Xenoporphs are taking on the Marvel Universe in the publisher's January 2021 solicitations. Characters ranging from Venom and Thor to Wolverine and Daredevil are shown battling the intergalactic aliens. The release of the January variant cover art comes just months after Marvel announced they will be coming out with all new Alien and Predator stories next year. The Aliens' appearance on the covers of these new Marvel books may be a tease to the new Alien comics to come, or perhaps the Xenomorphs are simply sick of battling DC heroes and now want to tangle with some from Marvel instead.
The Xenomorphs are no strangers to comic book crossovers. In 1995’s Superman/Aliens, written by Dan Jurgens, the creatures thought they could take on the Man of Steel himself. After receiving a Kryptonian distress signal, Superman goes to investigate a Kryptonian city on a distant planet that survived Krypton's destruction. Though he was weakened from the planet's different solar radiation, Superman was able to save some survivors before learning the planet was home to an Alien Queen. Superman battles the Xenomorphs, and even becomes impregnated by one, but once Superman is back under the healing light of the yellow sun, he shows them who the superior alien is, killing the creature before it could hatch.
Batman had a similar run-in with the LV-426 natives. The 1997 limited series Batman/Aliens, by writer Ron Marz, has Batman in the jungles of Guatemala where Wayne Enterprises was doing research. Before long, Batman discovers the alien threat, becomes familiar with the Xenomorph’s life cycle, and finds a way to take the monsters down. Batman even goes head to head with a Xenomorph-crocodile hybrid! Could similar stories be in the future for Marvel Comics? The prospect of a Marvel crossover with the space monsters is less likely at this time than a standalone Alien book, which could be what Marvel is teasing with the newly released variant covers.
Crossing over the Xenomorphs with fan favorite characters is a fun maneuver on Marvel’s part to get people used to the idea of the creature's new Marvel Comics home. Fans of the Aliens comics from Dark may have been disappointed to learn of the publisher switch, but based solely on the look of the Xenomorphs from the solicitations, the design and structure behind how the creatures are written and drawn shouldn’t change too drastically from their Dark Horse counterparts. The covers depict the fierce veracity of the Xenomorphs on every variant, going toe to toe with some of Earth’s mightiest heroes. The Dark Horse artwork and the newly released covers of aliens battling Marvel heroes shows that the brutality and sheer cosmic horror of the alien creatures will seemingly remain in upcoming stories. Based on the evidence presented thus far, fans of the Dark Horse Aliens series shouldn’t be left wanting once Marvel’s version hits the shelves next year.
Marvel’s decision to slap Xenomorphs onto their variants isn’t only to tease their upcoming comics, but also for Marvel to establish itself as the new definitive publisher behind Alien, a widely recognized and popular Sci-Fi franchise. From the films to the comics, Alien delivers on the Sci-Fi/Action/Horror genres the series became known for, and Marvel will assuredly want to stay true to the source material when releasing their version of the iconic monsters. At this time, the direction Marvel will decide to go with their new Alien books is unknown, but giving away future plot and style details was not the point of the Xenomorph’s addition to the variant covers. The point of the Marvel Comics January 2021 solicitation variants was to put their stamp on the character, to let the world know that Alien is Marvel Comics’ property now, and fans should strap in.
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