‘Alien: Black, White & Blood’ – Various (Marvel)

 


Page Count: 136 Pages

How cool would it be if I could have coloured the word ‘Blood’ in red…? Yep, I’m looking at ten days with no work and I’m feeling just how you’d expect at the prospect of not doing an awful lot ;o) Anyway…

I may well be fifty now but I’m still not above doing things like promising myself a new comic book if I made it through last week’s MRI scan without freaking out. Look, I know how I work and what the pressure points are ;o) I made it through the scan (just waiting on the results, I don’t think there’ll be anything to worry about though) so the next time I found myself near a Waterstones, I had the ideal reason to go in and not come out until I’d bought something.

I always enjoy the ‘Alien’ movies but while I’ve got a few of the books on my shelves, I’ve always shied away from them as I can’t help but wonder… How many times can you tell what is essentially the same story? And again, don’t get me wrong (love the movies) but the whole point of the Aliens is that they hide in the dark and either fuck you up, when least expected, or they merely postpone the ‘fucking up’ by leaving you to be a host for their young. That plot is proven to work but, how many times can you read it in the same book?

So what did I do when I was in Waterstones? Yep, I went and bought an anthology of ‘Alien’ tales… Maybe I should revise my earlier statement about ‘knowing how I work’ ;o) I’ve been dipping in and out of this book, over the last few days and…

I’m happy to be proved wrong.

Aliens are like zombies (okay, bear with me) in that neither Alien or zombie can change; they have a role to perform and their whole existence is geared toward doing just that. And isn’t it funny that for both sides, it ultimately boils down to perpetuating the species?

And the same as I find with ‘The Walking Dead’, an Alien infestation asks questions that human colonists, Marines etc have to answer. That’s where the real story comes from and I’m really pleased to say that this is an idea that the writers really run with here. Not all of the stories hit the mark but there wasn’t a single story that I gave up on , or skipped entirely, so I’m happy with the read as a whole.

Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing’s ‘Utopia’ is the highlight of the book, drawing parallels between Aliens and humans, as seen through the eyes of a Synthetic Person, that are worth pondering on. I’m not a hundred percent sure that we need another lesson about the flaws in Communism but on the other hand, I’m always there for stories where humanity is the author of its own destruction, in the face of an enemy it should be able to defeat, just because we can’t work together. The former is a little heavy-handed but I loved the way that the latter is flipped on its head. Does democracy just mean that no-one has to take responsibility…?

Other highlights, for me, were Paul Jenkins’ ‘Morsel’ (giving us a chilling reason why Aliens really like to draw out the kill…), Steve Foxe’s ‘Lucky’ (and not just because the main character is a very good dog, ok… it is) and Pornsak Pichetshote’s ‘Mother’ (a swathe of bullets rounded off with a chilling ending). Like I said though, none of the other tales were bad as such; they just didn’t hit the mark in quite the same way.

Worth a look then? I’d say that if you’re an ‘Alien’ fan then you’ve more than likely beaten me to it already ;o) I’m glad I gave it a shot.

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