Review: Alien #1

“Alien” continues to be one of the most influential of modern-day science fiction horror movies. At its most fundamental level, “Alien” is a movie about things that can jump out of the dark and kill you.

Story Thus Far:

In the year, 2200, Gabriel Cruz is trying to work through his trauma associated with his time aboard the Epsilon Station. Moreover, Cruz is trying to piece back together his life with the help of, a Weylan-Yutani company, appointed Bishop-model android. The Story Within a Story Within a Story is Cruz’s efforts to patch things up with his last surviving son, Danny. But Danny is by and large an Anti-corporation activist looking for a way to illegally access the Epsilon Station.

Dialogue:

There is a multi-perspective angle that adds an unspoken layer to the dialogue, because the audience knows the big threat sits in the background. On the other hand, Danny, who is a stand in for an audience surrogate, is just unlikable. Every word out of his mouth makes you want to knock the teeth out of it. Even when he is having an emotional conversation with his Father, you know it is nothing more than a manipulative device to distract him.

I forgot that the intention of this story is a Sci-fi horror because the dialogue was reduced to terse statements surrounding the Magnetic Plot device of the Epsilon Station, telegraphing the plot.

“Alien” lacks the organic textured approach that the original movie was able to achieve. Whereas, the original was centered around workers just trying to do a job. Some of the characters feel more like Anti-corporate themed adventurers. Which would be fine but right now there is not a likeable Ripley type character meant to serve as an author surrogate.

Note to Comic Speculators:

The play here is still Aliens #1(1988 Darkhorse); but there are new characters and Xenomorphs in this issue. Moreover, On March 2, 2021, Cold Iron Studios announced a new game for the franchise was announced: Aliens: Fireteam, a third-person survival shooter inspired by the blockbuster Alien franchise. Set after the events of Aliens 3, the titular team must fight against the infamous Xenamorph as the team are dispatched to clean up remote space colonies.

SCORE: 3/5

Marvel’s Alien #1 Will have a whopping 7 Retailer Incentive Covers: Cover A, a Beautiful Inhyuk Lee cover; the Cover B, was done by Ron Lim; the Cover C, Peach Momoko; Cover D, drawn by Todd Nauck; Cover E, Patrick Gleason; Cover F, kinda cute Skottie Young; Cover G, the highly sought after Momoko Virgin Var (1:100); The very expensive Cover H, Inhyuk Lee Virgin Var (1:500); Steve McNiven (1:50); the Salvador Larroca (1:25); The David Finch Launch to close it out.

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Guru Efx
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel Comics