Aliens What if….? #1 has a lot of fun with its alternate history. The rat-a-tat wit of Adam F. Goldberg’s writing keeps you hopping as he brings a Weyland Yutani corporate stooge to life and examines what might have happened had Carter Burke survived the massacre at Hadley’s Hope.
Aliens What If…#1
VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letters); Adam F. Goldberg (Writing and concept); Adi Granov (Cover); Peach Momoko (Cover); Yen Nitro (Colors); Phil Noto (Cover); Lucio Parillo (Cover); Paul and Leon Reiser (Concept); Hans Rodionoff (Concept and Writing); Skan (Cover); Guiu Vilanova (Art); Brian Volk-Weiss (Concept); Skottie Young (Cover)
Marvel Comics
March 6, 2024
After rejecting the reality of productions like Alien3, fans of the franchise are used to coming up with new ideas and alternate realities for Ellen Ripley and the rest of her friends. Aliens: What If…? takes that a step further, imagining Carter Burke as the sole survivor of the Hadley’s Hope incident.
Carter survives through a combination of guile, luck, and weasel work. Weyland Yutani refuses to send a rescue fleet to the Sulaco unless Carter eliminates any witnesses to the company’s malfeasance. So yes, not only do Hicks and Newt die once again offscreen, but so do Ripley and Bishop in this version of events, to pre-warn anyone sensitive to either of these notions.
Burke is rewarded by the company for his bottom-line thinking… with a position at a remote outpost, living out a lifetime contract after having everything that happened at Hadley’s Hope pinned on him. He has become a pariah, and not even his daughter, whom he did everything for (or so he says), will speak to him. Determined to regain his reputation, Carter decides to do the unthinkable (again) – and possibly sew the seeds of his own downfall.
This is quite a roller coaster ride, and Adam F. Goldberg – a veteran of the big and small screen – makes everything Burke does ring true to the kind of guy he is. Not nice, certainly. Completely self-centered that his moral compass is easily set askew, leaving the reader to pity him. Making a man like that readable is quite a heavy task, but Goldberg knows what he’s about, and the audience anticipates Carter’s downfall – or, impossibly, for him to rise to the occasion. Perhaps the presence both of Paul Reiser – who created Carter in Aliens – and his son Leon are what helps keep this issue bouncing.
Vilanov’s thick brushstrokes aid the audience’s intrigue. His art reminds me of Japanese sumi-e paintings. The strokes almost read to the eye like streaks of black, alien blood, and the imagery combines brutality and the mundane with effortless elan. You won’t forget the sight of Burke on an electric scooter, a yellow helmet strapped to his head as he huffs along the pathway. This is where Nitro’s color work comes in, painting bruised shadows on walls and soft rays of artificial sunlight on bright wooden benches. The four-part harmony into which the well-experienced Coweles’ letter work enters is divine.
This branch-off of the Aliens universe won’t be every fan’s cup of tea. But if you like complex characters, good art, and gory space dramas, then you’re probably going to adore it.
