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Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 1
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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $16.47
Your Save: $ 8.48 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Manufacturer: Dark Horse
Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781593077273
ISBN: 1593077270
Label: Dark Horse
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2007-07-18
Publisher: Dark Horse
Studio: Dark Horse
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Editorial Reviews:
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Dark Horse Comics took the industry by storm with its release of Aliens, a comics series that for the first time captured the power of film source material and expanded its universe in a way that fans applauded worldwide. Now, the first three Dark Horse Aliens series - Outbreak, Nightmare Asylum and Female War - are collected in a value-priced, quality-format omnibus, featuring nearly 400 story pages in full color. Written by screen and television scribe Mark Verheiden (The Mask, Battlsestar Gallactica) and illustrated with consummate skill by Mark A. Nelson, Den Beauvais and Sam Kieth, Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 is an essential piece of the Aliens mythos and a great entry point into the storied Dark Horse Aliens library.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Making the Movies look lame
Comment: ALIENS, first released in the 80's as a military-horror that further advanced the story of ALIEN and also advanced on the idea of ALIEN propagation.
ALIENS Omnibus is a true sequel to the ALIEN movies and throws us into the void that is known as the ALIEN universe. This massive book, totaled at 384 pages brings to life the characters developed in the movie ALIENS. It begins with a female named Billie who was a victim of an overrun colony, RIM, who is thought to be insane by the general public. As such, she is institutionalized and is tormented by vicious visions of the Alien. The story is also about a war hero named Wilks who saved Billie on RIM and lost his entire squad because of the Alien threat. The military deems him insane as well, but is placed into a prison.
We learn through a series of events that the earth's military wants to breed the Aliens for biological weapons. All in all, things go very wrong and the biggest mistake in human history happens.
For fans of series, especially those who were rather disappointed with Alien:Resurrection, will be happy to know that the comic does a rather great job of story telling that makes you empathize with a lot, if not all of the characters. This book alone could become an Alien movie as it is that epic and well done.
There are a few downsides to this gigantic book, one of them being how big it is. Because it is almost 400 pages in full color, the price is a little steep. I actually bought this book off amazon which is an upside because the price was reduced by half which is the perfect price for this book. Another downside is that most of the stories were written in 1988, so the art direction isn't even close to what todays standards ask for. There is one exception, and thats in the second story, Nightmare Asylum, which features a very unique art style that almost looks like it could have been made today.
The biggest upside to this omnibus is that all of the stories relate to one another and they also don't interfere with each other's stories creating paradoxes. Because of that, the other omnibus's like Predator and Aliens vs. Predator all use the same time line and are not in different universes but are actually tied into one another. All in all, this is a great buy even though the price may be steep at a book store, amazon is the way to go for buying this omnibus, or any other omnibus made by dark horse.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Collection. Great Price.
Comment: The other reviews say it better than I can, but this is a great read for any fan of the first two Alien(s) films. I would also add you don't have to be a die hard comic book fan to appreciate the great stories contained with this collection.
If you loved Alien or Aliens, then you'll also love this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Comic Collector's view
Comment: The first omnibus of Aliens collect the following series and short stories:
Aliens: Outbreak; Aliens: Nightmare Asylum; Aliens: Female War; Theory of Alien Propagation, and The Alien. The last two are short stories collected from the "Dark Horse Comics Presents: Aliens Platnium Edition".
Outbreak & Nightmare Asylum deal with the characters Billie & Wilks battling the Aliens on another planet & returning to an alien-infested Earth. Female War deals with the character Ripley going on another company's errand to bring back a specimen. As usual, our lovely heroine proves her worth on exterminating them.
"Alien: Propagation" story illustrates how the lifecycle is for the Aliens. "The Alien" story goes into further details about the mysterious "driver" of the crashed alien ship found in the movie "Alien" before the series before it became a hit.
Overall... if you are looking for a collected volume on the Aliens' saga, the omnibus of Aliens is the way to go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A definitive (if heavily edited) Aliens collection
Comment: When the relatively unknown Dark Horse comics picked up the torch for Aliens in 1989, fans of the classic sci-fi series were in for a real treat. What followed in years to come was a series of stories that were largely hit-and-miss...some of the stories were excellent, while others were mediocre at best. Others still were too bad to mention, playing on traditional comic book fatantasticism to create new spins on the Alien mythos that made purists like myself hang their heads in shame. What the Aliens Omnibus: Volume 1 collects is the greatest of all the Aliens comics...the first wave written as direct sequels to the 1986 cinema classic, "Aliens".
Long-time fans of the Dark Horse Aliens series will be happy to see these great collections in one volume. When I look back and realize that I've been following these comics for nearly 20 years, going to the comic book store with my dad when I was just a kid to pick them up, I still can't beleive that it's actually been so long. What I find more amazing is that even in my mid 20's, I can still remember half of these comics, panel-to-panel and word-to-word...which is where my utter confusion set-in.
Fans and collectors should know immediately...these comics are NOT the same comics that you read 15-20 years prior. Being that they were originally written as direct sequels to the events of Aliens, the star characters of these comics were Corporal Hicks and Newt. What we will find right away upon opening up the Omnibus is that we're not reading the tale of Hicks and Newt anymore, but of "Wilks" and "Billie" respectively.
Apparently, in 1996 Dark Horse re-released and re-mastered the original 3 stories, changing the names of certain characters, re-writing dialog and completely redrawing and re-inking many panels. The story, while realtively similar, has also been re-worked to incorporate these changes. To differentiate Newt from "Billie", Newt was redrawn with slightly more gaunt features and brunette hair. Wilks looks pretty much the same as Hicks, except for the name change. These changes precipitate quite a few inconsistencies in the rest of the stories contained in the Omnibus.
As I mentioned earlier, those of us who have already read these comics in their original form may remeber certain story elements and events that occur within the comic, and find that those events no longer happen in this Omnibus. I specifically remember Ripley being coerced into helping the Company with a plan to capture the Aliens, or they would wake either Hicks or Newt out of hypersleep to do it instead. I also recall an exchange between Newt and Ripley, in which Newt strikes Ripley across the face, demanding to know why she left her alone. So we are looking at more than cosmetic or character name changes here...we're now looking at an entirely different story altogether. Further adding to the confusion is the appearence of Billie in Female War (the third part), who now sports a blonde hair color and even goes by "Newt" in at least 1 or 2 panels.
Regardless of these heavy edits, this is a great collection of comics that Aliens fans will love. When you look at it as being an "alternate reality" to the existing Aliens mythos, it is very simple to look past all of the changes and inconsistencies with the established Alien/Aliens mvoies. Unfortunately, due to the events of Alien 3, Dark Horse felt the need to make these changes for the re-release, and this collection reflects those changes.
For those of you who have the original comics, hang on to them! Now that they've become so rare and hard to find, you're probably looking at some great collector's items in the future (even if comic books are not appreciating in value as much as they used to). For those younger fans who are not familiar with the originals, or those of you who are just discovering these classic tales, by all means pick this up! You're treated to 3 great stories, plus a very interesting follow-up tale. Sadly, this Omnibus does not collect the individual cover art for each part, which would have been a nice addition. I beleive there is an Aliens compendium of art from the comics that includes the cover art, where you may find it.
Great colors, great reading and a great price make this a must-have for Aliens fans...don't miss it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: What Fox missed
Comment: It was a period of hell at Fox Studios between 1986 and 1992, James Cameron's squeal to the first "Alien" movie was a massive hit and it earn it's lead actress a Best Actress nomination from the Academy. Lighting had struck twice, a decade earlier Fox earn big bucks with the "Star Wars" trilogy, and it seemed like it was going to score another big time trilogy.
How seldom is it that dreams come true.
Fox Studios began fumbling over it's own feet. Close to a dozen scripts where written by ten different people over the next six years including scifi master William Gibson. They had to settle on a first time director and a mishmash of script, resulting in a lack-luster movie that left many fans with a bitter taste in their mouths.
During all these, a very good story was over looked.
In 1989 a new comic book company called Dark Horse, located in the sleepy suburb of Portland Oregon, scored a major licensing coup and got the rights to publish "Alien/Aliens" comic books. What they created in that year is what should have been the third and four and possible fifth alien films.
Between 89 and 90 Dark Horse published a trilogy that puts the characters of Hicks and Newt center stage, pen by veteran comic, film and television writer Mark Verheiden and illustrated by three different artist, this trilogy shifts the focus from Ripley to Hicks and Newt.
Starting ten years after the events of "Aliens" Hicks is a disillusions soldier, still stuck at the rank of corporal, and Newt is confined to mental hospital. Hick is given a chance to face his demons buy going to a newly discovered planet that had has the xenomorph monsters, the governments wants specimens but tells Hicks he can go on a rampage and kill everything on the planet after the mission is complete. Before going off on the mission Hicks gets wind of Newts confinement and up coming lobotomy. Not wanting the death of his fallow marines a decade earlier, Hicks breaks Newt out and smugglers her aboard, the mission to the alien planet takes an big turn as the Weyland-Yutani ship boarded with mercenary intercepts and captures the Marine ship, their reasoning, WY already has an Alien Queen on earth and want to keep their monopoly on a potential bio weapons market.
It all goes down hill from there.
This story arch is told across about fourteen issues divided into three parts with a lot of plot and themes mixed in these books, these aren't just straight up action or horror, it has deep themes about greed and survival and megalomania.
If Fox realized that these books excisted and adapted them, they would have a consumer gold mine on their hands.
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