Frozen Nightmares, Round Two — Alien: Descendant Review
Alien: Descendant — Full Review
You know how it goes: sometimes you survive a frozen nightmare, think you’re done… and then someone says “Hey! Wanna go for round two?” That, my friends, is Alien: Descendant. It’s the next chapter in the saga from Marvel Comics and creative team Declan Shalvey & Andrea Broccardo, and it doesn’t let the dread thaw out. If anything… it gets colder.
What is Alien: Descendant?
Collection: Alien by Shalvey & Broccardo Vol. 2: Descendant. Collects one-shot issue Alien: Annual #1 (2023) plus Alien (2023B) #1–4.
Creative Team: Written by Declan Shalvey, art by Andrea Broccardo (present-day sequences) and Shalvey himself (flashbacks), coloured by Ruth Redmond (present-day) and Shalvey (flashbacks).
Premise (as pitched): After the events on the ice-moon LV-695 (from Thaw), corporate vultures at Weyland-Yutani Corporation see salvage and secrets — and a ship called the The Descendant becomes the vessel to recover them. Human greed, buried alien horrors, and a return to horrors that should’ve stayed frozen.
Official teaser?
“In deep space spins a world infected by the universe’s greatest killers. Most sane people would build a barrier and leave it to rot. But where most people see a death trap, Weyland-Yutani sees profit.”
So yeah: it’s not a resurrection. It’s a company trip to hell.
What Works — and What Cracks Under Pressure
What Works
The Mystery & Horror Tone: Descendant leans into horror, corporate horror and body horror. The stories set up a feeling of dread and danger that builds gradually. There’s a creeping sense that someone wants more than just salvage. That uncertainty keeps you hooked.
Xeno Evolution & Horror Variety: As teased near the end of Thaw, this arc continues to explore mutated / altered xenomorphs, ones adapted to cold, water, deep-pressure environments. The threat evolves, so you never fully know what version of horror you might get. Overall a chilling rebrand for a monster you thought you knew.
A Broader Scope: Descendant expands the playground. Instead of just one base on one moon, we get corporate ships, salvage missions, deeper lore, and intersecting timelines: flashbacks, original wrecks, submerged disasters and more. It feels like the cracks in the ice are spreading.
Flashbacks & Layers: The inclusion of flashback sequences, the earlier doomed missions, original disasters, hidden corpses, adds depth and mystery. You’re not just reading a horror-survival story; you’re piecing together history, mistakes, secrets. The payoff lands better because of it.
Where It Wobbles
Occasional Confusion / Clutter: Because Descendant tries to do a lot: salvage mission, corporate politics, old wreck mystery, evolving xenos, and flashbacks, at times the narrative gets a bit muddy. Some sequences feel overloaded. With a few panels being a little confusing and hard to make out exactly what’s going on.
Not as Tightly Focused As Thaw: Thaw had a lean, claustrophobic horror vibe: one moon, one base, one outbreak. Descendant wants scale, and that scale occasionally dilutes the tension. The wider scope is cool, but horror hits different when you’re not constantly cornered.
Characters Aren’t Always Fully Realized: With a larger ensemble: corporate scavengers, salvage crews, maybe some familiar faces, it gets hard to give everyone depth. Some characters feel underdeveloped or interchangeable, which lowers emotional stakes when things go sideways.
My Verdict
Alien: Descendant isn’t perfect. It stumbles under its own ambition occasionally. But when it lands, when the horror, the evolving monsters, the moral decay, the dread of water and ice and pressure hits? It hits hard.
If you approach it expecting neat answers, tight pacing, or all-star heroics, you’ll likely be disappointed. But if you’re down for a muddy, conflicted, deeply gothic sci-fi horror ride, with corporate blood on your hands and aliens in the dark corners waiting… Descendant delivers.
Rating: A slight notch below Thaw, but still a strong, dark, and ambitious entry. It proves one thing: with the right team, the Xenomorph legend still has teeth. And sometimes, those teeth are sharper than ice.
