Zasha is stunned to find out that there’s more to her mother’s partner than meets the eye. Yet, with the lost ‘baby’ in her possession, there’s barely enough time to mourn her mother as the base continues to fall apart around them – and, in true Alien style, the Xenomorphs may not be the biggest threat to Zasha’s survival at all.

Things come to a brutal, satisfying and brilliantly written conclusion here; though there’s still a lot of exposition to explain how all the pieces have fallen into place, it’s deftly handled and the narrative remains compelling throughout.

Declan Shalvey’s script really is phenomenal here; I’d not really expected much from this series after the few well meaning, but ultimately unsatisfying volumes of Alien that Marvel had previously released, but I’ve been more than happy to be wrong here.

Andrea Broccardo is such a stark contrast from the prior artists; in a very positive way, thankfully.

Though the franchise had been treading water for years at Dark Horse Comics, there was still a concern when they lost the license to Marvel, following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

Even though Dark Horse’s Alien output hadn’t been essential reading for a few decades at that point, it still felt like the franchise was in safe hands.

After a promising start at Marvel, their comics faltered – but Shalvey and Broccardo’s series is by far the best Alien comic story in years.

With a slightly open ending, I hope there’s more to tell in this corner of the bleak Alien universe; I certainly hope that Shalvey is in charge of the ship for some time to come, at the very least.