Comic Book Review - Alien #4

Declan Shalvey bows out of Alien with a bang…

It seems like only yesterday we were introduced to Zasha and her scientist family on the frozen planet of LV-695. Across this first arc veteran writer Declan Shalvey slowly creeped in the horror as the Xenomorph awaited the families discovery underneath the frozen tundra. From that moment onward, Zasha’s world fell apart as Wayland-Yutani descended onto LV-695. 

This current arc dubbed ‘Descendent’ continued Zasha’s journey by sending her back to LV-695. While we could have retread old ground, Shalvey instead opts for a strong story about family, and what our descendants might inherit further down the years. And of course, there’s plenty of Xenomorph action too! 

Alien #4 picks up in the immediate aftermath of the previous issues conclusion. Zasha’s short reunion with the remains of father figure Cole were short lived as Jun Yutani arrived to drop quite an unexpected bombshell - Dayton is the Synth that’s been featured in the flashbacks portions. With the whole Borealis salvage operation literally being a means for the young Yutani heir to gain the secrets to Dayton’s past encounter with the Xenomorph. 

In a need to protect both his past mistakes and his figurative family, Cole manages to connect to the ship in orbit to launch a nuke at the research base. Time is of the essence as Zasha has just eight minutes to not only evade Yutani’s mysterious body guard, but the warring Xenomorph’s outside. 

Does she do it? 

Not going into spoilers but it’s a satisfying end to Shalvey’s tenure. The notion of family has been a driving point through both Thaw and Descendent, and it’s been a nice change from Marvel’s previous Alien outings. Zasha Zhan makes for a great protagonist who shares some similarities with series stalwart Ellen Ripley - both characters lost everything to the Xenomorph due to Wayland-Yutani. Jun Yutani also makes for a great antagonist. The youngster has been a mystery throughout this arc with Shalvey not revealing the characters motivations until that bombshell back in issue #3. Again trying to skirt away from spoilers, but there’s more to the character than first meets the eye and certainly sets up a potential return in the future. It’s clever how Jun’s arc fits in with Zasha’s own and the wider narrative of family dynamics. 

Andrea Broccado’s art and Ruth Redmond’s colours have been great across all four issues with both grasping the eerie elements of LV-695, sunken spacecraft, and abandoned research bases well. Considering the planets frozen there’s not a lot of white space with most outside scenes being bathed in Redmond’s cool tones, or close-ups courtesy of Broccado. In contrast to this Shalvey takes care of Cole’s flashbacks with a simple - less detailed - style that perfectly fits into the memories of a malfunctioning Synthetic. Whether this is intentional or not, its compliments the story very well. 

Overall, Declan Shalvey, Andrea Broccado, Ruth Redmond and Clayton Cowles have brought new life into the Alien mythology. With plenty of twists, turns, betrayals, and redemption Descendants has been an emotional rollercoaster ride for both the reader and its cast. With more questions being asked about the wider universe, what comes next is anyone’s guess! And with Marvel’s next foray with the Xenomorph being “Alien: Black, White, & Blood” it’s a good time to be a fan of the titular sci-fi horror series! 

Rating: 9/10 

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow us on X/Facebook @GeekCultureRev, TikTok/YouTube @Geekculturereviews, and BlueSky @geekculturereviews.bsky.social