No, it wasn’t because of Alien 3.
I could say that the Alien movie franchise lost me somewhere along the way, but truthfully, it was with the fourth film, 1997’s Alien Resurrection.
Sure, that movie had Ron Perlman as a grizzled and joking mercenary, and it looked cool, what with that xenomorph Olympic-style synchronized swimming underwater scene, but it was a bit of a travesty, wasn’t it?
Merging alien DNA with DNA from Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley character to make her more bad-ass than she already was? Featuring a miscast Winona Ryder in a character that was really misinformed?
It’s a far cry from what Ridley Scott, Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett gave us with the first installment in the franchise. And what James Cameron, David Giler and Walter Hill formulated so successfully in the second where we were told that “A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal’s a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I love the Corps!”
Yeah, I disliked that fourth film. This coming from a guy who definitely bucks the trend and adores the art-film that was David Fincher’s Alien 3. Cheers to others that might as well!
That said, the Alien 3 film we all must surely know and love wasn’t the first iteration that was going to be made into silver screen brilliance. Nope, that story belongs to celebrated science fiction author and father of the cyberpunk literary movement, William Gibson (Neuromancer, Virtual Light, The Peripheral)!
Last week, regular BBP! contributor, E.A. Henson, gave us all a heads up of this week’s comic book feature of choice. You can read that enthusiastic entry right here.
William Gibson’s Alien 3 #1
Written By: William Gibson and Johnie Christmas
Illustrated By: Johnnie Christmas
Published By: Dark Horse Comics
William Gibson’s Alien 3, a new five-issue miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics, is the official adaptation of William Gibson’s left-on the side-table script for Alien 3. It’s been re-worked for comics by fan-favourite writer/artist Johnnie Christmas (Angel Catbird, Firebug).
The story starts much like the original movie, with Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop floating through space, the only survivors form the Aliens film. But William Gibson’s script is a nod to the 1980’s Cold War arms race, where governments and industry vie for domination that can only end in mutually assured destruction.
Of course, the aliens with acid for blood are front and center.
Make the run to your local comic book store today to pick up the fascinating look at what could have been with the first issue of William Gibson’s Alien 3 #1.
Hopefully…that’s just your heart beating from excitement!
