Чужі. Мертва орбіта

Aliens (comics)

by James Stokoe, Єлизавета Шапарець (Translator)

У разі жахливої аварії головний інженерний офіцер повинен використати усе: таймер, допоміжні прилади та свій розум, аби пережити атаку найжахливішої істоти, відомої людству.

Містить нову обкладинку, бонусні матеріали про створення коміксу та велику кількість оригінальних малюнків, зібраних у розкішному форматі з твердою обкладинкою.

МІстить випуски: #1-4

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

120 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2018

About the author

James Stokoe (born September 4, 1985) is a Canadian comic book artist who is known for his work on such titles as Wonton Soup, Orc Stain and Godzilla: The Half-Century War.
Along with Corey Lewis, Brandon Graham and Marley Zarcone, he's a part of a studio/collective called "Yosh Comics".

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

A crew stumble across a drifting space hulk, find Xenomorphs inside, and get picked off one-by-one. So, Dead Orbit is like every other Aliens story? YUH HUH!

James Stokoe’s stunningly detailed art is matched only by his stunningly unoriginal Aliens story! The visuals are terrific and his Xenomorphs look awesome but, wow, did no-one point out when it was being commissioned how absolutely generic, unimaginative and archetypal Dead Orbit was?! It plays out exactly like every other Aliens story complete with cardboard cut-out “characters” for the Xenomorphs to snatch up.

Unless you’ve never read or seen an Aliens story before, Dead Orbit is totally missable. An utterly boring and instantly forgettable comic – for fans of Stokoe’s art only.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much for an original storyline, but it has all the trademark elements that fans of the franchise know and love for good: claustrophobic dark spaceship, a doomed crew and... first couple of twin xenomorphs ever instead of the usual lonely killer or horde against marines.



A nice twist and Stokoe's dirty indie artworks were just perfect for this space-horror tale.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could almost be a lost Japanese Manga version of the original Alien movie. The story is so similar but the art is fantastic. It's Geof Darrow if he drew Akira while channelling H.R. Giger. It's a quick read and a natural for an oversized hardcover edition.

Received an advance copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is pretty much by the numbers but the artwork makes it worth a read. The look of it reminds me of the art in Heavy Metal, if anyone remembers that. They mange to convey a sense of scale and bleakness in space and then zoom in on an eyeball and it all hangs together visually.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread 2023: Pretty much agree with my score. It's very fast read, minimal story, confusing at points too with the flow and pacing. However, the kills are nasty and the art is pretty goddamn great. So for a fast read with great art, it's worth checking out.

Original Review -

Well this was one of the fastest reads I've ever read.

Basically, it's a generic alien story. A crew finds three people frozen in their tubes. They try to release them. They do, but they're burned really bad. Get them to a medical bay and, yep, you guessed it. BOOM! Out of the chest comes the little aliens we all love. Then the crew goes around trying to survive while the aliens roam the ship killing and kidnapping them to harvest.

Good: The art. Well it's damn good. It's grimy, almost 80's or 90's like, but better coloring. I also thought there were some good kills and nasty bits of gorey fun. The aliens killing are always entertaining and the plotting, while light, is super quick.

Bad: The dialog is almost non-existent and when it's there it's just mostly mocho military talk, which would be fine, if you cared about anyone. And the story just kinds of ends in a generic alien fashion with a survivor and that's it...

Overall, this was a fun and quick read. I love Alien and Aliens. Some of my favorite films of ALL time. This isn't amazing like those but decent. A 2.5-3 out of 5.

[Emi.acg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corto, tiene poco diálogo y aunque los dibujos son feos >.< se entiende super bien lo que está pasando e incluso me dio cosa, no se si miedo pero al menos me hizo sentir algo, iug xd.
Ojito mezcla el tiempo así que hay que poner atención.

[JL Shioshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book small on plot but big on atmosphere, and to be honest, I'd rather read this than watch Prometheus or Prometheus 2 aka Alien Covenant. There's not a lot to it, not even a lot of dialogue or captions. It's just images, and though we essentially have seen this all before in various contexts spanning across the Alien franchise, it's still very entertaining going on the ride, even one we're quite familiar with.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perfectly fine for what it is, but this book suffers from what I call wouldn't-it-be-cool writing, wherein visuals and little scenes are included not so much because they serve the overall story, but because mostly because the creator thought to himself something like, wouldn't it be cool if the people in the cryogenic tubes had no skin?

I did like the oversized presentation: not too large, but draws attention to the detail of the art.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay read. So the story is a pretty standard 'Alien' plot; crew investigates an abandoned ship, that ship has Aliens on it etc... You already know the plot by the first issue. One thing the writer, James Stokoe is good at though, is creating a foreboding and claustrophobic atmosphere with his artwork. Its dark, creepy and really gives you the sense that this is a horror comic. The artwork really gives this gritty vibe and with some gruesome death scenes, its definitely a visual treat for any Alien fan! Only thing I didn't like about the artwork were characters eyes, they felt a bit out of place compared to everything else. There also some pretty good scenes, where there's no dialogue at all which make for these great action scenes which again add to the tension and atmosphere. Its also a weakness though as I felt the writer used it a bit too often through out and like I said there's no dialogue, which by the last issue added to the thin plot. I still liked the no dialogue scenes but by the end they felt like visual filler and an excuse to not have any dialogue or real story. Overall its a an okay series for any Alien fan, maybe a bargain bin Graphic Novel. However I feel if you want a good Alien comic series, go read: Aliens: Defiance, Vol. 1, its a great read and it does a lot of what this series does, but better in some respects I feel.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Stokoe belongs to a school of comic art similar to Geof Darrow that I've heard referred to as precision art. Stokoe infuses a more Japanese manga style into his work. This book is all about the artwork. The story doesn't add anything to the Aliens mythos but is a really good riff on the classic haunted spaceship style story of the original. I would argue that Stokoe doesn't need to change the story beats. He's another in a line of great artists to pay tribute to the work of Giger and Ridley Scott.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Orbit, Dark Horse’s four-issue miniseries from cartoonist James Stokoe, contains none of that Prometheus baggage and is more in line with the claustrophobic horror of the 1979 classic. When a Weyland-Yutani crew investigates an unmarked vessel in a team in cryogenic sleep, this crew of six become prey to the Xenomorph as they try to escape an ordeal where no one can hear you scream.

Please click here for my full review.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given all the buzz that had surrounded its initial release, I was pretty jazzed to read Aliens: Dead Orbit, written and illustrated by James Stokoe. Unfortunately, this is a pretty disappointing exercise all around, and one that's utterly derivative of the source material it's licensed from.

Stokoe doesn't try to reinvent the wheel here, but nor does he try to do anything original or fresh. Dead Orbit is an utterly by-the-book Alien story that often times feels more like a game of swapsies. Trade in the Sulaco for a Weyland-Yutani space station with only six inhabitants responding to a passing ship's distress call, and you pretty well know where it's all headed from here. Our team of orbiters find three humans in cryo and, after nearly accidentally killing all of them in a coolant leak while reawakening them, transport the bodies back to their space station. It's all cut-and-paste Alien 101 stuff from there.

Besides being an Alien clone, Stokoe attempts to gives the story a bit of fresh polish by basing much of the story in flashback. This technique is a bit jolting and clumsily handled initially, with little in the way of segue to transition readers into what's happening, but as you grow accustomed to Stokoe's storytelling methods it does serve to keep reader's on their toes, oftentimes jarringly so. The grand finale gets a bit muddled and confusing, though, as you're dropped in and out dual climaxes in the story's recent past and lone survivor present. While it's not entirely disappointing, and Stokoe does create a few neat story beats, it's nothing that hasn't been done plenty of times before.

I also was not a fan of Stokoe's artwork, although plenty of other readers and reviewers seem to have found a lot to like on this front. I found it anime influences too garish and messy, with faces composed oddly enough to make many of the characters look unintentionally disfigured. I prefer a cleaner style, and Stokoe's lines just didn't work for me. His cover art for the individual four-issue run, however, did present some exciting concepts and beautiful artwork that I quite admired. He does do fine job in recreating the gritty industrial aspects of the Alien universe though, and while his artwork isn't pretty to look at it, it does lend a certain tension and unease to the proceedings.

Despite the critical raves surrounding Dead Orbit, it's ultimately not a work I would recommend. I just have too many reservations about the story, its execution, and presentation.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another wonderful offering from the author and artist of Orc Stain. This short graphic novel collects the four issues of the series. A Weyland-Yutani group on a bulk freighter encounters a derelict spacecraft , exploring it to find a trio of cryogenically sustained humans. They barely get the people back to their ship, managing to kill two of them on short order by accident. The third causes problems and then the true foe appears. Xenomorphs attack the crew and kill most of them until the engineer of the ship makes his way to cause a final solution that will destroy the ship, aliens and himself in the process.
This was full of intrigue and shocks. The art style here is classic Stokoe and is detailed and yet a bit off center and quirky, which I love. The quality on Godzilla: Hundred Years War was tighter I think, and yet this art compliments the story.
Overall this is a wonderful story and I enjoyed it until the last page. If you like the Aliens franchise, read this one.

Danny

[Paul S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible art. Plot is fairly standard Alien franchise fare but uses non-linear story telling to make it a little more interesting. What do people expect from an Alien story? Something unique? Alien has elements that must be used. As if the Ghost in the Darkness is going to riff on Pride and Prejudice so it can be unique. As if, I say. As if.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

There’s something utterly suffocating in stories derived from screenplay writer Dan O’Bannon’s Alien (1979). From the claustrophobic setting to the stressful anticipation of events, horror takes on the form of a sinister and deadly extraterrestrial species that revels in the blood of its prey. Launched as part of Alien Day—an event held every year on the 26th of April since 2016 (in reference to the moon LV-426 in Alien (1979)—James Stokoe, writer and artist behind Orc Stain and Godzilla: The Half Century War, offers fans a story in line with the classic Aliens (1986) movie where man has to face one of the deadliest creatures in space.

What is Aliens: Dead Orbit about? Collecting the four-issue limited comic book series, the story is set on a Weyland-Yutani waystation in 2295 and follows a crew riding the Sphacteria who investigates a mysterious vessel. Looking to confirm if anyone is alive in the Hypersleep chambers identified on the old company freighter, Engineering Officer Wascylewski and the rest of the crew board the carrier and pray that they aren’t mindlessly stepping into a trap. It’s when a sudden horrific accident occurs that these adventurers find themselves securing a trip straight to hell. With limited resources, only the sudden arrival of a terrifying creature could make things much worse.

Generic, unoriginal, and superficial. It pains me to see a potential story arc set within the Alien franchise fall short in its story-telling triumph. It goes without saying that it is often rare for a graphic novel written, penciled, inked, coloured, and lettered by the same person to deliver on all fronts, lest the creator withholds the secret of the universe. Drawing upon a typical story of crew members discovering an abandoned ship only to invite a xenomorph into their base, this story doesn’t look to innovate in any form whatsoever and succeeds in being unimpressive from start to finish. With the dual-narrative, present and past timelines, it was, however, enrapturing to see where things will go next but the denouement went in the only direction possible.

What essentially saves it from being a disaster is the Masamune Shirow-inspired artwork (e.g. The Ghost in the Shell) that gives the story a sufficiently authentic tone, capturing the claustrophobic nature of the story. It is also impossible to not vouch for the incredible and meticulous artistic vision that elevates the atmospheric setting to new heights. Although the character designs are rough and at times off-putting, the background is detailed and awe-inspiring. Complemented by excellent colouring that captures the solitude and grimness of the reality the characters are facing—although they aren’t developed at all, leaving you incapable of caring for their survival—the story struggles to stand out from the crowd.

Aliens: Dead Orbit is a derivative story orbiting around an impressive yet unpolished artwork, conclusively dead and trivial for readers looking for novelty.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I'll admit it. Didn't go in for the story. I've seen the movie, it left me uninterested. Not a fan of sci-fi in general, appreciated the film for it's legacy in cinema and it's claustrophobic feel. This i like about movies/books/comics completely taking place in secluded areas of space, preferably in spaceships with no communication whatsoever with the outside world.

"Dead Orbit" offers this feeling in abundance so that was a plus. Xenomorphs are interesting adversaries when it comes to space monsters, being cunny as much as ruthless and not some dumb creatures on a killing spree for the sake of it. What I came here for though was the art. Big fan of Stokoe from his Orc Stain days, it's one of my favorite high-fantasy titles. Wasn't disappointed, here he's more shady and dark with a bit less detail but a sight for sore eyes nonetheless.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Alien tale - claustrophobic space horror - but the cluttered art gets in the way of the story flow.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes it’s done been said - the artwork is ace. i love anything Alien, so no complaints.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art, but kind of a dull story...

[Lynn Dubinsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Nothing new to the Alien universe. The artwork was awesome though.

[Ihor Kolesnyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Український переклад коміксу хороший. Сюжет такий собі.

[Ivan Bachynskyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Красиве

[Alex Sarll]

James Stokoe does Aliens - though unlike his initial pitch, some of which is included as backmatter, this is really more Alien than the sequel. And unlike my occasional laziness with credits, this really is just James Stokoe - art, words, colours, letters, the lot. All of which have the perfect intricacy and shabbiness for these weary spacers, their run-down station, and the intricate, organic horrorshow coming their way. It doesn't have a great deal of nuance, or even much plot, but was that ever what Alien was about? As a ghastly, lovingly detailed mood piece, this does its inspiration perfect justice.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the most original Aliens tale ever, but as an homage to the original Alien movie its great.

Basic premise of a dead space ship found in space with Aliens and/or infected humans on board, leading to big problems for the crew of the space station that finds the ship. The art has a manga feel to it, but also reminded me of a story you'd find in Heavy Metal magazine, which is probably another reason I really liked this one.

If you're looking for innovation, this isn't the book. If you loved the first Alien movie and want to read something similar, this is it.

[The Local Spooky Hermit · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a reread of the book to figure out that most of the story is in the past being remembered not in the present(or really it flips back and forth). So I got a bit confused for a good while but that's just me. It's more of a horror, defeated and lonely feeling story. Which I think fits the alien franchise a lot more. Again another enjoyable read even if i got confused of the order in which things happened for a while. I liked the only and oppressive doom of the first movie then the more action, guns blazing of the second or other movies.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es una historia sencilla pero contundente que logra transmitir la claustrofobia que toda buena historia de la franquicia tiene que tener. El estilo de dibujo tira por un terreno "amerimanga" que logra ser bastante diferenciador.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant artwork, which makes the book, because the story is fairly conventional.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

This is my first Alien storyline outside the film franchise, and it was quite interesting. James Stokoe has a distinct style and ownership of this book. My only real complaint is the rushed storyline, and it's way to short. Dark Horse have a structure for presenting their issues, and I must say it can work against the arc. Dead Orbit is interesting and warrants readers, but it's not the greatest storyline and is one-off read.

Why the 3.5?

I just felt short changed here. James Stokoe has such a clear storyline and potential arc, but he only has a short run here. I would've enjoyed reading a longer book and was slightly annoyed how quickly it I read it. The artwork is nightmarish and fitting. I was enthralled by the layout and design of the book, but annoyed on the execution. Dark Horse might need to relax these contained issue structures once in a while.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had previously read some of James Stokoe's work on Godzilla because I was waiting to get my hands on this, and I wasn't disappointed. His work is almost perfectly suited for this tale, with beautifully rendered xenomorphs, tarman-like burn victims, and a dissolving space station setting that more than makes up for anything the story might lack in novelty.

(Prior to reading I hadn't heard anything but good buzz, but glancing over Goodreads reviews I see a lot of folks knocking this for a dearth of originality. I thought it was fine.)

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is how you write an Alien story. Just retell the first movie in a slightly different setting with slightly different characters. Throw in a little bit of weird storytelling and you've got it made. Short and sweet. The manga vibes of this comic are off the charts, and that far from a bad thing