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Aliens Epic Collection: The Original Years
Aliens Epic Collection: The Original Years, Vol. 1
The galaxy’s most terrifying creatures are coming for Earth! Years after the first two Aliens films, a Xenomorph attack in space leads the Colonial Marines to take action. Soon, the badly scarred Hicks and the now-grown Newt find themselves swept up in a dangerous mission to locate and destroy the creatures’ homeworld! But when the Earth itself is overrun by a Xenomorph outbreak, Hicks and Newt must join a renegade group fighting to reclaim the planet. Can an obsessed military man train Aliens to wipe out their own kind? And can an old friend help Hicks and Newt turn the tide…by capturing an Alien Queen Mother? Plus: An outer-space treasure hunt becomes a battle for survival when Aliens attack!
COLLECTING: Aliens (1988) 1-6; Aliens (1989) 1-4; Aliens: Earth War (1990) 1-4; material from Dark Horse Presents (1986) 24, 42-43
COLLECTING: Aliens (1988) 1-6; Aliens (1989) 1-4; Aliens: Earth War (1990) 1-4; material from Dark Horse Presents (1986) 24, 42-43
448 pages, Paperback
Published March 14, 2023
39 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Mark Verheiden
272 books34 followersMark Verheiden is an American television, movie, and comic book writer. He was a co-executive producer for the television series Falling Skies for DreamWorks Television and the TNT Network.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 6, 2025
The publication history of the Alien-franchise comic line is complicated.
1. The Aliens Epic Collection: Original Years, Vol. 1, published by Marvel in 2023, is selling for $40 new. The Collection reprints the comics in color, on high quality glossy paper, in the original comic book size.
2. All of the comics contained within were originally published by Dark Horse Comics in black and white.
3. There are many releases with very similar titles. Example: on the shelf next to this book, I have 30th Anniversary Aliens: The Original Comics Series by Dark Horse Comics. The 30th Anniversary edition was published back in 2016 and is now going for roughly $80 used. This edition was printed in a large-format, high quality hardback.
4. Each of the "Original Comics" contain different sets of comics. This can get really confusing because the plot arcs have been published under different names.
5. This Aliens Epic Collection (...) Vol. 1 contains:
a. Aliens 1-6. (1988) AKA Outbreak.
b. Aliens 1-4 (1989) AKA Nightmare Asylum.
c. Aliens: Earth War 1-4. AKA Female War.
d. Aliens: Advent. 1990.
e. Aliens: Terminus. 1990.
Complicating the situation even further is the fact that these comics went Out Of Print fairly quickly after they were published and that because of this, they immediately became collector's items. You could find them, but they cost lots of money. You'd think Dark Horse would reprint them in a collected volume so they could continue to make lots of money. They did. But...
David Fincher's Alien 3 in 1992 paid no attention to the comic continuity. Dark Horse decided, in its infinite wisdom, to edit all reprints to harmonize with the new continuity established by Alien 3.
When first published, the Aliens Original Years comics told the story of what happened after Cameron's 1986 Aliens. But the people at Dark Horse had a problem. They got the rights to everything in the Aliens franchise except the character of Ellen Ripley (Sigorney Weaver's character). The Aliens Original Years comics worked around this by telling the story of Hicks and Newt. But- the edited reprints changed the names of the central characters to Wilks and Billie.
For many years, all you could buy new were the edited reprints. The original, unedited versions continued to appreciate in value *if* you could find them.
Since 2016, it's been possible to buy reprints of the original, unedited versions of the story. This Epic Collection contains the entire original run, although they've all been colorized.
So that's the history and the content. Now for the review:
I bought this edition because I've wanted to read the original comics since I first heard about them in the early 90s. I read Outbreak (Aliens 1988, 1-6) in 2017 when I bought the 30th anniversary release, but that release did not contain Nightmare Asylum (Aliens 1989, 1-4) or Earth War. How are they?
Disappointing.
Nightmare Asylum has an interesting story- Hicks and Newt arrive at a military base after Earth's overrun by Xenomorphs. The base commander, clearly insane, is "training" Xenomorphs to serve as his new army. The story doesn't end well for the commander, although Hicks and Newt do survive. Most interesting, Ripley returns at the very end.
Earth War follows Ripley on her quest to kill all the Xenomorphs. She makes it clear that she doesn't care about the Earth of its inhabitants. Ripley wants the Queen and all her children dead. Newt takes issue with that and goes off on her own to rescue a child who was captured by the Queen. Ripley has a change of heart near the end and aids Newt in her quest, and surprise, surprise, the Xenos lose and Ripley/ humanity wins. Kind of. Because there's a weird sub-plot involving the Space Jockey from the crash that the Nostromo investigated. Apparently, the space jockeys have plans to colonize Earth. They secretly coordinated the fight between humanity and the Xenos, with the goal of taking the Earth from whoever "won." I don't think the Space Jockey plot was addressed in any of the series that followed, and there have been many.
So what's disappointing about all this? The art, most of all. The art quality steadily degrades as the series progresses. The art of Earth War is sloppy and cartoonish, which makes it very hard to take the story seriously.
The stories are lazy and sloppily told. That part about the Space Jockey? It's pretty important, but left almost totally undeveloped. The bad guys are one-note villains: either insane or greedy. The Xenos themselves have some character development- which is really cool- but they're overshadowed by all the crappy stock heroes and villains. Later series return to the Xeno character development, specifically, the idea of a religion devoted to the Xenomorphs. So there's that, at least.
The comics repeat themselves a lot- good guys arrive in an area where Xenomorphs are probably present. The humans don't take precautions. Xenos slaughter the humans. Ripley or Newt or Hicks intervenes and saves the survivors. The survivors then discover an insidious plot laid by the next group of bad guys.
Another problem is that parts of the comics have already been used in the movies- Alien 4, Alien: Romulus, and even the Alien vs. Predator series. Large chunks of the comics felt very familiar, even though I was reading them for the first time.
I'm glad I bought the collection, thus the four star rating. If you're a fan of the franchise, then I think you'll find something to love here, even with all the shortcomings. I do sincerely wish they'd skipped Alien 3 and everything after and just developed the comics into movies. With some dedicated work from an experienced screenwriter, these stories could have been awesome.
1. The Aliens Epic Collection: Original Years, Vol. 1, published by Marvel in 2023, is selling for $40 new. The Collection reprints the comics in color, on high quality glossy paper, in the original comic book size.
2. All of the comics contained within were originally published by Dark Horse Comics in black and white.
3. There are many releases with very similar titles. Example: on the shelf next to this book, I have 30th Anniversary Aliens: The Original Comics Series by Dark Horse Comics. The 30th Anniversary edition was published back in 2016 and is now going for roughly $80 used. This edition was printed in a large-format, high quality hardback.
4. Each of the "Original Comics" contain different sets of comics. This can get really confusing because the plot arcs have been published under different names.
5. This Aliens Epic Collection (...) Vol. 1 contains:
a. Aliens 1-6. (1988) AKA Outbreak.
b. Aliens 1-4 (1989) AKA Nightmare Asylum.
c. Aliens: Earth War 1-4. AKA Female War.
d. Aliens: Advent. 1990.
e. Aliens: Terminus. 1990.
Complicating the situation even further is the fact that these comics went Out Of Print fairly quickly after they were published and that because of this, they immediately became collector's items. You could find them, but they cost lots of money. You'd think Dark Horse would reprint them in a collected volume so they could continue to make lots of money. They did. But...
David Fincher's Alien 3 in 1992 paid no attention to the comic continuity. Dark Horse decided, in its infinite wisdom, to edit all reprints to harmonize with the new continuity established by Alien 3.
When first published, the Aliens Original Years comics told the story of what happened after Cameron's 1986 Aliens. But the people at Dark Horse had a problem. They got the rights to everything in the Aliens franchise except the character of Ellen Ripley (Sigorney Weaver's character). The Aliens Original Years comics worked around this by telling the story of Hicks and Newt. But- the edited reprints changed the names of the central characters to Wilks and Billie.
For many years, all you could buy new were the edited reprints. The original, unedited versions continued to appreciate in value *if* you could find them.
Since 2016, it's been possible to buy reprints of the original, unedited versions of the story. This Epic Collection contains the entire original run, although they've all been colorized.
So that's the history and the content. Now for the review:
I bought this edition because I've wanted to read the original comics since I first heard about them in the early 90s. I read Outbreak (Aliens 1988, 1-6) in 2017 when I bought the 30th anniversary release, but that release did not contain Nightmare Asylum (Aliens 1989, 1-4) or Earth War. How are they?
Disappointing.
Nightmare Asylum has an interesting story- Hicks and Newt arrive at a military base after Earth's overrun by Xenomorphs. The base commander, clearly insane, is "training" Xenomorphs to serve as his new army. The story doesn't end well for the commander, although Hicks and Newt do survive. Most interesting, Ripley returns at the very end.
Earth War follows Ripley on her quest to kill all the Xenomorphs. She makes it clear that she doesn't care about the Earth of its inhabitants. Ripley wants the Queen and all her children dead. Newt takes issue with that and goes off on her own to rescue a child who was captured by the Queen. Ripley has a change of heart near the end and aids Newt in her quest, and surprise, surprise, the Xenos lose and Ripley/ humanity wins. Kind of. Because there's a weird sub-plot involving the Space Jockey from the crash that the Nostromo investigated. Apparently, the space jockeys have plans to colonize Earth. They secretly coordinated the fight between humanity and the Xenos, with the goal of taking the Earth from whoever "won." I don't think the Space Jockey plot was addressed in any of the series that followed, and there have been many.
So what's disappointing about all this? The art, most of all. The art quality steadily degrades as the series progresses. The art of Earth War is sloppy and cartoonish, which makes it very hard to take the story seriously.
The stories are lazy and sloppily told. That part about the Space Jockey? It's pretty important, but left almost totally undeveloped. The bad guys are one-note villains: either insane or greedy. The Xenos themselves have some character development- which is really cool- but they're overshadowed by all the crappy stock heroes and villains. Later series return to the Xeno character development, specifically, the idea of a religion devoted to the Xenomorphs. So there's that, at least.
The comics repeat themselves a lot- good guys arrive in an area where Xenomorphs are probably present. The humans don't take precautions. Xenos slaughter the humans. Ripley or Newt or Hicks intervenes and saves the survivors. The survivors then discover an insidious plot laid by the next group of bad guys.
Another problem is that parts of the comics have already been used in the movies- Alien 4, Alien: Romulus, and even the Alien vs. Predator series. Large chunks of the comics felt very familiar, even though I was reading them for the first time.
I'm glad I bought the collection, thus the four star rating. If you're a fan of the franchise, then I think you'll find something to love here, even with all the shortcomings. I do sincerely wish they'd skipped Alien 3 and everything after and just developed the comics into movies. With some dedicated work from an experienced screenwriter, these stories could have been awesome.
January 31, 2024
Sadly not as good as I remember reading them 30+ yrs ago. But still preferable as a continuation to Alien and Aliens movies, rather than what came after.
September 4, 2025
Book 1: Very cool story (mostly) and very interesting art.
Book 2: Decent detour story from the major action but excellent art.
Book 3: trash story and trash art.
Book 2: Decent detour story from the major action but excellent art.
Book 3: trash story and trash art.
July 13, 2023
The stories contained within feature some really interesting ideas that I wish the films after Aliens explored. As a casual fan of the franchise, it scratched that itch.
This is a collection of four different comic series, each printed in different years with different artists. Some of it I thought was well-done, some of it I feel was pretty bland. This was a good foray into the original years of Aliens comics, but it doesn't make me feel like I need to go and get the OOP omnis in order to satisfy an itch for more Aliens. Instead I'll look forward to buying the next Epic Collection volume next year.
3.75 stars out of 5
This is a collection of four different comic series, each printed in different years with different artists. Some of it I thought was well-done, some of it I feel was pretty bland. This was a good foray into the original years of Aliens comics, but it doesn't make me feel like I need to go and get the OOP omnis in order to satisfy an itch for more Aliens. Instead I'll look forward to buying the next Epic Collection volume next year.
3.75 stars out of 5
June 11, 2023
"We're so frail, so weak compared to them. They have the strength and power of true soldiers. They demonstrate an unquestioning, unswerving loyalty to their cause."
If I could give this a 3.5 overall, I would.
I'm not very used to the world of comics--I neither grew up with them nor have I read many in my adult life--so take this review with a grain of salt; I'm not used to the conventions of comics.
First, I'll say that the kindle edition of this collection is largely readable, though there are points you have to squint. The added feature of being able to expand most panels by double tapping them was appreciated.
Second, this is a collection of four different comic series, each printed in different years with different artists. Some of it I thought was well-done, some of it I feel was either rushed, with panels that looked blatantly unfinished. It didn't diminish from my enjoyment of the story much, but if a lack of polish bothers you, you might want to stay away from some of these.
The stories contained within feature some really interesting ideas that I wish the films after Aliens explored; they either expand on or continue to explore the same general themes the films did.
As a casual fan of the franchise, it scratched that itch. As a standalone product, it neither amazed me, nor left me particularly frustrated.
Some of the character artwork and lines of dialogue feel definitively dated--but not in a way that's too distracting; they're certainly authentic to the films they're based on.
So I suppose I would loosely recommend it, either to fans of the first two films who really want their aliens itch scratched or to people who might enjoy a gritty, grimdark b-grade comic series. Don't go into it expecting it to redefine your expectations, go into it expecting a decently good time for an afternoon and you'll get one.
As for me, I'm ready to move on. At some point I'll read more comics, and this one left a good impression as someone who doesn't ordinarily indulge in them.
March 23, 2025
Besides being a kind of an interesting take on a sequel to aliens, there's no reason to go back to this except if you really really want to know someone else's take, it's not bad, it's readable, but it's kind of hard to get through, especially the first story, it's very confusing.
The best part for me was for sure the art, every story has a very unique and beautifel art style, it's just a bit jarring how much the character designs change between stories, but besides that it's really fun to look at.
Some very interesting and cool ideas, but I don't think they were implemented that well
glad we have alien cubed
The best part for me was for sure the art, every story has a very unique and beautifel art style, it's just a bit jarring how much the character designs change between stories, but besides that it's really fun to look at.
Some very interesting and cool ideas, but I don't think they were implemented that well
glad we have alien cubed
May 30, 2023
I love these collections by Marvel and was excited to see them branch out to include the Dark Horse books. I remember how mind-blowing these were when they originally came out, and just how hard it was to find them all without breaking the bank. I enjoyed them all, my only complaint being the artwork is hit or miss - except for Sam Keith's run on the Earth War mini-series.
If you are a fan of Alien & Aliens, this is a perfect collection for you. It ignores the other movies and just picks up at the end of Aliens. I love that we get more Newt & Hicks.
If you are a fan of Alien & Aliens, this is a perfect collection for you. It ignores the other movies and just picks up at the end of Aliens. I love that we get more Newt & Hicks.
May 20, 2024
It's probably more like 2.5 stars. For me, there's no way this series could live up to the movie franchise. The tension and action that worked so well in the films is difficult to capture in this medium. That aside, the first two stories were pretty good. Consistent in both art and pacing. The third, Earth War, was not smooth or enjoyable. My favorite part of this book was the cover artwork of the individual issues. As much as this wasn't for me, I'm still going to give Phillip Kennedy Johnson's run a try.
March 11, 2025
Hicks, Newt, and Ripley are back for more. These stories take place after Aliens but before Alien 3 was planned. The first miniseries is a bit rough to get through with strange layouts and cuts to different scenes, but the story picks up and makes more sense in the following two miniseries. Actually kind of sucks they didn't utilize the main story plot from this rather than the story of Alien 3 for the movies, but maybe it could still be done with modifications to the story. The Sam Keith issues are my favorite artwork of these, but all the artwork is solid.
March 2, 2025
Randomly came across this at the library. The art was ok and the stories mediocre. It features Newt, Hocks and Ripley fighting to save Earth from the Aliens. How did the Aliens get on earth? Typical stupidity. Then once they are there people start worshipping them as gods. Not the greatest stuff I’ve ever read.
April 13, 2023
I liked two out of the four artists, which is kind of a bummer. The stories reach for a grand narrative, but I don't know if the Alien franchise ever really benefits from that. Still, it was an interesting shot of late 80's SF style.
February 5, 2024
The Aliens series always intrigues me and these continuations of Newt's story were fascinating, more so after the more modern retakes. The elephant nosed navigator and the fall of Earth were great continuations. Now I am interested in what the rest of the graphic novels hold.
March 28, 2024
Wow, I thought other reviews were exaggerating, but the quality really does nosedive after the first arc. The writing gets progressively worse and the art in the final story is atrocious.
A shame, as the opening chapters are cool.
A shame, as the opening chapters are cool.
June 25, 2025
3.5 stars, this was fun. Worth owning for an Aliens fan. I found some of the art to vary in quality, although these are older comics so that is subjective. I got this on a sale from Amazon for less than 20 bucks which makes it a great deal!
April 24, 2023
Such a superficial thing to judge this on, but the artwork for 1/2 of this is pretty bad, with 1/4 in particular being shockingly ugly and hard to follow. Want to like it a lot more but can't.
January 3, 2024
This was an impulse buy at my local comic place. The first series is kind of weird, but after that, it is very, very good.
November 26, 2025
killing newt in the movies was better than what happened here.
December 28, 2025
DNF, I don't know what this is, But it's not aliens.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews