Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Aliens vs Avengers #1!Alien’s Xenomorphs are perfect living weapons, nearly unbeatable killing machines that don’t simply murder their victims, but use them as hosts for reproduction – which still ends in their victims’ deaths. In order for a Xenomorph to live, everything else has to die, making this alien species eerily similar to a virus that spreads and spreads until there’s nothing left to infect. But now, humanity may have found the ‘cure’, as Alien introduces an anti-Xenomorph weapon that could wipe the aliens out for good.
In Aliens vs Avengers #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić, two synthetics breed Xenomorphs to seed worlds across the universe, with one of those worlds being Earth. In the events of this series it only took a single year after Xenomorph-transport ships landed on Earth for the aliens to completely taken over. What remains of humanity is forced to cower within one mega-city stronghold, but they’re not out of the fight just yet. Among the survivors is Valeria Richards, daughter of Sue Storm and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, and indisputably one of the smartest Marvel characters in this, or any other universe.
Valeria Richards is Impregnated By A Xenomorph Facehugger
For a genius like Valeria, this proves to be the Xenomorphs’ undoing
In search of a solution, Valeria successfully sneaks into a Xenomorph hive and retrieves an Ovomorph, in order to experiment on the Facehugger egg and find the Xenomorphs’ weakness herself. Unfortunately, Val doesn’t make it out unscathed, as she is impregnated with a Xenomorph embryo. However, she still makes it back to humanity’s stronghold and, knowing she doesn’t have much time, gets right to work.
In the end, Valeria fails to complete her goal before the Xenomorph inside her bursts from her chest (as they are known to do), but the progress she makes before that moment establishes the chance of a true anti-Xenomorph weapon, with enough of the work completed for others to continue. The final result is that humanity now has a fighting chance. And that weapon is a Xenomorph virus.
Alien Reveals the Best Way to Beat Xenomorphs: Infect Them with a Deadly Virus
The above image is from the cover of Titan Books’
Alien: Prototype
, which also explores the idea of a Xenomorph virus!
It’s a clever twist that the Xenomorphs’ greatest weakness is their supposed susceptibility to infection from an engineered virus geared specifically to kill them, given that they have existed as something akin to a virus themselves for potentially eons. While clever, it isn’t too surprising, as Xenomorphs are far too resilient to succumb to anything short of a species-wide pandemic. Humanity has simply never had to resort to something like this before, nor has there ever been anyone smart enough to engineer such a weapon – at least, until now.
Valeria may not have finished the Xenomorph virus, but she laid the groundwork for others to finish what she has started, and the Marvel Universe has no shortage of geniuses, even after it’s been ravaged by Xenomorphs. Earth isn’t the only planet that the two synthetics sent Xenomorphs to, meaning the Avengers just need to make contact with the other impacted worlds and share their research. If there’s no one left on Earth who can do it, someone out there will be able to finish Val’s work, and create a virus that will wipe out the Xenomorphs permanently.
Humanity Has Another Way to Beat the Xenomorphs in Aliens vs Avengers: Symbiotes
“Parasite co-opts parasite. Symbiote seemingly trumps Xenomorph”
When Miles Morales gets a Facehugger, the alien is kept from impregnating him by the symbiote Spider-Man is wearing. The symbiote infects the Facehugger and takes over the alien completely, which will seemingly play a role in how humanity will beat the Xenomorphs (especially now that Valeria is gone), and it’s a pretty solid strategy. However, symbiotes beating Xenomorphs isn’t the same thing as humanity beating Xenomorphs. Sure, it would work out for humanity in the short term, but then there’s the issue of symbiote-controlled Xenomorphs running loose, which would be just as bad if not way worse.
Even with the strategy of using friendly symbiotes as weapons, the only true way for humanity to win is to engineer a virus strain that only attacks Xenomorphs. Right now, the idea of such a weapon has only been introduced, and the only person who knows how to complete it is dead. However, the idea is enough, as it means there’s hope that humanity can actually beat the Xenomorphs in Alien lore once and for all.
Aliens vs Avengers #1 by Marvel Comics is available now.
