Aliens: Defiance #1

Dark Horse marks its 30th year in fine style with this gripping opener to Aliens: Defiance, written by Brian Wood with art and inks by Tristan Jones and colors by Dan Jackson. The cover by Massimo Carnevale sets an immediate tone of dread: a lone soldier in combat gear raises a weapon while an enormous Xenomorph looms overhead, its skeletal jaws and sweeping biomechanical form dominating the murky green atmosphere around her. It's a tense, atmospheric image that makes "Episode One: Derelict" feel like exactly the kind of survival story the Aliens universe was built for.