Dark Horse Comics 2017
By James Stokoe
Wascylewski survived the sudden breach in his ship’s hull, but is in no better a situation: he comes to, cocooned tightly to the wall under the surveillance of the twin xenomorphs. With only two hours left on his countdown timer and nowhere to go, he will have to pull out his final tricks in order to stay alive.
I feel like i’m in the minority here for people who are actually digging this. I mean I think that a different, take, look and feel to an Alien story isn’t a bad thing and that James does all this by himself is beyond commendable. Plus if i’m not mistaken his work is influenced by Manga and that we see it here in this manner is hella cool. Also by setting this story on a space station that’s stationery has been something we’ve not seen before either and i’m all for switching things up and continually surprising me as a reader.
There are parts of this I adore more than others and the fact that Wascylewski is in a cocoon on the wall and having to find a way to get free, survive and not have an egg shoved down his throat is among them. I think the way that James imagines how the place should look when it’s being renovated for that nursery is kind of amazing. Also the way James has structured this story is another one. That we see the now and it seamlessly goes into then so we see how he got there it’s extremely well done. The pacing here is great and it has that excitement about it where you know there’s a timer and the clock is counting down so every move means something.
The way page layouts are used through their angles, perspective and how he utilises the backgrounds make the tension pop even more. Yeah there are times the manga faces seem silly to me but it’s the style and overall it doesn’t really get to me. I think the most effective trick we’re seeing here is that the xenomorphs are kind of lost in the shadows around them and that makes it scarier for some reason.
I appreciate that we aren’t quite sure of who all is still alive in this. We see throughout that some are taken others killed right away. That our man is running around more concerned about himself than his compatriots, or co-workers or however it is he sees them shouldn’t go unnoticed. Yes it’s selfish and kind of terrible but then again if I were in that scenario i’m not sure i’d be doing more than making sure i lived through it either.
So how this issue ends was kind of cool. Then knowing that next issue ends the arc i’m waiting to see if anyone gets out of this. The Aliens universe has room for a myriad of styles and storytellers and i’m quite glad that Dark Horse sees this and is willing to let folks bring their own unique visions to life.