Marvel Is Making Another Alien Series

Marvel intends to further expand the Alien franchise in their comic book line this coming April. Apparently, as ComicBook.com cites, this will be the third story ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox back in 2019.

The upcoming third Alien series has Declan Shalvey as its writer and Andrea Broccardo as the artist. Like the first two stories that Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote, the new comic book series will feature a different setting and set of characters. However, it will still showcase the Xenomorph and its key story elements as Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie that starred Sigourney Weaver.

Marvel Comics Has More Stories To Tell About Alien Series

Johnson’s first two stories Alien Vol. 1: Bloodlines and Alien: Revival, showed the vast possibility of telling a story about the Xenomorphs in various ways. It may be in a different world and an undefined timeline.

These stories established a set of characters going about their regular days. Then suddenly, somehow Alien appears and wreaks havoc on their quiet existence.

The stories also showed what the characters were going through depending on their relationships with the other characters. Like in the first series, there is the father-son factor in which the father was trying to re-establish his connection with his estranged son. Then in the second series, there is a broader scope involving a community and a religious group.

The third series with the new writer has the following synopsis for its first issue:

Scientist Batya Zahn will do just about anything to get her family off the icy moon where they’ve been conducting research on water conservation. But there’s more than glacial springs to find in this forgotten corner of the galaxy. When they discover an extraordinary organism buried in the ice, it won’t take long for tensions to heat up. What is hidden in the snow comes forth in the thaw…and no one will be welcoming this spring. A new era of Alien starts here!

The story seems to come closer to the franchise’s roots as it will show the idea of a research facility. However, this presents a new challenge in this Alien comic book series. People are already pretty familiar with what happened in the original movies, so what kind of uniqueness can this new story offer?

However, that might be what they are currently intending to show. A retelling of the story while featuring a different place, time and characters. This opens more doors to future developments.

Perhaps this will also test what types of stories and approaches could work to bring the franchise back to live-action.

New Stories Coming for Marvel Comics On Their Alien Series

Credit: 20th Century Fox

Alien is much like Predator and Star Wars when it comes to being part of Disney’s acquisition. Just in the past year, 20th Century Studios released Prey, and its success has reportedly resulted in a new Planet of the Apes movie being greenlit. Both titles also have their comic book series under Marvel Comics.

The key is the expansion of their universes. As Star Wars succeeded in exploring different storylines from the Skywalkers, the story about the Xenomorphs can explore narratives without Ellen Ripley.

More importantly, if there will be a comic book series featuring different crossovers with another formidable life form, Marvel Comics would be able to deliver that as well. Imagine an Alien Vs Predator comic book series that actually has a good story!

The upcoming issue is just titled Alien #1 and Declan Shalvey is listed as its writer, and Andrea Broccardo as its artist. The cover is from Dike Ruan. The first issue of the series has variant covers by Gabriele Dell’Otto, Shalvey, and Alex Maleev, who also made a virgin variant cover.

The 40 pages comic book is rated T+ with a listed price of $4.99, which goes on sale this April.

Will you get a copy? Do you think this could be the next storyline for an Alien movie or live-action series? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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