Aliens Book I, the very first Aliens comic book series from 1988, to this day is well regarded by Alien fans and community. I was sort of late in getting to read it and the first time Ive read it was in Aliens Omnibus vol. 1, as colorized re-adjusted version (names of main characters and Acheron were changed since Hicks and Newt don't survive in Alien 3). I really enjoyed it. It looks great in both color and in its native black and white. the aliens are fairly well drawn, the queen always looks great, the tech and the characters reflect their times which is not a negative thing at all. The series becomes a late 80's time capsule of both comic books at the time and the outlook on the alien universe. 1986's Aliens started something that goes strong to this day, turned the alien story into an expanded universe. Video games and an extremely successful Aliens comic series, printed to this day (!!!) had followed, and Book I was the first. Without few things here and there, I thought the story was really good and the characters are rich and well written. Most fans know the story very well so no need to retell it. In a pill, it continues the story of Newt and Hicks' lives on Earth past their ordeal on Acheron. Also, it tells the story of how an alien queen got to earth and started a global alien infestation, taking over and destroying the entire world, which was Ripley's worst nightmare.
I wasnt a fan of any of the alien homeworld and the space jockey stuff (and both of their design), but otherwise I enjoy the art a lot. And how cool is it to include Giger's original design for egg silo, which in the comic series is an alien hive structure.
Ripley character wasn't used due to likeness licensing issues, and is only mentioned and then featured in a flashback in one panel, but for me that adds a lot to the mystique and creates this interesting mystery around her character. I really wish Bishop was included though.
Dark Horse released this beautiful, hardcover, black plated edition that collects the entire series in black and white and originally printed back in '88, with lengthy introductions by the writer Mark Verheiden and the artist Mark Nelson. It looks great and I had to get it right away
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