Comic Review: William Gibson’s Alien 3
When people talk about Alien 3, opinions tend to get… heated. Thankfully, this comic gives us a chance to explore a version that never made it to cinemas. William Gibson’s Alien 3 adapts the original unproduced screenplay, delivering a bold, strange, and surprisingly tense take on where the franchise could have gone.
Details
Title: William Gibson’s Alien 3
Author: William Gibson
Illustrators: Johnnie Christmas & Tamra Bonvillain
Description:
This is the official adaptation of the original Alien 3 screenplay written by William Gibson: award-winning science fiction author and creator of Neuromancer. While familiar faces and settings return, this version of Alien 3 takes a very different turn, reimagined as a tense Cold War–era thriller.
Following the events of Aliens, the Sulaco — carrying Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop in cryosleep — is intercepted by the Union of Progressive Peoples. What the U.P.P. doesn’t expect is a far deadlier passenger, one capable of tipping the balance between two rival superpowers racing to create the ultimate biological weapon.
Collects: William Gibson’s Alien 3 #1–5
The Review
I was genuinely surprised to stumble across this comic at my local library which, by the way, has an excellent graphic novel section (recommendations on reads are always welcome). Since I’d already enjoyed the story once, this felt like the perfect low-risk evening read. Visually, the comic is a treat. The artwork is detailed, moody, and the kind of thing you catch yourself staring at longer than necessary. The colour work in particular adds weight to the cold, militarised tone of Gibson’s script.
That said, there are some issues. The story jumps between characters, locations, and ships quite frequently. While that’s easy to track, it can occasionally feel disorienting on the page. To be fair, this may also be down to me getting distracted by the artwork. Still, seeing these characters brought to life visually added something new to the experience and kept me locked in. It made for an entertaining evening, which is really all I ask from a graphic novel.
A solid slice of Alien alternate history, and an interesting “what-if” that continues to age better than the film we eventually got.
Want to read it? If the library hunt isn’t your thing, you can grab a copy here: Amazon.ca via my affiliate link (though fair warning — it’s not cheap these days).
