Customer Reviews

Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When the relatively unknown Dark Horse comics picked up the torch for Aliens in 1989, fans of the classic sci-fi series were in for a real treat. What followed in years to come was a series of stories that were largely hit-and-miss...some of the stories were excellent, while others were mediocre at best. Others still were too bad to mention, playing on traditional comic book fatantasticism to create new spins on the Alien mythos that made purists like myself hang their heads in shame. What the Aliens Omnibus: Volume 1 collects is the greatest of all the Aliens comics...the first wave written as direct sequels to the 1986 cinema classic, "Aliens".

Long-time fans of the Dark Horse Aliens series will be happy to see these great collections in one volume. When I look back and realize that I've been following these comics for nearly 20 years, going to the comic book store with my dad when I was just a kid to pick them up, I still can't beleive that it's actually been so long. What I find more amazing is that even in my mid 20's, I can still remember half of these comics, panel-to-panel and word-to-word...which is where my utter confusion set-in.

Fans and collectors should know immediately...these comics are NOT the same comics that you read 15-20 years prior. Being that they were originally written as direct sequels to the events of Aliens, the star characters of these comics were Corporal Hicks and Newt. What we will find right away upon opening up the Omnibus is that we're not reading the tale of Hicks and Newt anymore, but of "Wilks" and "Billie" respectively.

Apparently, in 1996 Dark Horse re-released and re-mastered the original 3 stories, changing the names of certain characters, re-writing dialog and completely redrawing and re-inking many panels. The story, while realtively similar, has also been re-worked to incorporate these changes. To differentiate Newt from "Billie", Newt was redrawn with slightly more gaunt features and brunette hair. Wilks looks pretty much the same as Hicks, except for the name change. These changes precipitate quite a few inconsistencies in the rest of the stories contained in the Omnibus.

As I mentioned earlier, those of us who have already read these comics in their original form may remeber certain story elements and events that occur within the comic, and find that those events no longer happen in this Omnibus. I specifically remember Ripley being coerced into helping the Company with a plan to capture the Aliens, or they would wake either Hicks or Newt out of hypersleep to do it instead. I also recall an exchange between Newt and Ripley, in which Newt strikes Ripley across the face, demanding to know why she left her alone. So we are looking at more than cosmetic or character name changes here...we're now looking at an entirely different story altogether. Further adding to the confusion is the appearence of Billie in Female War (the third part), who now sports a blonde hair color and even goes by "Newt" in at least 1 or 2 panels.

Regardless of these heavy edits, this is a great collection of comics that Aliens fans will love. When you look at it as being an "alternate reality" to the existing Aliens mythos, it is very simple to look past all of the changes and inconsistencies with the established Alien/Aliens mvoies. Unfortunately, due to the events of Alien 3, Dark Horse felt the need to make these changes for the re-release, and this collection reflects those changes.

For those of you who have the original comics, hang on to them! Now that they've become so rare and hard to find, you're probably looking at some great collector's items in the future (even if comic books are not appreciating in value as much as they used to). For those younger fans who are not familiar with the originals, or those of you who are just discovering these classic tales, by all means pick this up! You're treated to 3 great stories, plus a very interesting follow-up tale. Sadly, this Omnibus does not collect the individual cover art for each part, which would have been a nice addition. I beleive there is an Aliens compendium of art from the comics that includes the cover art, where you may find it.

Great colors, great reading and a great price make this a must-have for Aliens fans...don't miss it!

The stories collected here take place after the events of Aliens (or Alien 2). And its very depressing to read, when one begins to realize the amount of great stories that could've been told on the silver screen, but weren't. In short, in the graphic novels, Newt and Hicks live, and ultimately, the xenomorph ends up being brought back to Earth and end up forcing the human race off of the planet.

Granted, its one thing to write this stuff in a comic, and produce it in a movie, but a number of the stories collected here could've been brought to the silver screen on a lower budget. It really brings to light the folly of killing Newt and Hicks at the beginning of Alien 3. (Alien 3 was a decent movie of course, but sequels to Aliens could've been so much more!)

In short, I'd highly recommend the Aliens Omnibus. They're excellent stories, but are depressing in the sense that they're vastly superior to what was produced in Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.

This came out soon after the AvP Omnibus and includes the original trilogy of Aliens stories and two shorts. Originally, these were released before 1992, but then Hicks and Newt were killed off and for some reason Dark Horse thought they had to change their names to better fit continuity. It's kind of annoying, I just want to white out their names and change them back to Hicks and Newt because there are points where it's really hard to justify the name changes.

Outbreak
Outbreak (especially in the context of the first two movies) is a really interesting story. It's a 6 issue, so it's longer than normal. It picks up after Aliens now that Newt and Hicks, sorry Wilks and Billie have returned to Earth. Billie is in a psych ward and Wilks is in jail. What pisses me off is that Ripley's name stays the same. So Dark Horse changes the names to go with the continuity, but not Ripley's... The only way I can justify the name changes is to say that they've changed their names legally to escape from Weyland Yutani. Anyway, as the story starts there's no direct Xenomorph threat. That's what really made this story different from the first two movies. It would've made a good miniseries adaptation because it has an episodic feel. It's more of a sci-fi drama than a horror as well. There's a lot of good character development and when the Xenomorphs finally start taking over the planet, the story has a very epic feel. I mean epic. This is a very good graphic novel.
4/5

Nightmare Asylum
Alright, if there is one graphic novel that totally dominates the others, this is it. I read one of the original non-edited copies a long time ago and was totally blown away. The artwork is absolutely amazing and the story and atmosphere feel very much like the second movie. It picks up right where the first one left off and continues as Wilks and Billie, and their new android friend Bueller escape Earth's infestation and find themselves at a Colonial Marine research station headed by an insane General trying to train Aliens to take back the Earth. The writing of this installment is genius and that helpe to make it very captivating. I wish it was equal in length to Outbreak, than it would truly be perfect. This is a reason alone to buy this book.
5/5

Female War
This picks up a little after the second story now that Ripley has returned. There is some lazy editing throughout with several references to Newt and Hicks that pop up later. This story is ugly to look at after the fantastic art of the second story, and also has no real likeable characters. The story becomes confusing and...let me stop myself. Female War just sucks. It's widely known to be one of the worst entries in the series and it definitely is.
2/5

Theory of Alien Propagation
This is a short that's supposed to be an exerpt from the crazy doctor responsible for the outbreak in the first story. It deals with theories on alien propagation.
3/5

The Alien
This brings back the same Space Jockey that appeared in Outbreak and I believe who showed up in Female War. It's weird, interesting, I don't know what to say. There's sort of a diplomatic meeting between him and the President that doesn't necessarily go as planned.

Overall, this is a good book. Strangeness aside, it's good for Aliens fans. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it to anyone, but it is worth buying for Aliens fans.

ALIENS, first released in the 80's as a military-horror that further advanced the story of ALIEN and also advanced on the idea of ALIEN propagation.

ALIENS Omnibus is a true sequel to the ALIEN movies and throws us into the void that is known as the ALIEN universe. This massive book, totaled at 384 pages brings to life the characters developed in the movie ALIENS. It begins with a female named Billie who was a victim of an overrun colony, RIM, who is thought to be insane by the general public. As such, she is institutionalized and is tormented by vicious visions of the Alien. The story is also about a war hero named Wilks who saved Billie on RIM and lost his entire squad because of the Alien threat. The military deems him insane as well, but is placed into a prison.

We learn through a series of events that the earth's military wants to breed the Aliens for biological weapons. All in all, things go very wrong and the biggest mistake in human history happens.

For fans of series, especially those who were rather disappointed with Alien:Resurrection, will be happy to know that the comic does a rather great job of story telling that makes you empathize with a lot, if not all of the characters. This book alone could become an Alien movie as it is that epic and well done.

There are a few downsides to this gigantic book, one of them being how big it is. Because it is almost 400 pages in full color, the price is a little steep. I actually bought this book off amazon which is an upside because the price was reduced by half which is the perfect price for this book. Another downside is that most of the stories were written in 1988, so the art direction isn't even close to what todays standards ask for. There is one exception, and thats in the second story, Nightmare Asylum, which features a very unique art style that almost looks like it could have been made today.

The biggest upside to this omnibus is that all of the stories relate to one another and they also don't interfere with each other's stories creating paradoxes. Because of that, the other omnibus's like Predator and Aliens vs. Predator all use the same time line and are not in different universes but are actually tied into one another. All in all, this is a great buy even though the price may be steep at a book store, amazon is the way to go for buying this omnibus, or any other omnibus made by dark horse.

It was a period of hell at Fox Studios between 1986 and 1992, James Cameron's squeal to the first "Alien" movie was a massive hit and it earn it's lead actress a Best Actress nomination from the Academy. Lighting had struck twice, a decade earlier Fox earn big bucks with the "Star Wars" trilogy, and it seemed like it was going to score another big time trilogy.

How seldom is it that dreams come true.

Fox Studios began fumbling over it's own feet. Close to a dozen scripts where written by ten different people over the next six years including scifi master William Gibson. They had to settle on a first time director and a mishmash of script, resulting in a lack-luster movie that left many fans with a bitter taste in their mouths.

During all these, a very good story was over looked.

In 1989 a new comic book company called Dark Horse, located in the sleepy suburb of Portland Oregon, scored a major licensing coup and got the rights to publish "Alien/Aliens" comic books. What they created in that year is what should have been the third and four and possible fifth alien films.

Between 89 and 90 Dark Horse published a trilogy that puts the characters of Hicks and Newt center stage, pen by veteran comic, film and television writer Mark Verheiden and illustrated by three different artist, this trilogy shifts the focus from Ripley to Hicks and Newt.

Starting ten years after the events of "Aliens" Hicks is a disillusions soldier, still stuck at the rank of corporal, and Newt is confined to mental hospital. Hick is given a chance to face his demons buy going to a newly discovered planet that had has the xenomorph monsters, the governments wants specimens but tells Hicks he can go on a rampage and kill everything on the planet after the mission is complete. Before going off on the mission Hicks gets wind of Newts confinement and up coming lobotomy. Not wanting the death of his fallow marines a decade earlier, Hicks breaks Newt out and smugglers her aboard, the mission to the alien planet takes an big turn as the Weyland-Yutani ship boarded with mercenary intercepts and captures the Marine ship, their reasoning, WY already has an Alien Queen on earth and want to keep their monopoly on a potential bio weapons market.

It all goes down hill from there.

This story arch is told across about fourteen issues divided into three parts with a lot of plot and themes mixed in these books, these aren't just straight up action or horror, it has deep themes about greed and survival and megalomania.

If Fox realized that these books excisted and adapted them, they would have a consumer gold mine on their hands.

My biggest complaint with this collection is the name changes. This series came out before Alien 3 featuring Newt and Hicks from Aliens as major protagonists in the story. However, following Alien 3 Dark Horse felt they needed to change the names of characters to fit continuity. Unfortunatly it doesn't make a lot of sense. Newt is now Billie and Hicks is Wilkes in the story. Right off the bat Wilkes is dreaming about Vasquez and Frost, and later he makes a reference to Sgt. Apone and the Sulaco. Billie dreams about the colony of Rim (which bears a uncanny resemblance to LV-426). It gets worse later when suddenly Ripley shows up and starts calling Billie Newt. In another panel Ripley is talking to Wilkes but his name badge on his shirt still reads as Hicks.

Dark Horse should have just left things alone. I could pretend the stories happen in another timeline in a universe of what if? The stories make no sense if you read them the way they are edited. Just insert Newt every time you see Billie and Hicks every time you read Wilkes and you'll be much better off.

+5 stars for the stories
-1 star for the editing

The other reviews say it better than I can, but this is a great read for any fan of the first two Alien(s) films. I would also add you don't have to be a die hard comic book fan to appreciate the great stories contained with this collection.

If you loved Alien or Aliens, then you'll also love this book.

The first omnibus of Aliens collect the following series and short stories:
Aliens: Outbreak; Aliens: Nightmare Asylum; Aliens: Female War; Theory of Alien Propagation, and The Alien. The last two are short stories collected from the "Dark Horse Comics Presents: Aliens Platnium Edition".
Outbreak & Nightmare Asylum deal with the characters Billie & Wilks battling the Aliens on another planet & returning to an alien-infested Earth. Female War deals with the character Ripley going on another company's errand to bring back a specimen. As usual, our lovely heroine proves her worth on exterminating them.
"Alien: Propagation" story illustrates how the lifecycle is for the Aliens. "The Alien" story goes into further details about the mysterious "driver" of the crashed alien ship found in the movie "Alien" before the series before it became a hit.
Overall... if you are looking for a collected volume on the Aliens' saga, the omnibus of Aliens is the way to go.

One of the best comic collections I've read.

This was the first time I'd ever read any of the alien comics. They are just like the movies(well, the first two): Atmospheric, spooky, bloody, and plenty of shocks.

Sometimes the art can get a little confusing. The first story got a little hard to follow sometimes, and the third didn't seem as good as the others. But overall, its a great collection of some great comics.

Okay, I can't argue with the other reviewers. Their reviews are spot on. I never saw the original comics so I can't say anything about them. I'll just give you my opinions of this omnibus.

This is a quality book. All of the pages are clay faced and are made of good quality paper. No complaints about the physical quality of the book. I was very impressed.

The stories are great. No complaints there either. I have the "Nightmare Asylum" book and read it many years ago. When I got this compilation I immediately read this story and it alone is worth the price of the compilation. I then went back and reread the book and found that the story is pretty close to the book. Great! Still no complaints. The rest of the stories are good also.

The artwork is out of this world. Again, the artwork alone is worth the price. I can't say enough about the artwork and the clay faced pages really added to the experience.

So what is my problem? Why did they have to change the names of Hicks and Newt? I was very confused at first and had to bang my head against the wall several times to get everything straight. (Don't worry the bruises have healed by now.) And why did Billie/Newt have to be portrayed to look so damn sexy. Her body was really trying hard to get out of her shirts. Okay, maybe they felt they had to do it to sell comics (?) or maybe it was expected but COME ON this was a little bit much. Don't get me wrong - I am a dirty old man and like looking at the ladies as much as the next guy but this really ruined my idea of Newt as an innocent little girl.

What else do I have to complain about? The stories are confusing at best. I like to think I am pretty intelligent but I had trouble keeping up with the events. This may be my own problem. I won't know until I read these stories a second or a third time.

Overall, I would recommend this omnibus highly. It was VERY entertaining. I am a huge fan of the "Alien" series and this omnibus gave me some more "story" to add to it. You can't go wrong if you decide to buy it.