Aliens: Newt's Tale

Cover to Aliens: Newt's Tale issue 1 by artist John Bolton

Aliens: Newt's Tale is a two-issue comic book based on the film Aliens published by Dark Horse Comics from June-July 1992. While largely an adaptation of the movie entirely from the perspective of Newt, it also features numerous scenes not included in the film, including a lengthy section set during the initial stages of the Xenomorph infestation at Hadley's Hope, before the Colonial Marines arrive.

The comic was written by Mike Richardson, based on James Cameron's screenplay, and was drawn by Jim Somerville, inked by Brian Garvey and colored by Gregory Wright, with painted covers by John Bolton. The series was edited by Randy Stradley. The series has never been collected or reprinted, save for a single reprint in Trade Paperback for the United Kingdom in 1994 by Titan Books Ltd.

In the Aliens comics line, Aliens: Newt's Tale was published concurrently with Dark Horse's adaptation of Alien³ (June-July 1992), and was followed by Aliens: Renegade (Aug.-Sept. 199) and Aliens: Horror Show (Oct.-Dec. 1992).

Synopsis

File:Newts.jpg

Cover to Aliens: Newt's Tale issue 2 (Also UK TPB Cover) by artist John Bolton

The series retells the story of Aliens from the perspective of Rebecca "Newt" Jorden, including how the colony of Hadley's Hope encountered and was overrun by the Xenomorph infestation just prior to the events of the film.

Plot

The story starts with the USS Sulaco on its trip back to Earth. Inside the crio-chamber area, Newt is dreaming, reviving a Nightmare once more.

The story then flashbacks to Hadley's Hope.

The Beginning of the End

Lydecker is talking to Administrator Al Simpson about the wildcatters he sent to the Ilium Range days ago, because Russ Jorden is on the radio concerned about the claim rights. Simpson says that as far as he's concerned, the claim is his. On the Illium range, the Jordens: Russ, Anne and their children Timmy and Newt are on their Daihotai tractor searching a grid. Timmy is yelling to Newt about cheating on monster maze (a game the childrens play inside the air ducts) because Newt can go in places the other kids don't. Anne stops the fight at the same time they discover the Derelict spaceship. Anne and Russ get inside and soon, Russ gets attacked by a Facehugger. Anne calls back to Hadley's for help as Newt screams. Russ awakens in the infirmary 25 hours later while Anne and Dr. Kent check on his present condition. Timmy and his friend Aaron convince Newt going to the infirmary by the air ducts, wich Newt have never ventured but Aaron did. They observe as Dr. Kent is talking to Russ and Anne about having sent more men to the ship. At that moment the men return with some of their team Facehugged as well. Suddenly the chestburster inside Russ erupts much to Newt's horror.

Hell Breaks Loose

A few days later, Anne is talking to Newt and promises that she will never leave her. They, along with Timmy and the rest of the colonists, are moved to a sub-level storage room for safety. A man explains that the xenomorphs are hunting them one by one and is better to barricade themselves and make a stand because the marines are coming. Bill Andrews, another man, tells Anne that they have located the nest inside the Atmosphere processor and sent an armed party to kill the creatures. Drapers, the man comanding the party calls back and tells them that there are a lot more aliens that they think, and they have discovered what happened to the missing colonists and livestock, then, the signal is lost. After the attack on the nest the Xenomorphs are headed en masse towards the colony, the barricades are set up and Anne asks for a gun, willing to kill her children better than let them get captured. 20 minutes later, one of the men wants to open the main door because he heard gunshots outside, so he thinks some of his comrades may still be alive there. Some men open the barricade only to find a badly injured and dying Drapers, and the entire Xenomorph horde. The Xenomorphs get inside the storage room and proceed to kill everyone. Anne is about to kill Timmy and Newt but Timmy says they can escape trough the air ducts, so their mother sends them away but they do not make it in time. A Warrior grabs and kills Anne while trying to protect her children so Timmy takes the gun and fires at the monster, getting splashed by acidic blood and dying in the process. However, Newt manages to get into an air duct and escapes.

Sole Survivor

Newt escapes trough vents too small for the Xenomrophs to follow and survives for almost two weeks until the Colonial Marines arrive with Ellen Ripley. From here the story basically follows the extended edition of the movie from Newt's point of view. The Marines detect Newt on the motion tracker and Ripley grabs her inside a duct. Hudson finds the colonists PDT's inside the atmosphere processor and they head there. Newt knows what this means and tries to escape again. The Marines enter the Hive and find Mary cocooned. They burn the Chestburster that erupts from her, awakening the entire Hive. During the ambush Ripley drives the APC towards the nest and saves Corporal Hicks and Privates Hudson and Vazquez. Lieutenant Gorman is knocked unconscious by some falling grates while they all escape the AP station and decide to nuke the entire site from orbit, against company rep Carter Burke's protests. They call Corporal Ferro for inmediate evac, but an stowaway Warrior kills Ferro and the dropship crashes on the AP station. They all retreat to the Operations Building because is getting dark.

Last Stand

With no other choice, they repair the barricades and set up several sentry guns, hoping to make a stand enough time for rescue to arrive. Ripley sends Newt to sleep and tells her she will never let her go, even if it means to die. Ripley confronts Burke about the death of 157 colonists and the Xenomorphs attack the tunnel. Bishop tells the others about the impending explosion of the Atmosphere Processor. They decide to bring down the other dropship and Bishop offers as volunteer for repair the colony transmitter. Ripley falls sleep aside Newt and when they wake up, they are attacked by two Facehuggers. The Marines save them and decide to kill Burke. At that moment the Xenomorphs attack the Operations Building. Hudson is killed. Burke escapes and locks the door but gets caught by a Warrior. The others escape trough the air ducts guided by Newt. Vazquez and Gorman sacrifice themselves with a grenade when they are trapped. Newt slides trough a vent and is separated from Ripley. Hicks and Ripley locate Newt but they arrive too late and the girl is captured.

Escape and Exodus

Newt awakens cocooned to a wall and almost gets Facehugged but Ripley comes to save her. In another wall of the nest they find a cocooned Burke begging for help, so Ripley tosses him a grenade. They find the Xenomorph Queen inside her Egg chamber and Ripley set the nest on fire with the flamethrower, enraging the Queen, who follows them to the platform. Ripley and Newt discover that Bishop is nowhere. The Queen appears and so does Bishop in the dropship. Together they escape the moon just seconds before the thermonuclear explosion occurs. Back on the Sulaco, Bishop is torn in half by the Queen, hidden in the landing gear. Ripley fights her with the power loader and ejects the monster through the hangar's airlock. Ripley, Bishop, Hicks and Newt enter cryosleep for the return to Earth. The story then goes back to the beginning, with Newt in the crio-chamber and a Facehugger slowly crawling towards its glass...

Trivia

• Much of the additional material in the comic is based on scenes that were filmed but cut from Aliens prior to release, including Russ and Anne Jorden discovering the Derelict Ship, Hicks' concern that he might get rabies when Newt repeatedly bites him and Burke's death within the Hive. While none of this footage made it into the theatrical cut of the film, the scene where Russ and Anne discover the derelict was later reinstated in the extended Special Edition. The initial takeover of the colony, however, was never scripted to be a part of the film.
• The upcoming novel Alien: River of Pain is set to reveal the details of the fall of Hadley's Hope prior to the movie Aliens; it is not known at this time how closely the novel will conform to the comic, or whether it will retcon these events.

See Also

• Aliens
• == Usage ==

Use this template to insert a link to a piece of Alien media in an article. Note that several of these (specifically those for novelizations/comic adaptations of the films) have been specifically formatted to work in the "Appearances" section of articles, and thus show simply "novel" or "comic" rather than the actual title.

To use, place {{AX}} somewhere on the desired page, replacing "X" with the suitable text to generate the desired link. See below for the possible combinations.

• {{A1}} produces Alien
• {{A1N}} produces novel
• {{A1C}} produces comic
• {{A2}} produces Aliens
• {{A2N}} produces novel
• {{A3}} produces Alien³
• {{A3C}} produces comic
• {{A3N}} produces novel
• {{A4}} produces Alien Resurrection
• {{A4C}} produces comic
• {{A4N}} produces novel
• {{A5}} produces Alien 5
• {{ACMTM}} produces Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual
• {{ACM}} produces Aliens: Colonial Marines
• {{ACMSI}} produces Stasis Interrupted
• {{AI}} produces Alien: Isolation
• {{AIN}} produces novel
• {{AIS}} produces series
• {{AWYR}} produces Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report
• {{ARPG}} produces Alien: The Roleplaying Game</noinclude> (novel)
• Aliens (comic series)
• Dark Horse Comics

External link

• Aliens: Newt's Tale at the Grand Comics Database