Aliens (comics)

AUTHOR: Byrne, John; Guinan, Paul; Verheiden, Mark

ARTIST: Sergio Aragones (illustrator); Peter Bagge(illustrator); Steve Bissette (illustrator); John Byrne (illustrator); Richard Corben (illustrator); Ronnie Del Carmen (illustrator); Paul Guinan (illustrator); Paul Johnson (illustrator); Kelley Jones (illustrator); Moebius (illustrator); Mark A. Nelson (illustrator); Doug Wheatley (illustrator); Bernie Wrightson (illustrator); Tim Hamilton (penciller); Flint Henry (penciller); Mike Mignola (penciller); Doug Mahnke (penciller and inker)

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1988-1999

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2007-2009

Publication History

Building upon the world established in the films Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), Dark Horse Comic began to publish various miniseries and one-issue comics in 1988, initially with the title Aliens and then with specific subtitles. Shorter pieces ran in Dark Horse Presents and Dark Horse Comics, regular anthology titles, and in special single-issue anthologies from Dark Horse, often to celebrate the company’s anniversary. Dark Horse also published some miniseries, such as Aliens: Earth War (1991) and Aliens: Tribes (1992),in trade paperback, hardback, and signed, numbered collector’s editions. For the most part, these publications are superseded by the six-volume omnibus edition published between 2007 and 2009, although the omnibus does not include Tribes, for example. This omnibus edition includes works by more than thirty writers and more than fifty illustrators.

The first Aliens miniseries and some other comics were originally published in black and white, but they were colored for the omnibus edition. Volume six contains some work in black and white, as well as Bernie Wrightson’s uninked pencils. Also, the series initially featured the characters Hicks and Newt, major characters in the film Aliens. However, Hicks and Newt die in Alien 3 (1992), so the characters are renamed Wilks and Billie in later printings.

Plot

Ten years after the events of the movie Aliens, Billie is in a mental hospital and Wilks is struggling as a marine; both suffer trauma from their experiences with the violent, almost unstoppable aliens. When aliens invade a spaceship, Colonel Orona assigns Wilks to accompany a mission to capture a specimen. Wilks rescues Billie, about to be lobotomized, and takes her with him. Meanwhile on Earth, a cult has grown up around the aliens, and volunteers gestate aliens in their own bodies.

Despite efforts to control them, the aliens take over Earth. Orona is in favor of the aliens wiping out the unfit, while the human leaders leave Earth. A member of the other extraterrestrial species from the film Alien—seen in the original film as the huge skeleton of the “space jockey” near the breeding chamber—comes to Earth, but it does not aid the humans.

After time at General Thomas Spears’s secret base, Wilks and Billie encounter Ellen Ripley, hero of the films but a minor character in the comics. Ripley knows where the aliens’ home world is and that it contains an “überqueen.” The three capture the queen, hoping to lure all the aliens into one place and then kill them in an explosion. This endeavor succeeds, but the space jockey’s alien species has manipulated Ripley to purge the Earth of the invaders only so that it can eventually take over Earth. Ripley and Wilks take revenge, and Billie rescues Amy, a girl on Earth.

After this narrative arc in the first two volumes of the omnibus, the three characters from the film Aliens do not reappear in the comics; the next volumes continue the story with imaginative extrapolation. Earth has somewhat rebuilt, and alien royal jelly has become a much-valued drug. A billionaire mounts an expedition to obtain more from the aliens’ home planet and finds that lacking an überqueen, red and black aliens fight in a manner similar to ants. Dr. Stan Mayakovsky, a brilliant scientist addicted to royal jelly, creates a synthetic alien to infiltrate the hive.

“Colonial Marines” depicts soldiers fighting aliens and alien/human hybrids, called Bug-Men, in space and on non-Earth planets. In one fight, the soldiers are aided by obsolete and abandoned maintenance robots. New weapons include acid-resistant armor and a pheromone band to disguise humans from alien senses.

The remainder of the series consists of separate stories, all with different characters and often on different worlds. “Earth Angel” takes place on Earth in the 1950’s and “Stalker” among the Vikings. Some stories—such as “Labyrinth,” “Frenzy,” and “Stronghold”—are connected to the earlier stories, with plots featuring the Colonial Marines or attempts to exploit the aliens by the corrupt company Weyland-Yutani or its successor, the Grant Corporation. Some stories, such as “Sacrifice” and “Wraith,” explore how humans living in off-world colonies might respond to invasion by one alien or a small group. “Alchemy” features the passengers of a ship long cut off from Earth who now believe they are a separate species. “Alien,” “Taste,” and “Incubation” show new intelligent extraterrestrial species interacting with the aliens; in the first, the pretechnological protagonist thinks that human beings in space suits are dangerous, and he kills one for a trophy.

Volumes

•Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 (2007). Collects “Outbreak” (Aliens, issues1-6; 1988-1989), “Nightmare Asylum” (Aliens series 2, issues 1-4; 1989-1990), “Female War” (Aliens: Earth War, issues1-4; 1990), “Theory of Alien Propagation” (Dark Horse Presents, issue24; 1988), and “The Alien” (DHP, issue56; 1991). Follows one narrative, a continuation of the film Aliens, and features Wilks and Billie (formerly named Hicks and Newt) and Ripley.

•Aliens Omnibus Volume 2 (2007). Collects “Genocide” (Aliens: Genocide, issues1-4; 1991-1992), “Harvest” (Aliens: Hive, issues1-4; 1992), and “Colonial Marines” (Aliens: Colonial Marines, issues1-10; 1993-1994). Continues and concludes the story of Wilks, Billie, and Ripley.

•Aliens Omnibus Volume 3 (2008). Collects “Rogue” (Aliens: Rogue, issues1-4; 1993), “Sacrifice” (Aliens: Sacrifice; 1993), “Labyrinth” (Aliens: Labyrinth, issues1-4; 1993-1994), “Salvation” (Aliens: Salvation;1993), “Advent/Terminus” (DHP, issues42-43; 1990), “Reapers” (Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special; 1991), and “Horror Show” (Dark Horse Comics,issues3-5; 1992). Expands beyond the movies, introducing new characters but primarily retaining the basic theme of someone battling the aliens while someone else tries to experiment on, train, or otherwise use them.

•Aliens Omnibus Volume 4 (2008). Collects “Music of the Spears” (Aliens: Music of the Spears, issues1-4; 1994), “Stronghold” (Aliens: Stronghold;1994), “Frenzy” (Aliens Berserker, issues 1-4; 1995), “Taste” (DHC, issue11; 1993), “Mondo Pest” (Aliens: Mondo Pest; 1995), and “Mondo Heat” (Aliens: Mondo Heat; 1996). Explores new ideas and experiments with genres other than suspense and adventure.

•Aliens OmnibusVolume 5 (2008). Collects “Alchemy” (Aliens: Alchemy, issues 1-3; 1997), “Kidnapped” (Aliens: Kidnapped, issues 1-3; 1997-1998), “Survival” (Aliens: Survival; 1998), “Cargo” (DHC, issues15-16; 1993), “Alien” (DHC, issues17-19; 1994), “Earth Angel” (Aliens: Earth Angel; 1994), “Incubation” (DHP, issues 101-102; 1995), “Havoc” (Aliens: Havoc; 1997), “Lovesick” (Aliens: Lovesick; 1996), and “Lucky” (Decade of Dark Horse, issue 3; 1996). Expands upon the ideas behind the films Alien and Aliens, taking them in new directions and into new settings.

•Aliens Omnibus Volume 6 (2009). Collects “Apocalypse” (Aliens: Apocalypse—The Destroying Angels, issues1-4; 1999), “Once in a Lifetime” (DHP, issue140; 1999), “Xenogenesis” (Aliens: Xenogenesis, issues1-4; 1999), “Headhunters” (DHP, issue117; 1997), “Tourist Season” (Dark Horse Presents Annual 1997; 1998), “Pig” (Aliens: Pig; 1997), “Border Lines” (DHP, issue121; 1997), “45 Seconds” and “Elder Gods” (Aliens: Special; 1997), “Purge” (Aliens: Purge; 1997), “Glass Corridor” (Aliens: Glass Corridor; 1998), “Stalker” (Aliens: Stalker; 1998), and “Wraith” (Aliens: Wraith; 1998). Offers some humor and compelling human characters.

Characters

•Wilks (Hicks in the original publication) is a belligerent, frequently drunk marine who had a traumatic encounter with the aliens ten years before. While being manipulated by the government and fighting an alien invasion, he teams up with Ripley again, but he does not seem to soften. His face is scarred in “Outbreak” and “Female War” but not in “Nightmare Asylum,” the second story of that three-story arc.

•Billie (Newt in the original publication) is an unhappy young woman who was institutionalized after her encounter with the aliens. She is bitter about being abandoned by Ripley, but they are reunited. Billie falls in love with Beuller, an android marine, neither of them knowing he is synthetic. She almost envies the aliens’ ruthlessness, but she eventually realizes that love is an essential component of humanity and that her love for Beuller is real. She rescues Amy, a girl who reminds her of her younger self.

•General Thomas A. W. Spears is one of the many ruthless, monomaniacal agents of government and business trying to breed, train, or otherwise use the aliens. Spears was raised in an artificial womb and has served in the Colonial Marines all his life. He is willing to sacrifice even his own men in pursuit of his goals. Finally, his own aliens kill him.

•Colonel Doctor Church is one of many evil scientists to appear in Aliens. He survives capture in an alien hive by cutting the alien embryo out of his own body and goes on to cruelly experiment on human beings and captured aliens alike.

•Norbert and Jeri are synthetic, human-produced “xenomorphs” that can infiltrate the alien nests but are friendly to humans and have human abilities, such as speech, weapons usage, and even proper manners. They represent the series’ ongoing theme about the definition of human.

•Alien King is created by scientist Professor Ernst Kleist using alien queen and human DNA. He is supposed to mate with a queen alien but is killed by her, after which Kleist destroys both of them and himself.

•Herk Mondo is an independent exterminator of aliens. He is capable of killing multiple aliens at once, yet he is oddly endearing. His stories demonstrate a charming humor, partly through the exaggeration or even parody of heroism.

•Damon Eddington is an avant-garde musician who has an alien captured so he can record its sounds and use them in his compositions.

•Ivy Derringer is a gorgeous and incredibly rich celebrity. Her “terraformed” asteroid spa, Celeste, is invaded by an alien.

•Victor Thompson is a geologist who is secretly experimented upon with alien DNA. His hallucinations resulting from the experiment combine with his feelings of guilt for failing to save his family.

•Gropius Lysenko is a scientist for Weyland-Yutani. His experiments with royal jelly have separated his consciousness from his body, and when a team salvages the ship in which he conducted research, Lysenko controls various members to warn the team and help it fight the aliens.

•Alecto Throop is the head of Throop Rescue and Recovery, which is hired to retrieve survivors of a Weyland-Yutani mission. She is clever, and in addition to fighting aliens, she discovers interesting history about them.

Artistic Style

More than fifty artists contributed to the stories collected in the omnibus, not counting the forty-three who created single pages for the story “Havoc.” Contributors include many artists famous for other work. Richard Corben, first active in underground comics in the 1960’s, and French artist Moebius also contributed to the magazine Heavy Metal, while Sergio Aragones became well-known in MAD magazine. John Byrne primarily worked for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, while Mike Mignola (Hellboy, 1994- ) and Peter Bagge (Hate, 1990-1998) are known for their independent comics. Few of the artists are known primarily for work on horror comics.

Generally, the art strikes a good balance between realistic representation and expression of tone or stylistic experiment. Paradoxically, science-fiction stories often need to be more realistic than other stories, because readers do not have the touchstones they do in a story about ordinary life. Mark A. Nelson’s art shows recognition of this, setting the standard for the artists who followed.

Within these parameters, the art is individual, usually fitting the story well. “Harvest,” a character-oriented story, is well served by Kelley Jones’s close-ups and expressive faces, while Paul Guinan, in “Colonial Marines,” and Doug Mahnke, in “Stronghold,” excel in creating action sequences and “starscapes.” Tim Hamilton depicts magnificent gore in “Music of the Spears.” Ronnie Del Carmen, in the “Mondo” stories, notably blends humorous exaggeration and dark, brooding shadows to capture the appropriate tone, and Flint Henry does the same in “Pig.” Paul Johnson’s “Sacrifice,” Den Beauvais’s “Nightmare Asylum,” and, to some extent, Doug Wheatley’s “Apocalypse” offer lush, painted appearances, while Mignola’s “Salvation” and Phil Hester’s “Purge” effectively use blocks of inked shadows to convey menace and strangeness.

Themes

Like the Alien movies, the comic book stories exhibit a basic distrust of corporations and highlight the greed and hubris that make the aliens attractive as soldiers or as the source of other products. Unlike in the film Aliens, this distrust often extends to the government, which may work hand in hand with corporations. In the comics, the Colonial Marines are often, but not always, the “good guys.” As one marine says in “Outbreak,” “There are no sides anymore—just money—and we’re expendable.” Many of the stories depict various types of manipulation, deceit, and betrayal.

The first two volumes of the omnibus, “Stronghold,” and other stories continue the thematic discussion from the movie Aliens about what it means to be human; the answer seems to be that human beings without compassion are worse than synthetic beings. This definition of “human” may be influenced by the fiction of Philip K. Dick and the movie Bladerunner (1982), based on Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).

The comics also explore issues of gender, as do the films. Ripley appears as a significant minor character, and the stories feature many strong, intelligent, and independent women. Men can often be judged by their treatment of women; for example, the mad scientist Dr. Nordling sexually abuses his female android, with whom the female protagonist, Dr. Strunk, sympathizes. The first two volumes continue the theme of motherhood from the movie Aliens, placing Ripley, Billie, and then Amy in opposition to the alien queen and her brood.

Many of the stories depict Earth and, thus, extrapolate more cultural trends than the films do. The impact of television on society increases, and not for the better, as seen in “Outbreak” and “Kidnapped.” Given that every known society has developed some kind of consciousness-altering substance, the manufacture of drugs from alien royal jelly is original yet natural. The first two volumes of the omnibus and stories such as “Sacrifice,” “Alchemy,” “Apocalypse,” and “Elder Gods” all feature religions that are at worst malevolent and at best a source of morality but prone to misuse.

Impact

From the beginning, writer Mark Verheiden said that he did not want to adapt but to continue the movie Aliens. Although the practice of basing comics on successful television shows and films extends back to the 1960’s, with comics based on Star Trek andvarious Disney characters, the Aliens comics go farther in adding new material to an established fictional universe.

In fact, the expanded universe of the comics may have influenced the subsequent Aliens films, since human/alien hybrids and other experiments with alien DNA appear in comics published before the release of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection (1997). Dark Horse Comics also published stories pitting these aliens against the predator from the film Predator (1987) long before the release of AVP:Alien vs. Predator (2004).

Indisputably, the success of the Aliens comics proved that licensing a television show or film franchise on which to base a comic book series could be highly profitable. In addition to Aliens and Predator, Dark Horse bought the Star Wars license in 1991. Other companies followed Dark Horse’s lead, basing comics on licensed characters and films.

Further Reading

Claremont, Chris, Dave Cockrum, and Paul Smith. Essential X-Men, Volumes 3 and 4 (1981-1984).

Mignola, Mike. Hellboy (1994- ).

Moore, Alan. Saga of the Swamp Thing (1984-1987).

Bibliography

Gordon, Ian, Mark Jancovich, and Matthew P. McAllister. Film and Comic Books. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.

McIntee, David. Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to the Alien and Predator Films. Surrey, England: Telos, 2005.

Verheiden, Mark, and Mark Nelson. “Writer and Artist: Mark Verheiden and Mark Nelson.” Interview by David Anthony Kraft. Aliens:Comics Interview Special Edition,1988, 3-27.