Alien #12 - Marvel Comics

ALIEN No. 12, July 2022

Quite literally loaded with plenty of death-defying devilries and criminally inclined government operatives getting their just desserts, Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s narrative for this concluding issue of “Alien” certainly seems to deliver a satisfying finale to Jane Callan’s fear-laden flight from a planet-wide invasion of ferocious xenomorphs. Indeed, this comic’s sole disappointment only comes at its end, when the reader is left wanting more after they’re teased that perhaps Weyland-Yutani has something else in store for the terminally ill Spinner before her life inevitably comes to a sad end; “Whoever… This asset is… That certainly makes her worth a second look.”

Foremost of this comic’s hooks must be the sudden arrival of Doctor Palmer and his straight-talking, no-nonsense Sergeant Major. The veteran soldier’s undisguised contempt for Gamma Station’s robotic leader, Gregory, is palpable and enjoyably matches the same disdain the merciless “synth” previously showed his fellow colonists before he revealed his intention to have them all impregnated by the extra-terrestrials. As a matter of fact, despite the moustached military man clearly being a loyal supporter of the United America’s ‘deliberate orchestration of the infestation’, his gruesome demise once some adult warrior drones break into the supposedly secure settler’s facility is debatably disheartening, considering the verbal abuse he repeatedly gives the dislikeable “Pinocchio”.

Similarly as successful though, is the Eisner Award-nominee’s writing for Jane and her friends’ final fight against a group of facehuggers. Unarmed and already a man down, the group genuinely do not look to have a hope in hell of defeating the fast-paced swarm of parasitic lifeforms racing towards them. However, Johnson makes clever use of Callan’s increasing infirmity to suddenly give the woman a surprising edge over her numerous assailants, so that once the acidic blood starts spurting and eating through the locked room’s metal floor, the shaking survivors’ shocking departure out of danger is made plausibly possible.

Adding some serious “Clanng”, “Whunk” and “Skreeeeeee” to this publication’s dynamically drawn panels is outgoing artist Salvador Larroca, whose ability to project the sheer terror of their grisly predicament upon the faces of Simon, Leo and Sophie really helps the audience share in their dread. Likewise the Spanish illustrator does a first-rate job in depicting the claustrophobic panic of the marines when they realise they’re being attacked by the xenomorphs from above, and are about to be gruesomely cut down into bloody chunks where they stand.

The regular cover art to "ALIEN" #12 by Marc Aspinall