Ahhh, FINALLY! The FUN STUFF! Characters!
By a glimpse at the full, actual dramatis personae of this story you can now start to see what a truly monumental achievement it was, and why it was so unique compared to almost any other A/P/AVP story that followed it, with the first AVP miniseries being a runner up. In its depth, and scope and the complexity of the narrative, though, the first Aliens comics series is truly a thing of beauty and a work of well-thought out science fiction horror. One of the best comics, I would argue, you'll find anywhere, ESPECIALLY when you're talking about franchise material. Just wonderful. And what's also alarming is that they did it in basically the SAME amount of issues as any of the many inferior series that would eventually, unfortunately follow. Sigh.
On a more technical note, I wish I could get the Appearances template to be collapsible again. I don't know what I did that messed up. But could really use some help with that?--SpaceWuss 18:01, December 7, 2010 (UTC)
Renaming to Aliens (comic book), Aliens (vol. 2), and Aliens (vol. 3)[]
I felt positive that "volume" was meant instead of "series" (which tends to suggest the whole enchilada of comics branded "Aliens"). Looking at the indicia (the small print on the inside front page) for the second miniseries (the Dennis Beauvais one) it does indeed say "Aliens vol. 2". Issues of the first 1989 miniseries are just called "Aliens" until "Aliens, Volume 1" appears in the January 1990 graphic novel.
I used these articles for guidance: Superman (vol.2) and Volume (publishing)---CadmiumX99 19:44, December 27, 2010 (UTC)
Okay, I understand what you're saying about the indica on the first two Aliens comics miniseries. But I do not think that that is now the best, clearest terminology to use for the articles on these series on Xenopedia, or that this terminology should be used for the other, similarly titled Predator and AVP comics miniseries. I also know the common comic book usage of (vol.#) as applied to comic book price guides and do not think that would be best applicable to title these Xenopedia articles, either. To explain, while it is certainly accurate to point to these as acceptable, official names used to refer to these series, my argument is that these names are not the most useful in helping to create clear and useful online, encyclopedic articles on the subject.
Explanation (including a lot of ancient history, but please bare with me cause it builds to a point, I swear):
The reason for my desire to create a new, standardized (only for Xenopedia's sake, mind you) terminology to refer to these articles in a uniform matter is this: unlike other comic books lines/series, the Aliens, Predator and AVP lines were handled much differently than normal by Dark Horse Comics and therefore identifying which series you're talking about requires slightly different rules when discussing the subject in order to be as clear as one can be.
To review the confused naming history of the series a bit: While each line undoubtedly constitutes one, single, continuous "comics series", with a continuing editorial and at times creative staff, a decision was made at the start by the company to treat each story arc as a separate miniseries, at first under the same title as simply the next volume as in the case of Aliens, but then under a new name for each following miniseries. (This would become the company's standard practice for its franchises after Aliens, and was how they handled their other franchises, too, such as Star Wars, Robocop, etc.)
Therefore, while Aliens at first had two volumes, (referred from the start semi-formally in the comics letter pages as "Book One" and "Book Two", though titled simply "Aliens" on the cover), the third series was titled Aliens: Earth War, though we all know it was a continuation of the series and would fit where a "Volume 3" would regularly fit and it was informally referred to as Aliens: Book Three. And so on for the rest of the series, with new miniseries names replacing a Volume or Book # in either the indica or on the cover.
Compounding this situation is the fact that Dark Horse then decided to give these same Aliens, Predator and AVP miniseries sometimes different titles when they collected them as trade paperbacks. While the first Aliens series remained Aliens: Book One and Aliens: Book Two, the first Predator series became Predator: Concrete Jungle. The second Predator miniseries was called Predator: Big Game, without any mention of volume or book number. The same situation with the AVP line, the first series being titled Aliens vs. Predator, but the second then becoming Aliens/Predator: Deadliest of the Species. (The issue of the contradictory versions of the AVP name is a separate issue that has already been discussed on Xenopedia.)
Compounding this even further is that Dark Horse then decided to re-release a number of the Aliens miniseries in a new "remastered" "Aliens Library Edition" series, again renaming them officially and this time adding the Volume #s to a number of previously un-volume-numbered titles. Thus Aliens: Earth War finally got to become Aliens, Vol. 3: Earth War, Aliens: Genocide became Vol. 4, etc. Note, though, that the effort only lasted for 9 miniseries and then the new volume numbering was again abandoned, leaving the remaining miniseries out the dry.
Even FURTHER compounding this confusion is that, meanwhile, in England--and the Aliens franchise has always had a strong, valid England-connection given that the films were actually produced there, the first director was British, actual new comics stories were created in England, unique events such as the Aliens: War ride were held exclusively in England, and many of the comics creators were English, as well--Dark Horse created a comics magazine and started reprinting American comics as well as producing new material there. The title given to this publication? Aliens, in two volumes. So the actual title of that British comic magazine was Aliens, vol. 1, and Aliens, vol. 2. (The latter of which is what you actually have to type in online to find information about the Aliens magazine and what is primarily identified as on basically all comic book store websites.)
This is the strongest reason why Aliens, vol. 1 and Aliens, vol. 2 are not clear enough terms to refer to the first and second American Aliens comics series as. (Since, of course, anytime you have two titles with the same name, you need to differentiate, especially if we're trying to help make a clearer resource for outsiders to learn about the subject. The less confusion the better.)
Finally, and again--and I know I hate to use the word by now, but if the breath-mask fits--compounding the situation for yet a last and perhaps definitive time is the fact that when Dark Horse finally decided to reboot the A/P/AVP lines in 2008, they decided--probably just for very simple bottom-line marketability reasons--to kick of their miniseries continuations of the Aliens and Predators lines with two new miniseries titled simply what? You guessed it: "Aliens," and "Predators."
Now, actually, this is the 21st Aliens miniseries (if you count the movie adaptations, but not one-shots or short stories), and the 16h Predator miniseries (if you count the movie adaptation, but not one-shots or short stories) that we are talking about.
But they are titled simply "Aliens" and "Predators."
Their indica, perhaps wisely, do not state their "volume" number.
Now, by the standard rules of comic book naming that you'll find used in any comic book price guide--which is basically the kind of thing being explained in the Superman (vol. 2) example you give--these series would accurately be dubbed Predator (vol. 2), and maybe Aliens (vol. 3) if you went by the indica on the original comics alone, OR Aliens (vol. 9) if for some odd reason you wanted to go by the Aliens Library Edition volume numbering, which would be preposterous and silly to do since there's already a long list of Aliens miniseries waiting patiently in line for their "volume" numbers, like poor old Kidnapped, and Survival and let's not forget grandpa Xenogenesis.
But, more simply--and I hope you will agree, more sanely--speaking, this is actually the SECOND series to be titled simply "Predator", and the THIRD series to be titled simply "Aliens."
Hence, the easiest way, to my mind, to simply classify these miniseries while still managing to keep some sort of neat and orderly look to the whole business (instead of just putting a completely random "2008" and "2009" at the end of them, which still wouldn't address the confusion between Aliens comics and UK magazines, and would bring up a whole new batch of possible confusion between these and various video games which are often referred to by their years) is the system that I devised, to title them as Aliens (Series 1), Aliens (Series 2), and Aliens (Series 3), and similarly for Predator (Series 1) and Predator (Series 2), and lastly--for uniformity's sake and what the hell since there's plenty of confusion issues surrounding the AVP series in general, too, that would be helped by it--as Aliens vs. Predator (Series 1), and then to leave it to the article's content itself to explain away the discrepancies and all the actual "official" information.
While not technically or officially accurate by any indica or comic book price guide's standards, these titles are what I believe help to best simplify the whole goddamned mess. And honestly when those price guides refer to something as Green Lantern (vol. 1) and then Green Lantern (vol. 2), the reason for the new volume was usually that there was a genuine interruption in publication of the series, or there was a deliberate rebooting of it after a break, or a period in which the series shifted to a new name and then shifted back. (Believe me, I know, I own like 20,000 comic books to my family and societal status' eternal shame!) And that's not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about is this whole long book of a talk-page message I've just written. Which, by now, I am praying to God you see my way by now.
So please, please, please PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE please please *breath* pleasepleaseplease, just let me have my way with this issue. PLEEEAASSSEEE. I beg of you. I am putting SOOOOOOOO much effort and my whole heart and soul into trying to make these comics pages as good as I can right now because I've got a ton going on and this is something constructive and fun that I can do where I really feel like I'm doing some good work and not wasting my journalism degree, which is otherwise just collecting dust in a drawer in my room, with. I'm really happy for any help, but I've worked my ass off on these and I really feel like I'm getting somewhere with it. I know there's no ownership on here, but I was attracted to this wiki cause it really looked like such a nice place with just nice people on it. And there is SOOOOOO much more on here that is really so completely messed up right now that could use so much more loving and attention from all of us (have you looked at the some of the movie pages with all the red links? yeesh!). Couldn't I just get to work on these comics pages a bit more and show how cool I think I could get them? And then people can futz and fiddle with them all they want and I'll go and play with my nieces or something. But please..PLEEEEEASSEEE...just lemme do this thing this way a bit? please? I mean, I asked people to put up pictures on the things months ago and nobody wants to, so now I'm on here schlepping away posting hundreds of pictures only to have my carefully planned out titles changed around?! arrrghghghg.
So, yes. Please. please?
--theWuss--Hey, Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate bad-asses will protect you! 05:10, January 7, 2011 (UTC)
My wife says there was too much "please" and weirdness at the end there[]
She says it got "too personal" there at the end. She also says the Aliens magazine business is my strongest point.
Additional note: that diatribe is most amusingly read in an old-timey, fast-talking newspaper-man voice. Especially at the end.
Additional additional note: The reason for capitalizing the (Series 1) and (Series 2) is so that they will stand out on the Comics category pages apart from the dozens and dozens of other miniseries, since they really do deserve to, and making them capital puts them at the top of the column of the rest of the Aliens or Predator miniseries for some reason.
And it looks good, darnit!--theWuss--Hey, Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate bad-asses will protect you! 05:26, January 7, 2011 (UTC)
- (Response)---CadmiumX99 07:01, January 7, 2011 (UTC)