Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Paul Johnson
This is the first Aliens one-shot comic to be released. It’s definitely a beautiful issue, but the story feels very random to me. I know that one-shot issues don’t necessarily need to fit into the greater series, but you’ll see what I mean when I get into the overview. I’m glad this is a squarebound issue so we get a little more depth in our story with the extra page count. I think this story will really appeal to fans that prefer the more suspenseful and mysterious Alien stories.
“Sacrifice” takes place on a remote colony, as most Alien stories seem to, and begins with a ship losing control and crashing on the planet. Interestingly this ship is not carrying Aliens, and I was happy for that! This ship crashes and there is a single survivor named Ann. A man named John Masters finds her and brings her back to the colony. The colony is having an issue with a single Alien on the planet and they haven’t left their hold in months. Everyone is too afraid to go outside and face that thing. So people are a little stir crazy and that dramatic tension adds a lot to the comic. Unfortunately it focuses more on that aspect rather than fighting the Alien and you don’t see the Alien all that much in this issue, which is probably this issues major downfall. There’s a strange story arc about Ann being a priest, which amplifies the questionable ethics and morality of aspects of this story. One thing I found interesting was that in the end Ann lost her faith in God and stopped being a priest. I suppose some people might have an issue in this, I certainly didn’t. I’m not entirely certain why they included this aspect into the comics, it was never really in the Aliens series before, and honestly I preferred it when Slavaje and his fanatics were worshipping the creatures. I’d rather see more of that in the future, because I just think it makes things interesting.
Paul Johnson’s art for this series was definitely one of the highlights. His painted pictures evoked a very moody and mysterious feeling. It definitely fell in line with the dark aspects we’d expect from a terrifying Aliens story. Since this story is far more dramatic, rather than action based, the art needs to have a more detailed feel to really capture the power of emotion and Johnson’s work does that quite well.
Overall this was a decent read. I don’t mind religious things being included, but I just feel it isn’t all that needed in an Aliens series and I hope it doesn’t play a major role in the future. It’s definitely an interesting book, albeit a quick read, I think it will definitely appeal to those who liked the tension created in the first Alien movie. It’s not much of a must read in the Aliens series, but the art is quite beautiful, so anyone should be pleased on that regard.
Overall Rating: 3/5