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Alien Omnibus #5
Aliens Omnibus Volume 5
Living with the Alien has become a fact of life--and death--as mankind expands throughout the galaxy. And no matter how each encounter with the deadly xenomorphs inevitably leads to disaster, man's hubris and greed just as inevitably fuel the desire to try to unlock the secrets of the demonic beasts' biology or bring the creatures under control as tools to build an even more monstrous future.
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 5 collects more of these comics classics, featuring over 350 story pages in full color by some of the finest creators in graphic fiction.
* Collects Aliens: Alchemy #1-3, Aliens: Kidnapped TPB, Aliens: Cargo one-shot, Aliens: Survival #1-3, "Aliens: Alien" (DHC #17-19), Aliens: Earth Angel one-shot, "Aliens: Incubation" (DHP #101-102), Aliens: Havoc #1-2, Aliens: Lovesick one-shot, "Aliens: Lucky" (Decade of Dark Horse TPB)
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 5 collects more of these comics classics, featuring over 350 story pages in full color by some of the finest creators in graphic fiction.
* Collects Aliens: Alchemy #1-3, Aliens: Kidnapped TPB, Aliens: Cargo one-shot, Aliens: Survival #1-3, "Aliens: Alien" (DHC #17-19), Aliens: Earth Angel one-shot, "Aliens: Incubation" (DHP #101-102), Aliens: Havoc #1-2, Aliens: Lovesick one-shot, "Aliens: Lucky" (Decade of Dark Horse TPB)
376 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 15, 2008
14 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
John Arcudi
946 books100 followersJohn 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.
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 13, 2021
Alchemy by John Arcudi & Richard Corbin- ★★
This was a weird one. An Alien is terrorizing a feudal space colony run by religious fanatics. The only weapons the constables have are crossbows which obviously aren't going to be very effective against a killing machine that bleeds acid. This just isn't put together very well and is hard to follow. richard Corbin draws very creepy aliens but fugly people.
Kidnapped by Jim Woodring, Justin Green & Francisco Solano López- ★
Oof, this was terrible. It reminded me of something you'd see in a 2000AD comic. Neither the story nor the art was very good. The women are all drawn as large breasted bimbos and the men look like Schwarzenegger. Just all around terrible.
Survival by James Vance & Guy Davis - ★★
Meh, I wasn't a fan. A man is hallucinating while trying to remember what happened during a Xenomorph attack. The first half of this is really difficult to follow. He'd wake up from hallucinations within hallucinations. It's really annoying. Guy Davis probably wasn't the best artist for this either.
Cargo by Dan Jolley & John Nadeau- ★★★★
A short story about a drug smuggler who rolls over on his boss and gets trapped with an Alien. Good, quick story with good art.
Alien by John Arcudi & Paul Mendoza- ★★★★
A cool, short Aliens comic where a xenomorph is terrorizing a village of tribal aliens. They then go on a hunt to track it down. There's some cool twists towards the end. The art is great too.
Earth Angel by John Byrne ★★★
As a 1950's horror film, this works great. As an Aliens comic it has some issues with Aliens lore. I do think John Byrne did Alien better the first time around in X-Men #143 with the Aliens knockoff, the N'garai.
Incubation by Ron Marz & Bernie Wrightson- ★★★★
The great Bernie Wrightson illustrates the short story Incubation about an archeologist leaving a warning to whoever finds his body as he's hunted by an Alien.
Havok by Mark Schultz & a slew of 43 artists- ★★★
43 different artists draw this tale of a clean up crew trapped on board a ship infested with Aliens. There's a weird supernatural element to it with a ghost who takes over people's bodies. It felt very out of place. Some of the art transitions are also really strange, especially when you turn the page and see some goofy Sergio Aragones drawn Aliens.
Lovesick by Thierry Gagnon, Randy Stradley & Richard Forgues- ★★★
A kid with a crush on his older cousin, the cousin, and a scientist head to an outpost to check on protocols. The scientist is not at all happy when his advances are rebuffed and goes nuts. An over the top quick read with some very good art.
Lucky by Mark Veirheiden & Mark Nelson- ★★★★
In Lucky, a scum bag crew member gets a bunch of people killed by his cowardice.
This was a weird one. An Alien is terrorizing a feudal space colony run by religious fanatics. The only weapons the constables have are crossbows which obviously aren't going to be very effective against a killing machine that bleeds acid. This just isn't put together very well and is hard to follow. richard Corbin draws very creepy aliens but fugly people.
Kidnapped by Jim Woodring, Justin Green & Francisco Solano López- ★
Oof, this was terrible. It reminded me of something you'd see in a 2000AD comic. Neither the story nor the art was very good. The women are all drawn as large breasted bimbos and the men look like Schwarzenegger. Just all around terrible.
Survival by James Vance & Guy Davis - ★★
Meh, I wasn't a fan. A man is hallucinating while trying to remember what happened during a Xenomorph attack. The first half of this is really difficult to follow. He'd wake up from hallucinations within hallucinations. It's really annoying. Guy Davis probably wasn't the best artist for this either.
Cargo by Dan Jolley & John Nadeau- ★★★★
A short story about a drug smuggler who rolls over on his boss and gets trapped with an Alien. Good, quick story with good art.
Alien by John Arcudi & Paul Mendoza- ★★★★
A cool, short Aliens comic where a xenomorph is terrorizing a village of tribal aliens. They then go on a hunt to track it down. There's some cool twists towards the end. The art is great too.
Earth Angel by John Byrne ★★★
As a 1950's horror film, this works great. As an Aliens comic it has some issues with Aliens lore. I do think John Byrne did Alien better the first time around in X-Men #143 with the Aliens knockoff, the N'garai.
Incubation by Ron Marz & Bernie Wrightson- ★★★★
The great Bernie Wrightson illustrates the short story Incubation about an archeologist leaving a warning to whoever finds his body as he's hunted by an Alien.
Havok by Mark Schultz & a slew of 43 artists- ★★★
43 different artists draw this tale of a clean up crew trapped on board a ship infested with Aliens. There's a weird supernatural element to it with a ghost who takes over people's bodies. It felt very out of place. Some of the art transitions are also really strange, especially when you turn the page and see some goofy Sergio Aragones drawn Aliens.
Lovesick by Thierry Gagnon, Randy Stradley & Richard Forgues- ★★★
A kid with a crush on his older cousin, the cousin, and a scientist head to an outpost to check on protocols. The scientist is not at all happy when his advances are rebuffed and goes nuts. An over the top quick read with some very good art.
Lucky by Mark Veirheiden & Mark Nelson- ★★★★
In Lucky, a scum bag crew member gets a bunch of people killed by his cowardice.
April 17, 2021
Really solid writing and art direction across the board here.
September 23, 2011
For anyone who has yet to encounter some aspect of the transmedia franchise that originated with Alien, the relatively low-budget Sigourney Weaver monster thriller directed by Ridley Scott and brilliantly designed by H.R. Giger, here’s a thumbnail synopsis. Alien stories are dominated by the Alien xenomorph’s fascinating biology, more or less modeled on that of social insects like bees or ants, the Alien is an apparently asexual exoskeletal creature that serves an egg-laying queen. Eggs hatch the larval "facehugger" parasite in the presence of potential hosts (triggered by infrared? who the heck knows). Facehuggers, which look basically like a pair of bony hands glued together at the wrists by a dangling scrotum and a long prehensile tail, can scramble creepily around for a short time on their own, but exist to leap onto the host’s face, forcibly intubate (impregnate?) them with a pupa, and drop off as a wasted husk. The pupa takes a week to ten days to hatch as a "chest-burster" nymph (so named, because it eats its way out of the living, usually oblivious host), which itself takes about a week to a month of voracious predatory activity to reach maturity as an adult drone. See? This is an educational review.
Okay, that’s all icky and everything, but so what, you might say? Well, for one thing, the typical adult Alien is a speedy, praeternaturally strong carnivore about 8 feet tall, bipedal, and skeletal with strong, clawed six-fingered hands, a prehensile tail ending in a spear-point, extremely sharp teeth, and a skull-punching tubular "tongue" that has sharp teeth of its own. And, lest you plan to shoot, cut, or break off one of its appendages in self-defense, the Alien’s blood is a fictionally-strong acid that will burn through nearly everything: metals, glass, plastics, stone, faces. And it’s an ambush predator. And, as a drone devoted to the service of a queen, where there’s one, there are typically dozens about, so watch your step. And it can exist in a dormant state in a vaccuum (or the absence of hosts/food) for an apparently indefinite period of time, so infestations are next to impossible to eradicate.
(There’s actually a great story that explores the Malthusian problems arising from planets harboring large Alien populations called
“Genocide”, but that appears in Aliens Omnibus Volume 2. Incidentally, Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 is more or less an entertaining set of sequels to Ridley Scott’s and James Cameron’s movies and so is definitely worth checking out. I read both of those books long before I discovered GoodReads, so will not bother to backfill a review for either.
Anyway, surround any stage of the xenomorph’s development with a minor cast of humans, and bang! instant conflict. As it stands, stories in the Alien universe always seem to share three other components: (1) the political backdrop is an amoral establishment of corporations or multi-state (planetary) actors wholly indifferent to the well-being of individual citizens, (2) the vast majority of the universe works as a teamster, mercenary, or corporate hack (colonists show up largely as wallpaper and fodder), and (3) all women are sex goddesses, which is to say omnipresent if demographically rare, scantily-clad, and immortal. In other words, even though women make up at best only 25% of the Alien universe population, you can reasonably expect that in any Alien encounter they will be among the (frequently lone) survivors, have Barbie-like proportions, and wear minimal clothing. In other words, for want of a convenient name, I'll take to calling her Protagone whenever she appears as a major character. Now, there is no good reason I can think of for this dreary and predictable convention to have established itself in the Alien literary canon, but there you have it.
Notwithstanding the kink that serves no literary purpose (given that other genres handle titillation far better and more universally), the Aliens franchise is a theme that should offer fertile ground for variation.
Given all that, you should be able to determine whether or not to read this particular anthology from the following quick summary.
Alchemy – An Alien bogeyman has reverted a colony to the Dark Ages, complete with theocratic domination! Fascinating study of how self-imposed technological stagnation might come to pass served up as a thriller that pits a few solitary voices of reason against the tyranny, fear-mongering, and ignorance imposed by cynically-deployed faith. 5 stars
Kidnapped – This is the story that "The Host" might have been, had the threat of an Alien-borne pandemic been real rather than a propagandistic hoax. Illuminates more seamy corners of the universe, contrasting the seamy corruption of a Space Port so foul it features a bartender with a penchant for serving its patrons their own brains for onlookers’ entertainment against asteroid paradises built as reality TV erotic Fantasy Islands by superrich, jaded, synthetic reality TV stars. Suffice it to say that quarantine’s not good enough for these alternate lifestyles. 4 stars
Survival – As told by an unreliable narrator, this story relates the delicious results of yet another unethical experiment on conscripted human volunteers (including children, of course), this time to find a DDT-like pheromone that renders humans invisible and/or toxic to Aliens. 4 stars
Cargo – Unmemorable and unremembered. 0 stars
Alien - Showcases tribal norms that have evolved in an alien stone age culture that must live alongside a finite, rogue Alien infestation (no eggs). Excellent color work, especially in distinguishing night and day in an un-Earthly veldt. 5 stars
Earth Angel - insipid story that imagines the first human encounter with Aliens – on Earth – sometime in the late 1950s. In characterization and art, this appears to be a cross between the original Blob movie and Judge Parker/Rex Morgan, M.D. (including a biker gang!) This story parasitically leeches richness off the Aliens universe by falling back on the “small world” cliché of revealing a main character to be a direct ancestor (or bizarre namesake) of . I hate stuff like this. It’s a cheap attempt at an O’Henry that only takes a wee bit of thought to ruin the plausibility of future continuity. -2 stars, if that's even possible, for offending the intelligence
Incubation – Unmemorable and unremembered. 0 stars
Havoc - story and art take the title literally. The gist is of a salvage team exploring an abandoned, luxury space relic (think “Raise The Titanic”), haunted by an onboard hallucinogen (and Aliens). However, the hallucinogens/ghosts are a cheap device (excuse) to swap writers and artists every two pages. So this is the comics equivalent of the old campfire game in which an evolving story is passed around a circle of storytellers, with the usual incoherent result. It’s fun if you’re in the moment among those playing pretend, but the end product is really not intended to be packaged and sold. Stars vary, depending on the page, but probably 2 stars in the aggregate?
Lovesick – Protagone sent to protect a child from holiday in a mad scientist’s lair. The innovations here are more depraved than inspired: (a) the mad scientist who lusts for Protagone has somehow implanted his mind either into the lair and/or into the bodies of the Aliens who inhabit it, rendering him the ultimate boss monster/boss environment in the protagonist’s video game); and (b) the prepubescent boy has an inappropriately sexual crush on Protagone (who is disgusted by, but does not disabuse his advances). Yikes. 1 star... you read this with disgust, contempt, and fascination, like a rubber-necker passing an accident scene.
Lucky – Classic tale of a lone survivor that contrasts the untrustworthy narrator’s explanations against what really happened. Crime and cowardice pays! 5 stars.
Okay, that’s all icky and everything, but so what, you might say? Well, for one thing, the typical adult Alien is a speedy, praeternaturally strong carnivore about 8 feet tall, bipedal, and skeletal with strong, clawed six-fingered hands, a prehensile tail ending in a spear-point, extremely sharp teeth, and a skull-punching tubular "tongue" that has sharp teeth of its own. And, lest you plan to shoot, cut, or break off one of its appendages in self-defense, the Alien’s blood is a fictionally-strong acid that will burn through nearly everything: metals, glass, plastics, stone, faces. And it’s an ambush predator. And, as a drone devoted to the service of a queen, where there’s one, there are typically dozens about, so watch your step. And it can exist in a dormant state in a vaccuum (or the absence of hosts/food) for an apparently indefinite period of time, so infestations are next to impossible to eradicate.
(There’s actually a great story that explores the Malthusian problems arising from planets harboring large Alien populations called
“Genocide”, but that appears in Aliens Omnibus Volume 2. Incidentally, Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 is more or less an entertaining set of sequels to Ridley Scott’s and James Cameron’s movies and so is definitely worth checking out. I read both of those books long before I discovered GoodReads, so will not bother to backfill a review for either.Anyway, surround any stage of the xenomorph’s development with a minor cast of humans, and bang! instant conflict. As it stands, stories in the Alien universe always seem to share three other components: (1) the political backdrop is an amoral establishment of corporations or multi-state (planetary) actors wholly indifferent to the well-being of individual citizens, (2) the vast majority of the universe works as a teamster, mercenary, or corporate hack (colonists show up largely as wallpaper and fodder), and (3) all women are sex goddesses, which is to say omnipresent if demographically rare, scantily-clad, and immortal. In other words, even though women make up at best only 25% of the Alien universe population, you can reasonably expect that in any Alien encounter they will be among the (frequently lone) survivors, have Barbie-like proportions, and wear minimal clothing. In other words, for want of a convenient name, I'll take to calling her Protagone whenever she appears as a major character. Now, there is no good reason I can think of for this dreary and predictable convention to have established itself in the Alien literary canon, but there you have it.
Notwithstanding the kink that serves no literary purpose (given that other genres handle titillation far better and more universally), the Aliens franchise is a theme that should offer fertile ground for variation.
Given all that, you should be able to determine whether or not to read this particular anthology from the following quick summary.
Alchemy – An Alien bogeyman has reverted a colony to the Dark Ages, complete with theocratic domination! Fascinating study of how self-imposed technological stagnation might come to pass served up as a thriller that pits a few solitary voices of reason against the tyranny, fear-mongering, and ignorance imposed by cynically-deployed faith. 5 stars
Kidnapped – This is the story that "The Host" might have been, had the threat of an Alien-borne pandemic been real rather than a propagandistic hoax. Illuminates more seamy corners of the universe, contrasting the seamy corruption of a Space Port so foul it features a bartender with a penchant for serving its patrons their own brains for onlookers’ entertainment against asteroid paradises built as reality TV erotic Fantasy Islands by superrich, jaded, synthetic reality TV stars. Suffice it to say that quarantine’s not good enough for these alternate lifestyles. 4 stars
Survival – As told by an unreliable narrator, this story relates the delicious results of yet another unethical experiment on conscripted human volunteers (including children, of course), this time to find a DDT-like pheromone that renders humans invisible and/or toxic to Aliens. 4 stars
Cargo – Unmemorable and unremembered. 0 stars
Alien - Showcases tribal norms that have evolved in an alien stone age culture that must live alongside a finite, rogue Alien infestation (no eggs). Excellent color work, especially in distinguishing night and day in an un-Earthly veldt. 5 stars
Earth Angel - insipid story that imagines the first human encounter with Aliens – on Earth – sometime in the late 1950s. In characterization and art, this appears to be a cross between the original Blob movie and Judge Parker/Rex Morgan, M.D. (including a biker gang!) This story parasitically leeches richness off the Aliens universe by falling back on the “small world” cliché of revealing a main character to be a direct ancestor (or bizarre namesake) of . I hate stuff like this. It’s a cheap attempt at an O’Henry that only takes a wee bit of thought to ruin the plausibility of future continuity. -2 stars, if that's even possible, for offending the intelligence
Incubation – Unmemorable and unremembered. 0 stars
Havoc - story and art take the title literally. The gist is of a salvage team exploring an abandoned, luxury space relic (think “Raise The Titanic”), haunted by an onboard hallucinogen (and Aliens). However, the hallucinogens/ghosts are a cheap device (excuse) to swap writers and artists every two pages. So this is the comics equivalent of the old campfire game in which an evolving story is passed around a circle of storytellers, with the usual incoherent result. It’s fun if you’re in the moment among those playing pretend, but the end product is really not intended to be packaged and sold. Stars vary, depending on the page, but probably 2 stars in the aggregate?
Lovesick – Protagone sent to protect a child from holiday in a mad scientist’s lair. The innovations here are more depraved than inspired: (a) the mad scientist who lusts for Protagone has somehow implanted his mind either into the lair and/or into the bodies of the Aliens who inhabit it, rendering him the ultimate boss monster/boss environment in the protagonist’s video game); and (b) the prepubescent boy has an inappropriately sexual crush on Protagone (who is disgusted by, but does not disabuse his advances). Yikes. 1 star... you read this with disgust, contempt, and fascination, like a rubber-necker passing an accident scene.
Lucky – Classic tale of a lone survivor that contrasts the untrustworthy narrator’s explanations against what really happened. Crime and cowardice pays! 5 stars.
January 12, 2022
meh, some stories were just ok, nothing remarkable, but still is enjoyable
May 24, 2017
A pretty mediocre collection of aliens stories.
Some of the shorter ones are quite enjoyable. Like Pig, Cargo, Incubation and Lucky.
But then we get Alchemy, Love sick and Earth angel which are rather dull, ugly and/or boring. Not a collection I'd recommend as there are much better out there.
Some of the shorter ones are quite enjoyable. Like Pig, Cargo, Incubation and Lucky.
But then we get Alchemy, Love sick and Earth angel which are rather dull, ugly and/or boring. Not a collection I'd recommend as there are much better out there.
April 30, 2013
I loved it. It was sooooo amazing
May 1, 2020
By far the most diverse omnibus so far with a hefty ten stories, this fifth Aliens outing is, almost by its very nature, hit-and-miss. But, a couple of times, when it hits, it hits hard. Very hard. And it's misses aren't as wildly misplaced efforts as in some of the previous volumes, but there are a fair few of them.
Religious-themed stories have been explored in previous volumes and the combination of religion-and-xenomorph does generally work well. 'Alchemy' is a decent addition to those tales, if far too long-drawn out.
'Kidnapped' is a wildly entertaining, completely, ridiculously over-the-top story (with an art style to match) that stands out as one of this volume's most memorable entries.
'Survival' is the best of the ten stories collected here. Dark, compelling, understated, bitterly sad, and with an art style that perfectly complements the script, it's one of the best tales in any of the five volumes.
'Cargo' is a well-put together crime/revenge story but there's nothing about it that makes it unique to the Alien universe. It feels a bit like one of those straight-to-video Hellraiser film sequels - like an existing story that someone shoved some alien action into.
'Alien' works extremely well. A grim, twisted little tale, boldly illustrated, of a xenomorph terrorising a primitive (well, technologically, at least) alien village on a far away planet.
'Earth Angel' pits crash-landed xenomorphs against a 1950s US biker gang. A weird concept, illustrated in a not-entirely pleasing way, it's a fun, slightly daft story.
'Incubation' (illustrated by the legendary Bernie Wrightson) is a short, effective, thoughtful piece.
'Havoc' is a fairly standard, stressed-out, shouty humans battling a spaceship-based alien infestation, but the gimmick of having different artsits draw seemingly every page is unevenly jarring, distracting and makes it more of a chore than it should be to follow the story, as it's difficult to keep track of who's who. A mess.
'Lovesick' stands out visually (it's memorable, but I'm not sure I liked the art style so much, except the far ore detailed renderings of the xenomorphs), but its basic premise - the mad behaviour of a mad scientist feels like its long-since been an Alien cliche.
Finally, 'Lucky' is a beautifully dark tale of cowardice, selfishness and survival. An excellent way to finish off a wide-ranging, experimental-feeling volume.
Religious-themed stories have been explored in previous volumes and the combination of religion-and-xenomorph does generally work well. 'Alchemy' is a decent addition to those tales, if far too long-drawn out.
'Kidnapped' is a wildly entertaining, completely, ridiculously over-the-top story (with an art style to match) that stands out as one of this volume's most memorable entries.
'Survival' is the best of the ten stories collected here. Dark, compelling, understated, bitterly sad, and with an art style that perfectly complements the script, it's one of the best tales in any of the five volumes.
'Cargo' is a well-put together crime/revenge story but there's nothing about it that makes it unique to the Alien universe. It feels a bit like one of those straight-to-video Hellraiser film sequels - like an existing story that someone shoved some alien action into.
'Alien' works extremely well. A grim, twisted little tale, boldly illustrated, of a xenomorph terrorising a primitive (well, technologically, at least) alien village on a far away planet.
'Earth Angel' pits crash-landed xenomorphs against a 1950s US biker gang. A weird concept, illustrated in a not-entirely pleasing way, it's a fun, slightly daft story.
'Incubation' (illustrated by the legendary Bernie Wrightson) is a short, effective, thoughtful piece.
'Havoc' is a fairly standard, stressed-out, shouty humans battling a spaceship-based alien infestation, but the gimmick of having different artsits draw seemingly every page is unevenly jarring, distracting and makes it more of a chore than it should be to follow the story, as it's difficult to keep track of who's who. A mess.
'Lovesick' stands out visually (it's memorable, but I'm not sure I liked the art style so much, except the far ore detailed renderings of the xenomorphs), but its basic premise - the mad behaviour of a mad scientist feels like its long-since been an Alien cliche.
Finally, 'Lucky' is a beautifully dark tale of cowardice, selfishness and survival. An excellent way to finish off a wide-ranging, experimental-feeling volume.
February 8, 2022
There a lot to this omnibus.
Alchemy was interesting storywise, but I really disliked the comic style. It was ok.
Kidnapped was good. I liked the mutation idea, but I kind of want the xeno to be pink like the egg.
Survival was really cool with the delusions and the jumps. It was done really well.
Cargo was good. I don't think it really logical with the blood, but I liked the ending.
Alien was the coolest. The natives made me think of caveman styled predators, before they were great hunters. Super cool story, really enjoyed.
Earth Angel was really cool being in the 50s-60s era instead of future. I enjoed the whole stoty, super original. But I don't understand why the xeno had bulges where eye socket would be? They don't have eyes, so why the weird bulge shapes?
Incubation was good, I liked the overview style, wondering the how.
Havoc was cool with the ghost feel and possessions. Super unique and cool, but the severe change in comic style was jarring. Interesting, but confusing. Loved that the windows of panel was the eyes of that possessed person, that was genius.
Lovesick was...ok. I feel it could have been better and more to it. Nancy was a basic character label "tough" and nothing more. The doctor was a way more interesting character, which made the story feel very onesided.
Lucky takes the idea that the winner writes the history. It's a ok story.
Alchemy was interesting storywise, but I really disliked the comic style. It was ok.
Kidnapped was good. I liked the mutation idea, but I kind of want the xeno to be pink like the egg.
Survival was really cool with the delusions and the jumps. It was done really well.
Cargo was good. I don't think it really logical with the blood, but I liked the ending.
Alien was the coolest. The natives made me think of caveman styled predators, before they were great hunters. Super cool story, really enjoyed.
Earth Angel was really cool being in the 50s-60s era instead of future. I enjoed the whole stoty, super original. But I don't understand why the xeno had bulges where eye socket would be? They don't have eyes, so why the weird bulge shapes?
Incubation was good, I liked the overview style, wondering the how.
Havoc was cool with the ghost feel and possessions. Super unique and cool, but the severe change in comic style was jarring. Interesting, but confusing. Loved that the windows of panel was the eyes of that possessed person, that was genius.
Lovesick was...ok. I feel it could have been better and more to it. Nancy was a basic character label "tough" and nothing more. The doctor was a way more interesting character, which made the story feel very onesided.
Lucky takes the idea that the winner writes the history. It's a ok story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2016
Really not sure why I'm still soldiering through these collections, they're a real slog and this one in particular was a grand mess. At best it feels like fan-fiction that's too detached from the tone of the source material to work, and at worst it's unintelligible nonsense that doesn't work on any level. The drab and amateurish artwork doesn't fare much better, with the real low coming from a single story that credits something like 40 artists and veers between wildly inconsistent styles every page or so. Who thought that was a good idea?! To be fair, in that story there was a page that I liked the look of.
So that's my review. In 360 pages there was one that I liked the look of.
So that's my review. In 360 pages there was one that I liked the look of.
August 26, 2018
Really great collection of Aliens short stories...
It’s a shame that the book literally fell to pieces in my hands as I was reading it.
So for the stories 5 stars.
For Dark Horse 1 Star for being cheap charging a lot of money for their books but making them with extremely cheap glue; it might as well be stuck together with spit and hope.
It’s a shame that the book literally fell to pieces in my hands as I was reading it.
So for the stories 5 stars.
For Dark Horse 1 Star for being cheap charging a lot of money for their books but making them with extremely cheap glue; it might as well be stuck together with spit and hope.
December 22, 2023
The epitome of a mixed bag, with some stories being quite good, and others that leave a lot to be desired.
Dark Horse really shot itself in the foot storytelling wise when it had earth be invaded in its FIRST STORY, which just leads to Aliens being 'pests' at this point in the comics as opposed to being unknowable cosmic beasts.
Dark Horse really shot itself in the foot storytelling wise when it had earth be invaded in its FIRST STORY, which just leads to Aliens being 'pests' at this point in the comics as opposed to being unknowable cosmic beasts.
December 12, 2020
Earth Angel and Alien are better than most of the stories in these anthologies, mostly because they put the alien in some different locations. Lovesick is decent and Alchemy is the most unique of all the longer stories throughout all 6 volumes. The rest are pretty standard.
June 14, 2019
Brilliant Roller coaster Ride! :D Full of Action and Adventure! :D Brilliant Review to Come! :D
March 10, 2017
I didn't enjoy this as much as I enjoyed volumes 1, 2, and 6. There was still a lot of gore, but the stories weren't as good.
August 24, 2015
So far I've read "Cargo", "Incubation" and "Lucky" from this collection. All were fine for what they were - simple, short glimpses into the world of "Aliens".
3 out of 5 stars, so far.
17/8/2015: Finished "Aliens: Alien" this morning. This one was actually really good. An interesting twist. Nice to see the Xenomorphs aren't just decimating humans in this universe.
3.5 out of 5 stars by itself.
18/8/2015: Read "Earth Angel" this morning. A nice little story, like a preface for the movies.
3 out of 5 stars by itself.
Also read "Lovesick" today. Wasn't too bad. Decent art, fairly ok story.
2.5 out of 5 stars by itself.
20/8/2015: Read "Havoc" this morning. It was very good.
Interesting way to go about presenting the story, with different sections being drawn by different artists. Some sections were realistic, some were extremely cartoonish, some were better than others; but overall I really enjoyed it. The cover art was terrific also. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading.
This one gets 4 out of 5 stars.
21/8/2015: Read "Alchemy". It was a bit weird. Yet another story where humans are worshipping the Aliens. Or they sort of are, without really knowing what they're doing.
The art is ok and the story is at least engaging.
3 out of 5 stars.
Also read "Kidnapped".
The title refers to the fact that some guys steal/salvage some Alien eggs from a wrecked ship.
You'd think humans would know better by now...
Disaster strikes, as expected.
The art was ok, a little cartoony.
3 out of 5 stars.
24/8/2015: Read "Survival", which means I've now finished this collection.
"Survival" was disjointed, but interesting. It introduced a new form of Xenomorph, which could mean very very bad things for any future human encounters. The end was slightly anti-climactic, and it shadowed "Aliens 3" (the movie), in that the main character denies The Company what they were after all along.
The art was pretty good.
3 out of 5 stars.
So, overall, I'm giving this collection a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
3 out of 5 stars, so far.
17/8/2015: Finished "Aliens: Alien" this morning. This one was actually really good. An interesting twist. Nice to see the Xenomorphs aren't just decimating humans in this universe.
3.5 out of 5 stars by itself.
18/8/2015: Read "Earth Angel" this morning. A nice little story, like a preface for the movies.
3 out of 5 stars by itself.
Also read "Lovesick" today. Wasn't too bad. Decent art, fairly ok story.
2.5 out of 5 stars by itself.
20/8/2015: Read "Havoc" this morning. It was very good.
Interesting way to go about presenting the story, with different sections being drawn by different artists. Some sections were realistic, some were extremely cartoonish, some were better than others; but overall I really enjoyed it. The cover art was terrific also. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading.
This one gets 4 out of 5 stars.
21/8/2015: Read "Alchemy". It was a bit weird. Yet another story where humans are worshipping the Aliens. Or they sort of are, without really knowing what they're doing.
The art is ok and the story is at least engaging.
3 out of 5 stars.
Also read "Kidnapped".
The title refers to the fact that some guys steal/salvage some Alien eggs from a wrecked ship.
You'd think humans would know better by now...
Disaster strikes, as expected.
The art was ok, a little cartoony.
3 out of 5 stars.
24/8/2015: Read "Survival", which means I've now finished this collection.
"Survival" was disjointed, but interesting. It introduced a new form of Xenomorph, which could mean very very bad things for any future human encounters. The end was slightly anti-climactic, and it shadowed "Aliens 3" (the movie), in that the main character denies The Company what they were after all along.
The art was pretty good.
3 out of 5 stars.
So, overall, I'm giving this collection a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
August 31, 2017
Stories are really starting to get predictable.
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