All right, I’m clearly missing something here. Not only does my android question go unresolved, so does the two major questions the series raised–why are these aliens different than those previously encountered and what’s the deal with the mystical alien canyon?

The letters page this issue tells the reader to stick with the comic continuity, but I’m pretty sure Dark Horse stopped doing new Aliens comics in 1999, which means other than collected editions, this story is the first new one in ten years. And they expect the reader to know their continuity?

You’ve got to be kidding me. What about the casual reader who’s picking up the series because of all Dark Horse’s anniversary nonsense?

Again, it’s a fine enough Aliens story (it would have been right at home running through eight issues of Dark Horse Presents), but come on–this series isn’t some awesome event.

It’s common.

Ok, so, a little more information–there was an alien invasion of earth, which I kind of remember from the old Dark Horse comics. Old as in before Alien³. Still, not sure what’s going on here. The android’s a weak lead, but there aren’t any other good options. The supporting cast is all weak too (they’re recovering from some kind of mind control).

The question Arcudi hasn’t answered yet is whether the android’s ship’s crew knew he was an android. Not sure why that question is so important to me, but it’s a definite necessity. There’s so little to the character, other than his physical presence, it’d give some context.

I don’t think I should be trying to figure out the ground situation in the third issue though.

Aliens is leaving a lot to be desired. They’re pretending it isn’t a relaunched series instead of celebrating.

One to go.

Thought balloons. Arcudi uses thought balloons. I haven’t seen a thought balloon in a new comic in so long, I thought it was some kind of stylizing error (the character also talks to himself so it’s possible).

Um. Otherwise. Huh.

Aliens is a competent book. Arcudi doesn’t do a bad job, but it’s all in the approach. He’s hiding stuff from the reader (the protagonist is a newly android who kills–they aren’t supposed to harm any living thing, right?–and falls in love–with a murdered crew mate). The android also seems to know about previous encounters with the alien. I don’t know Dark Horse Aliens continuity so I’m kind of lost–except I think I’m supposed to be lost.

Presumably, all will be revealed, but Arcudi’s halfway through the book now and he’s basically established the protagonist and had him go for a walk. Not exactly high drama.

Wow, Zach Howard’s good. Never heard of him before (or maybe I have), but he’s great. Seems a little bit wasted on an Aliens relaunch (seeing as how the first issue is mostly people, just a couple xenomorphs and Howard clearly is putting more into the composition of the people panels).

The rest of it, the comic itself, is wasteful. It invalidates itself in the last few pages (actually, in the third act, Arcudi nicely gives his comic acts) and instead serves as an interesting way to do exposition.

I’d probably love the approach if Aliens was running five issues instead of four, but it isn’t and blowing a quarter of your series on exposition seems like a bad idea.

There’s no (as far as I can tell) direct ties to previous Aliens titles, only some homage and a reference to the movies.

In other words, too early to tell.