Cowboys and Aliens is a 100-page Platinum Studios 2006 graphic novel created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley, with penciler Luciano Lima. The plot follows your typical alien invasion in the wild west, an extraterrestrial species landing in Arizona intending to enslave humanity, but cowboys and native Apache have other plans.
Tropes used in Cowboys and Aliens (comics) include:
- Adventure Duo: Zeke and Verity.
- Action Girl: Verity.
- Accidental Pervert: War Hawk comes across Verity bathing in the river while tracking a rabbit.
- Alien Invasion
- Badass Preacher: Father Breen has his moments.
- Bad Boss: Commander Rado Dar is not averse to killing his subordinates when they question his decisions, and declares that he's "not going to waste resources on incompetents", when a bunch of mooks go missing.
- Battle Couple: Verity and War Hawk become one.
- Cattle Punk
- Cool Old Guy: Chief Medicine Crow.
- Cool Shades: War Hawk takes a pair off of a dead alien.
- Dual-Wielding: Near the climax, the six-armed Gan-Alar wields a rifle in each hand.
- Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion
- Fiery Redhead: Verity
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: The aforementioned pair of Cool Shades pinpoint weakpoints in enemies, let you see in the dark, highlight footprints, and other neat stuff
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Kai.
- Heroes Want Redheads: War Hawk and Verity.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The primary alien mooks have four arms; Gan-Alar has six.
- Non-Nude Bathing: When Verity bathes in the river, she wears a nightgown
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: After spotting Verity wading in a river, War Hawk notes that should leave, but can't bring himself to look away as she's "so wondrous".
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After Alan Cross tells Rado Dar about the plan to blow up the beacon, Dar has him thrown in the brig with the other human prisoners. They are NOT happy with Cross...
- The Right of a Superior Species: The aliens this have this viewpoint (explicitly stated to be a metaphor for Manifest Destiny and the treatment of Native Americans).
- Whip It Good: Verity is quite pleased to steal an alien energy-whip.
- Worthy Opponent: Rado Dar declares that the humans are this, even going so far as to accept Zeke's challenge of a shoot-out.