Comic Book Review: ALIENS (2009) #1-4 (Dark Horse Comics)

I don’t do too many reviews of individual comic book reviews opting instead to wait until they are collected into graphic novel form so that I can review the story as well as all the supplemental items that publishers put with the graphic novel version to entice fans to fork out more money. Well, with this all new ALIENS series I just couldn’t wait.

Having been a Dark Horse Comics fan from the very beginning (from the meager begins of the first Dark Horse Presents series to the very first black & white ALIENS limited series) I’ve come to expect new and bold things from this publisher who for the most part do not cater to the popular crowd. They were the ones behind the first ALIENS and Predator series as well as The Mask, Concrete, Barb Wire, and many, many more . The ALIENS series has been gone for many years due to over saturation in the market and dwindling value in the stories being told. After a while I began to think that the stories were all a little too similar to one another.

I was very happy to hear that they were revamping the series (thanks in part to the popularity of the two Alien Vs. Predator movies) and writer John Arcudi would be behind it (he’s also doing the new Predator series as well). Arcudi has been in the business a long time and he knows what he’s doing.

This new story concerns a group of scientists who make their way to Chione, an inhabited mining planet that has just recently unveiled the existence of alien structures of which the scientists are sent there to study and analyze. Everything seems to be going perfectly well until the mining inhabitants open fire on the scientists killing them all. It appears that the inhabitants of the planet live in fear that outsiders will come an steal their precious alien artifacts away. This uncontrollable fear is being caused by the alien artifacts themselves which puts all that come near into a euphoric state like an addictive drug driving them all into semi-madness. This madness leaves the Chione inhabitants susceptible to the alien infestation which was kept hidden until the alien structure was unearthed.

Unknown to the mining inhabitants of Chione there was a survivor of the group of scientists and the only reason he survived is because he’s a synthetic organism. This survivor David Sereda now finds himself tasks with trying to answer a distress signal on the planet before he is able to leave it. Sereda now finds himself pitted against homicidal inhabitants, an alien infestation, and the fact that some of his programming was damaged when he was originally gunned down by the natives.

Arcudi bases a lot of what follows in this series from the first two films in the series. The miners come across an alien structure that houses the embryos of the alien xenomorphs, which create an uncontrollable infestation. What Arcudi does well is present us with a sympathetic synthetic that may or may not have programming issues. Artwork is principally by Zach Howard whose work I’m not familiar with but does an excellent job with this new series. Another great asset to the series is Wes Dzioba’s colors which just make the whole series come alive like few of the other ALIEN series before. If this is a sign of new things to come for future series than I’m all for it.

GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH

TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH marked two milestones in comic book history. First, it was the first comic book series that extended the story first created by director James Cameron and his films THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY and second, it marked the debut of famed comic book artist Alex Rose, who would go on to do phenomenal MARVELS and KINGDOM COME series (among others).

Written by Ron Fortier with painted art by Ross THE BURNING EARTH was a post apocalyptic story about the last days of the residence with John Conner doing battle with his remaining band of soldiers against the sentient Skynet who plans on killing every living thing on Earth with nuclear bombs.

One of the great things about Ross’ artwork is that even though the main color pallet is blues and grey, he manages to create a style that doesn’t muddle the look of the scenes but give them a deeper and darker meaning as if the reader was thrust into a horror film of impending danger and destruction. No one is safe in this world of man verses machines, not even the conflicted leader of Conner who is just trying to hold on to what humanity he has left in this never ending war.

Although not the best of the Terminator series (Dark Horse Comics would later get the license to continue the franchise), it is still definitely one of the darkest of the series and since it was the first it has a lot of advantages over the others. This is also a great series for people who want to see some of Ross’ earliest work and where his current style came from (Ross was 19 when he did this series and only one year out of art school).

Seeing Robots Everywhere in TERMINATOR SALVATION

Am I a TERMINATOR fan?

Having enjoyed both of the James Cameron films I delved into the continuation of the franchise in the four-colored world of comics first throw NOW comics original series TERMINATOR: THE BURNING EARTH and later through Dark Horse Comics who published various limited series based on the franchise (all fairly good although like most franchise tended to run out of steam towards the end of their run).

Then came TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) directed by newcomer Jonathan Mostow who did an excellent job small thriller BREAKDOWN (1997) and U-571 (2000) but T3 ended up an ill-fated mess only enjoyable to those who have never seen the first two films. This film had a bigger budget but no brains and ended up nothing more then a very good paycheck for the current Govenor of CA. Sorry to say that I no longer was a Terminator fan.

Then in 2008 TERMINATOR showed up on the small screen with THE SARAH CONNER CHRONICLES, a spin-off with a great cast but messed with the continuity of the franchise so much that I'm not sure that in even belongs in the TERMINATOR franchise or if it's just a bad dream (like what eventually happened with HALLOWEEN 4, 5, and 6 to that franchise). Although this show was cancelled after only two seasons it has its fans (because frankly the show wasn't that bad).

Now we have TERMINATOR SALVATION (2009) a film that tries to be a sequel while also trying to reboot the franchise (ala STAR TREK). I'm not going to say the film is great but it's a whole hell of a lot better then the previous film which is mainly because of the good writing and great cast on board. Whereas the 3rd film poked fun at itself on several occassions this film is a gritty war film that asks the question - in a world ruled by robots is humanity dead? After watching that 3rd film you'd think so but stars Christian Bale (as prophet of doom John Conner) and Sam Worthington are great foils for one another. It's tuff to play opposite rising star super giant Bale but newcomer Worthington does a great job of holding his own in the film which is a testament not only to his talent but also to the great screenplay by John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris.

It film not only has a gripping (and intellent) story behind it but it also has the action and excitement required of a summer popcorn film. I give great praise to director McG for putting together such a great team of experts (especially after the rumors of how hard he worked to get Bale interested in the film). Some people only see him as the guy who directed the CHARLES ANGELS films but I was willing to give him a chance (especially since Mostow - whom I like - screwed up the 3rd film).

My interest in the TERMINATOR franchise has been rekindled, for now, and I hope that they continue to do it right with any subsequent films.