Marvel's Aliens: Aftermath #1
- WRITER
- Benjamin Percy
- Artist
- Dave Wachter
- Letterer
- VC's Ariana Maher
- Cover Artist
- Dave Wachter, Ron Lim, Phil Noto, Neeraj Menon, Israel Silva
- Publisher
- Marvel Comics
- Price
- 4.99
- Release Date
- 2021-07-14
- Colorist
- Christopher Sotomayor
After Ridley Scott kickstarted the Alien franchise with his iconic 1979 film, James Cameron delivered Aliens -- a sequel that stands on par with its predecessor seven years later. To commemorate Aliens' 35th anniversary, Marvel released a comic book special Aliens: Aftermath #1. Written by Benjamin Percy, drawn by Dave Wachter and with colors by Christopher Sotomayor, the story returns to Aliens' setting of Hadley's Hope. Overall, the issue is a bit of a mixed bag with a haunting setting but an undeveloped storyline.
Set 35 years after the events of Aliens, a damaged spaceship arrives on planet LV-426. Standing in explosive opposition to the nefarious conglomerate Weyland-Yutani, the ship decides to investigate what became of Hadley's Hope and why its existence was scrubbed from all official records. Led by the nephew of Aliens' character Jennette Vasquez, the team traverses the desolate, nuclear winter only to learn that something otherworldly has survived in the ruins. As Vasquez's squad experiences, this threat won't rest until everyone in the expedition has been brutally killed -- leading to a dark game of cat and mouse.
Aliens: Aftermath excels in delivering its eerie, almost supernatural look at Hadley's Hope decades after the events of the 1986 film. What made Alien so effective was its transposition of the haunted house sub-genre into the unknowable depths of outer space. Wachter's art definitely leans into those sensibilities, designing areas complete with hidden chambers and sealed tombs. To underscore these thematic elements, the xenomorph itself is depicted as an unnatural luminescent creature -- like the ghost of a xenomorph killed on Hadley's Hope given a chance to strike back. Throughout the issue, Sotomayor's colors deftly add menace.
From its opening, Aliens: Aftermath has an uneven sense of pacing. In particular, its prologue feels unnecessary to the story when it could start firmly rooted in Vasquez's crew attack against a Weyland-Yutani fueling station. While the story certainly feels like a natural extension of the classic science-fiction franchise, the connections to the 1986 film itself feel more forced than they should. Further, the interpersonal dynamics between the various members of the team are not given the room they need to breathe and, thus, their character moments never quite stick the landing -- a fact that becomes even more painfully apparent when the crew is inevitably hunted and some are killed off by the xenomorph.
Aliens: Aftermath has all the right ingredients to make an effective Aliens story. However, the issue feels undercooked. Whether it needs a little more time developing the characters before all hell breaks loose or time connecting the tale explicitly to Aliens, the story itself feels off. Aliens fans are better off revisiting Cameron's classic 1986 film than delving into this comic.