If I built a robot Alien, I think I'd mark him, just for safety.

I was finally able to re-read a story I hadn't been able to put together in a while: Aliens: Hive, written by Jerry Prosser, art by Kelley Jones. I don't think I've ever had the first issue of it, but it was reprinted in Dark Horse International's Aliens Magazine (Volume 2, Number 1), which was a larger size and ended up in another box.

In Hive, a scientist dying of cancer and a thief put together a scheme to harvest the Aliens' royal jelly from a hive. (In the comics, the jelly is used as a drug with varying effects, the scientist uses it to relive his best memories in a timeless state.) The scientist had previously built an android ant, used to infiltrate and study ant hives and behaviors; and the thief reasons, why not an android Alien?

Although Kelley's art is the big draw, Prosser's story has more than a few surprises; something that's not easy in the Aliens mythos. Usually, there's a cast of several that are going to be picked off bit by bit, but not here. The one downside, and one that comes up in most of Dark Horse's Alien books: in revealing aspects of the Aliens biology and life cycle, they get less and less...alien. And what's true in one mini-series, may not be in the next one.


Plus, anytime there's an educational reference like the above to Diogenes, that's a good sign right there.