Aliens: Earth War #1

Dark Horse's Aliens: Earth War opens its four-issue series with a cover by John Bolton that is genuinely unsettling — a massive Xenomorph looms in close-up, its elongated skull and bared inner jaw rendered in rich, burnished golds and browns, while what appears to be skeletal remains rest beneath it. The painterly, almost sculptural quality of Bolton's work gives the creature an eerie, monumental presence that sets a fitting tone for a story promising conflict on the grandest possible scale. With Mark Verheiden writing and Sam Kieth providing interior art, this 1990 miniseries brings serious creative firepower to one of science fiction's most terrifying creatures.