“Why don't we wait here a while? See what happens.”
With those fateful words uttered by Kurt Russel's R.J. MacReady, John Carpenter's take on the story of The Thing From Another World concludes, the fates of the final Outpost 31 survivors left ambiguous, but bleak.
Not the kind of ending you'd expect someone to look at and try to build a sequel from, but it didn't stop people from trying.
As I said last week, we'd be making a sidestop before touching on the 2011 prequel movie. Part of me had considered breaking out the semi-sequel game of the Playstation 2, but ultimately decided not to in the interests of time. In turn, we're about to dig into a lesser known piece of Thing lore. I invite you all to join me in going back to the far off age of the early 1990s – a time when comic book movies were still somewhat rare, and, ironically, movie licenses for comic books flourished.
As I said last week, we'd be making a sidestop before touching on the 2011 prequel movie. Part of me had considered breaking out the semi-sequel game of the Playstation 2, but ultimately decided not to in the interests of time. In turn, we're about to dig into a lesser known piece of Thing lore. I invite you all to join me in going back to the far off age of the early 1990s – a time when comic book movies were still somewhat rare, and, ironically, movie licenses for comic books flourished.
Hey, they weren't all Aliens vs Predator, okay?
Enter a still up and coming Dark Horse comics. The company was already established with several original properties, on the verge of two big breakouts in the form of Hellboy and Sin City, and by this point had already built a sizable licensing footprint with their work built around Aliens, Predator, and Star Wars.
So, in 1991, they released the first of four stories built around the continuity established by Carpenter's movie. Of these, three form a sort of narrative arc, while the fourth is more of a standalone sequel. Initially I had planned to look at the four in overview, but given the difference in approach to the stories, each done by different writers and artists, I'll look at each on its own in order.
With that said, let's begin.
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1991-1992)
With that said, let's begin.
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1991-1992)
There's something fitting that the first attempt at building on the world of The Thing would be written by Chuck Pfarrer, who would go on to write his own biomechanical horror comic Virus. In that regard, his work for the former feels like a test run for the latter.
With only two issues to work in (the other three stories get four parts), Pfarrer gives a story that feels less like a full continuation and more like an epilogue to the movie, exploring a situation where MacReady and Childs are ultimately saved from one danger to be plunged into another.
Given this will be an element of three of the four stories, I have to say up front – I feel very conflicted about the decision to bring back MacReady and Childs. I get why people would want to, since the isolated nature of the movie makes it hard to revisit the creature without also addressing them. At the same time, the ambiguity of their fate is a big part of why the original ending works, and providing an answer undercuts that to a degree. The result is a necessary evil – ideally the answer is just not to play, but if you're going to anyway, it's something you will have to address.
In how he addresses it, Pfarrer heads off one of the main risks that comes with bringing back the survivors of the first story – allowing their knowledge of the alien to aid any new victims and stave off horror. Instead, MacReady is treated as unstable and delusional by the rescue team he comes across and as a result, the Thing is given an opening to strike at.
With only two issues to work in (the other three stories get four parts), Pfarrer gives a story that feels less like a full continuation and more like an epilogue to the movie, exploring a situation where MacReady and Childs are ultimately saved from one danger to be plunged into another.
Given this will be an element of three of the four stories, I have to say up front – I feel very conflicted about the decision to bring back MacReady and Childs. I get why people would want to, since the isolated nature of the movie makes it hard to revisit the creature without also addressing them. At the same time, the ambiguity of their fate is a big part of why the original ending works, and providing an answer undercuts that to a degree. The result is a necessary evil – ideally the answer is just not to play, but if you're going to anyway, it's something you will have to address.
In how he addresses it, Pfarrer heads off one of the main risks that comes with bringing back the survivors of the first story – allowing their knowledge of the alien to aid any new victims and stave off horror. Instead, MacReady is treated as unstable and delusional by the rescue team he comes across and as a result, the Thing is given an opening to strike at.
The writers on these comics in general seem to be reluctant to just let the alien absorb half the time.
In this case, its solution on being discovered is to just go out guns blazing.
In this case, its solution on being discovered is to just go out guns blazing.
Besides the questions of continuation in general, the one big problem I would say this run has is that it feels, for lack of a better term, incomplete. With only two issues to work from, the story hits the ground running hard and fast and unlike with the earlier film, we never really get a chance to know the new group of characters MacReady is forced to travel with, so there's not much reason to care when they start turning. Save for moving everything further out of the Antarctic wastes, the story otherwise leaves everything as it found it.
One area where this comic does shine is the artwork. One big hurdle these comics keep running into is the high mark set by Rob Bottin's creature designs. Of the group, John Higgins and Jim Sommerville make one of the better attempts to match it. Paired with inking by Higgins and Robert Jones and coloring by Matt Webb, the story is presented with a softened, painted look that leaves just enough of the mutations in shadow to match the look of Bottin's monsters.
As I said above, this comic, like its original material, ends with the fate of its lead unknown. This then gave a launching off point for its sequel in...
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – CLIMATE OF FEAR (1992)
Taking its cue from the previous comic, John Arcudi continues with the increasingly poor luck of R.J. MacReady, having once again woken up in a strange new place after believing himself dead at the end of TTFAW.
With a different writing and art staff – Jim Sommerville and Robert Jones are back on art, but both solo this time - this continues from where TTFAW left off. The threat has now officially left Antarctica, as this series finds the Thing, and the Outpost survivors, in a remote base in South America.
With a different writing and art staff – Jim Sommerville and Robert Jones are back on art, but both solo this time - this continues from where TTFAW left off. The threat has now officially left Antarctica, as this series finds the Thing, and the Outpost survivors, in a remote base in South America.
Overall, Climate of Fear is a decent follow up to TTFAW. One of its biggest strengths is that it takes advantage of its extra issues to flesh out its cast more. It's not perfect – there's a core group that get built up but still many who are just there to be fodder – but there is more personality between them than there was in the first series. Another welcome bonus of this being a return to the feeling of paranoia prevalent in the original movie, but mostly lacking in the first comic. There's a stretch in the middle especially that does well with the base team, having only a basic idea of what they're up against all struggling with their distrust as it wears on them physically and mentally.
"Okay...so any one of us could be a shape-shifting alien that takes over others at a cellular level...
...I suppose now's a bad time to suggest ghost stories, huh?"
...I suppose now's a bad time to suggest ghost stories, huh?"
Unfortunately, while the story is more built up, the art isn't up to the level of the first series. The softer, shadowed look of TTFAW has been traded for more solid linework that isn't bad overall, but it causes the creature designs to lose their eerie edge from the first. Additionally, the returning character art is a bit jarring. I'm not sure if this is an issue with likenesses or what, but the renditions of MacReady and Childs wind up looking less and less like Kurt Russell and Keith David as these comics go on, and it gets distracting at points.
In a change of pace, this installment ends with more of a (relatively) hopeful ending. The survivors aren't exactly in a great place, but it's not the same ambiguous potential death MacReady has found himself sliding into in the past two stories.
Like its predecessor, I have to admit this isn't bad. It's got its flaws, but it's still making an effort to recreate the feel of the movie as best as it can with the comic book format – and to its credit, there's moments it succeeds. It even ends in a way where this could have been a good finale for the series – a bit less ambiguous, but still open enough to not feel like a happy ending.
Like its predecessor, I have to admit this isn't bad. It's got its flaws, but it's still making an effort to recreate the feel of the movie as best as it can with the comic book format – and to its credit, there's moments it succeeds. It even ends in a way where this could have been a good finale for the series – a bit less ambiguous, but still open enough to not feel like a happy ending.
But, the story keeps going, which brings us to...
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – ETERNAL VOWS (1993-1994)
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – ETERNAL VOWS (1993-1994)
New series, new writer, new location. This time the threat makes its way to a remote island off the coast of New Zealand.
I hate to say it quite so bluntly, but this isthe most disappointing entry in this series. It's not without its upsides (the decision to have the Thing travel on a fishing boat makes a nice tip of the hat to H.P. Lovecraft, for one), but there's a lot about this that feels inconsistent with the property it's adapting from.
The biggest offender is with how the Thing itself is addressed. I'm not going to pretend the earlier entries weren't without odd choices regarding how they handled the creature's nature (when you have a species that can spread at a cellular level, numerous scenes of people attacking with machine guns seems like a REALLY bad idea) but they mostly had the right idea. By comparison, David de Vries presents a version of the creature that, at times, feels more like a vampire with tentacles – up to and including the first instance of presenting attacking other life forms as needed feeding rather than propagation. At the center of the story is a quasi-romance between two infected people that is conceptually ambitious, but feels altogether out of place with the much more deceptive and instinctual creature that has been established at this point.
The biggest offender is with how the Thing itself is addressed. I'm not going to pretend the earlier entries weren't without odd choices regarding how they handled the creature's nature (when you have a species that can spread at a cellular level, numerous scenes of people attacking with machine guns seems like a REALLY bad idea) but they mostly had the right idea. By comparison, David de Vries presents a version of the creature that, at times, feels more like a vampire with tentacles – up to and including the first instance of presenting attacking other life forms as needed feeding rather than propagation. At the center of the story is a quasi-romance between two infected people that is conceptually ambitious, but feels altogether out of place with the much more deceptive and instinctual creature that has been established at this point.
Okay, vampirism with a touch of Videodrome
Further leaning into the pseudo-vampiric feel is how de Vries re-envisions MacReady. The gruff, grizzled man willing to do whatever he has to to survive and who has been through numerous brushes with death is largely absent in this story – in his place, the character is more like a modern day Van Helsing, tracking and killing monsters with a flamethrower instead of a wooden stake and mallet.
Unfortunately, despite having a comparable length to CoF, Eternal Vows suffers from TTFAW's problem of the cast feeling interchangeable most of the time. Even the couple that this story hangs on are only distinct as an exploration of the alien with multiple memories. Otherwise, there's no real sense of anything between them to potentially generate sympathy or interest. They're just two versions of the alien that we've already seen infiltrate, spread and kill by its very nature to this point.
With another ambiguous ending for MacReady, the final issue of this comic marks the end of his journey. Whether any other plans for the character were ever in place, I can't find any indication of, but this is where we must leave him.
The end for MacReady, but not for the Thing itself. Around the time that this storyline was running, Dark Horse did produce one more story based around the movie presented as part of their Dark Horse Comics anthology series...
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – QUESTIONABLE RESEARCH (1993)
The end for MacReady, but not for the Thing itself. Around the time that this storyline was running, Dark Horse did produce one more story based around the movie presented as part of their Dark Horse Comics anthology series...
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – QUESTIONABLE RESEARCH (1993)
Whether this story is meant to be an alternate, self-contained narrative or running concurrent with the rest of Dark Horse's Thing continuity, I'm not entirely certain of. No mention is made of the survivors of Outpost 31 beyond their recorded notes from the movie.
Having said that, this is arguably the best of the stories that Dark Horse put together for this license. With a whole new team led by writer Edward Martin III and artist Ted Naifeh, the idea of the fates of the Outpost team are completely set aside and this story goes back to the very basic hook of The Thing – the horror of being stuck with an alien that can become anyone at any time.
Having said that, this is arguably the best of the stories that Dark Horse put together for this license. With a whole new team led by writer Edward Martin III and artist Ted Naifeh, the idea of the fates of the Outpost team are completely set aside and this story goes back to the very basic hook of The Thing – the horror of being stuck with an alien that can become anyone at any time.
Bug eyes, claws, an excessive number of teeth.
I'M GONNA TAKE YOU HOME!
I'M GONNA TAKE YOU HOME!
Taking a cue from one of Dark Horse's other big sci-fi licenses, this story suggests the Aliens-esque idea of trying to capture a deadly life form for the purposes of studying it, and why that's ultimately a terrible idea. Despite having four chapters, this is probably the shortest of these stories. While that brevity causes some of the cast to be quick sketches of people, it also sells the shocks of the creature better – and with a more definite sense of what it's working with – than the other stories that came before it.
Given the bleak way this story ends, I get the impression they didn't intend to follow up on it. Perhaps that's for the best given some of the issues the 'main' continuity faced as it went on. In the meantime, I appreciate the lean, grim take this story offers on the property.
Whether due to a lapsed license or simply lack of interest, these titles don't seem to be available in print anymore. In fact, on checking Dark Horse's website, only The Thing From Another World and Climate of Fear were ever collected into a trade paperback. For those are curious, it still possible to find these out here, if one feels willing enough to dig around second hand sites or has a good connection with their local comic book store.
(For those who do wish to try and hunt them down this way, Questionable Research was serialized in Dark Horse Comics issues #13-16.)
This experiment in the world of The Thing ran for around three years before it folded up. The journey doesn't stop here, however. The week of Things continues after this as we go back to where it all began, for better or worse next time.
Till then.
This experiment in the world of The Thing ran for around three years before it folded up. The journey doesn't stop here, however. The week of Things continues after this as we go back to where it all began, for better or worse next time.
Till then.
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