So, the first issue of "Alien" under the roof of a new publishing house authored by Philip Johnson and Salvador Larroca. Philip gets off to a pretty good start with the story of Gabriel Cruz, a new character, a former Colonial Marine and a security agent for the new Weyland-Yutani space station called Epsilon. Regarding the script, the comic, in my opinion, is very good. He does not throw us in the face of an obscenely huge amount of exposure, but glues the access of new information with a little intrigue, regarding the events that occurred earlier, through which Cruz passed, as well as reveals the main character through well-written interactions with other characters. Among other things, in one issue, the screenwriter manages to tell us a little about the current political situation in the Alien world - in particular, that Weyland-Yutani, who are trying to present themselves as the future saviors of the world from all kinds of crises, have quite certain groups of people who oppose the corporate giant. A member of such a group becomes the son of the main character (who gets into trouble trying to get into the aforementioned station), which promises us a rather interesting interpersonal conflict between the father, who worked for years for the "corporate fascists", and the son, who is trying to fight it. From the point of view of the disclosure of the characters, the quality of the dialogues and the artistic content of the comic (in the matter of building a panel grid and a conditional comic "montage"), the comic is read and perceived quite pleasantly and easily, while not losing the reader's interest. But all this is drawn by Salvador Larroca. The eye here and there comes across photoshopped backgrounds, glued faces of characters and problems with perspective. And if technical shoals in art can be forgiven, then tracing is simply beyond good and evil as a phenomenon. In general, my personal rating of the comic is a solid 7 out of 10, where I take away three points for art. For the rest , I fully recommend reading it and look forward to the next issues.

So, the second issue of the Alien series from the Marvel publishing house has arrived. The second issue is generally as pleasant to read as the first. As we remember, in the last issue, the attack on the Epsilon station was shown, which led to the release of the xenomorphs. In this episode, Gabriel is sent to the station 32 hours after the incident to clean up the mess that was made because of the attack of his son with a group of "anti-corporations". Naturally, the representative of the WY "magnanimously" allows the hero to save his son, but necessarily AFTER he pulls out a certain sample "Alpha" from the falling station, with a direct indication that if this very "Alpha" is not pulled out, then both two Cruzes will be cooed behind bars for the rest of their days. The author gives us a little more exposure, gradually shedding light on the events that happened to Gabriel, but so far it is far from any specifics. The landing at the station takes place in a somewhat crumpled script, but he still manages to create the right atmosphere. But, despite the fact that the comic book READS quite well... It is impossible to LOOK at it without tears. There are 22 pages in the comic, and only one was good and readable. And that's because 80% of the page is occupied by shadows. Larroca... Larroca... I don't even have the words. This is bad. Whatever Johnson builds with his script, Salvador kills with his... "drawing". What saves you is that there are a lot of shadows in this issue. In total, I put 6.5 out of 10 for a good script and that's it.

So, here is the third issue of the series "Alien" from Phillip Jones and Salvador Larroca. The third issue, as expected after the end of the previous one, finally shows us the xenomorphs in all their glory. They are sudden, fast, deadly and the action with them is very intense. At the same time, this very action quite well moves the plot further, starting to give answers to questions about what happened at the station now, and skillfully intertwining with flashbacks, which continue to develop the backstory of Cruz in small portions. Characters react to what is happening quite interestingly, and Cruz manages to make quite contradictory decisions, which on the one hand look necessary, but his motivation is very questionable. Despite the generally adequately written interaction of the characters, the scene of the conflict between the two of them at a certain point in time looks somewhat strange, given the circumstances (I avoid spoilers as much as I can). Because of this, the tension that the scene is trying to create is slightly broken. But in general - another well-written issue with an inertial cliffhanger. Well WRITTEN. I don't even want to talk about the drawing. Again the tracking, again the broken perspective, again the lack of dynamics. And the colorist is doing something strange with the lighting in this issue. In general, it is pleasant to READ again, but it is impossible to WATCH again. Six points, where I subtract one from the ten for the above-mentioned problems of the script, and the remaining three points are eaten up by the" skill " of the artist.

The new story arc starts very promisingly. If the previous one was a fairly simple, direct and understandable story, then THIS story takes the concept of "Predators" by Nimrod Antal and adds quite an interesting intrigue to it. At the same time, almost direct references to the 2010 film are played quite subtly with notes of nostalgia. The issue is very well constructed from the point of view of narrative, it has a good pace (action and moments of exposure replace each other smoothly and consistently, which does not let you get bored or get lost in the narrative). The action is just mom-mia... Great detail, adrenaline dynamics, and a very nice design of the space hunter literally make you drown in the visual of the comic. The rather obvious ending of the release slightly blurs the impression. There is still the impression that all the danger of predators simply disappears under the coolness of the Test. Here he is fierce and dangerous and then BAM - and he's gone. I still think that ONE Predator as a threat would work much better, both for the last arch and for this one.

The second issue confidently holds the quality bar set by the previous one. The opening dialogue-free scene with Predators (and the second one) is just great. First of all, because Predators for a moment turn into CHARACTERS in which personality is felt. The way they do not just destroy the body of their fellow hunter at the beginning, but honor him in a peculiar way, performing a kind of burial, looks quite interesting. Also, these scenes dilute the expositional component of the comic well, which is served through the dialogues of human characters. Here, by the way, the concept of "Predators" of 2010 begins to gradually transform, since we have a Theta that has much more distinct information about Predators than Nolan. Plus, the intrigue about how exactly the victims got to the planet begins to unfold. And then the beautifully drawn action begins again. And here we have everything - and a duel with a Predator, which really HAS a PRICE for the characters. And the pace becomes very intense, playing with time and the situation in which the characters find themselves. And the ending with the injury of Theta and the hijacking of the ship really leaves you waiting for the next issue, since the characters (for whom we are quite worried, by the way) find themselves in a really critical situation. It is worth saying that the dialogues in the middle of the issue can be a little boring (but it depends on the mood here), but you can just look at the drawing and it will be good for you.

And here things start to go badly, comparing with the previous two issues. Because all the tension of the previous issue is blown away already in the first half of this one. The characters quickly return the ship back, simultaneously captivating the hijacker, a piano from the bushes in the form of River Ghosts saves Teta and the team. Already in this issue, it becomes clear to us that Theta will be quietly fitted with a new arm. The only interesting part of the number is a small monologue by Paolo, who reveals himself to us slightly as a character. But the death of a Predator in this issue is just a shame. Not in the sense that the predator has disgraced himself, this scenario decision is frankly shameful. The predator begins to fight the Ghosts while the wounded Tattoo is quietly taken away to the returned ship, which makes the ending of the previous issue a cheap cliffhanger. Ghosts wound the predator (who is in FULL ARMOR) a couple of times. Then he is saved by his fellow predator... So that the wounded predator then blows itself up. Someone will say, they say, "well, predators behave like that, it dishonored him and he killed himself." A number of questions immediately arise - if saving others is a shame, for what the hell did the second Predator save the first one? To then approach the wounded hunter and say, "You're a weakling, hold the axe. You can blow yourself up, I'm off."? Were the Predator's injuries fatal? Yes, no, he was quite standing on his feet. He wasn't wearing paper armor. The predator who inflicted a hell of a lot of damage to the team and took Theta out of the game (in fact, no, they will glue a new hand to her) is simply taken out of the narrative in the laziest possible way. He fought himself, he hurt himself, he was depressed, he exploded. And all this in a couple of pages. If you really wanted to take the Predator out of the narrative, why not do it more creatively? Let him defeat the Ghosts, but having received a monstrous wound that would not allow him to self-destruct. Then a second hunter would arrive and fulfill the mute request of his comrade, triggering the self-destruction mechanism. It could have been a much better silent scene, which better revealed predators as comrades in general and characters in particular. As a result, it turns out that this issue simply resets all the bets of the previous one, solves the problems they set with the help of pianos from the bushes, and again ends with a cliffhanger with a conflict within the team about the control of the ship. And at the same time, the plot of the comic hardly moved anywhere from the point where it stopped in the second issue. Very lazy and very frustrating. But thanks to Netho Diaz for a great drawing. The detail, panel layout and dynamics are still great. It's just a pity that the reference from the screens on the predator ship did not migrate to the release version of the comic.