Read the Thing From Another World Questionable Research

The Thing from Another Earth is a comic series by Dark Horse Comics. Though sharing the same name as the moving picture The Thing from Another World, in actuality it's a Sequel in Another Medium of the storyline of John Carpenter's The Thing, presumably taking the name of the earlier adaptation to avoid confusion with the Curiosity character who shares his name with Carpenter's moving-picture show.

The series comprises five stories:

• The Thing from Another World — 1991, 2 issues, written past Chuck Pfarrer, artwork by John Higgins. MacReady is rescued by a Japanese research vessel, but chop-chop escapes and destroys what remains of Outpost 31. An American commando team finds him, but after their extraction goes desperately wrong, they are forced to expedition to an Argentinian base for help.
• The Thing from Another World: Climate of Fear — 1992, 4 issues, written by John Arcudi, pencils by Jim Somerville. After an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Matter by drowning it at the stop of the previous story, MacReady is taken to mainland Argentina. Unfortunately, one of the Argentinian party is infected, and MacReady faces the claiming of stopping the Thing in a much warmer climate.
• The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows — 1993, 4 issues, written by David DeVries, pencils by Paul Gulacy. An American fisherman is infected by a piece of the Thing left over at the cease of the starting time story, and later on infects his New Zealander girlfriend, though this time the Things intend to quietly survive together rather than assimilating everything in sight. MacReady shows up once more to put an stop to that plan.
• The Thing from Some other Earth: Questionable Research — 1993, written past Ed Martin, pencils by Ted Naifeh. Ignoring the three previous stories, an American research squad visits the remnants of Outpost 31 and salvages all the surviving Matter biomatter. Information technology turns out that Blair'south prediction of how quickly the Thing could assimilate all life on Earth was about twenty times also tiresome, and predictably Things start thawing out and escaping. Unlike the other stories in the serial, this was a four-role story serialized in Dark Equus caballus Presents.
• The Affair: The Northman Nightmare — 2011, written by Steve Niles, artwork past Patric Reynolds. Released as a spider web-exclusive tie-in to The Thing (2011), a 2nd Thing spacecraft is revealed to accept landed in Greenland over a millennium earlier the events of the films. A party of Vikings get in in a remote village to observe that about of its population has been slaughtered, and that the survivors are not who they announced to be.

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These comics contains examples of:

• A Father to His Men: Despite being a total Jerkass, Erskine cares virtually his men and forces MacReady to help him carry the injured survivors from the Pybus-Matter'due south rampage to the Argentinian base.
• Anyone Can Die: Well... nigh. MacReady is mostly always rubber. Childs isn't though, and neither is anyone else.
  • This makes Agapito'south survival in Climate of Fear all the more satisfying, particularly since he isn't the protagonist or love involvement.
• Art Shift: The first story is drawn entirely with colored pencils, with the following ones all adopting a more traditional inked way. Questionable Research as well shifts its fine art way to a much sketchier one between the second and third issues, due to the latter half of the story having a dissimilar inker. The Northman Nightmare uses a fashion that'southward a mix of the first story'due south way and those of the subsequent ones.
• Asshole Victim: Erskine's assimilation comes as a result of his refusal to listen to MacReady'southward advice on how to finish the Matter and existence a Jerkass who refuses to mind to anyone else.
• Author Entreatment: Chuck Pfarrer, who wrote the get-go story, was formerly a Navy SEAL, which probably goes a long way to explaining the increased emphasis on military machine hardware.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Outside of Questionable Research and The Northman Nightmare, we never run into a detailed transformation of a female Thing in any of the comics. Eternal Vows goes to bizarre lengths to play this trope straight, every bit the Jenny-Matter transforms herself into a copy of the freighter's captain, which in plough transforms into a monstrous form when MacReady works out who the Matter is.
• Better to Die than Exist Killed: In the last issue of Climate of Fear, Agapito suggests attacking the Things, saying that fifty-fifty if they die they'll die as men, not monsters. Similarly, in Eternal Vows Detective Rowan shoots himself before he can exist assimilated.
• Body Horror: In spades, with Climate of Fear being the most graphic of the iv comics in this regard.
• Contemptible Comprehend: The cover of Eternal Vows issue two depicts a Thing breaking up from under the floorboards and attacking Jenny, who of grade is wearing lingerie... despite the fact that anyone who had read the commencement issue probably knows that Jenny had already been fully transformed into a Thing by the end of that issue.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Belatedly in the showtime story, MacReady, Childs and the Argentinians chase an escaping Thing as information technology leaves their base. Several hours subsequently, they give up the search for the time being and head dorsum to their base, just for Childs to luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) stumble into a crevasse which the Affair was hiding in.
  • After completing her transformation into a Thing in Eternal Vows, Jenny lures a homo close to her via a Wounded Gazelle Gambit and attempts to consume him, only to discover that the guy just happens to be the Powell-Affair, who for some bizarre reason decided to kill one of his crewmates, take on his form, then turn the dead crewmate into a copy of his ain body.
• Commander Contrarian: Erskine, the head of the Navy SEAL team from The Affair From Another World, believes MacReady to be a homicidal madman and ignores his warnings about the Matter after seeing the ruins of Outpost 31. While this seems rational, he takes this Up to 11 when he ignores everything MacReady tells him about the Matter fifty-fifty after seeing it in action. This winds up getting him infected.
• Beautiful Monster Girl: Downplayed, but Jenny, and later Sharon from Eternal Vows, which are supposed to be sympathetic and "sexy". Averted with every female crewmember bar one in Questionable Inquiry, and all the female person villagers in The Northman Nightmare, which are treated no differently from the male infectees and in the latter'due south case are meant to invoke creepy shamans.
• Death by Sexual practice: A variation in Eternal Vows; Powell has sex activity with Jenny at the start of the first consequence, which leaves enough Thing cells in her system to fully transform her by the end of the issue.
• Downer Ending: Questionable Inquiry, big-time. A seagull has been infected by the Thing, and if the scientists' estimates are right, volition infect the whole earth within six months.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Childs is revealed to be a Thing at the end of the third issue of Climate of Fearfulness... and then is very unceremoniously blown up just a few pages into the fourth issue, and never mentioned again.
• Dull Surprise: Despite having generally ameliorate artwork than the previous comic, Eternal Vows tends to accept its characters react to shocking events with virtually no change in their expression.
• Dumb Musculus:
  • Just about all of the American marines seen in the start story, to the indicate where the solitary survivor seemingly changes his mind from folio to page every bit to whether or non the Things actually be, despite seeing one wipe out his unit. The Argentinian soldiers seen subsequently (and and then in Climate of Fear) generally practise a much better job of averting this trope.
  • Justified by the Vikings in The Northman Nightmare, who for obvious reasons aren't particularly well educated.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything he's been through, MacReady finally gets a relatively happy ending in Climate of Fear... though Eternal Vows makes information technology ambiguous as to whether that's going to last.
• Failed a Spot Check: Somehow, none of the researchers in Questionable Research notice a decent-size portion of the Blair-Affair's remains snapping off every bit they carry information technology into their helicopter. Needless to say, this has very bad consequences after.
• Handicapped Badass: Agapito in the terminal part of Climate of Fear, after he slices off his own arm to prevent beingness infected.
  • Horde in The Northman Nightmare, at least until his hand regrows...
• Heroic Cede: Detective Rowan remains behind to cover MacReady when he swims for the Gettysburg at the end of Eternal Vows, equally he can't swim.
• Inner Monologue: Played directly by MacReady in all the comics he appears in, mostly when he doesn't have anyone else to talk to. Played with by Eternal Vows, where the various Things have both their ain Inner Monologue and that of the person who originally infected them, as distinct personalities.
• Jerkass: Erskine.
• Mad Scientist: The Argentinian head scientist seen in Climate of Fearfulness is pretty obviously this, and a major Jerkass to boot, which eventually culminates in him provoking one of the soldiers into shooting him dead. Or non, since it actually turns out he's a Thing.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Kind of inevitable, since the start story has no named female characters at all, while Climate of Fearfulness has only ane, Dr. Viale, (who ends up being one of but three survivors, along with Agapito and MacReady). Averted by Eternal Vows, Questionable Enquiry and The Northman Nightmare, which have male person and female person characters being killed/infected in roughly equal mensurate.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Jenny Campbell from Eternal Vows spends most of the comic running effectually in her underwear... though this is somewhat offset by the fact that tentacles oftentimes erupt from her torso and impale/infect people.
  • Downplayed by Dr. Viale from Climate of Fright, who is seen in her underwear during a couple of panels in the 2d issue, but otherwise spends the whole storyline dressed appropriately for her situation.
• Overnice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Thank you to a healthy all-around dose of the Idiot Ball, the research team from Questionable Enquiry may well have doomed all life on World to eventual Thing infection.
  • MacReady's arrival in Eternal Vows ends upwardly with the entire town of Wallace beingness infected and ultimately burned down, apparently killing everyone. Odds are everyone would take eventually died from beingness eaten past the Thing-ified Powell and Jenny anyhow, but the former mentions that it would accept taken several years to get through them all, so MacReady certainly sped the process up. In the concluding effect, MacReady himself actually acknowledges that he royally screwed upwardly his treatment of the situation.
• Oh, Crap!: Two of surviving research team members in Questionable Research have this reaction at the stop of the third issue when they observe that all the Thing specimens accept escaped. The last survivor has an even bigger moment of this at the end of the comic (see Downer Ending above).
  • The protagonist of the Northman Nightmare when he realizes there's one besides many women. He does it over again when he notices his friend's mitt has mysteriously regrown.
• Off-Model: Though Climate of Fear has undoubtedly the best renditions of the Things in any of the five comics, the artists can't quite seem to decide how they want to describe the human characters, whose appearance tends to differ drastically from panel to console.
  • Generally everyone also the Thing itself in Eternal Vows too.
• Out of Focus: MacReady for the outset half of Climate of Fright, due to him mentally snapping and then being tranquillized by Agapito. Fortunately, he gets his mojo back for the second half. Eternal Vows too, though as mentioned below, that'south by and large a Villain Episode.
• Overdrawn at the Claret Bank: During the last issue of the same comic Agapito, after slashing his own arm off and and then jumping out of the window, withal gets weaker over fourth dimension due to blood loss and has to exist assisted by Dr. Viale.
• Paranoia Fuel: In-universe, the Affair is this as much as ever, though oddly enough, Climate of Fright is the only ane of the comics that really takes this and runs with it. The first story downplays it, Eternal Vows only loosely uses it due to it being in a civilian setting where the locals are ignorant of the Affair's existence, and the scientists in Questionable Research are just Too Dumb to Live.
• Properly Paranoid: For once, Climate of Fear has the person who everyone suspects of being a Affair from the very start (namely Dr. Deseado) really plow out to be infected.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The nameless Argentinian commander in the first story, and Agapito from Climate of Fearfulness.
• Recycled IN Argentina!: For the first ii problems, Climate of Fear follows the 1982 film trounce-for-beat out. A crazy man shows up at a foreign nation'due south camp. A domesticated animal turns out to exist a Thing infectee. The campsite members start turning on one another and accusing each other of existence infected. The Thing builds a spaceship. Finally, a claret test is conducted at gunpoint. Starting with issue three however, the comic starts to become in its own direction a little more.
• Red Shirt Ground forces: Every story gets one for the Things to devour en masse. The American and Argentinian soldiers in the first story, the mainland Argentinians in Climate of Fear, the freighter crew in Eternal Vows, and then the inquiry squad in Questionable Research.
• Scenery Porn: The start story has some cute renditions of the Antarctic.
• Serial Continuity Mistake:
  • The first story depicts the Things as being able to instantly transform a victim into another Matter in a matter of seconds just by briefly touching them, fifty-fifty if the other person is wearing clothing. Never mind that if this were true, the Thing(s) in the film would have been able to infect every member of Outpost 31 in about x minutes.
  • On peak of making a ton of retcons as to how the Thing works, Eternal Vows mistakenly identifies the research team that first dug it up as existence Swedish, rather than Norwegian.
  • Despite existence fabricated and taking place after Climate of Fright, in that location is no mention of what happened in that story in Eternal Vows, as it merely references the film and the beginning series.
• Super Drowning Skills: Childs theorizes that this applies to the Affair at the cease of the first story, when he floods the submarine in guild to impale it. It doesn't. At to the lowest degree not completely, as part of the Thing escapes and infects an Argentinian soldier at the get-go of Climate of Fright, while another piece survives by turning itself into a fish, setting up Eternal Vows .
• Tap on the Head: At the offset of Climate of Fear MacReady knocks out Agapito with blunt forcefulness in order to gun downwardly the sheep which may be infected. Afterwards regaining his senses and tranquillizing Mac, Agapito spends the remainder of the comic with the top of his head bandaged.
• The Cease... Or Is Information technology?:
  • At the end of Eternal Vows, we run across the last remaining piece of the Jenny-Thing transform into a fish to survive, after which it joins a shoal of other fish. On the one mitt, it seems to want to carry on its original grade'due south want to just eat other life-forms to sustain itself... but on the other hand, it's entirely possible that the fish could get caught, infect whoever catches or eats it, and so start the whole mess again.
  • The Northman Nightmare ends with the implication that at least 1 of the ii surviving Vikings is infected.
    • A confirmation actually. The long haired i inexplicably has both hands, despite having lost one at the get-go of the story.
• As well Impaired to Live: Freaking everyone other than MacReady, and Agapito from Climate of Fear. Even the Things can be this, virtually noticeably the infected soldier early in the first story, who inexplicably turns into a monster right as he was nearly to exist rescued, then wildly starts shooting around, both killing potential victims and destroying a helicopter that could accept taken him to somewhere he could digest even more people.
• Villain Decay: Whereas in the motion-picture show and in the two previous comics, the Things were depicted equally being eager to infect and assimilate all life on Earth, Eternal Vows, for some unexplained reason, just has Powell and Jenny remaining mostly man mentally, and just deciding to stay in i town and swallow its residents to sustain themselves. Lessened afterward on however, afterward Jenny infects a local Casanova Wannabe and then her co-worker, who immediately start behaving like all the other Things and starts off a new wave of absorption. Fifty-fifty then, however, the newly-created Things take to just attacking everyone in sight during broad daylight, though for what it'southward worth, this is consistent with the comics' portrayal, where Things are capable of transforming their victims in mere seconds.
• Villain Episode: Unlike the other stories, Eternal Vows is generally written from the Things' bespeak of view, with MacReady not even making his entrance until the second issue.
• Wham Episode: The 2nd issue of Climate of Fright is set up to be this, with MacReady apparently being revealed to be a Thing. In actual fact, withal, the real Wham Episode is the third one, where information technology turns out that Childs is a Affair.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: A Japanese research vessel shows up and rescues MacReady at the start of the first story. Mac thanks them by stealing their helicopter and flying back to the remains of Outpost 31, later on which they're never seen or mentioned again.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In the first story, Erskine refuses to listen to annihilation MacReady tells him nearly the Thing and dismisses everything Mac says as nonsense seemingly out of principle. He turns out to be infected at the finish of the story, about certainly considering of his refusal to acquire nigh the Thing's K.O.
• You Don't Await Like You: Eternal Vows features a straightforward variant, in that MacReady is fatigued to resemble a mostly clean-shaven Kurt Russell rather than his appearance in the picture and the previous two comics, and i very odd variant in that the Things accept somehow acquired the ability to kill people and so swap forms with them.
• Zombie Infectee: Jenny in the first issue of Eternal Vows, though she isn't revealed as being such until the end of the issue, when tentacles erupt from her body and swallow her pet cat while she's nevertheless mentally a human. In the tertiary consequence, a woman is attacked and infected by a Thing late in the story, but quickly torched by MacReady as the Affair cells brainstorm to accept over her heed.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/TheThingFromAnotherWorld

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