Back for more Xenomorph trouble!
Yesterday, I took a look at Aliens: Resistance and, to put it politely, I wasn’t exactly blown away. The ingredients were all there, but the story just didn’t come together for me.
Today, we’re following that story into Aliens: Rescue. We’re back with Amanda Ripley and Zula Hendricks, and this time Alec Brand, the colonist they rescued from Xenomorphs years ago, has grown up and become a Colonial Marine.
So, can this sequel rescue the story from the disappointment of Resistance? Let’s find out!
The Details
Title: Aliens: Rescue (Alien: Isolation #4)
Writer: Brian Wood
Illustrations: Kieran McKeown
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Page Count: 96 pages
Collects: Aliens: Rescue #1–4
The Story
Five years after the events of Aliens: Resistance, Amanda Ripley and Zula Hendricks are still trying to expose the dirty dealings of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
Meanwhile, Alec Brand has grown up into an elite Colonial Marine. When a secret mission takes him back to the alien-infested moon where Amanda and Zula rescued him, he’s forced to confront his past — and, naturally, a few familiar extraterrestrial nightmares.
Because apparently, nobody in the Alien universe has ever considered finding a nice, quiet job somewhere without murderous space bugs.
The Review
The good news? This is definitely better than Resistance!
Honestly, I can’t overstate how much of an improvement this is over the previous comic. Where Resistance left me struggling to care about the characters or get invested in the story, Rescue actually gives me something to work with.
The pacing is better, the storyline has a much clearer direction, and the characters feel more natural. They have a reason to be there, the story moves along at a decent clip, and I wasn’t constantly wondering why everyone seemed so miserable to be sharing the same comic book.
It’s still not exactly top-tier Aliens material, but at least this time I was interested enough to keep turning the pages. That’s a pretty good start!
Unfortunately, Rescue doesn’t quite manage to stick the landing. The artwork feels weak in places, sometimes giving the impression that it’s just going through the motions. And while the story has a much stronger foundation, the ending feels rushed and forced. It wraps things up in a way that left me wondering whether the series had ended earlier than originally intended.
I don’t know if that was actually the case, so I’m not going to claim it as fact. It just feels as though the story reaches the finish line before it has properly finished what it wanted to say. That’s frustrating, because there’s a decent story here. With a little more room to breathe, a stronger artistic presentation and a more satisfying conclusion, this could have been a much better read.
Instead, we get an improvement on the previous volume that still has too many flaws to make it a must-read.
Could This Work in Sector 102?
Now, here's where things get interesting for my own little corner of the Cursed Earth and Mega City One.
One of the things I like about this story is the idea of a character returning to the place where everything went wrong years earlier. The past hasn’t gone away, and the people involved have changed, but the danger is still waiting for them. I reckon there’s a good Sector 102 adventure hiding in that premise.
Something along the lines of: The Return to the Rad Zone.
(FYI This is a proposed Sector 102 idea, not established lore) Imagine a former Sector 102 resident who was rescued from a sealed research facility as a child. The official story says the facility was abandoned after a containment failure involving experimental treatment. Years later, that child has grown up and joined a Justice Department auxiliary unit, a mercenary outfit, or perhaps become a freelance Cursed Earth troubleshooter. Then a routine assignment sends them back to that same facility…
The official mission is simple: recover old research data, check the site for salvageable equipment, and confirm that the containment systems are still offline. Of course, the old systems have powered back up. Something is still living down there and the person leading the mission remembers things about the original incident that the official reports conveniently left out.
Why I like this for Sector 102: it gives me a ready-made reason to bring old miniatures and terrain back onto the table. A research complex, abandoned corridors, corporate security, mutant survivors, strange creatures and a returning character with unfinished business could all become part of the same scenario. It could be played as a straight firefight, a tense exploration game, or a small campaign in which the players gradually discover what really happened. I could even make the original rescue part of an earlier battle report, then revisit the location months later.
The best part? I don't need a specific range of miniatures. Any suitable sci-fi troops, monsters, scientists or security figures could find a home in the story.
DROKK! I might have to put that one on the Sector 102 ideas pile.
Final Verdict
So, where do I stand with Aliens: Rescue? It's a step up from Resistance, without a doubt. The story is more engaging, the characters feel more believable, and the pacing is much better. But the artwork and rushed-feeling ending keep it from being anything particularly special. If you're an Aliens fan who needs to read absolutely everything connected to the franchise, then give it a go. There's enough here to make it worthwhile if you're following Amanda Ripley's story.
If you're more of a casual fan, though, I'd say you can safely give this one a miss. Better than Resistance? Absolutely. Essential reading? Not quite.
That's another comic off the pile, and another little spark of inspiration for Sector 102.
Cheers for reading, and I'll see you on the next adventure!
