Marvel Takes A Crack At The Xenoverse: Reviewing ‘Alien’ #1

‘The iconic cinematic terror makes its Marvel debut! 

Gabriel Cruz gave his life to Weyland-Yutani–In an alien attack he barely survived! Recently retired, Cruz is trying to patch things up with his estranged son with the help of his friend, a Bishop-model android. His re-entry into civilian life is not going smoothly…and his encounters with the deadly Xenomorphs are far from over. 

Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca team up to tell an all-new tale of the titan of horror and science fiction that has scared audiences for decades. No one is safe. No one is innocent. And no one can hear you scream.’

Alien #1 cracks off in 2200, aboard the Epsilon Orbital Research and Development Station. That puts it just about eighty years post Nostromo, when Ellen Ripley was assigned to the ship as a civilian advisor. Gabe Cruz is a high profile Colonial Marine, in the midst of outprocessing, headed home on a medical chapter to try to repair his relationship with an adult son who despises him. 

Gabe’s seen some shit, and now he’s trying desperately to reconnect with the family he left behind. The kid’s willing to meet up, but on his terms, and probably not for the reasons Gabe thinks. Nightmares and PTSD and all the other things you’d expect.

There’s a certain amount of formula you have to accept as a fan of the Aliens franchise. There are only so many different settings you can slip a facehugger or an ovomorph into. Salvage ships, terraformed bases, Colonial Marines ships/bases, and…? There’s quite a bit of material that is fair game to be rehashed and turned over, again and again. 

This script seemed a little too cookie cutter, though. You’ve got this Dave guy, who apparently was a terrible, deadbeat dad, but who had his reasons. He wants to keep fighting Xenomorphs, but doesn’t have enough left in the tank. Forced medical retirement. Supposed to be a good dude, in his way. Misunderstood. 

Maybe I was too distracted by the art (more on that in a second), but it just doesn’t seem like Phillip Kennedy Johnson brought much of a new angle to the canon.

I’m not super familiar with Salvador Larroca’s art, but I don’t really understand what I’m seeing here. This is very strange looking, and not in that H.R. Giger biomech, posthumanist, good strange.

Take a look at that first spread, from one of Gabe’s nightmares. There are at least (at LEAST) four different species in that spread that don’t belong in the same real estate. The posing is odd. Perspective is off. Where are they, and what are they even standing on? This looks cut and pasted. Nothing cohesive about it. 

The human and android characters aren’t much better. Staging is peculiar, and there is a very static feel to these images. That Gabe fella doesn’t change expression at all throughout the entire book. You’d expect that from the Bishop androids, but the one of the two characters who shares the majority of panel time in this chapter is supposedly human.

When the announcement broke that Marvel had picked up the comic book rights to the Aliens and Predator franchises, we waited with bated breath. This was only ever going to go one of two ways. It was going to be knock-your-socks-off amazing, or it was going to bomb spectacularly. Unfortunately, this first installment is seriously underwhelming, to say the least. The art is distractingly weird, and there isn’t a whole lot of original direction in the script. 

It’s just not scary, the estranged military deadbeat dad thing has been beaten to death, and the art is inexplicable. I love the Aliens franchise. This is my bag. I wanted to like this book so much. 

I’m trying to find something, anything, that would make me invest further, and outside of morbid curiosity, I’m just not seeing it.

Alien #1, Marvel Comics, 24 March 2021. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Salvador Larroca, color by Guru-eFX, letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.