Aliens: Mondo Pest: Plot, Characters & Lore

Published: June-August 1994, in Dark Horse Comics #22-24
One-Shot: April 1995
Script: Henry Gilroy
Art: Ronnie del Carmen
Colors: Matthew Hollingsworth
Lettering: Steve Dutro
One-Shot Cover: Ronnie del Carmen
Editor: Ryder Windham
Collection Editor: Marilee Hord
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Format: Three-part serial, collected as a 36-page story
Setting: Colony Oryza

Aliens: Mondo Pest was a comic written by Henry Gilroy and illustrated by Ronnie del Carmen, first serialized in Dark Horse Comics #22-24 in 1994. It featured Herk Mondo, an independent Xenomorph exterminator who answered a distress call from the rice colony of Oryza. His attempt to clear a hive cost him a hand and led him to uncover a scheme against the settlement. Dark Horse collected the story as a one-shot in April 1995.

Plot Summary

Nate's Rescue

Herk Mondo warns Nate after saving him from Xenomorphs

Herk Mondo answered a distress call from Colony Oryza, an agricultural settlement growing rice. As his ship approached the colony, a boy named Nate fled through the flooded fields with a Xenomorph behind him. The boy stumbled into the water and was cornered, but Mondo brought his ship down on one creature and shot another. He warned Nate never to turn his back on a Xenomorph.

Nate had gone out looking for his missing Uncle Hank when he encountered the creatures. With the immediate danger over, he pointed Mondo toward the colony and asked him to find his uncle. Mondo agreed to look for Hank and took the boy aboard. He then contacted Oryza to request landing instructions, expecting to meet the colonists who had called for an exterminator.

Arrival At Oryza

Dr. Kelly Ann Paige and Simon Plowright meet Mondo and Nate beside the damaged ship

Oryza's air defenses fired a missile at the approaching ship, forcing Mondo to crash in the fields. Furious at the damage to a spacecraft he had finished paying for, he returned fire toward the colony's defenses. Surveyor Simon Plowright met him at the wreck and blamed faults in the automated system. Dr. Kelly Ann Paige, the colony's leader, introduced herself as the person who had sent the distress call.

Paige explained that Oryza's farmers had no money to pay him and offered developed agricultural land in exchange for his services. Mondo objected to being shot down and then offered rice fields as compensation. Plowright promised to tow the ship into the compound and repair it. Unable to leave without those repairs, Mondo agreed to deal with the infestation. Nate identified a cave near Old Man Radomski's property as the place where the Xenomorphs had appeared.

Radomski's Farm

Mondo and Paige find Uncle Hank cocooned with other colonists underground

Paige accompanied Mondo to Radomski's property with several armed volunteers. During the journey, she asked about the name Sally tattooed on his arm, but he refused to explain it. Mondo carried a custom gun that fired through both barrels simultaneously and warned the volunteers to follow his orders. Nate ignored instructions to remain with Plowright and hid aboard their vehicle to join the search for Hank.

The group descended into a cave containing a Xenomorph hive. One of the colonists warned Mondo against using his flamethrower because the walls contained magnesium, which would be difficult to extinguish once ignited. Farther inside, Paige found Hank and other missing colonists bound to the walls with hive resin. She approached Hank intending to free him, while Mondo examined the captives and the surrounding tunnels.

The Hive Ambush

Adult Xenomorphs surround the rescuers beside the cocooned colonists

Hank refused Paige's attempt to rescue him and asked to be killed. He knew that the Xenomorphs had infected him and feared what would emerge from his body. Mondo agreed that the captive colonists could not be saved, but Paige rejected his assessment and tried to help Hank. While they argued, adult Xenomorphs approached through the hive behind them.

The creatures attacked at close range, killing members of the rescue party before they could establish an effective defense. Mondo fired into the attackers while the volunteers struggled to use their weapons under pressure. Paige called for a retreat as Xenomorphs moved between the rescuers and the cocooned colonists. Mondo continued firing until his gun ran empty, leaving him exposed to a creature that lunged directly at him.

Herk's Lost Hand

A Xenomorph bites off Herk Mondo's hand during the hive ambush

A Xenomorph seized Mondo's right hand in its jaws and tore it off. He drew a pistol with his remaining hand and fired at the creature as it withdrew into the hive. Rather than immediately following Paige out, he pursued it, demanding the return of his severed hand. Paige had to call him back as the surviving members of the expedition fell back toward the exit.

Nate waited near the entrance because he would not leave without Hank, forcing Paige to pull him away. Hank repeated his request to Mondo, who shot him before withdrawing under fire. The boy saw his uncle being killed and blamed Mondo for his death. Outside, Paige accused the exterminator of killing four men. Mondo maintained that the infected colonists had been beyond rescue, then bandaged his stump while they returned to the compound.

Attack On The Compound

Mondo drives the colony vehicle into the compound during a Xenomorph attack

Plowright refused to open the barricade for the returning vehicle, claiming that admitting them would compromise the compound's security. When Paige protested that they had injured people aboard, he threatened to activate the missile system. Xenomorphs climbed over the walls and attacked the defenders while he held the entrance shut. One creature smashed through the control room window, and Plowright fled from his post.

Mondo took the wheel from Paige and drove through the barricade into the compound. He ran down a Xenomorph, then fought among the vehicles as Paige tried to protect Nate. Using his rifle and a large blade, he killed creatures attacking them at close range. He finally used a flamethrower against a group closing in around him. After the fighting, he found Nate's broken glasses and realized that the boy had been taken.

Return To The Hive

Xenomorphs gather around a manufactured rack of hatched eggs in the hive

As the surviving colonists cleared the walls, Mondo gathered more equipment and prepared to return underground for Nate. Paige praised him for going back, but he rejected her description of him as a hero and said he had a personal grievance against the creatures. He took a heavy weapon and a hooked knife into the cave, intending to recover the boy whether he was alive or dead.

Inside, Mondo discovered a manufactured rack holding sixteen Xenomorph eggs. Only one remained unhatched. The installation showed that someone had deliberately brought the eggs into the cave, rather than the infestation beginning there naturally. Mondo burned the remaining egg and found Nate held in resin farther inside. More Xenomorphs surrounded him as he tried to work out how many creatures remained from the original clutch.

Burning The Hive

Herk Mondo with his gun and a blade attached to his stump in the burning hive

Surrounded underground, Mondo remembered the warning about magnesium and deliberately ignited the cave walls. The fire spread through the hive as he fought toward Nate, using his gun and the blade attached to his bandaged stump. He shot the approaching Xenomorphs while climbing through the burning chamber. A Facehugger also attacked him during the advance, and he struck it away as he continued toward the boy.

Nate remained bound to the hive wall above the fighting. Mondo tried to reach him while adult Xenomorphs attacked from below and from the surrounding structures. His flamethrower ran out of fuel, and he continued with his remaining ammunition. After firing at the creatures and the structures around them, he reached the boy's position and used his knife to cut through the resin holding him.

Escape From The Hive

Mondo faces a Xenomorph after cutting Nate free in the burning hive

Mondo freed Nate and tried to take him out of the burning chamber, but a Xenomorph struck him and forced him to put the boy aside. Recognizing the creature as the one responsible for his missing hand, Mondo attacked it with his blade. He repeatedly slashed its head until it collapsed, then turned back to collect Nate and leave the hive.

Nate picked up a pistol and pointed it toward Mondo. The exterminator began to address what had happened to Hank, but the boy fired past him at another Xenomorph approaching from behind. Nate repeated Mondo's warning about never turning his back on a creature. With the attacker killed, Mondo carried the boy out through the burning tunnels and returned him to the colony.

Plowright's Confession

Mondo says goodbye to Paige before leaving Oryza aboard his repaired ship

The following day, the colonists repaired Mondo's ship while Nate repainted its insignia. Paige invited Mondo to stay and help with the harvest, but he declined, saying that he needed a replacement hand. Plowright emerged alive from the damaged compound. Mondo seized him and drove his blade into his body, forcing him to admit that he had imported the eggs and sent the security men into the hive. He wanted to eliminate the colony so he could mine its magnesium deposits.

Plowright had also been responsible for the missile attack on Mondo's ship. After extracting the confession, Mondo pulled a Chestburster from the surveyor's body and crushed it underfoot. Nate showed little sympathy for Plowright, but kicked Mondo in the shin when he tried to apologize for Hank. Before leaving Oryza, Mondo gave the boy his cap and glasses, said goodbye to Paige and departed aboard his repaired spacecraft.

Key Characters

Herk Mondo was the independent exterminator operating Mondo Pest. He lost his right hand in the hive, returned to rescue Nate and exposed the source of the infestation.
Nate was a young colonist searching for his Uncle Hank. Mondo saved him twice, and Nate later shot a Xenomorph approaching the exterminator from behind.
Dr. Kelly Ann Paige led Oryza and called for outside help. She joined the rescue expedition and defended Nate during the compound attack.
Simon Plowright was the colony surveyor. He imported Xenomorph eggs to remove the settlement and gain access to its magnesium deposits.
Hank was Nate's uncle, captured and infected in the hive. He asked Mondo to kill him before the parasite inside him could emerge.

Editions

Dark Horse Comics #22-24 originally serialized Mondo Pest from June to August 1994. Henry Gilroy wrote the story, Ronnie del Carmen drew it, Matthew Hollingsworth supplied the colors, and Steve Dutro lettered it. Dark Horse reissued the 36-page story as the Aliens: Mondo Pest one-shot in April 1995, with a cover by del Carmen. Ryder Windham was credited as editor and Marilee Hord as collection editor.

Aliens Omnibus Volume 4, published by Dark Horse in July 2008, collected Mondo Pest with Mondo Heat, Aliens: Stronghold, Aliens: Music of the Spears, Aliens: Berserker and Aliens: Taste. Marvel later reprinted Mondo Pest in Aliens: The Original Years Omnibus Volume 3 in 2022, which collected the material from Dark Horse Comics #22-24.

Behind The Scenes

Mondo Pest gave Herk Mondo his first solo story and introduced the extermination service whose name supplied the title. The story established his distinctive equipment, Sally tattoo and relationship with Nate, while leaving the identity of Sally unexplained. Its central conflict involved a colonial surveyor using Xenomorphs to clear agricultural land for mining, with Mondo discovering the manufactured egg installation before forcing Plowright to confess.

Henry Gilroy and Ronnie del Carmen continued the character's adventures in Aliens: Mondo Heat, published as a one-shot in 1996. That sequel took Mondo to Gimeno and gave him a prosthetic replacement for the hand lost on Oryza. Matthew Hollingsworth colored Mondo Pest, while Pamela Rambo colored Mondo Heat. Steve Dutro lettered both stories.

Herk Mondo had made his debut in Aliens: Colonial Marines #6 in 1993, before Mondo Pest began serialization. In that cameo, he helped Lieutenant Joseph Henry and his Marines fight aquatic Xenomorphs on Bracken's World and rescued Carmen Vasquez. Mondo Pest expanded his role into a solo adventure, followed by Mondo Heat in 1996.

Conclusion

Aliens: Mondo Pest followed Herk Mondo's first solo comic adventure, from his arrival at Oryza to the rescue of Nate and the exposure of Simon Plowright. Gilroy and del Carmen ended the story with the colony surviving, its surveyor dead and Mondo leaving with one hand missing. His next adventure continued in Mondo Heat.