Aliens: Earth Angel is a one-shot comic book that was first published by Dark Horse Comics in August 1994. It was written and illustrated and inked by John Byrne, colored by Matt Webb, lettered by Byrne and edited by Ronnie Noize, with cover art by Byrne. Set in the 1950s, Earth Angel chronicles a Xenomorph outbreak in a suburban American town. It was released alongside Predator: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension, which is also set in the 50s.
In the Aliens comics line, Aliens: Earth Angel was preceded by Aliens: Colonial Marines (1993 series), published concurrently with Aliens: Stronghold and Aliens: Mondo Pest, and was followed by Aliens: Berserker.
Publisher's Summary
Into the age of diners, black leather jackets, and Buddy Holly comes a monster worse than any that ever made popcorn fly in front of a drive-in screen — the Alien. Legend creator John Byrne has long been a fan of the Aliens films and he jumped at the opportunity to tell his story of the first Alien invasion, the one that took place in 1950's suburban America! When you Byrne an Alien, you gotta figure it's gonna give off some heat!
Reprint History
Aliens: Earth Angel was eventually collected as part of Aliens Omnibus: Volume 5 in October 2008.
The comic was released digitally through Dark Horse Digital on June 26, 2013, reusing John Byrne's cover art.
Behind the Scenes
Earth Angel is notable as one of the few Aliens stories to depict an alien species other than the Xenomorphs. Other notable non-Xenomorph aliens featured in the franchise include the lizard-like space travelers in Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation, the Reapers from Aliens: Reapers, the reptilian Xenomorph-eating alien from Aliens: Taste, the hunting village aliens from Aliens: Alien, the extraterrestrial scientists in Aliens: Incubation, the alien monkeys in Aliens: Fire and Stone and, of course, the Predators and Engineers.
Canadian comics creator John Byrne is a very well-known figure in the comics field, having worked as artist and co-plotter on the eminently popular Dark Phoenix Saga during his tenure on the Uncanny X-men for Marvel Comics in the 1980s. He was also the writer on DC Comics reboot of Superman in 1986 and wrote the initial issues of Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics. However, Earth Angel remains his only foray into the Aliens universe.
Trivia
- One of the main characters in the story is revealed to be an ancestor of Alien film series heroine Ellen Ripley.
- Aliens: Earth Angel is a rarity in that it is one of the few Aliens comics set in an era of the Earth's past instead of the future. Past and present stories have usually tended to be the territory of Dark Horse's Predator comics.
- The title Earth Angel is obviously a reference to the popular doo-wop song "Earth Angel" by the Penguins, released in 1954. This could be used as a way to date the exact year of the story, though no reference to the song is actually made in the story.
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