Aliens Omnibus Volume 2

Alien Omnibus #2

by John Arcudi

Many humans have died horribly at the claws of the Alien. The surface of Earth has been devastated to cleanse the beasts from our world. But the commercial value of this scourge has never been in doubt, especially when the special properties of the Alien Queen's royal jelly are discovered. Will Mankind once again risk its very survival as a species in order to sleep with the Alien?

Dark Horse Comics' critically acclaimed Aliens series set the bar for how the universe of a popular film could be expanded through graphic fiction. Aliens Omnibus Volume 2 collects more of these exciting series in a value-priced, quality-format omnibus, featuring over four hundred story pages in full color. Includes the complete story arcs of Genocide, Harvest, and the never-before-collected, epic-length Colonial Marines.

Value-priced, quality package featuring over four hundred story pages, many never before collected.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Science Fiction, Aliens, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

456 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 19, 2007

About the author

John Arcudi has made a name for himself by scripting comics that manage to combine long-running subplots with impeccable characterization and action sequences, making for some of the most exciting and consistently good comics out today.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aliens: Genocide by John Arcudi and Damon Willis - ★★★
This is somewhat hokey at times. A corporation has made a new drug called Xeno-Zip. It's PCP with Xenomorph royal jelly mixed in. The military wants more of the drug for its soldiers but they are all out of royal jelly so it's off to the Xemomorph home world to collect some more. The first half of this is boring until they get to the home world. The art and coloring look dated too.

Aliens: Harvest by Jerry Prosser and Kelley Jones - ★★★★
A scientist and his girlfriend try to steal royal jelly from a xenomorph queen. There are some really cool concepts here. They build a synthetic xenomorph to enter the hive and take the jelly. I thought that was pretty badass. Kelley Jones was a perfect artistic choice. He excels at horror and what's scarier than Aliens? The story does suffer some in its clarity. It's hard to distinguish between the synthetic alien, Norbert, and the rest, same goes with the humans as they are all dressed the same. This was originally titled Aliens: Hive and changed to Aliens: Harvest in later releases.

Aliens: Colonial Marines by Chris Warner, Dan Jolley, Kelley Puckett, Paul Guinan, Tony Akins, Allen Nunis, & John Nadeau - ★★
This was a dud. It's about a division of screw up Marines who find an Alien infestation along with some human / xenomorph hybrids. None of it is explained as to what's going on, what these hybrids want or where they came from. There are a bunch of subplots that all get abandoned and some logic leaps. It's a frustrating read. That probably comes from having 3 creative teams trying to tell one story across 10 issues that were slated to be 12. The art is overly cartoony for the subject matter as well. Parts of it look like an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon due to it.

[Milan Pohl · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2,5 than full three stars... The second Aliens Omnibus proves that it is quite hard to create a good Alien story without strong leading characters. Sadly, the book is quite lacking in this department: most characters are hard to relate to, because they are either killed off before any real development can take place (such as the Colonial Marines in the major story of the same name), or their development proceeds in an unsatisfying way (such as Lt. Henry from the same story). The writers try to make this up with tons of action and several interesting additions to the Aliens mythos but the overall result is mixed at best.

[Rino · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ripley: How do we kill it Ash? There's gotta be a way of killing it. How? How do we do it?
Ash: You can't.

The old Dark Horse Alien comics unfortunately fail in more than one regard, the most offensive being the characterisation of the aliens themselves: they are mostly cannon fodder, seldom threatening or even dangerous and at their worst they barely matter to the stories.
They appear, they get mowed down, sometimes the books remember that they have acid for blood and some character or other dies, but it's all a bit lame and unexciting, really. There's no real tension and in most of the stories I had a hard time keeping up with who the bland, motivationless characters were. Even when they discover a planet bursting with two factions of xenomorphs battling another so numerous the masses of bodies disappear into the horizon, they land without effort, and of course they lose a nameless extra or two, but in the end they manage to take off again with some royal jelly in their possession, a plot point I disliked so much that I don't really want to get into it here, but it further degrades the xenomorph to a mere resource.
What potential there is seems wasted: The art is fine for the most part, really, the battle scenes on the first few pages of Genocide are great and the new alien hive mothers presented there look fantastic. Kelley Jones' art that I already really liked in his run for Batman is dark and moody and very fitting for the series, while his characters appear as weirdly twisted as his xenomorphs. There's a new class of alien introduced here, the royal guard, with some tacked-on horns on the side of its jaw that just feels lazy. Where are all the cool ideas they managed to put into the toy line? There's a spark of it near the end of the book with aquatic Aliens that are really neat, but even those don't do anything except attacking and subsequently getting shot to bits. The inflationary use of queens just cheapens the menace the monster had in the film.

All in all, it's clear to see why the series is named after the second film, because it has nothing at all to do with the atmosphere and the terror of the first one. It also doesn't really seem to get the point of the testosterone-fueled machismo that Cameron's Aliens subverted so greatly and, instead, celebrates it.

I really do hope there's some better Aliens stories down the road that don't waste the potential of the films but instead manage to build on it. Inhuman Condition was great, albeit a bit too short. The series here at this point in time just feels like uninspiring b-movie pulp cashing in on the franchise.
That said, there's a few pieces of art here and there that keep me from entirely regretting my purchase of the books, and I will keep up with them to see where they kept on going with it. It's still Aliens after all.

[Gav451 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read this twice as I finished it once, forgot some of it and then read it again a little more slowly.

Its an omnibus so there is no consistent approach within, different artists and writers bring different skills to the table and because it is not consistent it loses out a bit. I thought Kelly Jones' art was brilliant and unique and suited the alienness of the tale really well. The first time I read her story I was not sure, the second time I really appreciated it.

The stories were different in the tales they told but centered around the greed and stupidity of corporations. Almost like morality tales. Some of the settings were epic and really clever. The Water, kelp farming planet I enjoyed a lot but some aspects then fell short and lost me a little bit.

On one tale the art felt rushed and this detracted from the story., I did not always engage with all the characters but then when you read an omnibus you cannot expect it to hit 100% of the time.

In the end I enjoyed it. I liked the universe and mythology building and liked the use of addiction. I enjoyed both reads but varying qualities did not work for me. I was worth a read, but did not always hit home.

[Letande D'Argon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Better than the first one, thanks to how there's no controversial changes this time, but since the included comics themselves are really, really bad, it doesn't make much difference. It's OK for collection, but reading this is a royal pain in the neck.

[Sára · Rating 3 out of 5]

Druhý díl se třemi povídkami s tematikou vetřelčí krmné šťávy. Ze všech mě nejvíc bavil hlavně druhý a první, bohužel třetí a nejdelší povídka mě ke konci vůbec nebavila - moc dlouhých nudných dialogů, děj mi neutíkal. Na druhou stranu, ti závislí pobožní mutanti byli zajímaví, i když jsem je v průběhu čtení moc nechápala a byli hrozně random. reálně vysvětlení jak vůbec vznikají, přišlo až nějakých deset stran před koncem👹
Zase se tu střídaly různé umělecké styly, ale nebyly tak výrazně odlišné jako v prvním díle, což mi přijde jako škoda. I když při listování komiksem jsou jinačí, po pár dnů čtení začnou tak splývat dohromady a mě ten typical komiksovej lineární styl v dlouhých útvarech moc nesedí.
Jinak nejvíc mě vždycky baví odhalování vetřelčího lore, což nezklamalo- nejvíc se mi líbí ti obří vodní :3

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read Genocide and Havest in the novel forms, and I enjoyed them in their comic versions too.
I liked that Genocide add the xeno-zip. It's completely logical that humans would try and make things from what was left of earth from the xenomorphs. Plus it gives a reason why humanity would seek out xenos, instead of coincidental plot point.
Harvest comic was a bit more jarring, less clear like the novel was. I'd say the novel was better just cause it had those moments of explanation and reasoning, which the comic lacked. I did love Norbert.
Now, Coloninal Marines was the one I hadn't read before and it was confusing. It start out pretty straight foward, but half way it really got confusing. I get the overlayed storyline, but there was still a lot missing and unexplained. They bring in 2 random character half through the book, but don't do anything with them. They have no real purpose, but their kind of the coolest characters, that we barely get to know. Loved the aquatic xeno, those were awesome, and the fight scenes were really good. But I wouldn't go out of my way to read this again.

[Cienna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good overall although some of the aspects for the last story didn't quite make sense. Wish genocide was longer (the story name not the action) as I wanted to see more of the red alien species they were pretty nice. Red queen vs black queen battle? Also some of the other xeno creatures added here were very very cool.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always liked "Harvest". I think the art is superb and the story line was one of the more intersting of the early stand alone Aliens comics. "Colonial marines" was always a bit blah to me. I never liked any of the characters and the art kinda sucked. "Genocide" had its moments.

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid writing and art direction across the board here.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is...okay, I guess?

There's a shift between Alien and Aliens that's obvious in the name. In Alien, a single alien was enough of a threat to wipe out everyone on the Nostromo, and admittedly the crew of the Nostromo weren't scientists or soldiers. That's the point of the first film--that a bunch of blue-collar spacers got into a situation way over their heads and almost all of them died, because space is indifferently hostile to human life. But in Aliens they brought in a whole squad of marines, so they had to add more aliens to compensate, and while aliens were still incredibly dangerous, the lethality of any single alien dropped by a lot.

"Genocide," the first story of this volume, features two armies of aliens fighting each other, horizon to horizon.

I think that's the reason I didn't like Aliens Omnibus Vol. 2 very much. It's not too long into the Dark Horse comic series and they already feel like they have to keep upping the scale of the action--which after the Earth was infested in Aliens Omnibus Vol. 1, seems like a losing battle--but to the point where any individual alien is just as much of a bug as the marine slang about them indicates. They come in huge swarms. They die in droves. Plenty of marines die too, but I never really got the sense that the aliens were an overwhelming threat. They were a dangerous lifeform, but not the ultimate apex predator.

This is also the introduction of "royal jelly" as a wonder drug with some rather extreme side effects, and "Genocide" and "Colonial Marines" are both ultimately about royal jelly, and the thing about royal jelly is that it's transparently a McGuffin with whatever effects are necessary. It can increase the physical prowess and combat ability of humans, it can let them dive into their memories and re-experience their past as though it were happening again, and it can...mutate humans and let them psychically communicate with aliens? It's a floor wax and a dessert topping, as the saying goes. And since it's the backbone of two of the three stories, I can't ignore it.

You can say what you like about post-Aliens movies, but I don't know if this version of the universe is one I'm fond of either.

Previous Review:
Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 1.

[Gavin Wask · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Omnibus is made up of three stories - all about the Queen's Jelly and no that isn't a euphemism!

First up is Genocide: A CEO is using Queen Jelly to make people super strong, super fast and in some cases super psycho! He decides he needs a sample and a producer, so gets the Colonial Marines to babysit him and his scientists on a mission - with the idea that his product could make some super soldiers! Of course it all goes belly up as the Aliens don't want to play nicely. The marines take losses, the scientists take losses and the bank balance takes losses. A fast paced action story with recognisable characters.

Next is Harvest: And to be honest this is all a bit weird, again it is about the Queen Jelly, however you have a lone scientist, well with a woman whose relationship is never really explained and a robotic alien(WTF!) off on a mission with some hired crew to get the jelly. The crew is dispensable, I mean they don't even bat and eyelid when the robotic alien takes out a few of them for fun, the relationship are never really delved into, there's an ant who appears to be heavily involved but why, well we never know and the art is all a bit confusing. This is a big pile of WTF!

Finally, and the man reason I bought this, is for Colonial Marines, this is a 10 part series which was mucked about with different writers and cut issues and delayed release and ended up being three parts in one. I was warned about this, that because of all the problems it is disjointed and what could've been a great story is hampered by outside influences.
However, I love the Colonial Marines, so why not. Unfortunately what I got was a Lieutenant, who motivations are changed drastically and never really explained, who doesn't care for his soldiers and whose personality is all over the shop, a bunch of marines who aren't your typical Alien Marines, but a bunch of wasters, who for the most part never come good, well apart from the last couple of pages and it is never really shown if the survivors survive or the explosion gets them.
You also have an android, not Bishop this time but Liston, who really is no help whatsoever for most of the book and it is never explained why. The marines are also interchangeable, with some appearing one issues and never seen again, soldiers dying but you're not sure who and some who are alive for all of it, not being seen at the end. This is one confused mess!

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short version....

Of the three stories here, the first two are decent. The third is awful. Truly awful.

Long version....

In 'Genocide' two Xenomorph tribes go to war and humans, looking for sources of the alien jelly-derived super-soldier drug marketed as Xeno Zip get involved in the sort of murky corporate shenanigans that are one of the strongest themes of the Alien films. It's a decent enough story but to see so many of the most terrifying creatures ever committed to film reduced to feeble cannon fodder, easily defeated by human technology and trigger happiness is jarring. Still, this isn't the worst example of that in this collection and it has a strong ending.

'Harvest' at least captures some of the brutally cold, claustrophobic nature of the universe Alien and Aliens represent onscreen, although stealing a scene wholesale from RoboCop and having a robotic Xenomorph feels like a story gimmick gone way too far. In its defence, at least the Xenomorphs represent a very real, extremely dangerous threat in this story arc.

Sadly, 'Colonial Marines' is a shambles. Ridiculously long, confusingly written and at times, crudely illustrated, it goes on forever, recycles every imaginable soldiering cliche and, despite throwing in some intriguing ideas (an underwater alien infestation and a mutant religious cult stand out), it's simply a slog to get through.

Worst of all, amidst all the shouty bickering of the marines, including Vasquez' (one of the most memorable characters from the entire film franchise) younger, and insultingly useless sister, the actual aliens are there simply to be blown or torn apart, often representing little more of a threat than the shambling zombies on AMC's 'the Walking Dead'.

[Craine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artwork alone is such an attractive feature in these aliens comics displaying nothing less than the same potential of Giger's monstrosity creature of that which is found in the first two and in my opinion greatest alien films of the franchise. That being said, the three stories contained within are all worthwhile, where I perhaps feel that the first two, that of "Genocide" and "Harvest" being the strongest. Of cool characters I here must give an honorable mention to Doctor Mayakovsky in "Harvest" for being so fearless and clinical throughout the story in relation to the xenomorphs or to use the colloquial term used throughout the omnibus, "bugs". The introduction of xeno-zip, a highly addictive drug also works to corroborate the dystopic nature of the imagined science fiction future and works as a coping mechanism in many ways for the space marines. This last feature could be taken straight out of a William Gibson novel if you ask me.

In all if you enjoy the movies, then these comics won't let you down and are certainly better than some of the last alien movies to hit the franchise market, namely "Prometheus" and "Alien Covenant".

(Note I don't like the star rating and as such I only rate books based upon one star or five stars corresponding to the in my opinion preferable rating system of thumbs up/down. This later rating system encourages in my opinion the degree to which the reader is likely to engage with a review instead of merely glancing at the number of stars)

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really this should be one star. But the book got me thinking (indirectly) about some stuff from the Aliens universe and for that I will give this another star.

The whole colonial marines section could have been so amazing (kinda like Alien 3, Alien Resurrection could have been), but instead we get these alien/human hybrids and a convoluted storyline. Art was okay but not great.

What got me thinking was how the Aliens from the movie of the same name, got super lucky. Think about it, if the colonists had not been under the reactor (making the marines not able to use any of their high powered weapons fully {yes Vasquez and Drake didn't obey Apone}) which meant that the Aliens had a chance, that and the fact only four made it out and still took out a ton of Aliens (obviously Gormann is not much of a marine, so I give Ripley 1/2 and Gormann 1/2 equaling one marine).
Just imagine if six or seven of the marines had lived or if they all had said screw it and used their pulse rifles.....?!?!? Different ending!! Maybe? See this whole bunny trail is way more fun than this nearly 500 page omnibus, so uhhhh maybe I should have only given it one star.....

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Proof that sometimes words are better than pictures.

The second volume of the Aliens graphic novel series follows right along with the same printed stories that are collected in the second Complete Omnibus series published and collated by Titan Books. And believe me when I say that those stories are far superior than their comic adaptation (which is saying a lot since I didn’t even like the printed versions).

None of the 3 illustrated adaptations are very good. Terrible artwork, coupled with terrible pacing, writing, and overall plot. Of course these are hindered by their original source material but it’s not an excuse to make such crappy attempts at it.

Even the Colonial Marines storyline was a complete dud. I still don’t even know what the point of the 200+ saga was. Just a bunch of washed up soldiers going from place to place to fight their requisite share of xenomorphs? No structure, no character or world building. Nothing.

Do yourself a favor and just read the actual novels. They aren’t good m, but they’re better than this.

[The Smoog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three stories which do little to meaningfully expand the universe of Aliens. The first two, Genesis and Harvest, I honestly couldn’t bring myself to care about what was happening (both are “send a team to an Alien homeworld, something something something, things go wrong in a totally expected way!”). The last, Colonial Marines, is better, but it’s let down by a meandering plot which ends entirely unresolved and unexplained with an abrupt TPK, and universally-dislikable characters: mostly “soldiers” who might as well have been clowns in camo for all the believability they had.

The artwork varies radically between the stories too, and none of it really appealed to me. YMMV on that front, but I will say that it can often be confusing, and panel layout at some points is just downright ridiculous.

Overall, nothing to really see here, unless you want a trip down memory lane from a time when the Aliens universe was waiting to be more fully explored. Personally, I think I’d rather have just watched some of the films again.

[Dmitrijs Prigodics · Rating 4 out of 5]

Вторая часть из серии омнибуков. Здесь три истории, продолжающие линию зараженной Земли из 1ого омнибука. Теперь чужие снова являются объектом внимания корпораций, их изучают, и используют для разработки "королевского желе", усиляющего человеческие способности и вызывающего привыкание. Истории вряд ли попадут в библиотеку лучших комиксов мира, но достаточно симпатичны. Единственное, что начинает бесить, так то, что чужих просто списали с муравьев, или пчел, сделав тупыми зверьми, вместо того, чтобы развивать идеи первого чужого, где он представлял собой чуждое человеческой морали существо, паразита, которое разум поставило на службу инстинктам. В этом смысле, Хищник, как существо, поставившее инстинкты на службу разума, весьма логичный антагонист чужим. Но из пришельца, чья логика неисповедима, сурвайвалиста, сделали насекомообразное пушечное мясо. Это лениво, попросту говоря. Но опять же, как сценарий для игры AvP, весьма ничего так.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've known of the Aliens comic's since the early 90's when I first started going to comic book store's but never actually read any of them, until now.
Just by flipping through the pages I knew I was going to enjoy this one. And that I did.

The Aliens Omnibus book's by Dark Horse are currently out of print and I obtained Vol 2 by chance. Which is why I didn't start with Vol 1. Thankfully the three collected stories in here, Genocide, Harvest, and Colonial Marines
seemed to be part of there own separate storyline so it didn't feel like it was a requisite to read Vol 1 before this one in order to understand the storytelling.

Also Colonial Marines which starts on page 213 and ends on 454 makes up a little over half the book. It's also the only one where the script, pencils, inks, and colors have multiple people who take over throughout. It was a little confusing at time's making out who's who but nonetheless a Good Read.

[GodzillaGus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun read, despite "Harvest" sucking ass and looking weird. By introducing a new story arc, separate from the 1st volume, there's less tip toeing around things that had to be retconned because of the movies. "Genocide" showed us a side of xenomorph behavior that we hadn't seen before and "Colonial Marines" giving the reader more perspective from...Colonial Marines. There's no other way to put it, even if the lot we're thrown in with is a bunch of delinquents of the lowest bidder.
Now, there's a couple of marines who seem to have British accents so practice that before reading this in the mirror, if u have to that is. It just adds flavor.
New threats, new crew, new story.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Collecting the plot arcs of 'Genocide', 'Harvest' and 'Colonial Marines' I'm sorry, but I found this to be a real slog to get through.

Which is a pity, as these stories are (meant to be) a spin-off from still-the-best of the Aliens movie (i.e. the second, the one with an 'S' at the end).

And those aliens themselves - described in the movies as 'the perfect killing machine' - are treated more as cannon fodder than anything else, with these three stories all concentrating on increasingly unlikeable characters in increasing desperate situation.

One for completionists only.

[Stephen J. Golds · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 2 stories in this omnibus are quite good, however the last story Colonial Marines really almost ruins the whole book. The story is stupid, confusing and the writing is poor.
Marines go here, fight aliens, barely escape them fly off to somewhere else and do the same thing over and over again. It’s really painful trying to finish it. Such a shame as the former 2 stories were much better...

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The latest, and worst, of many novels written about this xenomorph. Losing its' appeal? The novel is broken into two stories about the "pharma" is its' pursuit of "royal jelly". There is an interesting recurring "buzz" phrases in the novel. There is always turbulence when ever the drop ship enter the atmosphere. WTH! Alien harvest, the second book, was lame, really lame. Enjoy if you must but let,s get back to Ripley and Hicks, adventures. Later, Keep Reading.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Noticeable dip in artwork and storytelling quality with this omnibus. The over-long “Colonial Marines” saga is the worst offender, and particularly incoherent. Hope things pick up in the third omnibus.

[BIGnick BIGnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid entry into the Aliens franchise. It’s always interesting comparing the comic book versions to the novels that were published later and seeing how different they are. For me the Colonial Marines story was the stand out in this collection.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting addition to the Alien franchise. Great artwork, the stories are hit or miss.

[trash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, as always.

[Eric Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It just doesn't pay to be a Marine.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s Aliens universe fun but disjointed as all fuck and very hard to understand what’s actually going on beyond just stuff and things and aliens.

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, but ultimately no where near as good as the films