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.

Now Your Player-Characters Can Explore Dark Corners of The Universe

Alien Day (April 26) seems an apt date to open pre-orders for the next supplement for Free League's wildly popular Alien roleplaying game.

All the wonder and danger of the stars is yours - if you can just wipe the grime off your face and dig the dirt out from under your fingernails first.

Building Better Worlds is the long-awaited guide to creating explorer and colonist characters and running an "open-world" style campaign.

Airless moons circle swirling gas giants, eager to be transformed into tomorrow’s paradise. Dark ancient mysteries wait to be unearthed beneath a millennium of debris. Searing solar flares boil your flesh and blacken your bones as you harness their power to light a hundred worlds. Long lost mysteries lie entombed in the frozen hearts of icy comets. Unstable tectonic plates shift to drown iridium mines in scalding lava. Even the truth of humanity's origins awaits you out there, orbiting some dying star. And out there amongst it all is something truly horrifying - something that nature never intended. Something alien.

This new book for the multi award-winning game system contains:

● History of Colonization – the story of humanity’s reach for the stars.

● Creating Explorers & Colonists – expanded character creation rules for life on the frontier.

● Gear & Ships – an extensive chapter with new gear and spaceships, gloriously illustrated.

● Extrasolar Species Catalog – new Xenomorphic creatures to encounter.

● The Lost Worlds – the framework and backstory for a frontier campaign.

● Expeditions – six thrilling expeditions into uncharted space, playable in any order.

● The Endgame – the final showdown with everything at stake.

"Scream Not Working Because Space Make Deaf"

Honestly, I don't believe this is genuine. It is far more likely that it was invented out of whole cloth or some wag ran the film's synopsis backwards-and-forwards through Google translate a few times. But, anyways, it's still highly amusing to imagine it could be real.

"I Just Wanna Know One Thing..."

Author Alec Worley has written a great article on the brilliance of the marines' briefing scene in James Cameron's Aliens, and why it works so well.

Check it out here.

In Space No One Can Hear You Moving Around A Board Avoiding The Alien

Due for release in August, Alien: Fate of the Nostromo is a new co-op game from Ravensburger that allows players to take the roles of the Nostromo crew as you try to rewrite their fates, trapped on the cargo ship with the seemingly unstoppable alien lifeform.

Designed for one to five players, the game includes six miniatures (see below), a board depicting the Nostromo, and assorted illustrated cards.

In Alien: Fate of the Nostromo, players take the role of Nostromo crew members Ripley, Lambert, Parker, Brett, or Dallas.

Over the course of the game, they collect scrap, craft items, and fulfill different objectives. The crew will lose and gain morale as they encounter the Alien and other situations.

If crew morale reaches zero, players lose the game.

Each turn has two phases. In the Crew Action phase, players creep through the Nostromo’s halls, gathering scrap, crafting items, trading scrap and items with other players, and using items and their special abilities. Brett, for example, can craft items with one fewer scrap than other players.

If the Alien is within three spaces of the player with the incinerator, that player can use the incinerator to send the Alien back to its nest.

In the Encounter phase, players draw and resolve an Encounter card. The Alien could be lurking behind any corner…

Once the players fulfil their initial objectives, they face one of five final missions, each with a unique set of requirements.

Players must fulfil the final mission’s requirements simultaneously to win the game.

Players can also introduce Science Officer Ash for a more challenging game. Ash moves through the ship, removing scrap and forcing the crew to lose morale.

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.

Birth

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

Alien TV Series In Development

 

During yesterday's four-hour Disney Investors presentation, it was revealed that Fargo and Legion's Noah Hawley was developing an Earth-based Alien television serial for Hulu.

Ridley Scott is in talks to executive produce.

Author Andrew EC Gasker's Q&A On Colonial Marines Operations Manual

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."

Xenomorphs and Laser Swords - China's Variant Knows Its Target Audience!

Bloody Disgusting has this breakdown of Variant's wild plot:

“It was told that Jamie, who was born in space, followed his parents in search of an unknown creature in the universe.

“After a long period of searching, the unknown creature was finally captured by the crew of the Thunder and named “Baal”. Under the lure of Baal, the young Jamie released it.

“Baal” who escaped from the experimental tank killed all the crew and Jamie’s parents, and the young Jamie escaped back to Earth in an escape capsule alone.

“Twenty years later, a variant of “Baal” has now appeared on earth. Jamie must save mankind and find self-redemption.”

Jonathan Hicks Takes A Look At His Forthcoming RPG: Those Dark Places

Mini Epics from Weta Workshop

In 2019, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Alien by unleashing the Xenomorph into our Mini Epics mix. We lost a few Executive Officers in the process. Luckily, our heroine has arrived to get the situation back under control.

The Nostromo’s initial resident is now joined by Ripley and the Facehugger.

Gale Force Nine Launches Dedicated Website For Its Aliens Game

With Gale Force Nine's Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps due to land in stores by the end of the year - along with its two expansion sets (Get Away From Her, You Bitch and Ultimate Badasses), the publisher has launched a dedicated website for the game.

Check it out here - for all the latest info on the game, as well as PDF donwloads of the rules (to get your mind in shape for the actual release of the box sets).

This is a good way for you to get a real taste of the game before you decide whether to pull the trigger on it or not.

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: Modern HBO Max Trailer

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

Aliens: Last Stand

Aliens: Last Stand is a fan made film by German directors Felix Berner and Dieter Joppich. Berner and Joppich who are both sci-fi enthusiasts and fans of the ALIEN franchise started filming in 2017.

They were supported by the German Colonial Marines, a Germany-based group of Alien fans founded by Berner in 2016. The two filmmakers filmed most of the material in front of a green screen.

Aliens: Last Stand takes place on board the military ship USS. Yotumo where Sgt. Davis (played by Ricco Ross from the movie Aliens) sends out a distress signal into space.

A troop of marine raiders stationed on moon LV-446 head immediately towards the USS. Yotumo. Little do they know that arriving on board of the ship will not only seal their fate but also end their lives.

Deep inside the ship there are creatures already lurking for their next price.

Will the marines survive against the xenomorphs? And how did Sgt. Davis manage to send a distress signal in the first place? Reload your pulse rifles and buckle up, because in space nobody can hear you scream.