Declan Shalvey is back with the xenomorphs in a brand-new Alien #1 from Marvel, featuring art from Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Alien #1 Review:
In the new title, we’re continuing the story from Shalvey’s previous run on Alien, picking up years later with the lone survivor of a xenomorph attack returning to the planet that killed her family. And she may have an agenda separate from Weyland-Yutani.
Host Alex Zalben compared this to the surprise continuation of Predator, also from Marvel, noting that this is “far more complicated than the previous run, but [there are] some very interesting ideas at play here.”
Justin Tyler lauded the “tight” continuity of this book, as well as “taking some time and continuing to plug the classic Alien things we want to see into the same places, with different factors coming into it. It’s a great way to hold on to a type of story, an Alien story, while also bringing us a new version of it.”
Pete LePage loved the art in the book, as well as the “close calls and tense moments you get from an Alien project.” He wasn’t quite as sold on the idea of underwater xenomorphs, though. “I guess we’ve had aliens in space… All right, sure, underwater aliens.”
Zalben disagreed, calling out a panel late in the issue that shows the aliens “almost like kelp on a coral reef… That was pretty terrifying. And the designs of these all-white aliens with little fuzzy parts around their necks are very cool.”
Added Tyler, “I agree that they look like lobsters. They belong under the sea.”
Alien #1 Official Synopsis:
EVERYONE WILL HEAR YOU SCREAM! 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. Corporate corruption, personal betrayals and extraordinary violence – Declan Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo’s next and greatest Alien story starts here!
