Review - Aliens: Rescue

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine!

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On February 11th, Dark Horse Comics will release the graphic novel Aliens: Rescue is written by Brian Wood (Aliens: Defiance and Aliens: Resistance) and penciled by Kieran McKeown (Halo: Lone Wolf), which contains all four issues from the 2019 limited comic book series.

Aliens: Rescue is a direct followup to Aliens: Resistance. It centers around Alec Brand, a former colonist who's now a private in the Colonial Marines. He finds himself being investigated by Lena Bouden a USCM, who's determined to know what happened to Amanda Ripley (Ellen Ripley's daughter) and Zula Hendricks. He tells the story of how he was rescued by Ripley and Hendricks, as well as his last interactions with them before their so-called deaths. 

To Alec's surprise, Ripley and Hendricks are both alive. They recruit him for a secret mission to remove hundreds of Xenomorphs from a distant planet that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation wants to copyright.

Final Thoughts

I've been a fan of the Alien franchise since I was a little bitty kid in the late '80s but I've never read any of the many Aliens comic books until I read a digital galley of the upcoming Aliens: Rescue. It's a direct sequel to the 4-part Aliens: Resistance which was a sequel to the 12-part Aliens: Defiance and the video game Alien: Isolation. Despite the fact I had no clue what occurred before Aliens: Rescue, I had no problem figuring out what happened at the tail end of Aliens: Resistance, thanks to a few flashbacks.

The story itself is about as simple as it gets ― Marines are sent to a planet to kill hundreds of Xenomorphs. That's basically the entire plot. Besides Alec Brand, the characters are all one-dimensional at best. If I'd read the previous series, then maybe I would've liked the characters more.

The artwork is really good and it's actually the best thing about this graphic novel. The Xenomorphs are very detailed though they're not really characters in this tale, instead, they're treated like background props and only take center stage near the ending (or otherwise known as issue 4).

Overall, Aliens: Rescue has some entertaining artwork but it misses the mark with a clichéd plot and bland characters.