Classic Comic Compendium: ALIENS – INCUBATION, a tense short from a horror master

The Alien franchise got another shot in the arm recently in the public conscious with the release of the new movie, Alien: Romulus. I haven’t seen it myself yet, thought I have seen both positive and negative reactions to it. The first issue of Aliens vs. Avengers was released last week (August 28 2024) from Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic. That I quite liked and look forward to the rest of the series. And there’s a prequel television series on the horizon being developed by Legion‘s Noah Hawley.

All of this made me want to go back to look through some of the old entries into the comics franchise. Both in the heady days when the movies were few and far between. And in the other in between periods as canon was changing and the comics filled the holes. An interesting bit where different, alternate timelines were essentially being created by the various creative teams who worked with Dark Horse over the course of almost three decades.

I particularly wanted to highlight some of the horror greats among them. Because as they said so long ago, “in space, no one can hear you scream.”

“I’m assuming there was an egg. I think it starts with an egg.”

Originally published in Dark Horse Presents #101-102, “Incubation” by Ron Marz, Bernie Wrightson, Matt Hollingsworth, and Sean Konot is a short twelve-page story spotlighting another alien race’s confrontation with a Xenomorph. And how that disaster led to the Xenomorphs arriving on Earth.

In a way, the story is potentially conjecture, which makes it a bit more interesting. What we see in the panels aren’t necessarily what happens, but what the narrator thinks happened aboard the ship. It’s a recording of a man who found the crashed vehicle on Earth, putting together what he thinks happened to them in parallel to what likely happened to he himself leading up to his last testament. Sean Konot chooses an interesting italicized font for Ron Marz’s ample narration here.

Bernie Wrightson’s artwork is wonderful. He captures the traditional designs of the various life stages of the Xenomorph, but still gives the fully grown drones his own unique spin. As is fitting from permutations of a different species host. His shading is sublime, perfectly suiting the horror aspect of the story. It’s also interesting in that this was originally published in black and white. Matt Hollingsworth’s colours came, I believe, with the first time this story was collected, adding moody hues of blue to the bulk of the story.

“I wonder, did he pray, the last of them?”

Now, the sad thing about “Incubation” by Marz, Wrightson, Hollingsworth, and Konot is that it’s a prologue. A prologue to a story that might never be in print again. That being Batman/Aliens. I mean, Marvel and DC might work out a deal to see it republished again, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. If you can find the original series, the collection (which has the prologue story in it), or the more recent DC/Dark Horse Crossovers collection (which does not have the prologue, but does have a bevy of other great crossover stories) that came out shortly before the license reverted, definitely get them.

Still, “Incubation” serves as a tense little short with art from a master of horror. Serving as a reminder that you don’t need a huge page count to tell an effective, memorable story.

Classic Comic Compendium: Aliens – Incubation

Aliens – Incubation
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Bernie Wrightson
Colourist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Sean Konot
Publisher: Marvel Comics (reprint collection) | Dark Horse (original publisher)
Release Date: November 23 2022 (reprint collection) | September 28 – October 12 1995 (original issues)
Available collected in Aliens: The Original Years Omnibus – Volume 3

Read past entries in the Classic Comic Compendium!