$13.95 from Dark Horse
Story by Mark Verheiden
Art by Mark Nelson
Lettering by Willie Schubert
*“I remember thinking how frail we were next to our machines.”*
Oh, if only the movies had gone this way. My first encounter
with the first Dark Horse *Aliens* series was in 1991, when I picked up a copy
that had been translated into Spanish in
Mark Verheiden wrote this miniseries after-- years after-- the release of James Cameron’s bloody, exhilarating *Aliens* but before any hint of what *Alien 3* would be about. If you recall, *Alien 3* (or “Alien cubed,” if you prefer) began with the sleeping deaths of Lace Corporal Hicks and the girl Newt, whom the Marines had all died to save in the first place. Having begun with that piece of nihilism, the movie descended into its own funereal story, leaving poor old Newt and Hicks far behind.
The Dark Horse story did it better. Apparently allowed to use anything but the Ripley character, *Aliens* the comic returns to the wild and wooly technological world of Marines and super corporations of the first two films. The two main characters are Newt, who struggles in a mental institution, and corporal Hicks, whose acid-scarred face is a constant reminder of the loss of his men to the aliens. Rather than force Hicks to retire, the Marines had kept him around in case they are the company discovered more of the aliens. That's what happens, and since you to his about to be lobotomized in her mental institution, Hicks rescues his fellow survivor and brings her along. This sounds absurd, but it comes across as very human and loving. Both characters are survivors, on appreciated and understood by the world around him, and we want them to continue to survive. We will trust their decisions.
I always believed that Dark Horse had a much greater understanding of the *Aliens* franchise than the licensor 20th Century Fox. It's the comics that given some of the best understanding of how the aliens work. I love the encyclopedic articles and conjectures that appear periodically throughout this trade paperback. But also key to the franchise is the ability of humans to rise above their own flaw is, treachery, and technology. Hence the quote that I chose for the top of this column: "I remember thinking how frail we were next to our machines." The line comes from Newt, whose enjoying an innocent love affair with a young Marine, and sums up what makes the franchise so exciting if done right. The *Aliens* franchise scares us with a monster unlike any other, but always provides heroes made of soft flesh, who move among armor and fire, and can rise above and control it all.
I was always irritated for the movie series’ killing off of Newt. I thought it was a crass and not particularly helpful thing to do. The Dark Horse miniseries corrects that problem, along tome if I like two relegated *Alien 3* to the alternate universe status reserved for similar disappointments, like the spider clone a to* Highlander 2*.
Long live Newt.