Aliens: What if….? #5 wraps up Carter Burke’s journey. It’s properly gooey and violent — and even the slightest bit heartwarming. All in all, this makes the series well worth reading.
Aliens: What If… #5
Andrei Bressen and Ceci De La Cruz (Cover); VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letters); Adam F. Goldberg (Concept); Yen Nitro (Colors); Phil Noto (Cover); Leon Reiser (Concept and writing); Paul Reiser (concept); Hans Rodionoff (Concept); Guiu Vilanova (Art); Brian Volk-Weiss (Concept)
Marvel Comics
July 17, 2024
It’s finally time for Carter Burke to prove he’s changed in the years since Weyland Yutani dumped him on a remote outpost and turned him into a pencil jockey – though he definitely didn’t help his case by acting as a toadie in the Hadley’s Hope ‘incident.’ Though his plot to save his wife by engineering a cure for her cancer from Xenomorph-human genetics was committed with the best intentions, everything’s gone sideways. His office is infested by Xenomorphs sparked off by the egg he brought to the colony, his comatose wife is at risk of being used as a host for the very Xenomorph that was supposed to save her life, and someone has reported him to his higher-ups. So many times that he’s probably going to jail instead of human resources. Can he finally be the man his daughter thinks he can be?
Packed with action and Xenomorph guts, this is a rip-roaring ending to What If…? Its biggest fault? It concludes on a cliffhanger that leaves the reader wondering if they’ll ever see more of the series, with Burke’s fate headed in a more positive direction but not fully resolved. Those who deplore these kinds of open-ended explorations will not be happy with this issue.
But everything else works. The narrative is very complex and isn’t afraid of moral neutrality. Carter’s big hero moments do not magically make him a perfect, upstanding hero figure. His relationship with his daughter improves, but it’s not set in stone that she trusts him yet. His fellow employees respect him – almost. And the lot of them are funny as heck as they’re suddenly plunged head-first into a horror movie. But all of this forms a fitting new beginning for a man who decides to avoid taking the weasel way out – or at least vows to use the weasel way for good. Thus, it’s satisfying but unsatisfying; a good conclusion that leaves a loop that might never be closed.
The issue’s sharp writing, good art, excellent lettering, and coloring continue apace, proving the entire series worthwhile. Cowles has done a wonderful job making the lettering stand out, with drippy hissing noises and barbed exclamation points standing out in shades of flaming, lurid red. It’s a matter of harmony and every single department comes forth with something fresh to contribute.
This has been a rich reading experience overall – achingly funny, a little poignant, sometimes enraging, always horrifying. Aliens: What If… is fun, touching, very funny, properly goopy, and never too invested in its mythos to avoid trying the original. Hopefully fans will be given a continuation by Marvel in the future.
