Aliens: Book One (1988-9) w:Mark Verheiden ac:Mark A. Nelson A rare must-have for Aliens Fans, January 3, 1998 Reviewer: wagner@ttu.edu from Lubock, TX This volume is a must-have for Aliens fans. The original graphic-format follow-up to ALIENS, and the quite possibly the reason Dark Horse Comics still publishes today, this collection is nothing short of spectacular. This compilation of six individually published Aliens comics follows the story of Hicks and Newt (Ripley is mysteriously absent) when they return to an Earth where conniving company executives have inadvertantly released the alien scourge upon the populace. As this story was written before ALIEN 3 and ALIEN RESSURECTION, it is not in line with the current movie plots. More on this later. Verheiden's story is compelling, and his treatment of everyone's favorite xenomorphs is nothing short of spectacular. The plot tantalizes the imagination, and the narrative keeps the reader informedwithout burdening him with an overcomplicated script. The book is in black-and-white, which may not appeal to everyone. Warner's illustrations are cutting-edge, yet down to earth, and capture the action in simple lines and tones. We all know that the only truly imnportant aspect of an Aliens comic is the quality of the rendition of the title characters, and Warner delivers in spades. A color version of this book, titled "Aliens: Outbreak" is available. This version has been brought "in line with 20th Century Fox continuity", which means Hicks and Newt have been replaced by dummy characters with eerily familiar backstories. While that volume has been colored, it is little more than a cheap knock-off. Anyone over the age of thirteen should be able to handle the discontinuity, especially given the quality of this story (which is, in this reviewers oppinion, far superior to that of the later movies). ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES, buy this book!

Top of Page

Aliens: Earth War (1990) w:Mark Verheiden a:Sam Keith c:John Bolton Ripley came back, the way it should have been..., April 7, 1998 Reviewer: Derek (Cowbizz@msn.com) from Ohio, USA Aliens Earth War is the third in the original Dark Horse trilogy following the movie, ALIENS. After the subsequent movies, the comics were redone, and the remasterd version of this particular comic is called The Female War. The remastered versions are a waste of time. Aliens Earth War is a beautiful comic, living up to the standard the original two set. It brings full circle the continuing stories of Newt and Hicks, and ushers the return and full story of our hero, Ripley. This trilogy of comics, and this final one, are how the story should have ended (or continued...). Aside from not coinciding with the movies, which you should be able to handle, this is a heck of an ALIENS story. A must have for ALIENS and especially ALIENS comics fans.

Top of Page

Aliens: Newt's Tale (1992) w:Mike Richardson a:Jim Somerville a:Brian Garvey c:John Bolton On the ship Sulaco, its youngest passenger, Newt, lies safely in hypersleep. But in her head, the scenes of grisly nightmare play over and over... a nightmare in which her family discovers a strange alien craft on the planet Acheron. Based on James Cameron's screenplay, this gripping graphic novel tells the story of the 'Aliens' movie from the point of its young heroine.

Top of Page

Aliens: Genocide (1991-2) w:Mike Richardson w:John Arcudi a:Damon Willis a:Karl Story c:Arthur Suydam This book was great!, March 31, 1999 Reviewer: A reader from Tokyo, Japan This book had all of the usual stuff you find in alien novels, plus alot more! For one thing, the characters are completely new, so the story sort of resembles a mystery. Also, the main plot isn't to exterminate the aliens or get an alien and bring it back to earth; I've seen that many times before in the movies and also in the books. This time it is completely different and interestingly strange. I won't spoil the surprise for you, but I will tell you that you wouldn't think of it in a million years, that's how weird it is. Another good point of this book is that it has many new weapons and tools that the characters use. However, like all weapons, they can be a danger to the user as well. I cannot think of any parts of the story that were below average. All in all, if I could give this book 6 stars, I would.

Top of Page

Aliens: Tribes (1992) w:Steve Bissette ac:Dave Dorman Winner 1992 Bram Stoker Award from Horror Writers of America Reviewer: Stanley Wiater from Amazon.com This is the first in a series of graphic story albums based on the popular motion pictures of the same name, with each volume bringing together a well-known writer and artist. Aliens: Tribes debuted the first major literary work of Stephen R. Bissette, an award-winning comic book artist universally recognized for his artwork on Swamp Thing. Bissette's take on the movie series is to lock us into an orbiting medical facility infested with a horde of aliens. The only way they can be destroyed is to unleash upon them a specially trained military cleanup crew programmed to be even more ruthless than the aliens. Bissette displays an instinctive talent for writing gripping, visceral prose equal to his talents as a horror artist. The volume is further complemented by the magnificent full-color paintings of another award-winning artist, David Dorman. A truly terrifying ride, it should come as no surprise that this book later won a Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association.

Top of Page

Aliens: Hive (1992) w:Jerry Prosser ac:Kelley Jones Reviewer: Amazon.com Aliens: Hive is an original comic book story based on the Alien movie series. Main character Stanislaw Mayakovsky once wrote a book called Cyberantics about a cybernetic ant he designed to infiltrate a hive to gain knowledge about the inner workings of the ant culture. Now a beautiful young thief has approached him to use his experience and expertise to create a cybernetic alien to sneak into an alien hive and steal the rare and valuable alien jelly. This is a fresh take on the Aliens mythos with creepy Kelley Jones artwork.

Top of Page

Aliens: Earth Hive (1992) by Steve Perry Reviewer: The publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Wilks was a space marine with a near-fatal flaw: he had a heart. Billie was a child, the only survivor of a far-flung colony outpost. Thrown together in the last hellish night of an alien invasion, Billie and Wilks helped each other get out alive. Thirteen years later Wilks is in prison, and Billie lives in a mental institution, the nightmare memories of the massacre at Rim seared into her mind. Now the government has tapped Wilks to lead an expedition to the aliens' home planet to bring back a live alien. But the competition on Earth to develop the aliens as a new weapons system is brutal. When Wilks's team departs on their mission, a trained assassin trails them. And what follows is no less than guerrilla warfare on the aliens' planet--and alien conquest on Earth!

Top of Page

Aliens Vs Predator : Collection 176 pages (July 1992) Dark Horse Comics; ISBN: 1569711259 Great, March 25, 2000  Reviewer: godzillafan36 from Earth This comic is awesome. It has Aliens, Predators, humans, and guns... chestburster action also. Predators have captured an Alien Queen so she can produce eggs, which are sent to an area on a planet where there's life that can get impregnated by Face Huggers. Then, the Predators go and hunt the Aliens. But something goes wrong on one of these trips. The ship carrying the eggs explodes, the Aliens are on the loose, and they invade a humanized colony. The main protagonist (who happens to be a Predator) is introduced, and the acid hits the fan. Awesome comic, and a must have.

Top of Page

Aliens: Nightmare Asylum (May 1993) by Steve Perry THIS IS GOOD, BUT NOT AS GOOD AS EARTH HIVE, February 6, 1999 Reviewer: A reader from Long Island, New York The second book of the alien trilogy book series, Aliens:Nightmare Asylem, brings us once again with Wilks, Billie, and Bueller as they land on an unknown planet they read life forms from. This is the Nightmare Asylem. First off, i loved the emotion in this book. It definitely gave me more of that than book 1. Sure, action is great, but love and emotional characters are very touching. That's probably what i like best in this book. Book1:Action, Book2: Emotion. What I didn't like in this book had to be the villian, Thomas Spears, the leader of this "Nightmare Asylem", where he is breeding Aliens to use for his own personal conquest. He was evil, and you didn't like him for it. I found myself saying, "c'mon! Die Spears!" And i was rooting for the good guys. That's great talent on the part of Steve Perry who wrote Spears' character so well. But still, in alien books and movies, aren't the main enemy's supposed to be, well, the Aliens? They werent in this book. When they did appear, I would sit more comfortably and get ready for some great action. When they were battling Spears, I found myself leaning down again cause his battle scenes weren't as fun to read as the Alien scenes. You should buy this book though. It's a great follow up, even though it doesn't quite match up with it's book 1 counterpart. YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED!

Top of Page

Aliens: Rogue 1-4 (1993) w:Ian Edgington ac:Will Simpson Nifty fluff starring everyones favorite acid spewing alien., April 16, 2001 Reviewer: saxfam from Concord, California United States A mad scientist creates a supposedly trainable warrior alien (aka The Rogue) in his isolated outpost. There are quite a few borrowed elements from the movie Aliens (considering this is a sequel of sorts it makes sense) and Alien 3 (all those mining tunnels and such). This isn't literature it's just simple (but not overly simplistic) shoot 'em up and get out alive entertainment. A true blue b-movie on paper.

Top of Page

Aliens: Labyrinth 1-4 (1993-4) w:Jim Woodring ac:Kilian Plunkett Good enough, following the same conspiracy genre as usual, March 16, 1998 Reviewer: A reader from London, England. On the space station the Innominata, ilegal experiments are being carried out; with humans as the subject. The breeding of Xenomorphs is taking place, and unsuspescting marines are disappearing as a result of this. Eventually one marine, Anthony Crespi is sent into a manufactured labrynth of aliens with only his wits to assist him. I thought this, although similar to the usual conspiracy idea was an exellant book, the crisp art making it an even greater enjoyment to read.

Top of Page

Aliens: Music of the Spears 1-4 (1994) w:Chet Williamson a:Tim Hamilton ac:Timothy Bradstreet c:Guy Burwell Dark, brooding, and all-out great!, December 6, 1998 Reviewer: A reader from US of A This was my third favorite ALIENS novel (first being "Female War" and second being "Labyrinth"). I think this book stands out in the series for several reasons, the biggest being that there is absolutely no action whatsoever, but the most important being that I'd actually consider this a "real" novel. Don't get me wrong - there are some other great books in this series (I've already mentioned two), but for the most part they usually consist of no more than graphic violence, killing, and sex. This book was different in that it had none of that stuff and actually had a plot! Imagine that! I think most ALIENS fans will understand me when I say that the books and comics in this series follow a pretty predictable storyline: all alone in space, no one can hear you scream, etc. This had a beautifully crafted plot; was dark and stirred deep emotions; and, I felt, captured the atmosphere of the movie that started it all, ALIEN. I also love the way the future is portrayed; just what things would be like after an entire world massacre by a hostile species if you ask me. Another plus is the way she handles the music. It's kind of hard to write a book about music because (obviously) you can't actually 'hear' the music she's describing, but she did such a great job that there were times when I almost thought I did hear it... All in all, I'd consider this the most mature of the series, which is probably why a lot of peolpe won't like it. They'll think it's too slow and won't bother finishing it and will end up missing out on a great book. I can only hope that Yvonne Navarro is up for a second novel is this series which could very much use a facelift!

Top of Page

Aliens Vs Predator : Prey (May 1994) Bantam Spectra; ISBN: 0553565559  Machiko Noguchi accepted the assignment of supervising the ranching colony on Ryushi as a challenge. Little did she know that not only would she have run the colony, she'd have to defend it with her life! First the carcass of a spiderlike alien is discovered. Then a rancher's family is massacred. Finally a creature unlike any ever seen before is brought to the colony medical center, near death. It soon becomes clear thtat not one but two strains of alien life have landed near the settlement of Prosperity Wells. One kind -- beetle black with shells hard as steel -- have been spawned as the prey in a deadly hunt. The other kind -- upright like humans but infinitely stronger and just as smart -- are the Predators. Between them are the human colonists, unarmed and vulnerable. With the entire colony at risk, Machiko Noguchi must choose between death and survival -- and may find her greatest ally in a Predator ready to kill her...

Top of Page

Aliens Vs Predator : Hunter's Planet (December 1994) Bantam Spectra; ISBN: 0553565567 Based on the successful Dark Horse graphic novels, this thrilling tale by the author of several bestselling Star Trek novels reunites two of the silver screen's most deadly aliens. Machiko Noguchi, the woman who survived a terrifying battle between the Aliens and Predators in Prey, returns in an action-packed follow-up. Original. The publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. The best time of Machiko Naguchi's life came in the wake of the Ryushi colony massacre. It was then that she abandoned her human heritage and ran with the Predators as a dedicated Hunter. But it was only two years before she returned to live with humanity and work for the Chigusa Corporation.

Top of Page

Aliens: Berserker 1-4 (1995) by S. D. Perry It is called a Berserker team--reckless, desperate volunteers recruited by the Company to destroy alien infestations. Based on the spaceship Nemesis, it consists of three brutal ex-cons who do all the grunt work and the Berserker itself, code-named MAX: an armed and armored exoskeleton powered by the living brain of what was once a human, configured into an unstoppable killing machine. When the Nemesis is sent to a massive space station, D.S. 949, the team finds an alien hive, the largest in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubated. The team mission: to destroy the aliens while leaving the terminal intact. The mission seems like suicide to the bug hunters and their small support staff. And that is perfectly fine for the Company...which wants no witnesses left to the terrifying secret of D.S. 949.

Top of Page

Aliens: Alien Harvest (Sept 95) by Robert Scheckley, Robert Sheckley This time the humans are taking the offensive! Stan Myakovsky is a once-famous scientist fallen on hard times. Now he dodges spaceship repo men and dreams of the marketability of his cybernetic ant. Then a woman named Julie Lish walks into his life. She is beautiful, mysterious, and totally amoral. She is also skilled in the arts of thievery and Oriental self-defense. What's more, she has a plan so outrageous there might be one chance in a million to pull it off. Together Stan and Julie become the most unlikely pair of pirates in the universe. With a hijacked spaceship and a crew of hardcase misfits, they're searching for the ultimate pot of gold at the end of a bloody intergalactic rainbow: royal jelly from an alien hive. The only problem is that the fortune lies on the universe's most godforsaken planet. And once they get their hands on it, the'll have to fight their way past the aliens to get off the planet alive.

Top of Page

Aliens Vs Predator: Deadliest of the Species 320 pages 1 edition (November 1996) Dark Horse Comics; ISBN: 1569711844 Chris 'the man' Claremont strikes again, February 9, 2000 Reviewer: lost_boy  from London, England Trust Claremont to deliver the goods. One of the undisputed greatest X-Men writers of all time, Chris 'the man' Claremont strikes again. Here he is at his finest, weaving a complex and masterful tale of suspense, intrigue and mystery in the best of the aliens / predator graphic novel tradition. In a world still recovering from the alien invasion of a few years ago (see Aliens: Book 1 & Aliens: earth war), the central premise unfolds as we follow the confusions and anguishes of Caryn Delacroix, a sheltered young woman who is trophy wife to one of Earth's most powerful corporate leaders. Caryn believes herself to be a clone until she starts having nightmares and flashbacks about a warrior life she didn't know she had in a past she didn't know she had; a mysterious history intertwined with aliens and predators!

Top of Page

Aliens Vs Predator : Eternal 88 pages (October 1999) Dark Horse Comics; ISBN: 1569714096 A battle like this galaxy has never seen is about to take place--and Earth is the battlefield! Aliens loose in the Tokyo subways of the future is bad news. But when these monstrous beasts are pursued by Predators, the fiercest hunters in the galaxy, bad quickly becomes worse. Caught in the middle is Becca Shaw, a reckless journalist on the trail of Gideon Suhn Lee, a mysterious techno-billionaire who won't let anything stand between him and the secrets to immortality that the Predators hold. When Becca and Gideon clash, it might be the Aliens and Predators that run for cover!

Top of Page

Aliens Vs Predator : War 288 pages (December 1, 1999) Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553577328 Alien vs. Predator: War, July 25, 2000 Reviewer: ben idict from Paducah, KY This book is for anyone who knows anything about Aliens or Predators or likes Mrs. Perry. It is a real treat to those of us who have read Aliens: Berserker. This book does start off kind of slow but begins to pick up pace later. Even with this factor you'll never want to put it down. It is a great addition to any sci-fi library. Plus it actually explains AvP: Hunter's Planet I think it was? Anyway...pick up this book if you're into S.D., Aliens, Predators, or just science fiction...it won't disappoint.

Top of page

  The Alien    Movies    USC Marines    Comics / Books    Games 
  Music / Audio    Images    Miscell.  Downloads    Feedback    HOME 

---

All "Alien" materials © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (www.fox.com). These pages are unofficial, non-profit, and intended for film commentary and criticism purposes only. No trademark or copyright infringement intended.

Questions? Check Joker's Homepage and you might find answers. Comments? Email me!