Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Aliens vs. Xenomorphs #1Marvel has fully embraced classic blockbuster sci-fi horror with a never-before-done crossover pitting Earth’s Avengers against the near-invincible Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. Alongside Marvel’s annual Predator crossover series, a new wave of space-faring survival horror is coming to Earth and its mightiest heroes are completely unprepared. Unlike any crossover Marvel has done so far, this new harrowing tale fully immerses itself into the Alien franchise’s clinically dark aesthetic.
Aliens vs. Avengers #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribić, and Ive Svorcina is the inaugural issue of Marvel’s very first crossover with the Alien franchise. In this far-future twisted reality, King T’Challa and his son Azari are the leaders of a galactic-level Wakandan Empire, on a quest to stop the Shi’ar Empire from seeding living bioweapons across the galaxy.
Lamentably, Earth is the final target of the horrific bioweapon, the Xenomorphs. In less than a year, the Xenomorphs eviscerate nearly all life on Earth, save for one last city guarded by the Weyland Corporation and what remains of Marvel’s Mightiest.
Every Terrifying Page Turn Is Sure to Shock Readers
It’s Gruesome, It’s Horrific, and It’s Liminally Unsettling
From panel to panel, every turn of the page leaves the reader with an uncomfortable anxiety, knowing that at any moment a Facehugger could be lurking to turn another hero.
Protecting the remnants of humanity, an aged Carol Danvers, Bruce Banner, Miles Morales, Venom, and Valeria Richards struggle to maintain the thin walls that determine the life and death of Earth’s last survivors. However, after a perilous accident that costs the survivors their only chance to continue living on Earth, those who remain must flee their homeworld in hopes of living another day. Fortunately, the Avengers, no matter how small and broken, persist and continue to fight for both the Earth’s and the galaxy’s future.
Already, Aliens vs. Avengers is a terrifying display of the same level of torturous dread the Alien franchise is known for. In the face of the Xenomorphs, all hope feels lost. From panel to panel, every turn of the page leaves the reader with an uncomfortable anxiety, knowing that at any moment a Facehugger could be lurking to turn another hero. In addition to Jonathan Hickman’s consistently powerful writing, Esad Ribić and Ive Svorcina’s art and coloring are what truly pull the series together, as they employ a similar style to H.R. Giger’s original concept art for Alien.
Aliens vs. Avengers Is Marvel’s Most Ambitious Crossover Yet
This is a Series for Alien and Avengers Fans Alike
So far, what comes next for the Avengers as they take to the stars is yet to be known; however, it can’t be anything good. As the alien species are known to do, there is a considerable threat that every fallen superpowered person could become host to a powerful new hybrid Xenomorph capable of wielding all the fallen’s natural abilities. While the first issue doesn’t specifically show many notable characters being implanted by the Xenomorphs, it does heavily hint that readers may be seeing an Apocalypse hybrid monster in the future of the miniseries.
For fans of the Alien franchise, Aliens vs. Avengers is a must-read series that heavily relies on the classic stylistic tropes of Alien that fully make it feel like an installment of an Alien comic over an Avengers one. That said, the boldness of Marvel’s flashy showmanship isn’t lost amid the liminal terror. In a perfect marriage of both franchises, there is strong promise for Aliens vs. Avengers to become Marvel’s boldest and most powerful crossover comic to date.
Aliens vs. Avengers
#1
is now available from Marvel Comics.
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Aliens vs. Avengers #1 (2024) |
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Alien
The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.
