A Hero And An Alien Horror: Revisiting ‘Superman/Aliens’
by Tony Thornley
With FX’s Alien Earth premiering today, the Comicon team is taking the next few weeks to revisit some of our favorite Xenomorph comics stories. And we’re going to start with a crossover with the summer’s biggest movie star- Superman/Aliens.
Following the massive hit of 1991’s Batman Versus Predator, another crossover with 20th Century Fox’s sci-fi horror franchise- aside from a sequel to that story itself- was inevitable. In 1995, it finally happened with Superman/Aliens. DC Comics brought in the big guns for this story with Dan Jurgens writing and providing layouts, Kevin Nowlan finishing the art, Greg Wright and Android Images on colors, and Bill Oakley doing letters.
When a distress probe crash lands on Earth, Superman discovers what might be a lost Kryptonian colony. Superman and Lois enlist the help of LexCorp to travel to the colony. But when he travels there, what Clark finds there will not only endanger his own life, but potentially the entire planet Earth.
For a science fiction thriller, this story holds up. As a Superman story, it holds up even better. As far as a horror story though, it falls short a bit. That’s not to say its bad by any means. Just like its Batman-themed predecessor, this is so rooted in being a Superman story, that it makes the entire experience even better.
The first issue takes time to build to Superman’s mission, that it adds more and more tension the longer it waits to reveal the Xenomorphs. It makes for a very satisfying payoff both when we see Superman get attacked by one of the famous aliens, and through the series as everything builds and escalates. I think the biggest area the story falls short is not spending more time on the LexCorp satellite, after Superman mistakenly sends four colonists who have all already found themselves face to face with a facehugger.
The artwork on this story is the biggest draw though. Nowlan takes Jurgens’ layouts- which links the story visually to the triangle era- and turns them into a dark, moody battle for survival. The characters are very human and remarkably expressive, particularly new heroine Kara, who is so relatable quickly thanks to her similarity to Supergirl. Superman in particularly is a massive presence on the page, which makes the story more tense the deeper he gets into trouble.
The story falls short simply in not being scary enough. Superman and Kara’s fight on Argo City nailed the sci-fi action feel of the later entries of the franchise. Spending a little more time on the LexCorp satellite could have matched the horror of the original Alien and made this story significantly scarier.
But really for me, this works. It marries the two very different concepts incredibly well, with great art and a fantastic story of horror and survival.
