UFO is a action-horror comic book/graphic novel series concept by Red-Verse-Writer, based upon the trilogy of games of the same name by the now-defunct Czech game studio ALTAR Interactive, primarily the first game UFO: Aftermath. Set in an alternate history in which an alien spaceship went into orbit around Earth's atmosphere on May 24th 2004 and released a cloud of mysterious spores onto the planet that killed the majority of the macro-scale life on Earth, the series revolves around the few remaining humans on the planet, mainly a group located in the North American continent, as they effort to survive, regroup with their fellow humans, and take revenge upon the aliens who have destroyed their planet.
Publication Info[]
"On May 24th, 2004, an alien spacecraft roughly the same size as the entire country of Australia began to orbit around the Earth. Ignoring all human attempts to communicate with it and immune to the nuclear missiles fired at it, it soon began to release massive clouds of spores into the upper layers of the atmosphere, where they rapidly multiplied and almost completely blocked out the sun. After seven days of this "Twilight", as the humans called it, the spore clouds reached critical mass and the spores began to rain down on the planet, clogging the streets and seas, burying animals in the wild and smothering humans in their homes. In less than a day, the majority of the macro-scale life on Earth was wiped out. However, some humans managed to survive this "Nightfall" by taking shelter underground with supplies of food and water, seeds, animals and resources. Hiding in bunkers, or taking refuge in sealed bases, or just by sheer luck, these people managed to survive for a whole year until the spores dissipated, decomposing and fading away. Life could emerge once again. Now, humanity has risen back up, with intents of surviving and reclaiming territory from horrific mutants who have risen from the spores. Only then can they regroup, find out what happened, and, if possible, take vengeance upon the cruel aliens who devastated their home..."
Story Arcs[]
- UFO: Hope
- UFO: Survivors
- UFO: Dreamland
- UFO: Vengeance
Characters[]
- Malcolm McLean: The de facto central protagonist of the series, a Caucasian American man and one of the few humans who managed to survive outside of a bunker or shelter, surviving inside his own home via growing his own corn in his basement and scavenging the city in a gas mask with a Colt pistol. After meeting Brian and joining the Los Angeles Union of Survivors, he became the main scout of Phoenix Company.
- Brian Fleck: The main deuteragonist of the series, a Caucasian American man who worked as a scout for the Los Angeles Union of Survivors before meeting Malcolm. After this, he became Phoenix Company's secondary scout alongside Malcolm.
- Phoenix Company: The combat group of the Los Angeles Union of Survivors.
- Peter Scholz: Phoenix Company's main medic.
- Susan Spencer: Phoenix Company's main sniper.
- Jackie Connery: Phoenix Company's main demolitionist.
- Vladimir Spirin: Phoenix Company's main engineer.
- Zinatul Lugin: Phoenix Company's secondary medic. A Egyptian man who moved to California just six months before the Twilight and Nightfall
- Megan "Hero" Okembo: Phoenix Company's heavy weapons expert.
- Richard "Valhallen" McCready: Phoenix Company's point man.
- Cecile de Chalonge: Phoenix Company's secondary engineer.
- Willum Canmore: Phoenix Company's secondary demolitionist.
- Jiang Chan Leung: Phoenix Company's secondary sniper.
- Los Angeles Union of Survivors: The survivor faction of California.
- Houston Avengers: The survivor faction of Texas.
- Sobrevivientes de El Paso: The survivor faction of Mexico.
- Spectrum Union: The survivor faction of England.
- Jason Malden: The leader of Spectrum Union.
- Transgenants: The results of the Biomass infecting and reanimating the corpses of dead humans and animals into new, horrific forms. They come in many different varieties, but the majority of them are based upon humans or animals and possess no real intelligence. They serve as the secondary antagonistic force of the series and are entirely driven by their hostility towards humans and unmutated animals.
- Dangleflies: The first type of Transgenants encountered in the series, Dangleflies are houseflies grown to the size of dogs, covered in spores, and possessing more advanced, human-like limbs capable of wielding melee weapons.
- Morelmen: The most recurring and most humanoid Transgenants encountered, Morelmen are human corpses with gigantic cancerous tumours on their backs, resembling the sea plant morel, which is where the name comes from. The rest of the body has decayed to little more than skin and bones, with a large spike or ridge jutting from the ribcage. Among the more intelligent Transgenants, Morelmen are capable of operating firearms, working together in groups, opening doors and setting up traps and ambushes.
- Taxicrab: A gigantic form of unseen arachnid-like creature that hides its main body inside a armoured car or taxi as a shell, with its long, spindly limbs poking free from the shell. One of the few Transgenants capable of psionic attacks, Taxicrabs attack humans with beams of physic energy fired from the headlights of the car, making it appear as though it is firing beams of light.
- Carcrab: A smaller, weaker and more numerous variant of the Taxicrab, using any car they can find as a shell rather than specifically reinforced ones.
- Cudgel: A more heavily mutated human-based Transgenant, Cudgels possess immense amounts of new flesh developed over their bodies, to the point of which their arms are atrophied and their faces are almost completely indistinguishable from the many lumps and boils on their swollen heads. Lacking the intelligence of the Morelmen, Cudgels behave more akin to typical undead, stumbling around and attacking humans with frenzied punches and kicks.
- Deathbellows: A gigantic maggot-based Transgenant, Deathbellows are car-sized living hives for bloodsucking insects with entry holes scattered around their cocoon-like bodies, tendril-like limbs and mutilated faces vaguely resembling human skulls with sharp teeth.
- Firetick: A gigantic tick-based Transgenant, Fireticks are able to spit flames via highly concentrated and flammable stomach acids, making them very dangerous foes to the human survivors.
- Flapper: A bird-based Transgenant, Flappers have mutated so heavily that they resemble skeletal pterodactyls with black eyesockets and no legs. Unlike most Transgenants, Flappers lack many offensive capabilities and will actively attempt to flee from humans rather than attack them like other Transgenants, resulting in many soldiers bearing these creatures no mind.
- Chomper: A gigantic quadrapedal hunter Transgenant, Chompers are dog corpses whose gangly limbs have grown to immense proportions, resulting in them towering over humans. They also possess sharp teeth, malformed bodies and similar tumours on their backs to the Morelmen. Fast, durable and extremely strong, Chompers are among the most dangerous Transgenants encountered by the human survivors.
- Man-O-War: A spider-based Transgenant, Man-O-Wars resemble giant chitinous armoured ovals with enormous amounts of long wire-like tentacles protruding from beneath them. They are one of the few Transgenants capable of psionic attacks, which they use to project waves of psychic energy to attack humans and float through the air.
- Octoid: A gigantic unseen octopus-based Transgenant, Octoids exclusively exist beneath the earth, burrowing through it to use their long tumour-covered tentacles to attack prey.
- Jammer: A bizarre insect-based Transgenant, Jammers resemble gigantic purple pillbugs sitting atop rocks, which is in actuality a part of their bodies. Unable to physically move by themselves aside from rotating like a turret, Jammers have some of the more developed psionic abilities of the Transgenants, using these powers to move themselves and attack humans with blasts of psychic energy.
- Brainer:
- Reticulans: The central antagonists of the series, a race of extraterrestrial life native to the Zeta Reticulum system 40 light years from Earth. Hailing from a terrestrial planet twice the size of Earth with a lower gravitational pull and a greater oxygen content in the atmosphere, Reticulans somewhat resemble the archetypical Grey alien, with grey skin, large craniums and large black eyes, although they lack mouths and are roughly the same size as an adult male human rather than significantly smaller. They are responsible for the Biomass infection of Earth, intending to convert the planet into a gigantic god-like bio-organic supercomputer that they can then utilize to conquer the universe.
- Biomass:
- The Nightwatchers: The human antagonist faction of the series, a cult of alien-worshippers who were in collaboration with the Illuminati and thus prepared for the Nightfall, allowing all its members to survive.