Return to Hadley’s Hope in this special one-shot comic that celebrates 35 years since that deadly event. A group of journalists/revolutionaries discover the hidden moon and head there find out the truth as to what happened to the colony. All records have been wiped out by Weyland-Yutani but things have a way of evolving and becoming deadlier when they’re buried. Aliens: Aftermath adds to the classic science fiction story setting Marvel‘s Alien line of comics up for a wild ride to come.

One of the great successes of Marvel’s Star Wars line of comics is that they’ve been additive to the universe and what has come before. They’ve filled in gaps between stories adding greater depth to characters and fleshed out the world with great characters. So far, Marvel’s Alien comics have taken a similar route delivering a series that is the fine tradition of what has come before and built off of what works best. Aliens: Aftermath, written by Benjamin Percy, does much of the same building off of Aliens to take us back to the doomed colony.

We know generally what happened to Hadley’s Hope at the end of Aliens as Ripley barely escaped with her life. 35 years have passed since that film’s release as well as the events within this comic. Taking place in 2214 a group has been on a mission to screw with the corrupt Weyland-Yutani and find out what happened. Here, they discover that and set things on a path for the chaos to come. The story features generally throwaway characters but it does a good job of tying them into Aliens without it being forced. It also diversifies some of the characters within the Alien world, taking it beyond the usual grunts/military and other victims of Weyland-Yutani. It’s a nice coda to Hadley’s Hope story with some interesting twists that feel like a good piece of the puzzle.

Dave Wachter‘s art is pretty solid capturing the tension of the situation. There’s some good action and the character interactions are good. Christopher Sotomayor‘s colors add a dark but not drab look to it all. The two capture the feel of the world. Arianna Maher‘s lettering adds to the atmosphere playing off the rough communication between teams and members.

Aliens: Aftermath is a good addition to the mythos setting up what’s to come. As a one-shot, the comic feels a bit rushed and packed in and might have benefitted from a second issue to expand upon the characters, their mission, and tension. The issue has some aspects that just aren’t explained enough but are intriguing enough that I want to see what happens next. This is one to read if you’re invested in Marvel’s line of comics but doesn’t quite stand on its own.

Story: Benjamin Percy Art: Dave Wachter
Color: Christopher Sotomayor Letterer: Ariana Maher
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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