Marvel Comics 2021
Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Illustrated by Salvador Larroca
Coloured by Guru-eFX
Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles
THE RETURN TO EPSILON!
Cruz has only one chance to save his son from the horrific fate he barely escaped. The clock toward total collapse is ticking. The aliens are loose.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this opening is that Ted came to Gabe and deflected the fact that the company was in the wrong and placed all the blame squarely on Ted. I mean c’mon did they learn nothing from Carter Burke? Still Ted is not one for retirement even if his chest is still stapled shut from having that egg removed and being pushed into his retirement. He couldn’t have known his estranged son was recruited into essentially a terrorist organisation, or freedom fighters depending on your point of view. I’m actually a fan that the company is still as ruthless and manipulative as its ever been and that they unabashedly go after the Xenomorphs the way that they do.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. I like how we see the twenty years earlier segment and Gabe’s team faced off against the Aliens for the first time. This gives us great insight into him and his experience against the xenomorphs and it really helps us understand him just a tad bit better. The character development that we see is superb and it isn’t just the dialogue but the way they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter that really help to flesh them out. The pacing is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story and whose on the base it builds the tension of the story amazingly well.
How we see this being structured and the layers within the story now that Gabe only has two other grunts with him. This is also a great way to build the tension, intrigue and interest factors considering that it doesn’t take much time for one of them to have his ribs ripped out, which by the way is one of those perfect shudder moments. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely nice to see.
The interiors here are absolutely phenomenal. The linework is exquisitely laid down and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to raise the level and quality of the detail work that we see is astonishingly well utilised. That this is a station and that backgrounds are integral to seeing how small the spaces are manage to increase the way that the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope make the mood, tone and feel of the book that much more intense. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work not to mention how they show aging and weathering inside the corridors shows such an outstanding understanding of how colour can and should work. The creativity and imagination we see throughout is sensational and it shines through in everything we see.
I love that this feels like it is an integral part of the franchises history instead of a reimagining or starting from the beginning. The universe has already been established and this is just another story set in the universe that introduces us to the Marvel way of handling the franchise. The writing is flawless and the interiors are mindbogglingly brilliant and the overall effect on the reader is to leave them in awe.