In the Zeta Reticuli system near the moon designated LV426 a Weyland-Yutani probe discovers a cocooned Xenomorph amongst the wreckage of the Nostromo. The cocoon is brought aboard the research station Renaissance and almost immediately the resident scientists are cutting into the resin discovering the forbidden delights inside. Synthetic Rook, sorry artificial person Rook, has designs on developing an immortality drug from the Xeno, while the rest of the scientific administration is more interested in the alien for weapons research. Naturally the Xeno isn’t quite as dead as the local scientific community thought it was, and deaths ensue with security chick Hyla being the only one aware of the potential danger. As the entire research station is put in imminent danger Rook shows a single minded drive towards developing his ultimate elixir of insanity.

Alien: Romulus is a one shot that attempts to explain events aboard the research station Renaissance prior to happenings in the movie by the same name. Surprisingly the 31 pages of the comic has more unique content than the entirety of the movie, though of course Fede Alvarez has to have an introduction spiel and claim various things. Naturally there has to be a big bad to keep things juicy, and believe me it’s not the Big Chap, who makes a cameo in both the comic and movie. One aspect of the original movie Alien that could have been definitively settled by either version of the title is whether or not Weyland-Yutani had knowledge of the aliens on LV426 prior to the Nostromo’s final ill-fated voyage. Since neither touches this somewhat controversial theory, I have to say opportunity missed to add to the lore. So if we had to be brutally honest, neither this comic or the movie add anything really new to our understanding of the overall universe, missed opportunity for mine.

On the bright side writer Zac Thompson sure does condense a lot of plot into the pages of the comic, the dude sure does know how to script like his life depends on it. We get conflict galore on top of a Xenomorph rampage, the critters sure are a force of chaos in classic horror fashion. Firstly, security officer Hyla recognises the inherent danger the alien poises and wants to finish it immediately. Her partner Adrian however believes the Scientists have it completely under control and there is no clear and present danger here. Guess which one is proven right as the narrative progresses. Now excuse a slight side track here, the comic reflects a by gone era namely the 1960s where movie after movie demonstrated the geeky Scientists had no idea what they were up against and it took the military to solve whatever situation has raised it’d ugly head, generally in the form of a big bug of some description. But just when we think the scientific community might be of one mind we learn the research into what the Xeno DNA might do for humans, immortality in the comic, comes into direct competition with seemingly the dominant scientific faction that wants to utilise the Xeno for military purposes. Through this exchange we learn the comic makes a similar error to the movie, facehuggers can be mass produced via the life material of an adult Drone, don’t even get me started on the science here.

Naturally you can’t keep a good Xeno down and we find the Big Chap, yes the self-same one Ripley went one on one with in the first movie, does what he does best, go on a complete rampage and kill everyone on the station. Unfortunately, this leads to Renaissance being knocked out of orbit with a future date with a debris ring we get to experience in the movie. 

Once again we have single minded company executives working toward results that have no basis in reality, and which have failed time and time again. It’s like Weyland-Yutani never learn from past mistakes and repeat them expecting different outcomes, which of course is the definition of…

I’m a bit confused as to why they needed two artists to produce the cover. Yu and Fajardo have produced a pretty simple piece of art which basically shows a stylish view of the Alien but doesn’t achieve much else. It’s pretty forgettable and pretty much run of mill rather than being something well worth adding to your collection. Disappointed, given the script rocks in this book.

The artwork on display in the actual narrative panels recalls 1970s comics, with a sort of clunky approach, the art subject in each panel is defined but the drawing falls short of well defined. If I had to make a comparison, it would be to the early Darkhorse Comics Alien books. For mine Picciotto and Nitro capture the era between Alien and Aliens, which is about right where events are in the timeline. On the bright side of the pencil, and I have to say this for Marvel era comics, the action is organic and fluid, which is better than some of the issues the publisher has unfortunately released. I was digging the antique look to the art work, and felt I definitely got my coin worth in the rendering of the panels.

Alien: Romulus was a decent exploration of events that lead to the collapse of the Weyland-Yutani research station Renaissance, but failed to answer a few questions I had on events. Once again we have a certain amount of retconning of events from the first movie, yes the Nostromo was vaporised during three self-destruct atomic explosions, and yes the laws of physics should still be applied to SciFi outings. However, I was definitely entertained by the book and thought Rook and Hyla were outstanding characters that unfortunately we are not going to see again moving forward, as the Management gurus are fond of saying. So recommendation to this one off comic, but with the proviso that only extended Alien universe fans should apply. Nice to see Marvel aka Disney filling in some of the gaps in the narrative, they can keep these one shots coming.