Deemed as one of the greatest sequels in cinema history, Xenomorphs as they wreak havoc on an intergalactic settlement. While the film details the next chapter in the life of Ellen Ripley in her constant struggle against the Xenomorph threat, Aliens leaves out some key details in the survival of another main character in the film. In a two-part Alien comic series, those gaps are filled and reveal how Newt survived the Xenomorph outbreak on the LV-426 settlement Hadley’s Hope.
In the 1992 Dark Horse comic Aliens: Newt’s Tale by Mike Richardson and Jim Somerville, the little girl who was the sole survivor on Hadley’s Hope when Ripley found her in the film Aliens is given a complete survivalist origin story. The comic begins where the film first introduced Newt and her family as they explore LV-426 beyond the Hadley’s Hope settlement. Just as was shown in the film, Newt and her family come across the derelict alien ship and her father is attacked by a Facehugger, with the alien creature attaching itself to his face. While the film doesn’t go into their story any further, the comic gives a detailed play-by-play as to how Newt survived where her family and so many others were killed.
After Newt’s father becomes impregnated with a Xenomorph, he is taken back to the settlement where the Facehugger eventually detaches itself, leaving the medical professionals confused over the entire situation. Newt and her brother hear the news of their father being awake and sneak through the vent systems to see him. Newt watches as a Xenomorph bursts from the chest of her father and she immediately runs back through the vents to her room. After the Xenomorph birth, a crew from Hadley’s Hope investigates the area where they find a Xenomorph hive. While the aliens attack and kill nearly everyone on Hadley’s Hope, Newt retreats into the vent systems that she is familiar with and hides from the creatures until Ripley and the Colonial Marines find her just as they do in the film Aliens.
While Newt described how she survived in Aliens and fans were able to connect the dots on the other details, the comic gives a deeper insight into the trauma and fear Newt felt during the Xenomorph invasion. Aliens: Newt’s Tale establishes Newt’s familiarity with the vent systems of Hadley’s Hope and shows that she used them regularly before the attack.
The comic not only shows fans in brutal detail how Newt survived the Xenomorph attack, but it also depicts exactly how Hadley’s Hope falls to the aliens. In the film, fans are shown Newt’s father being impregnated with a Xenomorph, and then the next time fans are taken to the settlement it is overrun with aliens. The comic adds in more horror elements to Newt’s story that previously didn’t exist in the film. This Alien not only reveals how Newt survived the Xenomorph outbreak seen in Aliens, but it does so with brutal detail and heartbreaking tragedy.
