Aliens: Resistance No. 3: Spawning grounds and nuclear A.I.
Aliens: Resistance is taking the nuclear option, literally
Everyone knows that the Alien franchise rocks. From the various films to some truly impressive books and comics (and toys), the universe where black, chitinous aliens with two mouths and acid for blood threaten to destroy everything, and people have cool ships and weapons and space stuff just seems to have a certain kind of draw, a pleasant connection to the sci-fi/horror ideology, the zeitgeist, if you will. And Aliens: Resistance, written by Brian Wood, masterfully drawn by Robert Carey, colored by Dan Jackson and lettered by Nate Piekos, with a cover by Tristan Jones, immerses us in a story following Amanda Ripley (Ellen’s daughter), and her friend Zula Hendricks, an ex-colonial marine, and their quest to expose Weyland-Yutani for experimenting with the xenomorphs, assisted by a rogue synthetic’s consciousness currently inhabiting the hardware of a large nuclear device. Very cool.
Dark Horse Comics
Aliens: Resistance tackles re-entering orbit and blasting aliens to bits
In the last issue of Aliens: Resistance, Ripley and Zula were floating in space, towards a planet that Weyland-Yutani was crashing a ship with over one thousand hijacked colonists onto, to proliferate the xenomorph already on board and breeding. They basically travel in the crashing ship’s wake, inside a nifty hexagonal pop-up shield device, like a futuristic Zodiac boat or something.
Upon landing, they discover that all the colonists abandoned the downed ship, and the two head to the armory to weapon up. We witness the survivors fleeing multiple xenomorphs, and for the most part failing at that, becoming sloppy corpses. Alec Brand, one of the colonists, flees through tall grass and is saved by Zula and Ripley, who shoot the trailing aliens dead, later seeing beings, similar to Weyland-Yutani synthetics but far more advanced, examining the dead alien.
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A nuke with a conscience, talking through fashion accessories
Davis, the aforementioned synthetic consciousness residing inside a nine kiloton nuclear device onboard Ripley and Zula’s ship, contacts Zula hours later, using a link in her hairclip. (Two-way communicator wifi hairclips are all the rage in the future.) He tells them that Weyland-Yutani chose that planet specifically for its atmosphere, which provides concealment from probes, allowing them to carry out their twisted experiments freely on the colonists, which they have had tagged, for tracking and data purposes.
Ripley and Zula are tasked with acquiring one of the colonists’ tags and returning to the ship, where they will use the tag to incriminate Weyland-Yutani. Davis will detonate himself, erasing the nefarious experiment and leaving the planet irradiated for hundreds of years, which comes as a shock to our two heroines.
Next. The heartbreak of a god, in The Dreaming No. 8!. dark
The whole idea that the daughter of Ellen Ripley would be fighting aliens, while her mother is in cryo-sleep, floating through the galaxy, was the concept for a video-game, and, well, it was a really good idea. It allows for a more in-depth look at Weyland-Yutani and their evil machinations, and with the great writing and amazing artwork, it more than satisfies any xenomorph aficionados out there 9/10, highly recommended. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.