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."

DC Showcase: Adam Strange

The recently released Blu-Ray of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War includes an animated extra feature that could be of interest to Aliens fans.

The animated short film DC Showcase: Adam Strange revolves around an incident at a mining colony with more than a passing resemblance to a Weyland-Yutani "shake and bake" enterprise, from the construction of the buildings, and the outfits worn, to the vehicles employed on site.

The plot, too, is very much an Aliens homage, with miners accidentally opening up a previously-unknown nest of insectoid xenomorphs and releasing them on them on the colony.

However, unbeknown to the colonists, instead of Ellen Ripley they have the sometime superhero Adam Strange (voiced by Charlie Weber) in their midst.

Having been whisked away from his adopted homeworld of Rann by the fickle Zeta-Beam, Strange has been stranded on this distant colony.

The loss of his family - and realisation that he may never see them again - has pushed him over the edge and Strange has become the town drunk.

The colonists have no idea who this derelict really is, until he is stirred from his drunken depression by the existential threat of the awakened monsters.

While the flashbacks explaining how Adam got where he is at the start of the story are very "comic book superhero", the majority of the DC Showcase short is pure Aliens.

And who doesn't love a "mysterious drifter saves the day" story?

Know Your Enemy

Inforgraphic by bungchung 

Click to embiggen

Super7 Expands Its Aliens Range Of ReAction Figures

A half-dozen new 3.75″ Aliens ReAction Figures will be available from Super7's online store next Wednesday (May 6): Ripley, Newt, Bishop, Hicks, Hudson, and Vasquez.

Planets Of The Alien 'Verse

The planets of Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Prometheus and Alien Covenant.

Sourced from the films, novelisations by Alan Dean Foster and The Weyland-Yutani Report by S.D. Perry

Some Vintage Poster Eye-Candy

by Tim Anderson

by Tim Anderson

by Tom Walker

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!

Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem (2007)

For years fans were crying out for a match-up between the Aliens and the Predators, but they were less than impressed with the 2004 addition to the mythos of both these creatures: Aliens Vs Predator.

At least that had Lance Henriksen in it as Charles Bishop Weyland (the 'inspiration' for the Bishop android in Aliens) to tenuously tie it in to the earlier films.

Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem picks up right from the end of the first continuity-befuddling AvP film, with the birth of the 'PredAlien' (a hybrid Alien born out of the chest of a Predator).

It attacks the Predators on the ship and forces a crash-landing back on Earth, near the small, isolated Colorado town of Gunnerson, releasing not only the PredAlien, but hordes of little face-huggers, in the wilds.

This is a town of bland, non-entities (the only slightly famous face I spotted was Reiko Aylesworth aka Michelle Dessler from 24) meaning that anyone could die at anytime (including children and pregnant women), as none have the protection of star quality.

We are quickly introduced to an array of stereotypes - from the returning soldier who has lost her 'special bond' with her daughter, to the disenfranchised local sheriff and the recently released convict returning to his home, and delinquent brother, to make a new life - before the action rapidly escalates.

You can't fault the directors Colin and Greg Strause for the speed with which they make the carnage snowball, as the alien horde grows exponentially and the humans quickly discover that there is nothing they can do to avoid becoming monster chow.

The Predators have dispatched one of their own to Earth, presumably to clean up the mess they've helped create, and he starts butchering humans and Aliens alike in his zeal.

Before you can say "but what's the story?" the film has spiralled into a plotless gorefest of Aliens munching on humans, humans running around screaming and the Predator killing anyone he can lay his hands on.

Much of the action takes place at night, and with the town's power out, so it's often difficult to even get a sense of what's going on, but ultimately it's difficult to grow tired to watching two of cinema's greatest killing machines doing what they do best.

There are some half-decent moments - such as the ambush of the national guard, which is a low-budget re-enactment of the marine massacre early in Aliens 2 - but don't expect to remember many, or any, of the performances about 10 minutes after you've stopped watching.

In the end, it is left to the US Army's radical "evac" plan, and a cameo by Françoise Yip as Ms. Yutani, to claw the franchise back into some vague semblance of the continuity established in the first three Alien movies.

Gone are the gritty, outer space environments, the 'lived in' space ships and alien planets, replaced by everyday, contemporary Earth; reducing the Aliens to just more monsters that go bump in the night.

In theory, it's actually not a bad idea - to remind us all just how bad ass Aliens and Predators are - but it could have done with a bit more story to back it up. For lengthy sequences, this movie ranks on a par with watching someone else play a particularly violent video game.

Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem is really one for die-hard Alien/Predator completionist fans only or if you're just looking for some moving wallpaper while you do something else; don't go into this expecting anything new or inspirational and you won't be disappointed.