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Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Meet Colonial Marine Lieutenant Joseph Henry, son of one of the most influential politicians on Earth. After being charged once again with insubordination, Lt. Henry is placed in command of a platoon of the absolute worst Marines in the sector and assigned the lowest detail in the corps, shuttling a corporate security team to a toxic waste facility. But the mission goes from deadly dull to deadly when the team discovers that a seemingly organized batch of xenomorphs has overrun the facility, leaving a troop of nobodies in the middle of nowhere to determine the future of humanity!
225 pages, ebook
First published February 27, 2013
About the author
Chris Warner
335 books7 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Chris Warner (born 1955) is an American comic book writer, artist, and editor for Dark Horse Comics.
(source: Wikipedia)
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Chris Warner (born 1955) is an American comic book writer, artist, and editor for Dark Horse Comics.
(source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 1, 2021
This was a dud. It's about a division of screw up Marines who find an Alien infestation along with some human / xenomorph hybrids. None of it is explained as to what's going on, what these hybrids want or where they came from. There are a bunch of subplots that all get abandoned and some logic leaps. It's a frustrating read. That probably comes from having 3 creative teams trying to tell one story across 10 issues that were slated to be 12. The art is overly cartoony for the subject matter as well. Parts of it look like an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon due to it.
September 23, 2024
Well this was an odd read. The story seemed jump around and not connect up well in some parts. I am sure this is the result of changing writers in mid series and cutting the story from 12 to 10 issues. Overall some interesting ideas. Recommended
March 5, 2020
Series started life as a 12 issue miniseries that at some point was shaved down to 10. In 1993, I did not enjoy book and thought it was due to long gaps between issues. Upon re-reading 27 years later and all together, it still has crazy logic jumps and unresolved plot points. Reads more like the Aliens mini comics that were in the Kenner figures than the other Aliens series Dark Horse published, with hybrid alien/humans, cyborg killers, whale aliens, etc.
July 12, 2021
Colonial Marines is a series that probably sits around a 2.5 for me really. This series had a lot of really great ideas, but there were a lot of weak parts in this series. I also don't think it really met expectations for what I wanted out of a story about the Colonial Marines in general. I was sort of expecting a series about a marine task force being sent to different areas to clean up Alien infestations and at first it seemed like that's what we might get... until the Alien human hybrid people showed up.
You heard that right... there are humans that have been transformed by the use of Royal Jelly and now they've teamed up with the Aliens to spread the species. Yeah, I thought this was kind of a stupid concept too. I had some interesting hope for the series at the very beginning, because it starts with an escape ship docking with a different space station. At first I thought this was being tied in with the end of Aliens: Tribes where the mad scientist got away... but, alas, that very interesting thread was not to be. Instead this was just some random ship, also infested with Aliens, and the fanatical worshippers now turned into hybrid Aliens.
After just this first issue, I had to commend the artist involved, because they did an excellent job on drawing the space ships and other elements of technology in the Aliens universe. It felt very in line with Alien/Aliens/Alien 3. This was a far cry from so much of the art from previous series where the space ships just looked goofy and the technology looked like it might be out of the Jetsons or some other silly cartoon.
Unfortunately, instead of having an elite team of marines, we get a story about a ragtag bunch of misfits, so hardly the intense action packed action I was expecting. Here a Lt. Henry is put in charge of this group to bring them on a mission and they are barely ready to take orders from anyone, least of all a new lieutenant. Basically, when the Aliens show up against the marines this serves as quite the detriment because these marines are ready to quit after the first encounter. None of them are interested in sticking things through. Given the Aliens time line and this being well after the Alien infestation of Earth, it was sort of a far cry from the crack Alien clean up crews we met in Aliens: Genocide. Granted things didn't work out too well in Genocide, but I would have liked to see a series where they figured it out and turned things around.
In any event, this series uses things as an excuse to introduce a character with a familiar name of Vasquez, but this is the story of her sister, Carmen. Carmen isn't as tough as nails and eager for combat as the well known Vasquez from the film. It's cool to switch up expectations in a lot of situations, but having at least one truly competent marine on this force beyond Lt. Henry would have been pretty nice. Oh well...
The things this series did right was bring us to different worlds to get even more insight into how humanity has expanded into the future. An Alien infestation spread to a nearby world of the space station and there were these strange hybrid Aliens with something from their ocean. I actually thought this was a really cool idea, the way Alien biology might change a bit depending on the host creature. This was a far more respectable idea over the weird humans transformed by Royal Jelly... which was a stupid thread to bring up to sort of extend the worshippers of the Aliens seen in the very first series, Aliens: Book One.
During these adventures we met an interesting group of new characters and the idea of combat androids. I thought the combat androids were cool, but I'm not sure how much I think they'd be invented in that universe... not a bad idea overall though. We also met a mercenary named Herck Mondo and I found it very interesting that he's featured on the cover for the issue he is on and inside... he kind of looks nothing like his cover treatment. I thought that was kind of bad... it was like the two artists never looked at each others work.
The final problem and what really pushed this into a lower rating for me was the conclusion. The conclusion was terrible. It felt like they were setting up this mystery of the transformed humans working with the Aliens, but I felt like this was never truly resolved. You never really found out who these people were other than you get confirmation they were actually people once. I found this even more frustrating, because this series was originally slotted to be 12 issues, but then suddenly it was changed to 10 and in the letter columns the editor said it was changed because the writers felt the series had run its natural course. They assured us that the series was not cancelled... well... it felt like it was. The ending was extremely weak and felt abrupt. Maybe if they didn't spend time on issues with Herck Mondo and the combat android they could have done something more with the mystery instead of introducing characters you'd never see beyond their one issue...
The covers for this series are top notch and it really pulls you in and makes you want to read them for sure... but unless you're an Aliens completionist like me, this series may actually be worth skipping. It doesn't seem to add too much to the grander Aliens universe and this series also never got the novel treatment, while all the other ones did at the time these were being published. I found it pretty strange that this never got novelized... maybe they knew it wasn't great? Who knows. Still, it has some merit and comics don't take too long to read, so I guess it's not a total loss, but I wouldn't say it's a must read.
You heard that right... there are humans that have been transformed by the use of Royal Jelly and now they've teamed up with the Aliens to spread the species. Yeah, I thought this was kind of a stupid concept too. I had some interesting hope for the series at the very beginning, because it starts with an escape ship docking with a different space station. At first I thought this was being tied in with the end of Aliens: Tribes where the mad scientist got away... but, alas, that very interesting thread was not to be. Instead this was just some random ship, also infested with Aliens, and the fanatical worshippers now turned into hybrid Aliens.
After just this first issue, I had to commend the artist involved, because they did an excellent job on drawing the space ships and other elements of technology in the Aliens universe. It felt very in line with Alien/Aliens/Alien 3. This was a far cry from so much of the art from previous series where the space ships just looked goofy and the technology looked like it might be out of the Jetsons or some other silly cartoon.
Unfortunately, instead of having an elite team of marines, we get a story about a ragtag bunch of misfits, so hardly the intense action packed action I was expecting. Here a Lt. Henry is put in charge of this group to bring them on a mission and they are barely ready to take orders from anyone, least of all a new lieutenant. Basically, when the Aliens show up against the marines this serves as quite the detriment because these marines are ready to quit after the first encounter. None of them are interested in sticking things through. Given the Aliens time line and this being well after the Alien infestation of Earth, it was sort of a far cry from the crack Alien clean up crews we met in Aliens: Genocide. Granted things didn't work out too well in Genocide, but I would have liked to see a series where they figured it out and turned things around.
In any event, this series uses things as an excuse to introduce a character with a familiar name of Vasquez, but this is the story of her sister, Carmen. Carmen isn't as tough as nails and eager for combat as the well known Vasquez from the film. It's cool to switch up expectations in a lot of situations, but having at least one truly competent marine on this force beyond Lt. Henry would have been pretty nice. Oh well...
The things this series did right was bring us to different worlds to get even more insight into how humanity has expanded into the future. An Alien infestation spread to a nearby world of the space station and there were these strange hybrid Aliens with something from their ocean. I actually thought this was a really cool idea, the way Alien biology might change a bit depending on the host creature. This was a far more respectable idea over the weird humans transformed by Royal Jelly... which was a stupid thread to bring up to sort of extend the worshippers of the Aliens seen in the very first series, Aliens: Book One.
During these adventures we met an interesting group of new characters and the idea of combat androids. I thought the combat androids were cool, but I'm not sure how much I think they'd be invented in that universe... not a bad idea overall though. We also met a mercenary named Herck Mondo and I found it very interesting that he's featured on the cover for the issue he is on and inside... he kind of looks nothing like his cover treatment. I thought that was kind of bad... it was like the two artists never looked at each others work.
The final problem and what really pushed this into a lower rating for me was the conclusion. The conclusion was terrible. It felt like they were setting up this mystery of the transformed humans working with the Aliens, but I felt like this was never truly resolved. You never really found out who these people were other than you get confirmation they were actually people once. I found this even more frustrating, because this series was originally slotted to be 12 issues, but then suddenly it was changed to 10 and in the letter columns the editor said it was changed because the writers felt the series had run its natural course. They assured us that the series was not cancelled... well... it felt like it was. The ending was extremely weak and felt abrupt. Maybe if they didn't spend time on issues with Herck Mondo and the combat android they could have done something more with the mystery instead of introducing characters you'd never see beyond their one issue...
The covers for this series are top notch and it really pulls you in and makes you want to read them for sure... but unless you're an Aliens completionist like me, this series may actually be worth skipping. It doesn't seem to add too much to the grander Aliens universe and this series also never got the novel treatment, while all the other ones did at the time these were being published. I found it pretty strange that this never got novelized... maybe they knew it wasn't great? Who knows. Still, it has some merit and comics don't take too long to read, so I guess it's not a total loss, but I wouldn't say it's a must read.
April 21, 2017
Following from the original Aliens EU before Alien 3 was released, the xenomorphs are now common knowledge and hive's have been established on Earth. This book follows an unlikely group of screw-up Marines and their equally screwed up Lieutenant as they encounter the aliens in their efforts to reach HQ, which has been commandeered by "bug-men" (people that mutate due to use of alien "royal jelly"). While a lot of these characters are not likeable, the story is fun and fast-paced.
August 5, 2015
Read in the original 10 issue version.
Overall this was a good story. Kept me interested the whole way through.
The art got better after the first issue, when the artists changed for whatever reason. By the end it was looking pretty good.
3 out of 5 stars.
Overall this was a good story. Kept me interested the whole way through.
The art got better after the first issue, when the artists changed for whatever reason. By the end it was looking pretty good.
3 out of 5 stars.
July 24, 2021
This was one of the first comics I ever collected as a young kid, and among my first introductions to the Aliens comics line after having seen the first two films when I was like 12. I remember basically liking it, but not really understanding what was happening in the story. So, I revisited it recently as an adult.
It's not much better now. I tried to read pretty carefully, to figure out what exactly is driving the plot, and it's not there. I'd love to interview the various guys who were involved in writing this, just to ask what the actual story framework was, what the cause and effect relationships were supposed to be between travel/story points, and the grand plan the villains had, etc. As it stands, the characters come and go from locations, only occasionally offering any rationalization before they get there. Everywhere they go is infested by the Aliens, including the ocean planet full of fish or whale Aliens (whalians?) that were infected by aquatic facehuggers I guess. The implication of an ocean full of Aliens is terrifying, considering humans would have virtually no way to combat such a propagation. Have no fear, the characters don't consider this for a second. It's just the premise for a cool looking battle on the surface and some arguing with colonists who are never relevant to the story again.
And it's really kind of a shame. There is a bonkers amount of stuff going on, and some interesting ideas afloat here. The idea that the royal jelly can mutate people into human/alien hybrids chief among them, and the ability for those mutants to psychically bond with the Alien creatures. Was this the next step of the evolutionary chain for the Alien creature (it's often been suggested in the films/comics that the Alien was designed, not natural)? If so who was the first hybrid and how?
Well, you're not getting the answers. The troublesome Colonial Marine lieutenant Joseph Henry takes his motley crew of discipline cases and their hard pressed no-nonsense sergeant from space station to space station, from planet to moon, to more space stations, shooting Aliens every time they get to one, and the gallons of acid blood fortunately never vent the things to space by corroding holes through the outer bulkheads. We get the unexplained one-off appearance of a "Professional Bug Hunter" character who got to the planet they were on... somehow, and disappears again in the same issue. There's a brief one-issue foray to a moon full of low level AI robots because conveniently the company man character stashed weapons and a spaceship there, which just seems like a cool idea some guy had (he only wrote that one issue in the ten part series) and whoever was in charge at Dark Horse agreed because "Who cares? This story is a mess anyway."
Eventually, Lieutenant Henry begins to lose his mind for reasons that are passed off to the reader in ways only someone who had watched a lot of movies but knew nothing about actual psychosis could. He becomes obsessed with finding this mysterious figure named "Father" and he does, because the original print run was supposed to be 12 issues, but at some point was cut down to 10, likely because the results of this comic had been a disaster and they just wanted to get it over with. The final two issues slam the door on this thing with an abrupt and nearly incomprehensible punch-out ending.
This story has all the continuity of the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy, in that a small group of main characters appear in every issue, with the supporting cast sometimes appearing and disappearing without explanation, and the story definitely wasn't plotted out ahead of time. The film Aliens is a classic because of its characters. Even some of the Colonial Marines that die at the halfway point of the film in the first big battle are remembered fondly and clearly by the audience because they've been given memorable personalities and distinctive looks. Not so here. It's not ever even clear how many Marines are part of this unit, or who a lot of them are. Some of them change appearance, such as the blonde man who wears glasses who dies early on, only for a blonde male character with glasses to return to the story, with an entirely different name, a name attached to a Marine who has been seen without glasses on multiple occasions. He also sometimes has a little goatee, and doesn't later. Another character is clearly part of the Navy in early episodes, being in charge of stuff aboard their ship, only to be unfortunately absent from the ship later when it needs to crash because nobody is at the controls. He later reappears dressed as a Colonial Marine. A couple characters don't even appear in the final issue, despite being in the 9th one.
So please. If you were part of the writing/art team for this comic, message me. I'd love to actually know the full story behind this train wreck. At 12 issues planned and 10 delivered, it was one of the most ambitious Aliens comics ever done (the average story was 4-6 issues), but the end result is almost hilariously bad, with a story that makes almost no sense.
It's not much better now. I tried to read pretty carefully, to figure out what exactly is driving the plot, and it's not there. I'd love to interview the various guys who were involved in writing this, just to ask what the actual story framework was, what the cause and effect relationships were supposed to be between travel/story points, and the grand plan the villains had, etc. As it stands, the characters come and go from locations, only occasionally offering any rationalization before they get there. Everywhere they go is infested by the Aliens, including the ocean planet full of fish or whale Aliens (whalians?) that were infected by aquatic facehuggers I guess. The implication of an ocean full of Aliens is terrifying, considering humans would have virtually no way to combat such a propagation. Have no fear, the characters don't consider this for a second. It's just the premise for a cool looking battle on the surface and some arguing with colonists who are never relevant to the story again.
And it's really kind of a shame. There is a bonkers amount of stuff going on, and some interesting ideas afloat here. The idea that the royal jelly can mutate people into human/alien hybrids chief among them, and the ability for those mutants to psychically bond with the Alien creatures. Was this the next step of the evolutionary chain for the Alien creature (it's often been suggested in the films/comics that the Alien was designed, not natural)? If so who was the first hybrid and how?
Well, you're not getting the answers. The troublesome Colonial Marine lieutenant Joseph Henry takes his motley crew of discipline cases and their hard pressed no-nonsense sergeant from space station to space station, from planet to moon, to more space stations, shooting Aliens every time they get to one, and the gallons of acid blood fortunately never vent the things to space by corroding holes through the outer bulkheads. We get the unexplained one-off appearance of a "Professional Bug Hunter" character who got to the planet they were on... somehow, and disappears again in the same issue. There's a brief one-issue foray to a moon full of low level AI robots because conveniently the company man character stashed weapons and a spaceship there, which just seems like a cool idea some guy had (he only wrote that one issue in the ten part series) and whoever was in charge at Dark Horse agreed because "Who cares? This story is a mess anyway."
Eventually, Lieutenant Henry begins to lose his mind for reasons that are passed off to the reader in ways only someone who had watched a lot of movies but knew nothing about actual psychosis could. He becomes obsessed with finding this mysterious figure named "Father" and he does, because the original print run was supposed to be 12 issues, but at some point was cut down to 10, likely because the results of this comic had been a disaster and they just wanted to get it over with. The final two issues slam the door on this thing with an abrupt and nearly incomprehensible punch-out ending.
This story has all the continuity of the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy, in that a small group of main characters appear in every issue, with the supporting cast sometimes appearing and disappearing without explanation, and the story definitely wasn't plotted out ahead of time. The film Aliens is a classic because of its characters. Even some of the Colonial Marines that die at the halfway point of the film in the first big battle are remembered fondly and clearly by the audience because they've been given memorable personalities and distinctive looks. Not so here. It's not ever even clear how many Marines are part of this unit, or who a lot of them are. Some of them change appearance, such as the blonde man who wears glasses who dies early on, only for a blonde male character with glasses to return to the story, with an entirely different name, a name attached to a Marine who has been seen without glasses on multiple occasions. He also sometimes has a little goatee, and doesn't later. Another character is clearly part of the Navy in early episodes, being in charge of stuff aboard their ship, only to be unfortunately absent from the ship later when it needs to crash because nobody is at the controls. He later reappears dressed as a Colonial Marine. A couple characters don't even appear in the final issue, despite being in the 9th one.
So please. If you were part of the writing/art team for this comic, message me. I'd love to actually know the full story behind this train wreck. At 12 issues planned and 10 delivered, it was one of the most ambitious Aliens comics ever done (the average story was 4-6 issues), but the end result is almost hilariously bad, with a story that makes almost no sense.
October 23, 2026
I had the first four issues when I was younger and never got around to reading the rest of this until now. Long wait to discover that this turned out to be quite a mess when it started with such promise. I liked the aqua-alien design and a lot of the military jargon sold the characters as a marine unit to some degree. Big problem was there were about 4-5 different plots going on under the surface that never got proper conclusions. It really feels like the writers got bored about halfway through or realized they wrote themselves into a corner they couldn't get out of. Ending feels so horribly rushed in a "Poochie went back to his home planet" kind of way. Spent the first couple of issues making it seem like Vasquez's sister would have some revenge or redemption arc or at least a major role but she is reduced to a third-tier character for most of the series. Also tried to make loose connections to previous graphic novels Rogue and Labyrinth for no reason other than "surprise!" I'll give some points for some of the art and coloring here and there, but shame on the writers for this one.
Oh, and the random Mondo mercenary and the robots. I really started to think this comic was trying to sell some new action figures for the kids with those issues. Ridiculous.
Oh, and the random Mondo mercenary and the robots. I really started to think this comic was trying to sell some new action figures for the kids with those issues. Ridiculous.
July 22, 2023
(Zero spoiler review) 2.5/5
Aliens Colonial Marines.. that's a thing that I've heard of. That must mean it's going to be good, right? Wrong! This was without a doubt that weakest offering in the omnibus so far. An unfocused, rambling narrative, C-movie level trope theft, not to mention characters that were about as memorable as a urinary tract infection. They throw Vasquez in there for some member berries, although the whole thing feels like a sci-fi channel movie script reject. The first issue or so had me interested, but it was all downhill from there, folks. And that ending... what a stinker.
The art was generally fine, even really good in places, although the number of artists spread across 8 issues was really jarring (and one would think) completely unnecessary. You couldn't get one of them to do the art for an 8 issue run? That, and the bold choice of colours with the most talented artist really didn't add to the atmosphere, being just a little too bright and cheerful.
Ultimately disappointing and one I won't be revisiting. 2.5/5
OmniBen.
Aliens Colonial Marines.. that's a thing that I've heard of. That must mean it's going to be good, right? Wrong! This was without a doubt that weakest offering in the omnibus so far. An unfocused, rambling narrative, C-movie level trope theft, not to mention characters that were about as memorable as a urinary tract infection. They throw Vasquez in there for some member berries, although the whole thing feels like a sci-fi channel movie script reject. The first issue or so had me interested, but it was all downhill from there, folks. And that ending... what a stinker.
The art was generally fine, even really good in places, although the number of artists spread across 8 issues was really jarring (and one would think) completely unnecessary. You couldn't get one of them to do the art for an 8 issue run? That, and the bold choice of colours with the most talented artist really didn't add to the atmosphere, being just a little too bright and cheerful.
Ultimately disappointing and one I won't be revisiting. 2.5/5
OmniBen.
June 12, 2026
Title? Great
Execution? Piss poor.
From the very beginning it was presented as a 12 issue story. At issue eight it was reduced to 10, and the ending reads like it. When you chop 40% of your remaining story things get lost, like explanations, and logic, and closure.
You can't blame the reduced issue count for other problems: the cast is never well established or differentiated in the first 7 issues, The new (new to me?) Alien/human hybrids are a mystery, and the art is the typically heavy 90's style that makes everything dull.
Unless you're a completist, avoid.
Execution? Piss poor.
From the very beginning it was presented as a 12 issue story. At issue eight it was reduced to 10, and the ending reads like it. When you chop 40% of your remaining story things get lost, like explanations, and logic, and closure.
You can't blame the reduced issue count for other problems: the cast is never well established or differentiated in the first 7 issues, The new (new to me?) Alien/human hybrids are a mystery, and the art is the typically heavy 90's style that makes everything dull.
Unless you're a completist, avoid.
December 3, 2018
What
I loved this book, defiantly brilliant thumbs up didn't quiet understand the end of it just seemed a blur, 100%
I loved this book, defiantly brilliant thumbs up didn't quiet understand the end of it just seemed a blur, 100%
January 14, 2019
Very good
Big fan of aliens, really enjoy this comic can't wait to read more the expanded universe. This book good for fans of colonial marines.
Big fan of aliens, really enjoy this comic can't wait to read more the expanded universe. This book good for fans of colonial marines.
December 15, 2019
The artwork is uneven by modern standards (especially the color) and some of the plot elements are a bit outlandish, but it still manages to be a solid Alien story.
February 11, 2022
Besides some great alien designs and cool plot ideas the actual pacing, characters and art are lackluster at best.
November 17, 2024
Just a terrible mess. Horrible to read.
February 19, 2015
One of the weaker titles in the Aliens library, but still good.
April 25, 2017
So so story with lots of action
This is not one of my favourites, but I read it once in a while anyway. The best thing about it is it has Vasquez's sister.
This is not one of my favourites, but I read it once in a while anyway. The best thing about it is it has Vasquez's sister.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews