Space is deadly, no matter where humanity may call home, death lurks around the corner, even in the best of conditions! Not to mention, if it’s good enough for us, what else is it good enough for?!
Title: Aliens: Dust to Dust #1
Writer & Art: Gabriel Hardman
Letters: Michael Heisler
Colors: Rain Beredo
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
What You Need to Know:
The Xenomorph is somewhere between a malevolent entity deadset on the death of all they survey, and a species just trying to carve out a foothold of their own in the galaxy. The only issue is the Xenos can only succeed utilizing the wholesale death of other species for their reproduction! Unfortunately for the citizens of LV-871, they are in the Xenos sights, and they are damn difficult to stop!
Evacuation has begun, 12-year-old Maxon and his mom need to make it to a shuttle before it’s too late! Even so, it might already be too late, the Aliens have attacked the Trono colony!
What You’ll Find Out:
Maxon is awoken by a commotion outside his room and runs to the window to find out what it is. He sees people outside running and shooting at an unseen adversary. He yells for his Mom as his window shatters and he runs to her room, unfortunately, she isn’t alone!
The facehugger grasping his Mom suddenly begins to gyrate wildly and falls off a moment later. She awakens with a start and seems just as confused as Maxon, they look outside to see shuttles taking off, their view screen displays a code yellow, telling them to organize in zone 5. She tells Maxon to grab some clothes, they need to run!
As they run down the stairs the run into an acid burned soldier, as Maxon’s Mom starts to grab the soldiers pulse rifle they hear a dripping and turn to find a full-grown Xenomorph looking right at them! It eyes them for a moment (they don’t have eyes, but you know what I mean) and turns away. She tells Maxon to run for it.
They reach their car, passing a couple dead facehuggers on the way, they speed out of the garage, running over one as they go, it’s acidic blood splashing the tires… As they speed to the shuttle dock Maxon looks out the window to see Xenos running rampant in the streets, killing people indiscriminately, suddenly their tire blows and the car skids to a stop!
Do Maxon and his Mom make it to the dock? Pick up a copy of Aliens Dust to Dust #1 for yourself and find out!
What Just Happened?
WOOOOW! As a fan of Aliens Comics, this mini is just off to a phenomenal start! The art and the story are just so on point! I love the trend of having Alien Comics written and drawn by one person, this is a worthy follow-up to the excellent Aliens Dead Orbit mini that wrapped a couple months ago!
Lately, the Alien franchise has taken a back to basics approach, leaning more towards thrillers and horror than action, for a while there it got a bit monotonous with a ragtag group of grunts going up against Xenos and losing. I’m all for this and think this is a great jumping on point for people unfamiliar with the comic universe.
The art by Gabriel Hardman is fantastic, dark and drab but not without detail, and interspersed with bits of color in the wreckage, a particular standout in terms of detail and color is a car crash towards the end of the issue. Also worth mentioning are the Xenos themselves, which are present in their detailed, beetle black glory for all to see! The facehugger reveal at the beginning is also really well done!
My one nitpick (and you know there’s always one) is that for the longest time in the comics Xenomorphs have been a known and feared species (they actually took over the Earth at one point!) so it seems like a slight step backward having people not know what they are at this point. Not that the mini has set a timeframe just yet, for all we know this takes place prior to earlier comics where they knew about the Aliens.
Rating: 9/10
Final Thought:
As I said, a fantastic jumping on point for new readers, and a welcome addition to the mythos for a veteran reader of the comics. I genuinely can’t wait for the next issue, this one is on my pull list for sure!
If anyone ever wants to contact me, look me up in my groups for the love of comic books andNew Fans, Old Comics, I also have several comic pages dedicated to my various true loves, Batman, Superman, Indie Comics, Spider-man, Marvel, Oldie Goldies, and Hats! (Long story on that last one haha) or on Twitter @johnbatusijack
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