Aliens (1988) #1

Here’s why I trust Dark Horse on licensed properties. It’s a misplaced trust, I’ve learned as I’ve gone back to read their comics as an adult, but Aliens still holds up. It’s an earnest attempt to make a sequel to the movie, but it also adapts for the comic form. There are dream sequences and flashbacks–stuff a movie wouldn’t have been able to show seriously.

As far as the writing, Verheiden does a good job. He reintroduces Newt and Hicks from the movie, puts them both in terrible situations, and then brings the aliens back in. The characters are dysfunctional because of the movie events, which the reader easily sympathizes with. It makes the reader inclined to accept the comic book. I can’t believe Aliens didn’t have more crossover appeal.

Nelson’s art is okay. It’s not indie but not accomplished enough to be mainstream; but it’s not the draw either.

Aliens 6 (July 1989)

The whole series collapses here, thanks to Verheiden’s absurd sense of self-importance. In six issues, he destroys the planet Earth. Wait, no, he doesn’t. In one issue he destroys the planet Earth. He didn’t really hint at that plan until this issue either.

He uses Newt as a narrator again and it’s just as bad as the previous issue. The problem is with the plot. He’s back in summary mode, but he’s just fitting too much into it–and Newt’s not the right narrator of the events he’s showing.

It’s a downbeat conclusion (and not a sequel-ready one, which is almost encouraging me to read the second series but I think Verheiden wrote it too and he probably horrifically narrates it with Newt).

The series is a big let down from the first two or three issues. Verheiden had too much melodrama to fit into six issues.

Blah.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; pencillers, Ron Randall and Mark A. Nelson; inker, Nelson; letterer, Willie Schubert; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens 5 (June 1989)

Yuck.

Verheiden writes the majority of the issue–maybe all of it, I can’t remember, my brain is on strike–from Newt’s perspective. He narrates the issue with her.

It’s awful female narration by a male comic book writer. Probably not the worst ever, but it’s hideous.

The plotting isn’t bad–though I’m not sure why Hicks is even in the comic anymore. He’s practically a villain at this point. Verheiden never bothered establishing a relationship between Newt and Hicks and it didn’t matter when he was telling the story in summary. But now he’s telling it in scenes and the omission is disastrous.

There’s a lot of really cool alien landscape designs here from Nelson. His art hasn’t gotten much better overall, but the design stuff is amazing. Haunting, even. I mean, I remember it from when I was a kid.

But it doesn’t make up for the narration.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; artist, Mark A. Nelson; letterer, Willie Schubert; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens 4 (April 1989)

Almost the entire issue is told in summary–it’s not bad, actually, since Verheiden is using a layered narrative (he’s gone on to write crappy Superman/Batman comics, hasn’t he? That’s unfortunate). He resolves the whole thing with the aliens on earth, which is both good and bad. It’s nice he was able to resolve it in a quick amount of time (basically last issue and this one), but it’s hurried in an unexpected way.

There’s the whole evil corporation angle here (like in the movie), but Verheiden doesn’t spend a lot of time dealing with it in scenes. So this issue, when he finally has some of these evil corporation types running around, they seem really silly–just as fanatical as the religious fanatics… but he doesn’t seem aware of it.

Again, Newt and Hicks mostly get the shaft on page time. Verheiden’s dismissed them as the series’s protagonists.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; artist, Mark A. Nelson; letterer, Willie Schubert; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens 3 (January 1989)

Has Warren Ellis read this issue? Because it reminds me a lot of his first issue for Ultimate Nightmare. It’s better than that comic, but very similar. Verheiden opens the issue with a bunch of psychological reports of people freaking out because of the alien–just being near it. It’s a cool idea, the aliens driving people crazy; it’s where Aliens is at its strongest… the stuff the movies never had the time or inclination to explore.

Unfortunately, the future Verheiden and Nelson come up with isn’t particularly interesting. The Alien movies wisely stayed as mum about earth in the future as they possibly could. It kills the space part of it in a lot of ways.

And the space part is where Verheiden runs into trouble. He’s barely got time for the Hicks and Newt Marine expedition, only enough to reveal a traitor in their midst.

Still, very readable.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; artist, Mark A. Nelson; letterer, Willie Schubert; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens 1 (May 1988)

Nelson’s art is okay. It’s not indie but not accomplished enough to be mainstream; but it’s not the draw either.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; artist, Mark A. Nelson; letterer, Willie Schubert; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #6

Stradley really doesn’t “earn” his ending here.

He decides, on the last issue, to make it all about the protagonist reconciling with her demons and choosing life. It’s inspiration and heart-warming and not at all the story he’d been writing up until this point.

Only this issue and the previous one even hint at the character’s need for internal reconciliation–the comic has a large cast and it’s not like the protagonist gets much page time as anything but the deus ex machina to save her boyfriend’s heinie. Except this time he sort of saves her. It’s actually a rather dramatic sequence–more proof of Stradley’s abilities, regardless of what meaning he chooses to foist on the comic; it’s a shame Leonardi illustrated it.

Alien world, two different types of aliens, flying machines… it should have been an awesome spectacle.

But wasn’t.

Still, the series is a pleasant surprise.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #5

Stradley compresses here. Weeks and weeks. Maybe even a month. It’s okay until he gets to the action part of the issue, which is then far less interesting than it needs to be. He follows the civilians (the protagonist’s sidekicks who haven’t really done anything since the first issue–oh, wait, her boyfriend’s there) for the last quarter of the issue and they’re boring. Stradley seems to be using them because they give the best device for his exposition….

Coming after the previous issue, with its strong battle scenes, this issue seems not just anemic but out of place. Stadley had been building towards something–each issue intensifying–but this issue lets the tension slacken. Maybe the series needed to be longer.

Leonardi doesn’t, five issues in, redeem himself, but I’ve gotten used to him. I don’t expect anything; when there’s a decent panel, however, I really do appreciate it.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #4

The romance between the protagonist and the nerdy guy doesn’t work. He’s not really a nerdy guy, of course, because he used to be in the Marines. Or something. But he’s basically the nerdy guy. He’s even got a nerdy name–I think Die Hard ruined the name Ellis for anyone serious.

But part of the comic needs the romance to be touching and significant and it’s not. Maybe Stradley doesn’t buy it either. He writes zero chemistry between them. They seem like siblings.

Otherwise, it’s a rather good issue. It’s a big invading an alien planet issue so there’s a lot of battle scenes with people and Predators fighting the aliens and then the command scenes with people and Predators standing around worried. It’s a rather well-done invasion issue, actually. Some leaps in time logic for dramatic effect, but it’s good.

Even the art doesn’t annoy too much.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (2010) #3

Wow… it’s a good issue. All throughout I mean. There’s even a big action sequence at the end and it works. Probably because Stradley writes the sequence instead of just provides a list of actions for Leonardi to draw.

As for the art, it’s still terrible. I might have to revise my opinion. Maybe Leonardi isn’t drawing the protagonist as cheesecake material because he’s simply not willing to take the time. Unless inker Pennington is going all Vince Colletta–there are a bunch of panels where the characters don’t even have faces. It’s not clear if Leonardi just didn’t bother drawing them or if Pennington got out his eraser.

But the art quibbles are somewhat small. Sure, it’s not well drawn, but the writing this time is compelling. It’s a cheap amusement and a well-written one. Stradley’s fast character establishing makes up for all the faceless characters roaming about.