Green Lantern versus Aliens
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Green Lantern versus Aliens was a four-issue comic book miniseries published jointly by DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics monthly from September 2000 to December 2000. It was written by Ron Marz and illustrated by penciller Rick Leonardi and inker Mike Perkins, with covers by Dwayne Turner. The series starred several Green Lanterns, primarily Kyle Rayner, and the titular xenomorphs from the Alien movie series. In 2001 the series was collected into a single volume with a new cover by artist Eric Kohler.
[edit] Plot synopsis
The story opens in flashback, ten years before the (at the time) current continuity of the Green Lantern comic books, showing an extraterrestrial Barin Char, the Green Lantern of Sector 1522, killed when a xenomorph bursts from his chest. Hal Jordan (who at the time of the series’ publication, had long been dead) is then summoned by the Guardians of the Universe to rendezvous with fellow Green Lanterns Kilowog, Katma Tui, Tomar Re, The Green Man and Salakk on the planet Tirama in Sector 1522. The six Green Lanterns are informed of the disappearance of Barin Char, and proceed to the border world where he is believed to have disappeared. Tracing the signal from Char’s displaced power ring, they enter a cavern inside a mountainous butte, where they discover Char’s corpse, before being attacked by a swarm of xenomorphs. Jordan decides that rather than exterminate an alien species, they would transport the xenomorphs to the sentient Green Lantern planet Mogo, where they could not harm anyone.
A decade later, the Signet Dawn, a Coluian long-range ore transport vessel, crashes onto the planet. Five extraterrestrials —the Xudarian Tomar-Dar, Brik, Ash, M’Hdahna and the aforementioned Salaak—appear on Earth in the apartment of Kyle Rayner, who at the time, was the Green Lantern of Earth, and the only Green Lantern in existence. These five were either former Green Lanterns, or were intended to become Green Lanterns at the time of Parallax’s destruction of the Green Lantern Corps, and they inform Rayner of the Signet Dawn’s crash on Mogo. The six then journey to Mogo to rescue the ship’s crew. Inside the hulk of the ship, they encounter Crowe, the ship’s first officer, who tells Rayner that after the crash, the aliens carried off the other 37 crew members, but left her for some reason. Crowe leads Rayner and the others deeper into the ship, where the xenomorphs attack them, taking Rayner’s companions captive, leaving only him, Crowe and Salaak. When Rayner tries to grab Tomar as he is pulled down a shaft, his power ring slips off his finger and falls down the shaft.
The trio then climb down the shaft, and discover five of Crowe’s crewmates, cocooned by the xenomorphs, four of which have been killed by chestbursters. The xenomorphs then attack the trio, and Crowe and Rayner flee through a passageway, separated from Salaak. They then come across a chamber where they discover a xenomorph Queen, with the remainder of Crowe’s crew and Rayner’s companions cocooned around the walls, and Rayner’s power ring on the floor. Crowe jumps into the chamber firing at the aliens to distract them while Rayner goes for his ring. During this attempt, the skin on the right half of Crowe’s face is ripped away, revealing that she is an android. Rayner reacquires his ring. Crowe, fatally damaged during the melee, tells Rayner that he shouldn’t leave the xenomorphs alive to endanger someone else in the future as Jordan did, so Rayner destroys the xenomorphs, rescuing the surviving Signet Dawn crew and his companions. Ash, Brik and Salaak do not survive. Rayner is left with the thought that sometimes the past comes back to haunt you no matter what one does, another reminder of the legacy of Hal Jordan that looms over him.
[edit] Continuity error
In the current issues of Green Lantern Corps: Recharge and Green Lantern (vol. 4), Salaak (as well as other former Lanterns) are alive and well. As well, Kyle Rayner had visited Mogo in the past with J'onn J'onnz well before this series came out. Although the four issues do seemingly tie into regular Lantern continuity, there are some flaws within the story. It may be possible that when Rayner exterminated the Aliens, the ring focused on only their genetic structure, killing off any of the "baby" aliens gestating within the bodies of Salaak and the others. This does not explain Salaak's apparent resurrection, but a hypothesis can be made that he was saved by a force not yet determined. As for the issue of Green Lantern in which Rayner and J'onn re-terraform Mogo, one possible explanation is that they were on another side of the planet. Another may be that the Aliens are sensitive to light.
