We’re a few years into Marvel getting the license to make Alien comics back from Dark Horse, and things have started to get a lot more reliant on internal continuity. Marvel has set the Alien title back to #1 three times already (that’s four issues titled “Alien #1”), and sometimes they require some familiarity with a previous comic storyline, be it in an annual or the last iteration of the title. Unofficial reading guides can be found, if you know where to look, but Marvel itself hasn’t done much to make Alien accessible to newer readers… until now.
Alien: Black, White, & Blood #1 is presented in an anthology format that’s very easy for new readers to jump into, given they’ve seen any of the Alien films or are at least aware of them through cultural osmosis (it doesn’t take a lot of explaining to figure out what a “chestburster” does). I kind of adore anthology comics, because the short and varied nature of the stories means that there’s a higher likelihood that you’ll find something you like. Also, if you don’t enjoy what a writer or artist is doing, you only have a couple of pages with them before something completely different comes along.
The miniseries follows the “Black, White, & Red” style of comics that have gained popularity in the last few years. These comics, as the name suggests, only use three colors in their art, and because red is the color of blood, they usually focus on violent characters like Wolverine, Darth Vader, and Red Sonja. However, Alien: Black, White, & Blood #1 does something unexpected: it adds a fourth color. Starting with the second story, the comic begins to include the color green, and this carries on over into the third story. I get why they might gravitate towards using the color green, as the series has been associated with it ever since the original 1979 film’s poster. However, the use of green doesn’t really enhance the visual storytelling enough to justify breaking the “Black, White, and Red” gimmick. It only feels like the green would work if there was a clever, dramatic shift in the story, like the use of color when Dorothy first enters Oz, but this issue doesn’t have anything like that.
The stories themselves have interesting premises that, more often than not, outweigh their actual execution. The first one, “Utopia- Part 1”, is written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with art by Michael Dowling and colors by Chris Sotomayor. “Utopia”, which will be continued in future issues of Alien: Black, White, and Blood, focuses on crew members aboard the Union of Progressive Peoples ship Forward that answers a distress call from a Weyland-Yutani craft. The UPP is a surprisingly deep cut that’s been getting more and more focus in the current Alien canon, originating from an unused Alien 3 script by William Gibson (a remarkably specific subject that I happen to have an article on). Basically they’re space communists- a Cold War-era amalgamation of various nations.
Predictably, there’s a very angry xenomorph aboard the craft that they intercept, and Siostra, the “voice” of the Forward (she says she isn’t the leader of the ship, but functionally she’s the leader of the ship), narrates as the alien slaughters its way through the ring-like structure of the ship. It’s kind of too soon to judge the story since it’s not finished, but so far it’s pretty standard Alien stuff, for better or worse. There is something mildly interesting about our protagonists being part of this socialist group, with Siostra using the dramatic vocabulary of a revolutionary to describe what’s happening, but you can only do so much to redress the familiar scenario of “creature kills workers aboard a spaceship”.
Dowing’s art is slick, dynamic, and pretty, though I can’t help but feel like it would be better defined if it was fully colored. Sotomayor is fairly conservative with his usage of the color red, mostly using it for the soft glow of welding torches or hallway lights. The reds are briefly used for a big, bloody bisection, but other than that, color plays a largely ambient role. However, there is a cool moment when the reds form a steam cloud that the alien runs through. Speaking of the alien, I love the way Dowing draws the xenomorph in this. I’m pretty sure it’s one of those “praetorians” established in Alien video games and other tie-in media, but whatever it is, it’s an imposing beast that immediately seizes your attention whenever it’s on-panel.
The second story is “The Hunt”, written by Stephanie Phillips, with art from Marcelo Ferreira and colors by Pete Pantazis. This one has the most interesting premise of all three stories. It appears to start off with soldiers getting ready to fight Xenomorphs for Weyland-Yutani, but then there’s a twist: these aren’t soldiers. They’re ultra-wealthy civilians who have paid to hunt aliens in a controlled environment, where they have personal shields to protect them. It’s fascinating to see capitalism turn these vicious creatures into a glorified theme park attraction. They’ve caused immense suffering and bloodshed, and now they’re targets in the galaxy’s most expensive shooting range. One aristocrat protests against the mandatory shields, saying that there’s not enough of a risk for the hunt to be exciting. She gets her wish when the power shuts off and all the defenses are shut down… and from there the comic rushes to the ending. I won’t go through it beat-for-beat, but the conclusion feels sort of rushed, even for a short story in an anthology. The last three panels fly by before you can ask: “Wait, what did they think would happen?”
Ferreira provides a perfectly serviceable house style, which is something you appreciate a lot more after you’ve seen Salvador Larroca try to draw an Alien comic. There’s not really any moments in “The Hunt” that visually stand out from the rest, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you’re looking at this. This is the story that introduces the use of green, and again, it’s just kind of distracting. Letterer Clayton Cowles (who did the letters for the entire issue) gives the green hologram green-lined speech bubbles with green letters, and I can’t help but feel like this whole thing would be better if they used regular coloring for it.
The final story, “Maternal Instinct”, is written by Ryan Cady and drawn by Devmalya Pramanik. This one’s about a MU-TH-UR computer system helping a boy escape a ship after xenomorphs killed everyone else, including the boy’s mother. It’s interesting that this story follows up on the plot point in Aliens where AI has been designed to be more human-friendly after MU-TH-UR and Ash almost killed everyone in Alien. The computer doesn’t just help the boy survive, but it also tries to protect him from being traumatized by sending him on an alternate route so that he doesn’t see his mother’s body. The individual story beats themselves all feel very familiar, but the unusual relationship between the child and the machine really helps “Maternal Instinct” feel more unique.
Pramanik’s art reminds me a little bit of Caspar Wijngaard’s style in that it has thick, dark lines and washed out colors. It has that sort of “drying marker” quality in the way everything is shaded. I initially thought Pramanik was pretty good at drawing xenomorphs, but it’s possible that he may have traced them from statuettes. I can’t say for certain if the allegations are true, but it’s frustrating that this is a possibility (thanks, Larroca).
Alien: Black, White, & Blood #1 is a pretty mixed bag, and I wouldn’t consider any of its stories to be great. Still, it’s not exactly bad either. I’d recommend this to any die-hard Alien fans who want to know every new development in the canon, but I can’t really say that it’s worth it for casual fans.
