Alien [2023] #1 - Marvel Comics

ALIEN No. 1, January 2024

Publicised by “Marvel Worldwide” as “Declan Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo’s next and greatest Alien story”, this opening instalment to “Descendant” certainly should have pleased any fans of the science-fiction horror franchise, considering that the thirty-page periodical contains a number of its classic tropes. Indeed, the Dublin-born writer arguably ticks almost every recurrent theme imaginable in this comic, including the presence of an adolescent into the mix, despite the fact that the deserted ice moon LV-695 is well-known for harbouring a veritable army of deadly Xenomorphs.

In addition, this book contains some nice nods back to the title’s preceding mini-series, with Zasha Zahn returning to the facility where her family were killed some thirteen years earlier, and in doing so unknowingly passing the frozen corpse of former Weyland-Yutani employee Wendell Theen as she does so. Of course, much of this continuity will be lost on those readers new to the past exploits of Batya’s daughter. Yet for those ‘loyal’ bibliophiles who have followed the green-eyed survivor from the start, these moments of continuity are rather enjoyable; “I know you took the same walk, Dayton. I’m going to find you just like you found me.”

Sadly however, despite all this positivity, there’s debatably still something missing with the Eagle Award-winner’s storyline, courtesy of some slightly head-scratching leaps of logic. For example, if Zasha knew there were still Aliens aboard the derelict U.S.C.S.S. Boreas and purposely left her crew-mates there as “bait”, why did she bother to save two of them from a drone whilst they were busy canoodling in one of the sunken spacecraft’s corridors..? Furthermore, knowing that Jun Yutani III wishes to meet with her, Zahn reaches her appointment’s destination beforehand, only to then bizarrely depart to search for her ‘dead father’ just moments before the young woman’s illustrious employer arrives..?

Adding even more confusion to the narrative though are Shalvey’s persistent flashbacks to Planet HD 202206bk on the Outer Veil, which appear to carry no correlation whatsoever with what’s previously occurred on the aforementioned “world infected by the universe’s greatest killers.” Pencilled by Declan himself, this mining operation is clearly earmarked to go horribly wrong once its synth-hating supervisor discovers a face-hugger and foolishly sticks his nose straight in front of it. But whatever mystery its well-penned plot produces is somewhat diluted by its disconnection with the comic’s main adventure.

Writer: Declan Shalvey, and Artists: Andrea Broccardo and Declan Shalvey