Alien: Descendant

What do Xenomorphs eat? You may think the answer is “Everything.” As apex predators it’s probably safe to assume they’re omnivores. But thinking back over the films and the comics I’ve seen and read I don’t remember seeing or hearing of them actually eating anything. They kill everything that moves, or use other species as baby ovens, and goodness knows they grow at an astonishing pace, going from infants to full-size adults in minutes, but where do they get the energy to sustain such a metabolism?

This book is a sequel to Alien: Thaw, and even though it takes place thirteen years later with a mostly different set of characters it’s  probably best to read Thaw first. Basically Zasha, the little girl who was the only survivor of the Xenomorph outbreak on the ice moon of LV-695, has come back with the usual gang of space marines, synths, and Weyland-Yutani jerks. And, again as per usual, the mission has something to do with W-Y grabbing some Xenomorphs. I don’t know why they’re so obsessed about this, but it’s a core part of the franchise mythology.

Things kick off here though with a backstory that has no dialogue (beyond Hssssss! Skreee! And Whrrrr!) explaining the genesis of a new strain of Xenomorph that was created when the Xenos first arrived on LV-695 and crossbred with some insect-like species. These new descendants are white Xenomorphs and now they spend most of their time battling with the regular Xenomorphs. At least until the fresh meat arrives.

This wasn’t my favourite Aliens comic. As with Thaw, Declan Shalvey handles the writing and Andrea Broccardo most of the art. Broccardo does well enough with action but I don’t like his human figures and faces at all. Shalvey’s story, meanwhile, doesn’t really go anywhere. There’s a flashback structure that isn’t very clear the first time through and I’m not sure if I understand the ending. Nor is very much done with the civil war between the different Xenomorph clans, despite all the time spent setting it up in the first issue. Because the series has set such a high standard, Descendant was probably the first Alien comic that I felt disappointed by. It has its moments though, particularly with regard to the underwater salvage operation, and is still a decent read.

Graphicalex