"The Thing From Another World - Comic Book Sequels" Topic

Back in the early '90s, Dark Horse Comics published several comic book miniseries that were sequels to John Carpenter's classic sci-fi/horror movie "The Thing from Another World." The comics range from very good (the first miniseries) to pretty dire (the third and last miniseries), but if you're a "Thing" completist, the first two miniseries are definitely worth searching out.

From a wargaming perspective, the comics provide many ideas for skirmish scenarios, figures, vehicles, and terrain for games based on the setting. So, about 2-1/2 years ago, I promised Dan that I'd dig out my old copies, type them up, and post them here on TMP. Well, I finally got around to it, so let's dive right in.

The Thing From Another World, Issue 1 of 2

Picks up where the movie left off. MacReady passes out and Childs carries him out onto the pack ice, where they are both rescued by a Japanese whaling vessel. When Mac comes to in the ship's infirmary, he is told that Childs has returned to Outpost #31 to see if there were any other survivors. Mac knows that Childs knows that there were no survivors, so he concludes that Childs must be infected. He rages at the ship's crew and they sedate him.

Sometime later he awakens alone and tests his blood. Good news – he's still human. He sneaks out of the infirmary, steals the ship's helicopter, and flies back to Outpost #31. He barely makes it to the camp as the chopper runs out of fuel and auto-rotates in hard. It won't be going anywhere.

There's no sign of Childs, so Mac makes himself useful by burning the frozen Thing and the dead personnel of Outpost #31. As he's preparing to burn the last body, a half-dozen US Navy SEALs parachute into the camp and stop him. Mac begins to tell the SEALs what happened, they don't believe him, he starts raging at them, and they cold-cock him. While he's out, one of the SEALs touches the last body . . .

The SEALs rouse Mac and they all march off to their pickup point. As their chopper hovers overhead, the infected SEAL starts to change, and he guns down his fellow SEALs. He kills three, wounds two, and also hits the chopper, which explodes, killing the crew. Mac then uses a thermite grenade to destroy the infected SEAL.

Mac and Erskine, the unharmed SEAL commander, strap the wounded men into litters and begin the 30-kilometer trek to Campo del Sur, an Argentine research station. Along the way, one of the wounded men dies; Mac marks the body with a flag so someone can come back later and burn it.

Hours pass when Erskine suddenly realizes that Mac has been leading them away from the Argentine station. Mac admits that his plan is for both of them, as well as the last wounded SEAL, to freeze to death. Then Erskine wonders aloud if Mac is infected, and his real plan is to freeze and "sleep" until he's rescued by another Thing. Erskine slugs Mac, Mac slugs Erskine, and things are about to get ugly when they're interrupted by a Sno-Cat. Two Argentinian soldiers climb out, followed by . . . Childs!

The Thing From Another World, Issue 2 of 2

Mac springs at Childs, but Erskine clubs him and cuffs him. The Argentinians load Mac, Erskine, the wounded man, and Childs into the Sno-Cat and take off. Childs says he got lost trying to get back to Outpost #31 and the Argentinians found him.

Back at Campo del Sur, a huge research station with dozens of personnel, Erskine asks to use the radio to contact his superiors, but the Argentinian commander insists that everyone's blood be tested first. Childs' blood tests normal, Mac's blood tests normal, but before they can test the wounded man's blood he sprouts tentacles, grabs a man, busts through a wall, and runs off into the snow. Mac, Childs, Erskine, and a half-dozen Argentinians take off after the Thing in a Sno-Cat. They find the partially transformed body of the man who had been taken by the Thing and burn the body. The ice becomes too fractured for the Sno-Cat, so they continue on foot. Childs falls into a crevasse and is attacked by the Thing, but he fends it off with a flare and then finishes it off with a thermite grenade.

Back at camp, Erskine hustles off to the radio shack to make his report. Mac gets suspicious, and remembers that Erskine's blood was never tested. He and Childs head over to the radio shack and, sure enough, the radio's been trashed and the radio personnel are dead. Erskine radioed for a submarine pickup, disabled all of the Sno-Cats, and headed for the rendezvous on a snowmobile. Mac and Childs follow on a second snowmobile and shoot Erskine in the head just as the sub breaks through the ice.

US Navy personnel crowd onto the sub's conning tower as the Erskine-Thing attacks and enters the sub. Mac and Childs also climb into the sub just before the hatches slam shut and the sub dives. Meanwhile the Thing is rampaging through the sub, killing dozens of men and damaging the controls. The helm is unresponsive and the sub slams into an undersea ledge and gets hung up. The survivors head for the escape capsule, but the Thing intercepts them. Childs blows the hatch, flooding the sub with near-freezing water. Mac is blown out of the sub and floats to the surface, where he clambers onto an ice floe and waits to freeze to death.

The Thing From Another World, Climate of Fear, Issue 1 of 4

A group of about a dozen Argentinians find Mac unconscious on the ice floe and load him into yet another Sno-Cat. (Sheesh, is this the Antarctic or Grand Central Station?) As they all head back to their station, one of the Argentinians turns back to help a poor, wounded seal. Yep, you guessed it: A gigantic Thing, part seal, part human, part crustacean, and part what-the-heck leaps out of the water and grabs the guy.

Cut to Mac waking up in a clean, sun-drenched hospital room, dressed in a hospital gown. He freaks out, attacks the doctors, nurses, and guards in his room, and smashes through a window, only to land on . . . GRASS?!?! Mac looks up to see more grass, several shacks, Argentinian soldiers, a bunch of sheep, and a dense forest surrounding the camp. Uh-oh, I don't think we're in the Antarctic anymore.

Mac is quickly recaptured, but he insists that no one touch him. Dr. Viale, a woman, agrees to his demands.

As Mac changes into civilian clothes and bandages his many minor wounds, Dr. Viale explains that when they found him, he was suffering from frostbite, so they brought him to this more temperate military base, 15 miles south of Bahia Thetis on the Tierra del Fuego peninsula in Argentina. The camp is full of medical and military personnel, and sheep. Lots of sheep. Man, if the Thing shows up here, with all of this plant and animal *life* all around, the world is toast.

Dr. Viale was at Campo del Sur, so she explains that 1) the camp is well aware of the Thing; 2) they believe that the Thing drowned in the US sub; 3) even if the Thing showed up, they believe they can contain the "infection" on the peninsula; and 4) everyone in the camp has been tested and declared human – except Mac himself. Sergeant Agapito, the leader of the military personnel in the camp, decides he's going to keep a very close watch on Mac. He locks Mac in a small room and stations a guard outside the door, and the Argentinians retire to the mess hall for dinner. Mac walks over to the window in his room and stares out at the sheep. And stares. And stares . . .

Several hours later, the sheep begin making a lot of noise and acting strangely. Agapito finishes his meal, relieves the guard and enters the room to check on Mac. Mac smashes a chair over Agapito's head, grabs his FARA 83 assault rifle, rushes outside, and begins blasting the sheep, killing most of them. When the camp personnel confront him, he yells at them to kill the rest of the sheep, douse them all in gasoline, and burn them to cinders. Instead, Agapito shoots Mac – with a tranquilizer dart. As the unconscious Mac is carted back to his room ("Careful, don't touch his skin," warns Dr. Viale) and everyone except Pablo the cook goes back inside. Pablo decides to see if any of the mutton can be salvaged. ‘Estϊpido!

Gunshots ring out once again, drawing all of the personnel (except the still-unconscious Mac) outside, just in time to see the half-absorbed Pablo emptying his FARA 83 into a gigantic sheep-Thing. Everyone unloads into the Thing while it absorbs one or two more guys and then starts to divide.

Agapito finally takes Mac's advice. He arms himself with a flamethrower and has his men douse the two halves of the Thing with gasoline before they can slither off. He then torches the Thing and everyone breathes a sigh of relief – the Thing is well and truly dead. Not so fast, says Dr. Viale: "Those sheep weren't down in the Antarctic. One of the crew that came up with MacReady must have been infected. And now *any* of us could be one of those Things."

The Thing From Another World, Climate of Fear, Issue 2 of 4

Mac is still locked up, but he watches from his window as the Argentinians sit outside in a clearing around a large fire, eying each other suspiciously. They all know that at least one of them is infected, but they're too afraid of infection to let anyone test their blood, or even pass out needles and scalpels.

As the night wears on, the creepy Dr. Deseado acts more and more suspicious, egging on various members of the group until finally one of them, Cruz, shoots and kills him. Cruz kneels down and feels for a pulse, confirming that Dr. Deseado is dead. The doctor is buried and Agapito confines everyone in the camp to their quarters, except for two men left on patrol. A few hours later, Dr. Deseado, who was obviously infected, claws his way out of his grave and kills the two men. And what about Cruz?

At daybreak the curfew is lifted and Agapito is found bound and gagged in his quarters. Sure enough, Mac did it, and he also stole a flamethrower and torched the radio shack. No one will be calling for help, which eliminates the possibility of the Thing evacuating with the rescuers. (But surely the Thing could use a mouse, lizard, bird, or ant to spread the infection to the rest of the world. Oh, well, let's ignore that plot hole and assume the Thing is only after humans from this point on.)

Agapito and his men search for Mac in a nearby abandoned airfield, but instead they find the Thing. It kills a few more soldiers before Mac shows up and torches it, but part of the Thing breaks off and flees into the forest. Mac follows the Thing while the Argentinians return to camp.

Mac stumbles into a clearing to find a squad of US Navy personnel, led by Commander Simms and armed with flamethrowers, torching the escaped Thing. Accompanying the Navy men is . . . Childs! He, too, escaped the submarine and was picked up by a US Navy rescue squad.

Mac, Childs, and the US Navy men join the others back at camp. Mac drips some blood into an ashtray to prove that he's not infected, but when Childs holds it over a flame, the blood screams and leaps out of the ashtray. Oh my god, our hero Mac is infected!

The Thing From Another World, Climate of Fear, Issue 3 of 4

Childs points his flamethrower at Mac, ready to torch him – or IT! – but Dr. Viale pleads for calm. Mac points out that Cruz had touched Dr. Deseado's skin when he felt for the doctor's pulse, and he was also the one who buried the doctor; he must be infected! Mac torches Cruz, who immediately stretches like Mr. Fantastic, proving that, yes, he was a Thing. Cruz's body burns while his head sprouts half-a-dozen long, thin arms and scuttles into the forest. While the Argentinians fight to keep the fire contained, and the US Navy squad fans out into the forest after Cruz's head, Mac slips away in the confusion.

In the camp, Dr. Viale points out that Mac couldn't be infected because he torched Cruz. Would one Thing kill another Thing? But Child's notes (correctly) that the Things have attacked each other before, to ensure their own survival.

Mac hides out in the forest, wondering if he really is a Thing, while the Argentinians test each other's blood. Whew, everyone's human, including Childs! But wait, one of the men suddenly turns into a giant amoeba-with-a-face and attacks one of the men in the room. Childs torches it and everyone gathers outside to watch the building burn.

Meanwhile, Commander Simms and the US Navy team are still searching the jungle for Cruz's head and Mac. Mac, hiding above the team in a tree, is still wondering if he's infected, and just doesn't realize it. Could the Thing replicate a person so well that he would still think he was human until the Thing exerted its will and took over completely? Or was the ashtray infected somehow, with a flake of skin or some epithelials from a cigarette butt, and Mac really isn't infected at all? As the US Navy team disappears into the forest, Mac cuts himself, collects a pool of blood in a hollow in the branch of the tree, and points his flamethrower at the puddle . . .

Later, Agapito leaves the camp and moves into the forest, armed only with a machete. Dr. Viale starts after him, to try to talk some sense into him, when Mac stumbles out of the forest. When he tested his blood in the tree, it didn't move at all; he's human after all! As he's explaining all of this to the doctor, Childs also steps out of the forest. Mac starts to explain that the ashtray must have been infected somehow, when Childs cuts him off – and sprouts tentacles! Childs is a Thing!

The Thing From Another World, Climate of Fear, Issue 4 of 4

Mac and Dr. Viale run into the forest, pursued by the Childs-Thing. They run right into the US Navy team, who are about to torch Mac when the tentacle Childs bursts into the clearing. OK, they torch Childs instead.

Man, let that sink in a little: After everything he'd been through, Childs is dead; He must have been infected by the Thing from the sub. RIP, Childs.

Agapito, hiding in the shadows of the camp, saw and heard the interaction between Mac, Dr. Viale, and Childs, and now believes that all of the US Navy men were infected by Childs. He sneaks into one of the camp building and tries to convince one of the sleeping men, Ramon, to join him in trying to kill the US Navy men. Ramon agrees and shakes Agapito's hand to seal the deal – and begins to change! Oh, no, Ramon was a Thing, and now he's infected Agapito through the handshake!

Acting quickly, Agapito cuts his own arm off with the machete! He's pretty sure his instantaneous action has prevented the infection from spreading into his body, but now he's losing a lot of blood. The rest of the Argentinians then enter the room, and, instead of helping him, they reveal that they are *all* Things. Horrified, Agapito leaps out of a window and runs into the forest. The Things don't pursue him, because they know he'll soon be dead, "and there is much to do." Ominous!

Back in the forest, Mac, Dr. Viale, Simms, and the rest of the US Navy team stand over the smoking remains of Childs. Mac explains that Childs must have touched his (Mac's) blood sample before it was tested, infected it and causing it to react when heat was applied. By the same token, when Childs's blood sample was tested, he must have been touching it, thereby controlling its (lack of) reaction.

Suddenly one of the Argentinians runs out of the forest. Mac doesn't like the man's looks, so he grabs Dr. Viale and they duck behind a fallen trunk. Simms orders the man to stop; when he doesn't, the team torches him. But the man, fully aflame, leaps into the midst of the team – and blows up! Mac, safe with the doctor behind the fallen trunk, reasons that the man must have been a suicide bomber, loaded down with dynamite from the camp, intended to stop or at least delay the US Navy team. Mac assumes that no one could have survived the blast, and he and the doctor head off to try to find the team's helicopters – the only way out of the forest now. But Simms isn't quite dead, and with his last breath he radios the US Navy support carrier . . .

Mac and the doctor creep up to the camp's hangar – the US Navy choppers should be in or near the hangar. But peeking in the window, they see the stripped down chassis of the choppers – and an alien spaceship, being worked on and fueled by the remaining "Argentinians." Oh, man, what now?

I'll tell you "what now": Agapito, arm bandaged steps out of the shadows and says, simply, "We fight." He, Mac, and Dr. Viale pour can after can of gasoline around the entire perimeter of the hangar, set it alight, and run for the forest as the hangar goes up in flames. The flames reach the jet fuel stored in the hangar, and a huge fireball climbs into the sky. The hangar, the spaceship, and the "Argentinians" are vaporized!

But before Mac, Agapito, and Dr. Viale can even catch their breath, the ground trembles, and up from the soil bursts a huge Thing, as big as a bus, with 3 eyes, 6 arms, and a bunch of tentacles. The three humans run into the forest, the Thing's arms turn into monstrous spider-legs, and it stalks into the forest in pursuit. Mac heads back toward the camp, trying to lead the Thing away and give the doctor and the very weak Agapito a chance to get away.

Suddenly, a flight of F-14s scream by overhead; Simms's last act before he died was to call down a napalm strike on the camp! The Thing has caught up to Mac and is just about to munch on him as the napalm strikes home. The Thing is incinerated in a massive wall of flame, but Mac miraculously escapes without even singed eyebrows. Dr. Viale and Sergeant Agapito stumble out of the forest and join him, and the three settle down to wait for the US Navy to send another rescue team.

THE END!

Actually, that wasn't quite the end. There was a third miniseries, "The Thing From Another World – Eternal Vows," but it stank big-time. It turned the Thing into more of a slasher/serial killer, completely ignoring most of the rules of the setting, and it was obviously just an excuse to milk the franchise. Give it a miss.

Thanks for the detailed play by play.

Thank you! That was some gripping stuff. Now I want to run a miniatures skirmish on this, breaking it into scenarios.

Yeah, it breaks down nicely into separate scenarios. It's a lot of plot for just 6 issues.

There's even room for some role-playing.

You did a damn good job with the play by play, I almost want to hear the third series… almost.