Xenomorphs Get Extra Bloody In New Marvel Miniseries

Issue one cover art by Ryan Stegman

Make sure your New Year's Resolutions include adding the new comic Alien: Black, White & Blood to your pull-list.

The first issue of the four-issue miniseries is due to hit stores on February 7. 

Marvel Comics will explore new depths of terror this February by extending the popular Black, White & Red line into the Alien universe!

Alien: Black, White & Blood will be four issues of unbridled violence with shocking stories crafted by some the industry’s hottest talents.

Previous Black, White & Red instalments have spotlighted deadly icons, from Wolverine to Darth Vader. Now, it’s time for the Xenomorphs to be unleashed in this epic format!

Marvel Comics and 20th Century Studios present this kill-fest of an anthology in chest-rending artistic detail, brought to life in bold, black, white, red - and, when things get extra dangerous - GREEN!

Here are the tales fans can look forward to in the debut issue:

• Superstars Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing (Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, Guardians of The Galaxy) and brilliant artist Michael Dowling (Black Cat, Amazing Spider-Man) kick off Utopia, a generations-spanning saga that will be told across all four issues! Soaring through space to find a perfect world, a society descends into darkness as they’re shaped by their fear of the Xenomorphs!
• Fan-favorite writer Ryan Cady (Winter Guard) and Marvel newcomer Devmalya Pramanik explore the limits of compassion in Maternal Instincts. On a deep space vessel, a small child is the sole survivor of a Xenomorph slaughter and her only hope for salvation is the ship’s comforting and guiding AI computer unit.
• Rising stars Stephanie Phillips (Capwolf & The Howling Commandos, Cosmic Ghost Rider) and Marcelo Ferreira (Moon Knight: City of The Dead) deliver a tale of guts, glory and the most exhilarating of games in The Hunt. Xenomorphs become the main attraction when Weyland-Yutani gives wealthy thrill-seekers a chance to hunt down the galaxy’s deadliest species.

Alien #1 Trailer From Marvel

Predators Hunt Marvel Heroes on May Variant Covers

With Fox now being owned by Disney, allowing Marvel to play in the Alien and Predator universes, we've already seen the Alien-themed variant covers for several superhero titles, but now Marvel has unveiled a series of Predator variants for its May titles.

These are, of course, simply artistic flights of fancy and aren't any indication (yet) of actual crossovers between the Yautja of Predator fame and any particular Marvel superheroes.

That said, for my money, I reckon they would be a better fit in the Marvel Comic Book Universe than Alien's xenomorphs.

In Comics, No One Can Hear You Squee

Main cover by Inhyuk Lee

The first, new, Alien comic from Marvel - new custodians of the franchise's comic book universe - arrives on shelves in March.

Gabriel Cruz gave his life to Weyland-Yutani - in the case of an alien attack he barely survived, almost literally!

Recently retired, Cruz is trying to patch things up with his abandoned son with the help of his friend, a Bishop-model android, but his re-entry into civilian life is not going smoothly... and his encounters with the deadly Xenomorph are far from over.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca team up to tell an all-new tale of the titan of horror and science fiction that has scared audiences for decades.

No one is safe. No one is innocent. And no one can hear you scream.

Issue one is scheduled to dock on March 24.

Variant cover by Patrick Gleason

Variant cover by Peach Momoko

Variant cover by Ron Lim

Marvel Age of Alien Begins In March

Arriving from the cold depths of space, a whole new life cycle for the universe's most-terrifying xenomorphs begins next March with the publication of Alien #1 from the new shepherds of the franchise, Marvel Comics.

Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, creator of DC Comics' stunning dark fantasy series The Last God, with art by Salvador Larroca, this new tale will feature "both new and classic characters from Earth and beyond" and is aimed at both "longtime fans and newcomers to the legendary horror/science-fiction saga".

According to Marvel.com:

"The new story will feature a Weyland-Yutani mercenary named Gabriel Cruz as he battles a deadly new breed of xenomorph with the survival of his child hanging in the balance."

Rehomed Predators To Return Late 2021

Cover art by Iban Coello

The first Predator omnibus from Marvel Comics is scheduled to hit stores in August next year, according to the AVP Galaxy website.

Reprinting old Dark Horse comics, Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 1 will include:

PREDATOR (1989) #1-4, PREDATOR 2 #1-2, PREDATOR: Big Game #1-4, PREDATOR: COLD WAR #1-4, PREDATOR: THE BLOODY SANDS OF TIME #1-2, PREDATOR: RACE WAR #1-4, PREDATOR: BAD BLOOD #1-4, PREDATOR: INVADERS FROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION, PREDATOR: DARK RIVER #1-4, PREDATOR: STRANGE ROUX, and PREDATOR: KINDRED #1-4 – Plus material from DARK HORSE PRESENTS (1986) #46, #67-69, and #119: DARK HORSE COMICS #1-2, #4-7, #10-14, #16-18 and #20-21; and A DECADE OF DARK HORSE #1

As well as the standard cover, featuring cover art by Iban Coello (pictured above), there is to be a direct market variant with a cover from original Predator comic artist Chris Warner.

While the Predators are most definitely not part of the official Alien canon, there's still an enormous overlap in the fandoms and there's nothing to stop Game Mothers from including the Yautja in their campaigns.

These reprints may provide crucial inspiration fuel for those who missed the numerous Dark Horse comics on their first publication.

Aliens vs Marvel Heroes on January Variant Covers

While Marvel has been tight-lipped about news of its upcoming Alien books, it is celebrating its acquisition of the franchise with a splash of variant covers on its titles in January.

Here's a selection to whet your appetite. 

Remember these are all just "art pieces" and no indication of whether the infamous xenomorphs are going to be shoehorned into the wider Marvel Comics Universe (as Conan the Barbarian has been) or left to their own devices in their own pocket universe.

Given that Marvel is simply licencing Conan, his being woven so heavily into the fabric of the Marvel Universe has been a big surprise to me

However, the Alien, Predator, and AvP franchises are now owned wholly by Disney (which, in turn, owns Marvel), so I would have thought highly likely that we will see some crossover with superheroes in the future.

The xenomorphs, for instance, could easily replace The Brood (Marvel's old xenomorph rip-offs).

Alien RPG Writer Andrew E.C. Gaska Answers Fan Questions

Night Terrors: Graveyard Moon Could Easily Work In The Alien ' Verse

In the not so far future, Earth no longer has space for graveyards. Callisto, a rocky moon of Jupiter, has become designated as the graveyard planet, but only the wealthy can afford a proper burial there. Cooper and his longtime crew prepare to transport a load of the dead, having flown this route many times over. But their routine trip to the graveyard moon is disrupted by deception and greed… and they find themselves under siege by the ghosts of the dead they carry.

John Carpenter’s Night Terrors: Graveyard Moon is the first of a new range of standalone graphic novels from Storm King Comics, out this month.

Written by comic book horror legend Steve Niles, the full-colour 72-page trade paperback tells the story of the crew of a cargo ship transporting corpses for burial on a designated 'Graveyard Moon' and finding themselves ensnared in unfathomable horror.

Check out the sample pages below:

Marvel's First Alien Omnibus

Direct market exclusive cover by Mark A. Nelson

The first reprint omnibus collection of old Alien comics coming from Marvel's new licencing deal with Fox is due to hit stores in April.

Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 will contain:

• Aliens (1988) 1-6,
• Aliens (1989) 1-4,
• Aliens: Earth War (1990) 1-4,
• Aliens: Genocide (1991) 1-4,
• Aliens: Hive (1992) 1-4,
• Aliens: Tribes (1992) 1,
• Aliens: Newt's Tale (1992) 1-2,
• Alien 3 (1992) 1-3
• Aliens: Space Marines (1992) 1-12

Plus material from Dark Horse Presents (1986) 24, 42-43, 56; Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special (1991) 1; and Dark Horse Insider (1989) 14-27.

Aliens and Predators Move To Marvel

Forget the Brood, because the O.G. xenomorphs from Alien are coming to Marvel Comics next year, along with the Predator.

If you've been wondering what Disney is going to do with the Alien and Predator properties since acquiring Fox, then this looks like a first step.

Starting in 2021, Marvel will be publishing new stories set in the franchises of Alien, Predator, and Alien vs Predator, which will "feature new and classic characters from Earth and beyond to explore never-before-seen corners of both the Alien and Predator universes".

So, that's another I.P. - like Conan - that Marvel has snatched from under the nose of Dark Horse.

Will this mean, as Marvel has done with Conan, that the Xenomorph XX121 and the Yautja will be crossing over into the Marvel Universe?

I'd pay to see that!

Comics: Predator - Original Screenplay

Treading a similar path to the comic book adaptation of the original script of Alien, a new comic from Dark Horse presents Predator: The Original Screenplay.

While I'm not 100 percent convinced that the Yautja (or Predators) belong in the Alien universe (except in fan fiction, like the AvP movies), there may be something in this iteration of the story that could be lifted for use in a game.

Before there was Predator, there was Hunters.

Now, Dark Horse Comics and Twentieth Century Fox invite you to experience that story in Predator: The Original Screenplay.

Adapted from James E. Thomas and John C. Thomas’ 1984 screenplay Hunters, writer Jeremy Barlow (Alien vs. Predator: Thicker Than Blood, Star Wars: Empire), artist Patrick Blaine (Star Wars: Empire, Witchblade), and inker Andy Owens (Tomb Raider, Ghost) bring the original story to brutal life.

In Predator: The Original Screenplay, a team of military specialists are on a rescue mission in the jungles of Central America.

The details of the mission are classified, but the team soon uncovers a trail of lies and deceit.

Something is observing them — tracking their every move.

The hunt has begun!

A five-part mini-series, the first issue of Predator: The Original Screenplay is due out on June 10 (pandemic willing).

What's In A Name?

Despite taking a tone that is both patronising and slightly condescending, this old article on Ars Tecnica raises an important point: the creatures faced by Ripley, the colonial marines et al are not actually called "xenomorphs".

That is simply another way of saying "alien life form"... or, as Hudson would have it, "bug".

The dialogue in Aliens also strongly suggests that that "Ripley's bad guys" are not the only alien species in the universe, it's just these are a previously unknown - and therefore unnamed - lifeform.

So, what do you call these creatures in your own headcanon? How are they referred to in your games?

"The species' binomial names are given in Latin as either Internecivus raptus (meant as "murderous thief") in the Alien Quadrilogy DVD or Lingua foeda acheronsis (meant as "foul tongue from Acheron") in some comic books... In The Weyland-Yutani Report, the Alien encountered by the Nostromo was specifically referred to as "Xenomorph XX121"."

- from Wikipedia

Comics: Alien - Original Screenplay #1

Cover by Guilherme Balbi

Originally due to land in comic stores on April 22, just in time for Alien Day on April 26, Alien: The Original Screenplay #1, is a comic book adaptation of Dan O'Bannon's original 1976 screenplay - putting a fresh spin on an old favourite.

En route to back to Earth, the crew of the starship Snark intercepts an alien transmission. Their investigation leads them to a desolate planetoid, a crashed alien spacecraft, and a pyramidic structure of unknown origin. Then the terror begins . . .

Written by Cristiano Seixas, with art by Guilherme Balbi, Alien: The Original Screenplay is a five issue mini-series from Dark Horse Comics, that offers an alternate sequence of events to those we know so well.

Of course, the current coronavirus pandemic has shut down distribution of new comics, so the immediate future of this title remains up in the air.

Variant cover by Walter Simonson

Preview pages:

Xenomorph Size Comparison Videos

CAMPAIGN MODE

From the Official Newsletter for the Upcoming Alien Tabletop RPG

While Cinematic mode lets you relive the intense drama och thrill of an Alien movie, Campaign play lets you go deeper, exploring the darkness of space over the course of a long campaign, spanning dozens of sessions. There is a lot more to do in the Alien universe than fighting xenomorphs!

The key tool for Campaign play is the starmap of known space in 2183 AD.

The map is based on the work of Scott Middlebrook, with additional work by our main setting writer and Alien franchise consultant Andrew E. C. Gaska, and graphic design by our Art Director Christian Granath.

The star map is divided into broad sections such as the Core Systems, the Outer Veil and the Frontier.

It also indicates which areas are under the general control of the main factions of human civilization, such as the United Americas and the Three World Empire, and includes many stars, planets and colonies from the Alien films as well as from video games, books and comics.

The locations and factions on the map are further described in the Governments & Corporations and Systems & Planets chapters in the core game book, both written by Drew Gaska.

TOOLS FOR CAMPAIGN PLAY

Beyond the pure setting texts describing the world of 2183 AD, the Alien RPG core rulebook will also contain a powerful array of tools for the Gamemaster to use in Campaign play.

These tools include extensive random tables to quickly create systems, planets, missions and encounters with a few dice rolls, turning the Alien RPG into an open-world, sandbox game.

These tools are created by Free League co-founder Nils Karlén in cooperation with RPG designer Paul Elliott (Hostile, Zenobia).

Campaign play and the tools for it are built around three distinct campaign concepts, determined by the types of characters you will be playing in your campaign. The three concepts are described below.

SPACE TRUCKERS

While not as lucrative a field as it was some fifty years ago, hauling refineries and cargo between Earth and the colonies is still big business.

The advent of newer and faster FTL drives has significantly shortened the travel time between worlds, ensuring that starship crews don’t have to spend nearly as much time in stasis.

Most companies compensate their crews not only for their work but for time lost in hypersleep as well.

While most space truckers work for one corporation or another, there are also independent trader captains, smugglers, salvage crews, and privateers.

Space is big, and legally or off the books, people and things always need to get from one side of it to the other.

COLONIAL MARINES

The United States Colonial Marine Corps represents the finest fighting force ever assembled.

Technologically advanced and sporting all the latest in military hardware — a large amount of which is designed by Weyland-Yutani — the Colonial Marines are able to operate independently in nearly any environment.

Combat teams are cross-trained and can be deployed at a moment’s notice to nearly any world without extensive briefing.

Military occupations include vehicle operators and pilots, combat technicians, heavy weapons specialists, medics, engineers, and career officers.

Naval occupations are found in the USCM support service of warship and starfighter teams of the United Americas Outer Rim Defense Fleet, and there are special military R&D programs across the spectrum that require volunteers.

On the Frontier, there is always something that needs defending and some planet that needs pacifying.

FRONTIER COLONISTS

To most, becoming a colonist means you accept a hard life with little reward other than the satisfaction of a job well done.

A colonist’s hands are always dirty and their feet are always tired. Living on the edge of civilization can have its benefits, however.

Depending on your profession, the chance to strike it big could be right around the corner.

Frontier Colonists are scouts and homesteaders, farmers and scientists, miners and doctors.

Colonial Marshals keep the peace and Frontier journalists keep the colonies in the know.

Colonists are the lifeblood of humanity.

Stay tuned – and tell all of your friends to also sign up to this newsletter at Alien-RPG.com!

GM IDEAS: Doom Worlds

Apokolips from the DC Comics Universe

This infographic from Futurism is a handy source of inspiration for scientifically-based weird worlds: Planets of Doom - The Strange Worlds of Dead and Dying Stars.

There's some wonderfully wild science there, including a planet which is a giant diamond!

BUILDING BETTER WORLDS

From the Official Newsletter for the Upcoming Alien Tabletop RPG

Most Alien films tell a horryfing and thrilling story with a tight focus.

They generally don't reveal that much detail about the greater universe, instead leaving the viewer with largely unexplained names of locations and organizations to spark the imagination.

Cinematic scenarios for the Alien RPG will work in very much the same way as the films.

But for Campaign mode, we need to flesh out the universe and present the Alien world of 2183 AD to you as a cohesive whole.

The full game will have meaty chapters on governments, corporations, star systems, planets, colonies, and xenomorphs, as well as a beautiful star map of known space for you to explore.

The lead writer of the setting chapters is Andrew E. C. Gaska – author, senior development editor at Lion Forge Comics, and franchise consultant on Alien, Predator and Planet of the Apes for 20th Century Fox.

With total attention to the minute details of the Alien lore from decades of movies, games, books, and comics, Drew's work is to preserve the essence of the expanded material and bring it in line with hardcore canon, filling in gaps where needed. In addition to his setting design, Drew is the lead writer of the introductory scenario Chariot of the Gods.

To compliment Drew's work, RPG designer Paul Elliott (Hostile, Zenobia) is writing systems and missions generators for the Gamemaster to use, as well as modular locations and adversaries, to make the Alien RPG in Campaign Mode a truly sandbox, open-world game.

The end result is a rich game universe in the deadly cold of outer space for you to explore.

More details on the Alien RPG universe of 2183 AD will follow in later newsletters.

Stay tuned – and tell all of your friends to also sign up to this newsletter at Alien-RPG.com!