ZONED OUT

If it’s not aliens, it’s cryptids and idealists that complicate the lives of Area 51’s teen interns.

Barely a week since the harrowing events of Alien Summer (2022), the discovery of a tantalizing Forbidden Zone beneath Area 51’s sprawling facility pitches Viv, Charlotte, Elijah, and Ray (with cute pocket alien Meekee) into an escalating catastrophe after parties unknown stage a mass breakout of cryptids ranging from jackalopes and a huge but (being Canadian) polite lady Yeti named Roger to a terrifying Chupacabra with mind-control powers. What with Viv’s unsuccessfully struggling to suppress her own recently revealed alien powers and also stewing over the attention Elijah seems to be paying to newly arrived auburn-haired brainiac Joanna Kim, Murray and Smith also stir plenty of emotional turmoil into the effervescent whirl of attacks, betrayals, and cliffhangers. As it turns out, the cryptids were released by a well-meaning animal rights activist, and if the authors sidestep a meaningful discussion of the ins and outs of that issue, they do at least give the ethics of the act some nuance on the way to a tidy and (improbably) fatality-free resolution. Spaziante contributes a helpful set of colorful creature and locale files. As previously established, Viv is Black, Elijah is Latine, and their fellow interns are White; Joanna’s surname may point to Korean heritage.

Tongue-in-cheek, pedal-to-the-metal action, with an unusually broad cast of humans, aliens, and…others.