Alien [2022] #3 - Marvel Comics

ALIEN No. 3, January 2023

Considering just how much of this twenty-page periodical is dialogue-heavy discussion and sedentary story-telling, there’s arguably still a tremendous amount of tense, adrenalin-fuelled antics to be enjoyed reading Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s narrative for Issue Three of “Alien”. In fact, the persistently pervading atmosphere of dread and death sticks to this comic throughout, making every panel a potential depiction of someone meeting a truly gruesome demise at the hands of the latest alien strain; “Our time killing humans and gun-bots is done. This is the future of warfare. We escaped it for a while. But it found us in the end.”

Furthermore, the “Eisner-nominated writer” does an excellent job in quickly establishing the personalities of Tobler-9’s surviving colonists and just how well they individually interact with Steel Team. Anger, resentment and distrust of one another debatably prevail in this sudden amalgamation of the living and synthetic. But the author also manages to crowbar in some much more tender interactions, as well as establish a common bond between the two groups when it comes to ‘searching the Xenomorph-infested planet for an alien sample that can save humanity.”

Of course, many within this book’s audience will simply be waiting for the ‘mythical Special Operations team’ to face-off against this publication’s titular antagonists, and when such a confrontation does eventually occur “Icarus” is not found wanting. Indeed, it’s difficult to count the sheer number of bullets blazing across each picture as both “the humans and synths strike an uneasy bargain” so as to lay waste to a fearsome alien queen’s opening salvo of warrior drones.

Helping to sell some of this plot’s sense of desperation and determination to succeed against almost impossible odds, are Julius Ohta’s layouts, which really do a good job in depicting the low-tech level of existence experienced by the colony’s few inhabitants despite all the futuristic equipment surrounding them. Moreover, the Brazilian illustrator’s prodigious pencilling of the various characters’ facial expressions is first-rate, and definitely helps sell each cast member’s emotions as they interact with one another; most notably Eli, whose initial hated of his would-be rescuers turns to something far more sinister when he knowingly neglects to warn Lee that she’s about to be bitten by a poisonous bug.

The regular cover art to "ALIEN" #3 by Bjorn Barends