Marvel’s What If…? comics have always been favourites of mine; they involve taking a famous Marvel Universe story and tweaking one detail to see how it plays out.

These often led to some really bizarre, sometimes oddly downbeat outcomes, mostly thanks to the fact that writers didn’t have to worry about continuity or even continuing the story past a single issue, as they were often done in one.

The What If…? concept has even made it to the MCU, with the Disney Plus animated show of the same name.

So perhaps it’s no surprise to see Marvel utilising other licenses they have under their umbrella, kicking off with an Aliens What If…? series.

In this five part mini-series, the question posed is: What If…Carter Burke Had Lived?

Aliens fans know all too well how corporate slimeball Burke set up Ripley and Newt to be impregnated by a Facehugger, before meeting a nasty, albeit offscreen end when trying to make a cowardly escape from the invading Xenomorphs.

What if he’d survived that encounter though?

This comic goes through quite a bit of the film, recreating the dialogue and scenes exactly, right up until the point of divergence.

That point happens to be Burke cocooned and awaiting impregnation himself, until the explosion that kills Vasquez and Gorman dislodges his bonds and allows for his escape.

From there, events play out just as they do in the film, except Burke sneaks his way back to the Sulaco and stows away.

And as for what happens next? Well, that would be telling.

Given how much mileage the old What If…? comics got from a single question in one issue, it is a bit disappointing just how much of the film Aliens is recreated here with no change.

It’s cool to see it on the page and in artist Guiu Vilanova’s style, but it does feel like stuff that Aliens fans already know off by heart and completely unnecessary to retread so closely.

Once things do change, even then it takes a little while for things to get interesting.

I’m also not sold on the attempts to humanise Burke at all; given, however, that the concept partially came from the actor who portrayed Burke all those years ago (Paul Reiser), perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise.

This issue does end in an interesting place with an intriguing cliffhanger, but I can’t see the story being sustained over the course of five whole issues right now.

I’m happy – and hoping – to be proven wrong, but at this stage I’m still very much on the fence.

It’s not bad, per se, but giving Burke an almost sympathetic back story is definitely a misstep; we certainly didn’t need so many pages devoted to showing us everything we’ve seen countless times before either.