aliens series. With highly detailed and realistic covers like issue one, it’s kind of a rip off to see such cartoony art within an issue. I know their stance is that if we are unhappy with it then stop buying it; the problem here is that I’m already locked into Mark’s story. I really do want to find out what happens and Sam’s art is merely diminishing my interest. It doesn’t mean I won’t get the comic; I need to find out what happens!
Okay, we all learned last issue that Ripley was back! Many people were excited about this, I personally wasn’t. For me, I was reading these well after Alien 3 came out, so my interest in Ripley has kind of passed on. I liked the Newt and Hicks team that was present in the first two series. Although, I suppose she was predominantly brought back by popular demand judging by the letters from people. Anyway, that being said, she’s back and she looks like a bubble. That’s right… I mean, I can’t figure out why Sam thought this made sense. Her hair is HUGE and she looks like a talking bubble. It just doesn’t work. The coloring work on the first issue is insanely bright, so it doesn’t even feel like your reading an Aliens comic. Luckily this problem was recognized and they started to darken things up in later issues. One other minor point that didn’t make sense artistically, before I get on to the story, is when they returned to Earth in the end there were zombie like creatures wandering around chasing after Amy and her father. What the hell is this?? It doesn’t even make any sense! Aliens isn’t a zombie book, it’s an Aliens book. Sam’s interpretation of the human population left on Earth and mentally enslaved by the Alien Queen is one of the worst representations I’ve seen yet. None of them were like this in the last series. It just crushes the feel of continuity; seriously some of them look like they just had skulls and no skin, what is that?!
Alright, so the art is terrible, we know that. But how’s the story this time around? Honestly, it’s just okay. Mark didn’t really blow me away this time and I feel like there are some inconsistencies. I think the overall tale of a super Queen is great! It’s a really cool concept and I’m glad it’s in here, but outside of that the story kind of falls apart for me. First thing we notice that feels off is Ripley’s character. I think she is written completely wrong, at least in terms of flash backs. So the story goes that she was picked up in transit from LV426 at the end of Aliens. Some other ship docked with the Sulaco and picked her up, threatening to take Hicks or Newt instead as experts on another Alien mission. I buy that, we’re in character. Then the marines start questioning Ripley’s quality and Ripley rattles off some detailed information about an assault rifle they ask her about. I had to ask myself, why would Ripley know this information? First off in Aliens Ripley is a civilian. In the movie she has to ask Hicks to explain how a Rifle works and as far as we could see there were no other kinds of weapons outside of the ones we saw in the film. Why would Ripley know about a completely different weapon right after that? It’s not exactly like she had hours to study weapon systems in her free time on LV426… Sound like I’m nit-picking? I don’t think so, because this is where her character flaw is huge. Her knowledge of weapons and military aspects are vast. Granted in the current time frame which is about fifteen years after the mission on LV426, I suppose she could’ve been heavily trained into military things. Okay, but it just feels so out of place for her character being this great military leader even in the flash back parts! I’m not really sure why Mark decided to make her into a military bad ass, but that’s what we got and it just feels off and out of character. I mean, seriously, she’s strutting around Gateway station giving people orders and she even has her own marine detail! I guess technically it’s possible, it just seems highly unlikely.
For some reason Hicks’ thunder is also completely gone in this issue. It’s like all of a sudden he went from being a man of action to just being depressed about everything and not wanting to go back. Then Ripley steps in and gives all kinds of commands, it just feels like I’m reading about totally different characters than were setup in the original issues and series. The part that really kind of throws me off and I think is ignored in later comics is that Earth is apparently completely lost to the strange alien from the derelict space craft. Apparently they made the Alien so it could terraform a world for them? I’m not one hundred percent sure if that’s what was meant with this character since it is very quickly explained in the very last issue. It just felt like something that huge should’ve been explained a little more in depth. I think the other comics ignore this detail and just continue on like Earth was never infested with Aliens in the first place. Honestly, after reading this issue I’m glad that’s how they treat it.
Anyway, that’s my piece. Aliens started off strong and ended pretty poorly, in my opinion. I realize that art is subjective and maybe other people loved it, but I can’t see many people disagreeing with my critique of how Ripley looks. I mean just look at the picture of her in issue four of the second series and compare what she became in “Earth War”. If you don’t have a mental disconnect, there is something wrong with how you perceive these images. I’m not entirely sure why, but it felt like the overall story was a bit rushed as well. Certainly not the strongest effort in the Aliens series, luckily Aliens will have other artists and writers in the future and some of those will be very good. For now, this is where Mark’s story ends, it was very ambitious and I’m glad he wrote it. Like a lot of trilogies… the final note was not as huge as it should have been. Maybe he didn’t write this out as a trilogy initially? Maybe he was just writing as he goes and that could be the problem? I’ve noticed that if something is pre-written for being a series instead of a self contained story, then it’s usually much better. I wonder if this may have been the problem with this series. Long review… I know… but what can I say? I’m a pretty big Aliens fan and maybe that’s my problem, I want things to always be perfect!
Overall Rating: 2.3/5