What If… ? Aliens #1 has the return of Paul Reiser to his character from Aliens and the story of his survival! Aliens (1986) was a popular sequel written and directed by James Cameron that turned the sci fi horror into a military sci fi action movie. What If…? Aliens gives the chance to revisit corporate stooge, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser). The new series has Reiser providing the concept along with his son, Leon, also an actor, and writer/producers; Brian-Volk Weiss, Hans Rodionoff and Adam F. Goldberg. Volk-Weiss is the executive producer of Icons Unearthed which covers the stories of films and tv shows. The screenplay of the comedy, Fanboys (2009), was co-written by Goldberg who also created the sitcom, The Goldbergs.
Goldberg co-writes the comic along with Rodinoff. The horror movie, Hex (2022), was written by Rodionoff who also wrote episodes of The Goldbergs. Guiu Vilanova is the artist. Vilanova worked on issue #4 and 5 of Cosmic Ghost Rider. The comic features a cover by Phil Noto that has th Alien Queen looming behind Burke as he examines a knife in a dead facehugger! We get a summary of events from the first two Alien movies. The Nostromo heads over to the moon LV-426 answering a distress signal. It was actually the plan of the corporation, Weyland-Yutani, to take specimens of the Xenomorphs there. The only survivor, Ripley, ends up in cryosleep for 57 years! The events of Alien (1979).
She finds out that a terraforming colony, Hadley’s Hope, is set up by the corporation at LV-426! Ripley is taken by a junior executive of Weyland-Yutani, Burke, to investigate the lost colony along with Colonial Marines. Which was what we saw in Aliens. It starts off with a splash panel of Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn) next to Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) holding Newt (Carrie Henn). They were attacked in the med lab by two facehuggers released by Burke. The water splashes from Ripley activating the alarm system is impessive as we get a panel with thick shadows similar to artist, John Paul Leon. We get a panel with Ripley and the Marines including Private Hudson (Bill Paxton) threatening Burke.
Ripley explains that Burke intended to have the alien embyos inside of Ripley and Newt while they are in cryosleep. She continues that he would have sabotaged the capsules of the Marines and eject them on the return voyage. We get Hudson’s wild eyes as he is ready to use his rifle on Burke! A closeup of Burke’s face with sweat running down as he says she is being paranoid. A good likeness of Reiser. Then, a closeup of Ripley’s face, half in shadow, as she finds him more petty than the Aliens. We see Hicks making the decision to kill Burke and then the panels turn red with the powr cut by the Aliens! He orders Hicks and Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) to scan for the Aliens. Another great actor likeness with Biehn. Lt. Gorman (William Hope) watches over Burke.
Hudson gets a strange reading on the Aliens again with a nice likeness of Paxton, then Ripley’s disbelief at the Aliens inside the room!, Vilanova has another great likeness of Weaver. The Alien scan closes in, Ripley looks up, and then we see Hicks peeking over a ceiling panel. He falls back opening fire with his pulse rifle! Two Aliens drop from their crawlspace at the ceiling as the Marines blast them with their pulse rifles. Gorman shoots with his pistol and Burke starts to run. He slams a door shut as Burke shouts at him. Burke leans against the door hearing her. Then, he falls into shadow! An insert panel of his frightened expression as we see a large panel of a hissing Alien! This was the last we saw of Burke in the film, a deleted scene had Burke cocooned by an alien and seen by Ripley who gives him a grenade, so this is the alternate reality.
Burke revives and then finds himself cocooned as a facehugger starts to crawl from an egg. This switches to Gorman empties his pistol at some Aliens. This is during the retreat of the survivors. He holds out a grenade which is set off by the wounded Vasquez. The explosion tears apart the Aliens. This shifts back to Burke as the explosion incinerates the facehugger and burns the cocoon! Burke is able to break free from the cocoon. Then, he hears the fifteen minute warning about the reactor breach from an earlier dropship crash. Burke finds himself in shadow peering at Ripley as she is on the way to save Newt. He sneaks past Ripley and finds the other dropship. Burke walks up the landing ramp and hides in the cargo hold. He hears Bishop checking on Hicks who was burned by an Alien’s acidic blood. It is eleven minutes later as the dropship escapes the nuclear detonation.
The dropship returns to the Sulaco. He hears Ripley yelling. There is a close up of Ripley in the cargo loader fighting the Alien Queen. This was at the end of Aliens. Burke runs back to the cargo hold. This is an interesting wandering into scenes like the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966). We find the Sulaco at Outer Zeta Reticuli IV. I’m not certain how Burke could survive outside of cryosleep. I think the rest of the ship would be save life support power to the sleeping pods and basic ship systems. He contacts Shin Yutani which seems advanced to get a signal from Earth. I think this would take possibly years. The conversation is instanteous and Yutani says that he recieved a report from Ripley. I’m not certain why there would not be a lag even within the solar system.
I think Ripley would just send a distress signal and not a report to The Company. We haven’t seen the head of Weyland-Yutani so this is first time, but he reminds me of Marty McFly’s boss in Back to the Future Part II (1989) with his shouting. Yutani says his inaction to the destruction of the Alien colony compromises his job future. He says that he will strand Burke until he says that Ripley would say what happened if the ship was recovered. I think the recovery would be a Colonial Marine mission with a ship, weaponry, and soldiers. Yutani says he will send a ship to recover Burke if he takes care of the survivors. Burke negotiates for a retirement package and a dental plan for his daughter. Burke sets off a fire to make it an accident. He sends Ripley and the others on an escape vehicle to a nearby planet, Fiorina “Fury” 161, 19.5 light years from Earth, this is the setting of Alien3 (1992).
An older Burke is wakened by his watch’s alarm, it is “35 years later”, which would be the year 2214. It is like a typical day for an office worker, Burke in his tan suit, rides his bike to work. He greets his fellow workers at their cubicles and enters his office which has the placard, Mining Operations & Assets Manager. He is at his computer, impresses his face on the pin art toy, and sees a photo of himself and his daughter. At a fueling station, there is an eight wheeled car, and its driver, Brie greets her father. On his bike, Burke asks if is busy for lunch. She says she doesn’t want anything to do with him and drives away. He sits at a bench feeding the birds when there is a distortion in the sky. He calls a help line which reveals that he was exiled to an asteroid, D350-L8! The operator is upset when he reveals his name since bringing a Xenomorph could have taken out all life on Earth! The exile is interesting, but I think everyone at the company would not know what happened to LV-426. What If Aliens #1 tells a fascinating twist on Carter Burke’s story, a villain who has own plans, a must read for fans of Aliens!
Four Facehuggers out of Five!
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