Earlier this year Marvel Comics expanded their What If…? offerings outside of superheroes with Aliens: What If…?. Armed with co-writer Paul Reiser, the actor who plays the character Carter Burke in Aliens, the concept hit deliciously close to home. Now collected in trade paperback, the miniseries asks the question, “What if Carter Burke had lived?” It’s an angle you might not have seen coming.
As Reiser told AIPT in our interview, part of the reason to launch this series was to show how Burke was misunderstood. That makes the series an easier pill to swallow since he isn’t just a greedy corporate stooge but a guy who wants to make something of himself. Written by Hans Rodionoff and Adam F. Goldberg with a concept by Reiser and his son Leon, Rodionoff, Goldberg, and Brian Volk-Weiss capture a story that could easily be a Hollywood pitch.
Like any good What If… story, the story opens at a familiar point during Aliens. This catches the reader up on Burke’s whole deal and his two-faced nature amongst the crew. Even casual fans can get in on the fun thanks to the opening. This opening also supplies plenty of action to sustain the rest of the issue, which is mostly set up for where the story splits off from the film. By the end of this collection it’s fairly easy to see Marvel take up other movie properties to squeeze more story out of classics.
Once the story splits, it does some heavy lifting to make it clear Burke isn’t an evil guy, just an opportunistic person. He’s also a bit of a victim of the Weyland corporation. This firmly establishes Burke as a kind of reluctant yet somewhat shady good guy for future issues.
Credit: Marvel Comics
The story takes a somewhat comedic turn later on, revealing Burke years later and much older. His life is not that interesting, and his existence is pretty depressing. One can see the creative team is establishing a regular guy who will use his ability to plot and plan to his advantage for one last go at making things right. Or at least making himself rich. The writers are capturing Reiser’s comedic style in the character, much more than his original depiction.
A few things work in the series, the office element mixed with the impending doom of Aliens. The pitch could have involved throwing the movie Office Space around. Weyland-Yutani runs the office, and they are a greedy corporation, and one could argue Burke may be the only guy who can take them down. He works for them on a far-off planet, and his miserable life finally allows him to get an edge and show them who his boss is. At the same time, writers Hans Rodionoff and Leon Reiser flesh out Burke’s shaky relationship with his daughter.
Artist Guiu Vilanova does a fantastic job with likenesses, especially with Burke. It’s practically a movie in some scenes, with a great rendition of Reiser when he was younger and then older when the story jumps ahead. Thanks to the art and colors by Yen Nitro, the book has a very real look and feel. The Aliens and their eggs look gross and scary, while the technology is spot on. Spaceships look like they were plucked from the big screen.
Aliens: What If…? is a compelling first stab at applying the What If…? model to characters outside the superhero world. Ultimately, I think it works, even though the comedy doesn’t always land, and it’s tough to see Bruke as a good guy considering his actions in Aliens. There are plenty of twists, and getting more Alien stories is neat.
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