Friday, December 14, 2012

An Alien leashed, in more ways than one:

I've mentioned before, the occasional problem with Dark Horse's Aliens comics, is that in revealing aspects of the Aliens biology and life cycle, the titular xenomorphs get less and less...alien. And what's true in one mini-series, may not be in the next one. Or the next movie. But the best of their stories still hold up regardless. Like today's: from 1993, Aliens: Labyrinth, written by Jim Woodring, art by Kilian Plunkett.

Colonial Marine Doctor Crespi is dispatched to the research station Innominata to assess the situation and take command if necessary. Rumor has it the scientists there have been conducting illegal research; even using staff in experiments. Of course, the rumor is correct...but is there more to it than that? Is Dr. Church a Mengele, or will his research rid the universe of the Aliens? And Crespi's investigation is further complicated by him not being the only one looking.

Issue #3 is the most disturbing of the run: Church tells the story of his encounter with the Aliens as a young man; a hellish ordeal, trapped in a hive...but also an unprecedented opportunity to research the creatures, possibly even learn how to stop them. Hell of a cliffhanger on that one:
I'm not getting into it, but the third issue may be the grossest, most horrifying of any Aliens comic I've read. That should either sell it for you, or not.




1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Color me intrigued, especially with the promise of the third issue being one of the grossest. If you have it, scan that puppy so we can see it.

But I do love that first scan though; the very idea of having a creature as deadly as an Alien on a leash is funny as hell.