Dark Horse Presents: Aliens

Aliens (comics)

by Mark Verheiden, John Arcudi, Paul Guinan

The Aliens stories from past issues of Dark Horse Presents, in color for the first time.

Theory of Propagation Originally published in DHP #24

Advent (Part 1) Originally published in DHP #42

Terminus (Part 2) Originally published in DHP #43

The Alien Originally published in DHP #56

Genres: Comics, Aliens, Comic Book, Graphic Novels

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Mark 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.

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every single story screams awesomeness!

Whether it's a fun little pseudo-scholarly write up on the nature of the Xenomorph to start up the issue or, the successive Pyramid tomb-raider-esque follow up, Aliens: Platinum reeks of a pungency of awesomeness that drifts up our nostrils and into our brains then exits with just as much pleasure in the exit. Each micro-story hits hard like a right hook and glows with the radiance of the Hope Diamond. With perfectly fit illustrations and thoroughly enjoyable endings, this comic is basically a sampler of awesomeness.

Two big thumbs up!

[Alondra Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

More Alien lore/background.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queria começar falando do visual fálico dos Aliens criado por H. R. Gigger. Depois disso, ao ler histórias em quadrinhos dos Aliens, ficou extremamente evidente para mim como Chris Claremont criou a Ninhada, os inimigos espaciais dos X-Men, cuspidos e escarrados nas criaturas alienígenas de James Cameron. Esse espercial traz as primeiras histórias dos Aliens publicadas pela Editora Dark Horse que, de sua fundação para cá, se especializou em marcas registradas do cinema. São cinco histórias nesse especial. A primeira é um relato sobre a espécie dos Aliens, escrito por Mark Verheiden. A segunda e a terceira são exploradores espaciais saqueando uma pirâmide infestada de Aliens. A quarta é uma divertida história ao estilo Juiz Dredd desenhada por Simon Bisley. E a última é como os grandes comandantes da Terras acabam evitando uma invasão de outros alienígenas se utilizando dos Aliens que Ripley deixou, inadvertidamente, na Terra após as explosões que provocou. Histórias antigas, mas bem escritas, dando uma nova dimensão para os enredos dessa franquia cinematográfica milionária.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of the Aliens material originally published in Black & White for the Dark Horse Presents series. The Dark Horse Presents comics are usually a collection of short stories covering various comics instead of just one. In this re-edition they've presented the material in color for the first time. Within are three stories, one of which I believe is the first Aliens material published, before the Mark Verheiden first series kicked off.

Theory of Alien Propagation: Originally published in Dark Horse Presents #24 in 1988

This was an interesting short story, I think at the time it was released it was exciting because it sort of served as an announcement that Dark Horse would be publishing titles in the Aliens setting, so they wanted to share that. In hindsight the story is sort of just okay. It felt more like Verheiden was just spit balling random ideas about possible Alien birth based on what he had seen in the films. I'm pretty sure all of it is almost entirely wrong, but it sort of set the stage for the upcoming Aliens series he wrote where a number of scientists were studying the organisms, so they were just brain storming ideas. This also features Mark A. Nelson behind the art and it's about as excellent as you'd expect after reading that first series. This was an interesting short story at best, but nothing that truly holds up over time I think.

Advent & Terminus Originally Published in Dark Horse Presents #42 and #43 in 1990

I actually, for some reason, wound up with the original print of #42 in my collection, probably because I liked the Alien on the cover, so I was able to look at this in the original black & white art, and I must say, I do like the color version better. This is by Paul Guinan and probably the most interesting short story in this entire book. In this series it is revealed that there are these pyramid structures all over the galaxy with buried riches inside and our journey starts with a crew hoping to loot the pyramid. This has obvious historical influence, but given when this was released, it really gave me ideas that in the future maybe the pyramid encountered in the first AvP movie was inspired by this. It also feels like this could have influenced ideas in Stargate as well! This has a very Chariots of The Gods type of inspiration.

In any event this two part story starts with looting a pyramid on a different planet and running into the Aliens, which my love for both Aliens and Egypt in my childhood made this story really work for me. Perhaps the tale is technically stupid, but I liked the idea! I actually quite enjoyed the characters as well and I rather wish the story had been able to be fleshed out a little bit more. However, I think the Aliens universe took a different turn and they would really never return to this idea again, until AvP that is.

The Alien Originally published in Dark Horse Presents #56 in 1991

This story is actually pretty important to the continuity of the main comic books. This story serves to bridge the gap between Aliens: Earth War and Aliens: Genocide. Despite what the letters column in Genocide states about not needing to read this, I kind of disagree. You sort of do. In this series they try to account for the fact that the Earth is not destroyed, as we were told at the end of Earth War.

Basically, this story is more of a political story involving the leaders of the U.S. meeting with the Ancient Alien Engineer. Here it is revealed that the bombs set by Orona in the first Aliens series were modified by the Alien Engineer. Here they try to wrap up the story of the engineer as it was left off in Earth War, because for some reason it is revealed that the Engineer is terraforming the Earth with the Aliens for some reason. We find a way to betray the Engineer and take them out so humans can go back to rebuilding Earth. This leads us into the setting for Genocide.

I felt like the story was a bit of a cop-out and sort of tried to erase what Verheiden had setup at the end. Frankly, given the way Earth War ended, I think this was a good idea. I felt like it left us more solidly in the Aliens universe as it was originally intended.

[Phillip Keeling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like sampler platters.

I like Aliens.

This one seems to fit the bill.

There was always something so forbidden about reading Dark Horse comics growing up. They were the company that brought the really grim and adult comics to the store (as opposed to Image later on, who brought the over-the-top and adult).

Some of it has aged well, some hasn't. It's to be expected with any acquired franchises.

But the bleak artwork and the bizarro interpretations (definitely give "Reapers" a thorough look) give one the warm nostalgic giggles.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're collecting old Aliens comics and trying to string together their continuity as a lazy pandemic project (and really, I ask, why wouldn't you be), then the one story in this collection of stories that is Really Important is The Alien, which wraps up the involvement of The Space Jockey's species (from the Aliens film continuity), or the Engineers (from the Prometheus continuity) or simply "The Other" (as it's called here) within the greater Aliens storyline.

Simply put (because obviously this is very simple and not stupidly complicated), when the human race abandoned Earth to the xenomorphs at the end of Aliens: Outbreak (yes, you remember), they unwittingly left the planet open as interstellar real estate for another sentient race to terraform. This species ("The Other") is represented by a lone blind psychic elephant-faced giant (c'mon, obviously), likely the partner of the dead Space Jockey first discovered in Ripley Scott's original Alien film. And when Ripley, Newt, and Hicks (from the movies) return to Earth with their new cadre of marines in the appropriately-titled Aliens: Earth War to wipe out the nest of xenomorphs still residing there, this leaves the planet open once again to human repopulation.

But "The Other" is still trying to terraform the planet, and THEY WON'T LEAVE!

So obviously this horrible pickle needs to get wrapped up in a quick 16 pages so that everyone can get back to what Aliens is really about (fighting monsters on space stations) instead of what it is decidedly not about (anything else).

Anyway, we all know that this story is crucial to understanding the Dark Horse Alien continuity as a whole, and one of the few places it can be found is here, for some reason.

Also there's a few other stories in this book. They are dumb.

[Rachael K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not too sure how to review a comic, I don't read them very often, but I enjoyed learning more about the alien world. I grew up watching the movies so I enjoyed reading this