Look, I’m calling them “Aliens,” you can call them “Xenomorphs” if you want.
First, let me say I really have been enjoying this new Marvel era of the Alien comics, after not having read a whole lot of comics based on this franchise for the better part of…what, twenty years now? Has it really been that long? That’s not a judgement on the quality of the Alien comics that had come before…I’d simply had my fill and gave decided to give it a rest.
It seems like there are only two types of Alien story: people gotta get their hands on Aliens and things go badly, or Aliens suddenly show up where people don’t want them and things go badly. Oh, and the third type, “fighting Predators/Batman/Superman/etc.” And maybe a fourth type, “weird-ass story written by Jim Woodring.” And several stories, including the very first movie, are mixes of the two. In general, though, tales tend to lean one way or the other between those first two possibilities.
The first story arc was more “people want to get Aliens,” and with issue #7 and its new story arc, we’ve swung over to the other side and we’re getting “Aliens show up and distress ensues.” Which is perfectly fine, given we’re invested in the characters involved and the circumstances in the Aliens find themselves. The trick of course is making these things just as, if not more, interesting than the Aliens themselves.
I realize that’s very much a “your mileage may vary” sort of situation, in that perhaps not everyone finds the Aliens as interesting as I do…I mean, I could read a comic that’s just, like “A Day in the Life of the Aliens” that show ’em building nests, carrying eggs around, salivating, that sort of thing. But, you know, this is an Alien comic, and if you’re picking it up I’m presuming Aliens have at least some appeal to you, and you’re not just reading it for, I don’t know, romance between the lead human characters or anything.
This new story arc is off to a good start, with an infested ship crashing into a colony that’s just on the verge of independence from Earth, with a lead human character who’s put off having her terminal illness treated to ensure the colony’s survival. By which I mean contractual survival, not survival of an Alien attack, but I imagine we’ll be seeing more of that next issue. Anyway, she’s introduced as a strong and relatively deep personality, which will make for a good POV for the Alien fun to follow.
It’s only been a week since the last issue, which is a littly annoying from a retailing point of view, but from a comic-reading fanboy POV, it’s good timing as I’m really enjoying this “Johnny stuck flamed-on all the time” storyline. What I’m enjoying is how much story is put into each issue…still not a patch on how much Lee & Kirby would cram into their pages way back when. But still it feels like a lot of stuff is happening, and we’re getting plenty of new and weird situations, which is what I want from an FF book.
A long time ago, when I was but a wee Mikester, I had a book that contained a whole lot of Norse myths. One of the stories that stuck with me into adulthood was where Thor ‘n’ pals encounter the Giants and then are tasked with multiple challenges that they should be able to take on easily but are handed humiliating defeats. The secret behind how the Giants won these victories has amused me for decades, and how here it is in illustrated form. Not much to say here except “glad to finally see it.”
You never read Thomas & Buscema’s Thor #272, Mike? Go check it out, it’s a fine adaptation of the myth.
What book of Norse myths do you think Mikester was talking about, Michael?
Um, why can’t Johnny just fly into space where there’s no air to burn?
My favorite Aliens story of all time is Wildcats/Aliens. Not only does it sport nifty Chris Sprouse/Kevin Nowlan art, but the story was a huge surprise for people reading Wildstorm comics at the time. I won’t spoil it here.
Re: Ugly Balls (in the current corner box): I was just re-reading a comic with the Ugly Balls ad on the back cover, and it makes not one bit of sense. It’s a candy with a fake(?) comic book mascot that’s offering bouncing balls that are ugly? And they’re a knockoff of another kind of ball that’s maybe also ugly? I must have missed this trend in the 80s.
My favourite Aliens comic was the Peter Milligan written Sacrifice.
There were a number of quality Aliens comics from Dark Horse when they initially acquired the license.
You should have bought the variant cover of Norse Mythology.
The cat on the cover looks just like my fiancee’s cat, Fox, who died last year.
I bought the comic with that cover for her.
As far as what book Mike was reading, I’m going to go with Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
Although mainly featuring Greek and Roman mythology, there was a section on Norse mythology in the back.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve looked over the book, so I can’t say for sure she included that particular myth.
If not, I’m not particularly sure where I first came across that myth, myself. I think I knew of it before I ever read Thor #272.
Now I just want to read ‘A Day in the Life of the Aliens’ so thanks for that and this fun read.
@Dave, Doom used magic, so a lack of oxygen probably won’t be a factor here. Kind of like another time Johnny lost control of his flame, back during both Inferno and Englehart’s run.