Have Marvel finally got the message about continually launching new Alien comic series, with new #1 issues, and just calling them Alien?

Finally, in Alien: Paradiso we have a clearly defined entry point, for an entirely new mini series, that (at this stage) doesn’t seem to be tying into the previous Marvel Alien comics. Not that they were bad, per se (though they started off a little weak), but it was just hard to know where to start and what to read first.

In any case, Paradiso is a great jumping on point. Taking place on a billionaire’s pleasure planetoid, where weapons are forbidden. People (including not just families, but also criminals and general ne’er-do-wells) flock to Paradiso for sunny, fun filled vacations, but things have already gone south by the time the story kicks off, with a short, sharp shock of gore, followed by a flashback which sets the scene properly.

A pair of undercover Colonial Marshals are sent to Paradiso to bust a notorious group of smugglers, who are planning to conduct their business out in the open, with no risk of weaponry being brought into the equation. However, problems arise with the deal, and some very familiar xenomorphs soon overrun the supposedly utopian leisure facility.

Writer Steve Foxe isn’t someone whose work I’m familiar with, so I was a little hesitant about Paradiso; I needn’t have worried, because this opening issue is fantastic, with his script being brilliantly drawn by Edgar Salazar on pencils.

The characters, for the most part, are pretty well sketched in terms of the writing, and there’s a kind of disaster movie feel as things are slowly dropped into place, with families in the resort alongside the criminals enjoying the facilities. The setup for introducing xenomorphs is well handled too, and it definitely made me very keen to read the next issue.