Written by: Philip Kennedy Johnson
Art by: Salvador Larocca
Colors by: GURU-eFX
Letters by: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover art by: Marc Aspinall
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: March 2, 2022

Alien #10 follows the last survivors of the Euridice colony as they try to escape from a settlement overrun by Xenomorphs. When one of the survivors breaks from the group to find a loved one in the mines, the remainers follow him into the dark, possibly for their doom.

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Was It Good?

Ehh… I think Johnson’s lost the plot (no pun intended) on this series.

I mentioned in the review of issue #9 that all the work that went into crafting a religion just for this story went out the window in favor of a formulaic Alien story where people are running for their lives. Here, the religious aspect comes back in a big way, but it’s the same as people begging God for help or protection when they know they’re likely about to die. For a different reason, you’re compelled to ask the same question – what was the point of creating a new religion when it’s used as any other religion and it’s come about too quickly to be believed?

If you’re going to go out of your way to construct a new religion, at least make it unique in a way that’s purposeful for the story. You don’t get any uniqueness in this story, and it comes across as characters singing fake hymns and offering fake prayers to a fake god, but it adds nothing to the story.

The religion aspects are a down point, but there’s a bigger issue that fans of the Alien franchise may find troubling – it’s not clear Johnson understands how the Xenomorph reproduction process works. Or if he does, he’s added a new twist here that doesn’t make logistical sense.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

When the survivors enter the mine and start searching for their friends, they find small tubular burrows all over the mine walls. Each burrow is about 4 inches wide. We later learn that the Xenomorphs have a new cousin in their nest – a small Xenomorph with a body vaguely resembling an earthworm.

How does that work? The facehuggers impregnate a host and the birthed Xenomorph takes on some physical characteristics of its host, so there’s precedence for different types of Xenomorphs, but how would a facehugger impregnate an earthworm or whatever creature on Euridice that’s so small? The logistics don’t make sense, and while I encourage creators to get creative with the Xenomorph adaptability, this new type comes off as silly. Let’s have seagull-Xenomorphs and shark-Xenomorphs while we’re at it. Maybe Johnson can explain it away in the next issue, so we’ll see.

Larocca’s art is generally good in this issue for the character designs, but there were a few moments during the heated arguments where the heavily-referenced art style felt flat. It’s not necessarily bad art, but the emotional heat didn’t feel integrated into the panels.

Final Thoughts

Alien #10 feels like the series is trending in the wrong direction. The religious elements Johnson created for this arc feel like cheap copies of religions we already know, the “new” Xenomorphs introduced in this issue don’t make a lick of sense, and the generally good art looks, in some spots, looks like somebody pasted word balloons on portrait photographs.

6/10