Review: Alien (2021)
"Dark like this gets into you. Penetrates you. Tightens around your skull. Presses into your eye sockets until something pops and even the memory of light - even the belief in light - drains away. "
2200. Gabriel Cruz is retiring as security chief of the multinational corporation Weyland-Yutani's Epsilon Station. Returning home to Earth, he hopes to repair his relationship with his estranged son Danny.
Twenty-one years ago he was a soldier. His unit was all but totally wiped out on the colony LV-426 which was overrun by hostile life-forms... the xenomorphs.
Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) was the defining space horror film. Sure, science fiction had scary monsters before (the lobster-clawed, bug-eyed mutants in This Island Earth (1955) certainly stand out) but in Alien the full implications of a perfect natural predator are played out, alongside the unearthing of humankind's deepest fears and revulsions of aggressive non-human life. The xenomorph combines the savagery of a tiger with the flesh-creeping attributes of insects and spiders, striking a powerful note in our collective unconscious.
The design of the xenomorph is by the Swiss artist HR Giger who specialised in disturbing, nightmarish paintings of monstrous semi-human figures. It underlines the fact that the original movie was a horror film set in space rather than science fiction at heart; very much like a formulaic 'slasher' flick like Friday The Thirteenth, but one in which the beast is extraterrestrial.
This offering from Marvel comics by writer Philip Kennedy Johnson and artist Salvador Larroca takes place two decades after the events related in the movie sequel Aliens (1986). Cruz is haunted by nightmares of his experiences: being captured by the xenomorphs and watching his comrades being used as hosts for the alien life cycle.
A mysterious female figure features in his dark dreams, ghastly yet somehow compelling. His counselor, a Bishop android, believes that retirement will give Cruz time to process his feelings and find peace.
However, Cruz's son Danny is far from ready to patch things up. Not only is he angry with his father but also with the all-powerful Weyland-Yutani corporation, believing it to be a de facto dictatorship (not without some justification, it has to be said).
Epsilon Station harbours secrets: evidence of oppressive practices? Or, just maybe, something much worse...
This first issue sets an ominous tone with hints of greater thrills to come. Inevitably, the true monsters here are not the offworld predators which - for all their ferocity - are only acting true to their nature. It is humans, with their greed and foolishness, who carry the blame for the death and destruction that is to follow.
Larroca's art is sharp and also expressive, the central character Cruz has a definite solid presence: an old soldier, muscular and sombre but also sensitive and uncertain. The xenomorphs are satisfyingly creepy as well as horrifying.
There is no telling what the future holds for our hero. Is there any hope of him shedding light on the path before him? And if not, what demons must he face? The darkness hides many things, but it is also a breeding ground for the projection of our own personal fears, the unknown being at least as terrifying as what might leap out of the shadows.
Alien (2021) from Marvel
Zak Webber
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