Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Guru-eFX
Cover Artist: Marc Aspinall
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
It’s 2202 and the colony world of Euridice was living in relative peace until a ship crash-landed on their moon – with Xenomorph eggs on board. The alien creatures have struck the colony settlement, and now they’re on the run for their lives. In Alien #10, we see how their resolve is tested when they come face-to-face with more horrors of the alien Xenomorphs.
Review:
So, this series has been on a bit of a decline since the conclusion of the first story arc. The shift to the moon colony of Euridice did change things up, but now the flaws in the series are exposed even more than they were before. Characters making weird judgement calls not rooted in established characterization, the aliens look stiff in Salvador Larroca’s artwork, and the comic struggles to maintain a strong horror, or action-horror, atmosphere for the story.
In this issue, the main character Jane is trying to lead what few survivors of her colony she can to safety. The colony’s seen better days, and their destination isn’t exactly what they expected when they arrive at Beta Station for shelter and survival. However, the comic doesn’t dawdle for too long and gets the action going after a couple of pages. There is a major character breakdown that escalates things for the survivors (as you can see in the preview images), leading them into a dangerous area where the Xenomorphs are waiting for them.
The same problems from previous issues still apply here as I said earlier. However, a quick nitpick. I said that one of the issues was some of the characters making poor judgement calls that don’t feel rooted in established characterization. However, this will get into minor spoilers, so read on if you want to hear more of that. Overall, the comic develops the story with Jane and the survivors but not too much happens with some creature feature and brief horror caused by the Xenomorphs.
SPOILERS:
Now, a good example of the bad judgement call, and a minor spoiler, is with Jane in the beginning. Jane lies at first about keeping Ambrose’s android head for intel, saying she threw him away weeks ago, but she actually kept him. She ends up revealing later in the comic that she kept him, but the decision felt so pointless and unnecessary to begin with. Nothing came out of Jane lying about keeping Ambrose’s head, and there was no reason for her to do so in the first place.
Now, there is something interesting that happens in the comic, and Alien fans’ mileage will vary on this. The comic somewhat dips into the idea of the Xenomorphs setting up a hive in the area and how they utilize or repurpose the native alien fauna to their purposes. This leads to the creation of a new variant of small Xenomorph creatures, like how the comic introduced the large “Alpha” Xenomorph in the previous story arc. Readers will definitely get some creature feature in the comic, which leads to a significant death scene later in the comic that will either chill readers to the bone or make them feel like it was trying too hard to be gruesome and scary.
Final Thoughts:
Alien #10 shows the survivors of Euridice struggling to find hope and safety in the wake of the Xenomorph attacks. The story is fine and doesn’t waste any time to get right to the horror of the comic, but it takes a few weird turns along the way. There are a couple of new surprises for Aliens fans, but mileage will vary on whether these new additions are good or not.