Review

"Those … those things. I never imagined anything so horrible." - Lars

The first human colony on Mars has started to dig into the surface of the red planet and have discovered the underground catacombs of a civilisation tens of thousands of years old. Evidence points to the civilisation having been built by the legendary Nosferatu, an altogether deadly form of vampire. Naturally Earth authorities have dispatch monster hunter and modern vampire type Vampirella to investigate the archaeological discovery of the century.

Unfortunately for our blood sucking heroine she discovers an egg chamber containing some recognisable leathery orbs, Vampirella and the human team have no idea what they have unearth, naturally infestation, chest bursting, and outright horror ensues as one of the most dangerous species in the known universe re-awake. Can Vampirella and her human allies stop the Alien scourge before it overruns the Mars base and finds a way down to Earth, an excellent cross over comic ensues.

Aliens Vampirella burst out in six cross over issues in the Alien universe through 2015/2016 as Dark Horse decided to leverage two classic horror genres and take them in some sort of interesting non-expectant directions. Sure Aliens has shown some diversity already, taking on various other comic book franchises, but for mine it hasn't really worked out that well, while this concept kind of works in a sort of "holy cow check out this madness" fashion. While Vampirella is of course a force for good, at least through her halcyon years 1969-1983, she has never before run into the nightmarish older God force that is the Xenomorphs. But hey if you think you aren't going to get a bunch of vampire fang times then think again, the big bugs might not be gone completely from this plain of existence, and yes this does hark back to Alien and a certain "deadly cargo", but the Xenomorphs are not the only survivors from a bygone era.

For the purposes of this review I am looking at the hard cover release by Dark Horse that brings together all six issues of the Vampirella story arc in one release. So for those expecting individual reviews of each issue, suck it up we're catching up on the Alien universe big time. While on the subject I should mention the hard cover is pretty much awesome, full colour, bound excellently, a pleasure to pick up and read folks. We're talking standard U.S comic release size and a fairly thick 144 odd pages, including sketches, individual covers, and credit pages. Can't quite remember the cover price in downtown Brisbane, will eventually do a photo article of our fav comic emporium, but quick check on Amazon yields $17.46 USD.

So guess we should check out the artwork, which is pretty standard comic design except of course with a heightened body count and more splashes of claret then you could expect from your average Cathy strip. The art and colouring is bold, forceful, and full of atmospheric content that will have you bouncing up and down like a Bunny on steroids. While we get plenty of panels to keep the plot moving toward its fantastic finally, hey if you ever wanted to see a Vamp take on an Alien Queen then this book is going to knock your socks off, we also get some half and full pages to simply drool over. I've read this book at least five times before hitting the word processor and got to say I spend a lot of time each read checking out the art. Miranda shows a keen eye to getting the concept of the script across and goes for maximum impact as the plot unfolds. I also have to highlight some awesome Alien creations, the Artist here brings across the almost malignance nature of the Xenomorph life cycle.

What is interesting in this script, and too thumbs up to Femm Bechko for taking something of a risk here, is we have multiple levels of antagonist for Vampirella to deal with. Which one you find the most dangerous is probably down to your own interpretation. Naturally we have the Xenomorphs, and yes we get all three stages of life in the bugs, face hugger, chest burster, and drone with the usual dangers and almost unstoppable force of nature they present to their victims. But we also get a Nosferatu, who while seemingly having some sort of respect for Vampirella views the humans as little more than cattle who exist to nourish the vampire races. And finally the company officials are pretty quick to condemn our Goddess of the Dark and view her as the source of the current problems besetting the Mars colony. Which I have to say is pretty par for the course in the Aliens universe, you simply can't trust the man or politicians, hey just like the real world really.

A few interesting and geeky questions were answered during the course of the book, that at least had me grinning like an evil monkey in a curse movie. Ever wondered what would happen if a vampire lanced its fangs into a Xenomorph, I know I haven't exactly been waited on that revelation, but hey this book answers that question in particularly spectacular fashion. Equally we learn that if you face hugger a vampire the chest burster is going to erupt but the vampire can survive and regenerate from even this catastrophic injury, as Vampirella does during the course of the narrative.

As usual the origin of the Xenomorphs remains steeped in mystery, which is another sin Alien: Covenant committed by the way in trying to explain their origin, but we do get a logical explanation for the destruction of the Nosferatu Mars base. Seems while divining for water they discovered the remains of a previous alien civilisation that had been destroyed by the Xenomorph scourge. So we get a similar situation to LV426 where eggs can remain viable for centuries, and there is no real explanation as to where they originated.

So we get a decent script that presents a well told story, with plenty of flashbacks to explain the current situation, and enough vampire mythos to have dedicated followers of horror nodding their heads sagely. Two thumbs up for Corinna Bechko's engaging and entertaining script, would love to see some more of her work, and definitely some more stories set in the Aliens universe. For once a totally unique script that combines mythology from both vampiric sources and Xenomorph sources, I was rocking out to this development.

So Aliens Vampirella proved to be a very decent read, mixing in a few different styles to produce something unique, something that spins the Aliens universe into a different tangent from what we have seen before. The plot is enticing and keeps you interested, the artwork has a tradition look but manages to surprise on any number of pages, and the entire presentation by Dark Horse was fairly rocking the house down. I have zero issues with a recommendation on this book, if you are into your graphic novels then go pick it up today. Added bonus here kids, if you can't afford the readies then you can get a free read right here, we have your back.

ScaryMinds Rates this read as ...