Body horror is an integral part to the Aliens franchise.
It may be secondary to the immediate, real threat of a physical Xenomorph trying to kill you, but it’s ever present in the narrative. It starts in Alien with the first chestburster. It becomes more insidious with the harvested colonists and marines in Aliens. It’s the horror of the aliens using us as incubators for their young. Of our own bodies being turned into carriers of a ticking time bomb that going to sprout an entirely new deadly killing machine from our chest cavity.
And us thinking we’re fine after the initial facehugger falls off.
It speaks a bit to the new xenomorph using us as a host recombining bits of our DNA into creating a new iteration of ourselves. And comes even more into the fore in Alien Resurrection and Prometheus as experimentation and evolution become direct parts of the body horror narrative.
“Life…life will always find a way.”
Aliens: Purge by Ian Edginton, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Chris Chalenor, and Gary Fields anticipates that turn in the narrative in Aliens Resurrection. Almost like there was something in the water in 1997 that fed into that type of body horror. Here it tells the tale of an experimental science colony seeing the effects of leprosy on Xenomorph hosting. And something a bit more terrifying.
Edginton is great at crafting tales of things that should not be, whether Lovecraftian (like Leviathan) or Martian (Scarlet Traces), and here we get it in an android that has been modified. A new breed that bridges species and has become a kind of mother of abominations. The implications are frightening, but there’s an interesting inversion here. Despite the horror, she’s the protagonist of the piece, and as the story evolves essentially becomes the hero.
The art from Phil Hester, Ande Parks, and Chris Chalenor is suitably creepy. Hester’s dark, angular style is absolutely perfect for any kind of horror. The dangerous beauty of Eloise, the unfortunate deformations of disease, the visceral terror of the Xenomorphs, it’s all wonderful here. Even with a bit of humour tossed in. Parks gives a hard shadow and solid line to his inks, enhancing the structure of the imagery. And Chalenor employs a limited palette to keep things simple and let those shadows really stand out in the story.
Gary Fields has a lettering style that feels unique. In addition to usual italics, there’s an angularity to his cross beams in letters like “L” and slants to “M” and “W” that stand out. It feels fitting to Hester’s lines.
“The guy who stepped off the dropship earlier? He’s trouble… Big trouble!”
Two horror legends in Edginton and Hester come together with Parks, Chalenor, and Fields in Aliens: Purge to deliver an interesting twist on Xenomorph propagation that creates a deadlier hybrid species, a new kind of mother, and an uncanny valley that takes two terrors in a brand new direction. One that we might actually cheer for against the corporations. It’s a neat subversion of expectations while still being thoroughly terrifying when you think about it.
There’s also sequel that’s written by Ian Edginton, with art by Mel Rubi, Aliens vs. Predator: Pursuit. It follows Eloise and her clan as they’re hunted by Predators, showing where they end up after this story. Hopefully we’ll see Marvel collect these issues in omnibuses again eventually like they’ve been doing the Aliens books.
Classic Comic Compendium: ALIENS PURGE
Aliens Purge
Writer: Ian Edginton
Penciller: Phil Hester
Inker: Ande Parks
Colourist: Chris Chalenor
Letterer: Gary Fields
Publisher: Marvel Comics (reprint) | Dark Horse (original publisher)
Release Date: November 22 2022 (reprint collection) | August 1997 (original)
Available collected in Aliens: The Original Years Omnibus – Volume 3
Read past entries in the Classic Comic Compendium!
