Aliens: What If #4 Review

 

Concept: Paul & Leon Reiser; Adam F. Goldberg; Hans Rodionoff; Brian Volk-Weiss

Writer: Hans Rodionoff & Brian Volk-Weiss

Artist: Guiu Vilanova

Colorist: Yen Nitro

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Cover Artists: Phil Noto; Salvador Larroca & Guru eFX

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 5, 2024

 

Carter Burke is a driven man. He's got plans for everything. If only the universe would respect his plans! Instead, the Hadley's Hope situation spun out of control, and now Asteroid D350-L8 is following the same playbook. Another Queen has arrived to rock his little terraformed world. Can Carter escape another Xenomorph corporate takeover? Let’s grab our flamethrowers, leap into Aliens: What If #4, and find out!

 

Story

Carter is panicking. After the face-hugger impregnated Harold, Cygnus prepared to remove the Xenomorph from the miner and harvest the alien DNA. But the incubating alien got impatient. It burst through Harold's chest and tore the combat android apart. Carter had planned on getting a comparatively manageable Xenomorph drone. Instead, the universe gave him a Queen!

 

Carter does the first thing that comes to mind. He runs to his daughter’s quarters to whisk her away to safety. Instead, he finds Hiro Yu there. Carter bonded with Hiro over a mutual hatred for Hiro’s father, Shin Yutani. Hiro’s never won his father’s respect, but he’s promised to use his resources at Weyland-Yutani to help Carter cure his wife. But that doesn't mean Carter wants the scion of the man who exiled him to this rock as his son-in-law. Still, Brie’s only sleeping with Hiro to annoy him, isn't she?

 

In Aliens: What If #4, Cygnus, the illegal battle android Carter assembled in a scrapyard, is dead. Carter wants to protect his family. Hiro may be the son of Weyland-Yutani’s heartless CEO, but when the young man reminds Carter of all the other people who live on Asteroid D350-L8, Carter realizes he doesn’t want them to die.

 

Carter Burke never intends to hurt people. Yet he creates distance because he never has time for them. So he uses lies and manipulation to keep them close, but that doesn't win their respect or love. Carter mourns Cygnus even though Hiro points out that androids aren't alive. If Carter had spent less time making plans and profits for Weyland-Yutani, his daughter might have respected him. But he needs her and Hiro's help to protect everyone in his adoptive home. So, when his daughter and Hiro ask him to step up, Carter helps them confront the Xenomorph Queen in Aliens: What If #4.

 

Hope wasn’t enough last time. In Hans Rodionoff & Brian Volk-Weiss’ story, Carter wants to be a better man. He adopts a new plan. Along the way, Carter hopes to win his daughter’s respect. Who knows? Perhaps Carter Burke can find a way to reunite his family. If only the universe will respect his plans!

 

 

 

Art

Brie may enjoy mining Trimonite, but the dents and graffiti on her door suggest that Weyland-Yutani spends more on beautifying white-collar dormitories. His daughter's damp hair and the towel around her torso suggest she and Hiro showered together in Aliens: What If #4. While Carter struggles not to yank chunks from his full head of hair, Brie leans behind Hiro and clasps his shoulder. Her smile suggests that her father's belief about Brie’s motives may have some basis in truth. But Carter should take more note of Hiro’s stony expression. Hiro thought he’d found a partner who valued him. Instead, he found another father who disrespects him!

 

Guiu Vilanova energizes a page with small panels as Brie and Hiro suit up. Carter smiles as he straps into his chipped and sparking novice rig. He starts after the others in their Komatsu Kaiju mining rigs. But by the time they reach the lab, Carter pushes his Grokk-Primer NVC rig through the doorway before his daughter and Hiro. Any impishness fades from his face as Carter regards the torn body of his former android.

 

Carter invades the yellow miners’ dormitory in his brown suit. Carter eschews Brie and Hiro’s green coveralls and helmets for his management attire but accepts a pair of purple gloves. The lights on the yellow and gray mining suits produce glare on the visors. Installed lighting fills the mine with yellow, green, blue, and brown. Yen Nitro colors the Xenomorph webbing gray, while white dots evoke stickers proclaiming their freshness.

 

Clayton Cowles welcomes readers who saw Aliens during its original cinema run with large black uppercase lettering in white dialogue balloons. White letters in black narrative boxes with green borders locate readers in time and space. Colorful, energetic sound effects help readers hear mining rigs clank, flames erupt, and gases disperse. No one screams in Aliens: What If #4. Still, a hiss writhes through a dark cavern as Humans run through the Xenomorph Queen’s domain.

 

Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

When the universe overturns his plans, Carter struggles to keep up with the kids, his daughter Brie learns more about herself and her family, and his new partner Hiro contemplates his future in Aliens: What If #4.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Aliens: What If #3 Review

 

Concept: Paul & Leon Reiser; Adam F. Goldberg; Hans Rodionoff; Brian Volk-Weiss

Writer: Hans Rodionoff

Artist: Guiu Vilanova

Colorist: Yen Nitro

Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Cover Artists: Phil Noto; Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson; Stephen Mooney & Frank Martin

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 15, 2024

 

Hiro Yu, the Senior Director of Human Capital for Weyland-Yutani, traveled to Asteroid D350-L8 to fire Carter Burke. Instead, Burke knocked him on the noggin with Ripley's rifle. Hiro wakes strapped to an operating table. Beside him, an Xenomorph egg is opening, and a Facehugger is climbing out. Can Hiro convince Carter to release him? What if Hiro gave him a promotion and threw in a vision plan? Let’s grab our flamethrowers, leap into Aliens: What If #3, and find out!

 

Story

The Aliens didn't kill Carter Burke on Hadley's Hope. He escaped from a cocoon and slipped aboard Ripley's shuttle. After Ripley shoots the Queen into space and goes into Hypersleep, Carter makes a deal with Shin Yutani. He got a job for life, and Weyland-Yutani didn’t get hit with 158 wrongful death lawsuits.

 

Sadly, employment for life didn't prevent Carter from becoming a scapegoat for the Hadley's Hope disaster. So, he conceived a backup plan. He rebuilt Cygnus, a banned combat synthetic, and sent him to find another Xenomorph egg. Now, Cygnus is back, and he's 98% certain he can accomplish Carter’s aims without causing more wrongful deaths. Okay, maybe he’s only 90% certain Hiro will survive. Still, 90 is a good percentage, right?

 

In Aliens: What If #3, Carter wants to cure cancer, starting with his wife’s. It’s a noble goal. Unfortunately, it involves impregnating some poor schmuck with an alien. But everyone who works for Weyland-Yutani gets paid sick leave, right?

 

Hans Rodionoff’s story tackles family dysfunction and why children often pull away from their parents. It also shows how two hurting people can bond. No matter how much Carter loves his daughter and tries to please her, Brie refuses to give him the time of day. Yet, Hiro sees Carter as a better father than his own. Why else would Hiro work with Carter once he convinces the visionary to save him from the Facehugger?

 

Rodionoff’s investment in the characters pays dividends in Aliens: What If #3. Drama arises as Carter saves Hiro, then gets irked when Brie shows interest in this visitor to their little world. Cygnus keeps recalculating the possibility of accomplishing Carter’s plan, and as people hunt for the Facehugger, history repeats itself and allows the creepy crawly to escape. If only everyone would stop distrusting Carter and help him achieve his mostly noble plan!

 

 

 

Art

Strapped to the lab table, Hiro’s muscles strain as he rants and raves. The slim young executive may look like a slick company man, but he’s nothing like the uncaring executives who claimed Ripley destroyed the Nostromo without sufficient reason. Carter Burke enters with his palms clasped before his transparent face shield. The overweight, gray-haired manager may look as if walking takes effort, but he rides his bike to work, swings a mean bat, and can run through the tunnels when given sufficient reason. That reason is his daughter, who operates a mechanized drilling machine. Brie’s Komatsu Kaiju rig resembles that of an armored deep-sea diver (or a Mondoshawan from The Fifth Element). If she survives her father’s grand experiment, perhaps she can find an undersea mining gig on a nearby asteroid once her team taps out the Trimonite deposits on D350-L8.

 

Guiu Vilanova introduces readers to another synthetic model in Aliens: What If #3. Scientists made Cygnus a soldier, but he’s not a stone-cold killer like Maximilian in The Black Hole. (Nor, for that matter, does he resemble VINCENT or old BOB). With his beard, detached demeanor, and ear stretchers, the android better resembles Dr Reinhardt than the scientist’s robotic servants or the remaining personnel aboard the USS Cygnus. The Replicant (Or Replican) is a straight man to Carter's overweening reasonableness.

 

Yen Nitro shows light play over people and surfaces, whether it's the harsh overhead lighting in Carter's lab or the spotlights embedded in Brie's mechanized exoskeleton. Light gleams against face shields and gives metal and fabrics depth and texture. Carter glows as if charged by the enormity of his humanitarian dream in Aliens: What If #3. It's good that Nitro is a master of light, or we'd never see the Facehugger when it lingers in shadow.

 

Clayton Cowles attacks white dialogue balloons with black uppercase lettering that should please readers who saw Aliens during its original cinema run. The Facehugger screams white letters into black dialogue balloons. Sounds burst into panels to enhance movement, gunfire, and attacks. But just as letters explode across the opening scene, they accompany a cliffhanger ending.

 

Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review. 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

While Carter Burke makes friends with yet another test subject, and the key to his humanitarian plan escapes his control, Aliens: What If #3 builds off the set pieces of the popular franchise movie to create an exciting, humorous, and touching story.

 

Rating 8.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.