Marvel’s ‘Alien’ Epic Continues To Evolve This November
by Tony Thornley
While the era of IP consolidation continues to affect the entertainment world for good and ill, Marvel Comics is continuing to do some amazing things with the concepts from 20th Century Studios. In November, their ongoing series of miniseries for Alien returns, this time with a big twist.
Writer-artist Declan Shalvey took the reins of Alien earlier this year with artist Andrea Broccardo on interiors and Shalvey himself doing covers. In November, the duo reunite, but this time Shalvey and Broccardo are sharing interior art duties in a story across two time periods and exploring the new subspecies of xenomorph the duo introduced earlier this year. As a mission crew descends into a horrifying situation, they must learn from the mistakes made by the previous crew if they have any hope to survive, as Broccardo draws the present day segments and Shalvey shows the flashbacks of the doomed first team.
EVERYONE WILL HEAR YOU SCREAM! The next great Alien story starts in Alien Annual #1 and continues in the all-new Alien #1. In deep space spins a world infected by the universe’s greatest killers. Most people – sane people – would construct a barrier thicker than the hulls of ten Nostromos and leave it to rot. But where most people see a death trap, Weyland-Yutani sees the biggest payout in the history of civilization. And if it costs a few human lives to secure? Those come cheap here. Prepare for more corporate corruption, personal betrayals and extraordinary violence.
“It’s such a joy to continue to build out our own little corner of Marvel Comics’ Alien universe with this new ‘Descendant’ story arc,” Shalvey said. “We’re building on what we’ve done before (with some nods to previous stories) and get to dig a bit deeper in this arc (both figuratively and literally). It’s also a real treat for me to draw a section of the story.”
This is a pretty exciting story for any fan of the Alien franchise. Shalvey’s pencil work redefined several modern superheroes, and he’s grown as a writer more and more with each series. Teaming him with Broccardo on such a uniquely structured story is going to be a lot of fun at a minimum.
Check out the cover for Alien #1 from Javi Fernandez above and be sure to pick up Alien #1 this November from Marvel Comics.
