Speaker 1: Today, we're kicking off zenem Off week. Yay.
Speaker 2: We're latching onto your faces and showing up in your
Speaker 2: ear canals with four alien focused backback episodes this.
Speaker 1: Week leading up to the release of Alien Romulus.
Speaker 3: On today's episode, we're exploring some of the wildest alien
Speaker 3: comic book crossovers, from Judge Dread to Clark Kent to Bampfires.
Speaker 3: The Xenimos have lovingly found their way into the chest
Speaker 3: cavities of characters in every corner of pop culture, and
Speaker 3: we are here to guide you through.
Speaker 1: So the story of Alien in.
Speaker 2: Comics is a wild one that begins the same year
Speaker 2: as the movie and features some of the biggest names
Speaker 2: in comic book creation and some of the most famous
Speaker 2: superheroes on the planet.
Speaker 1: And to join me on this epic journey.
Speaker 2: Through comic book and movie history is the producer Princesses
Speaker 2: Carmen Lorentz and Joezy What's so hello?
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited
Speaker 4: to be here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is just such a fantastic bit of alien
Speaker 2: history that I feel like not a lot of people know.
Speaker 2: So it all began in actually June nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 2: so literally like a couple of months after the movie
Speaker 2: came out with Alien the Illustrated Story, which was a
Speaker 2: direct adaptation of Dan O'Bannon's Alien screenplay by two heavyweights,
Speaker 2: Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson. The early graphic novel was
Speaker 2: actually published by Heavy Metal, which is another thing I
Speaker 2: feel like nobody knows.
Speaker 1: Best known for their magazine of the same.
Speaker 2: Name that specialized in boundary defying sci fi with strong
Speaker 2: visual sensibilities, this Alien comic was actually formatted like a
Speaker 2: lot of other graphic novels of the time, taking influence
Speaker 2: from the European graphic album back Desstina style, so it
Speaker 2: was much bigger. It utilized wider magazine sized pages as
Speaker 2: opposed to most graphic novels that are now made at
Speaker 2: like a standard comic book size. It's also really cool
Speaker 2: because they did a reprint of it like a few
Speaker 2: years ago.
Speaker 1: That's huge. That's massive hardcover books.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean what Simon's in an Archie Goodwin
Speaker 2: You're talking about, like at the time, two of the
Speaker 2: biggest creators, So I feel like from the origins of
Speaker 2: this they knew that they had something that would translate
Speaker 2: to the medium really well, have you ever read an
Speaker 2: alien comic book?
Speaker 1: Common?
Speaker 4: You know, I have not, but I have seen them
Speaker 4: when I'm walking around the comic book shop, and I
Speaker 4: do wonder, I have wondered to myself, would I enjoy this?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think there's just so many that you probably would
Speaker 2: find one that you have.
Speaker 4: I gravitate towards anything like Vamparella. Love me some Vamparella.
Speaker 4: I gravitate towards Catwoman comic. But I should check out
Speaker 4: the alien comics.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, you're going to be very happy because spoiler alert, guys,
Speaker 2: we're going to get into some wild crossovers and.
Speaker 1: There is a Vamparella Aliens crossover. Carmen so very good excited.
Speaker 1: So At the time of the.
Speaker 2: First Alien comic coming out in seventy nine, Archie Goodwin
Speaker 2: was the writer and editor of Marvel's Star Wars comics,
Speaker 2: a series that not only helped popularize the infamous space
Speaker 2: opera franchise for the Masses, but also saved Marvel's struggling
Speaker 2: publishing efforts at the time. Simonson, who is like a
Speaker 2: legend and a we're big fans of him at the podcast,
Speaker 2: had worked a year earlier with Goodwin on Star Wars sixteen,
Speaker 2: an issue notable for the first appearance of fan fave
Speaker 2: character Bella Valance, who we will talk more about later.
Speaker 2: He would later go on to become the writer artist
Speaker 2: of the Star Wars series, but first he delivered the
Speaker 2: moody and evocative visuals on this version of Alien that
Speaker 2: placed a somewhat different emphasis on certain parts of the
Speaker 2: story than the signature slow burn of Ridley Scott's film.
Speaker 2: But it wouldn't be until almost ten years later that
Speaker 2: Alien Comics returned, this time under the purview of a
Speaker 2: fledgling indie publisher, Dark Horse Comics, who everyone probably knows
Speaker 2: best for hell Boy and the small company would take
Speaker 2: great care of the Alien franchise, opting to produce stories
Speaker 2: that slotted in before and after the films instead of
Speaker 2: merely adapting the movies, and that is essentially who would
Speaker 2: keep publishing Alien comics for the next few decades until
Speaker 2: we got to the modern age. So they published classic
Speaker 2: single issue comics, meaning that we were getting Alien on
Speaker 2: the shelves monthly, and the series were paced to compliment
Speaker 2: that kind of release system, ranging from two to six
Speaker 2: issues in most iterations. Kicked off with a black and
Speaker 2: white sequel to Aliens, which I feel like is a
Speaker 2: really great place to se start Carmen or other listeners
Speaker 2: because you get the direct sequel and then they did
Speaker 2: a sequel in color. There is a murderer's row of
Speaker 2: famous talent involved. Over thirty years you're talking about, dark
Speaker 2: Horse was bringing in everyone like Sam Keith, who did
Speaker 2: the Max Kelly Jones, who did the very famous Elseworld
Speaker 2: story where Batman becomes a vampire while fighting Dracula.
Speaker 1: You add Richard Corbyn, a legend.
Speaker 5: That great, fucking serious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so good, Doug Monkey, Mike Mignola, the creator of
Speaker 2: hell Boy, and so many more luminary talents.
Speaker 1: The list just goes on and on.
Speaker 5: Wait, Rosie, can I ask you?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah please?
Speaker 6: Okay, So Arian just popped a great question in the chat.
Speaker 6: Were the dark Horse comics considered cannon?
Speaker 2: I would say that they were licensed, so they were
Speaker 2: always approved. So I would say that probably if you
Speaker 2: go on the fan wikis and stuff, they would be
Speaker 2: considered to be a cannon.
Speaker 1: Now do I know, I don't know one hundred percent.
Speaker 6: A can There are multiple cannons for Aliens.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying that the comic books were
Speaker 2: canon to the point where, like they would say, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of like how we think of I would guess
Speaker 2: I would think about it this way. If you think
Speaker 2: about Marvel comics, right, and the Marvel movies, there's like
Speaker 2: the MCU canon and the comic book canon, right, And
Speaker 2: these Alien comics did go on for long enough that
Speaker 2: I believe that they count as having their own canon.
Speaker 1: But I would also say that because for a long time,
Speaker 1: until Ridley Scott came back with Prometheus, for a long
Speaker 1: time there hadn't been a lot of Alien stuff, So
Speaker 1: this probably was seen as direct canon.
Speaker 2: I would say for a lot of fans, which often
Speaker 2: is where are ideas of canon come from?
Speaker 4: Do the comics that all affect what's happening in the
Speaker 4: movie canon at all?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 1: Did those now?
Speaker 2: I would say no, because the truth is there isn't
Speaker 2: really even the movie canon I was going to say,
Speaker 2: is very much. They never had like a you know,
Speaker 2: as Legendary does now who make the Godilla movies they
Speaker 2: have a mythology team, or the MCU they have the Parliament.
Speaker 2: But with Alien, I think it was more that it
Speaker 2: was a fantastic movie that was then owned by a
Speaker 2: studio who were like, well, let's make Alien three and
Speaker 2: bring in David Fincher and not even let him make
Speaker 2: his craziest version.
Speaker 1: So I think the idea.
Speaker 2: Of canon in the nineties, eighties and nineties was like
Speaker 2: much looser than now, where I feel like we are
Speaker 2: deeply invested in canon. But I'd say for a lot
Speaker 2: of people, especially kids who maybe hadn't even seen the
Speaker 2: Alien movies, I would say that this was probably the
Speaker 2: canon that they knew, and there are overarching stories. And
Speaker 2: also something really interesting is a lot of the comics
Speaker 2: would then be adapted into novels. That was the impact
Speaker 2: they had, and there is a thriving alien fiction canon
Speaker 2: of books that were published in this world.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting because it usually goes the other way,
Speaker 1: where you get a book that's adapted into a comic.
Speaker 2: And it was really interesting because it's really a testament
Speaker 2: to kind of the care and detail that was put
Speaker 2: into the law building of the Dark Horse line, which was,
Speaker 2: like you know, it.
Speaker 1: Was known for big alien stories.
Speaker 2: But also I would say the biggest thing, which we're
Speaker 2: going to get a little bit deeper into, is the crossovers. Okay,
Speaker 2: because they about fifteen years after the movie came out.
Speaker 1: They made a Predator crossover which oh not yea though.
Speaker 2: Exactly not AVP, which we all love, but this is
Speaker 2: pre dating AVP wow, And it was in dark Horse Presents,
Speaker 2: which was their signature kind of anthology. It came out
Speaker 2: dark Horse Presents thirty six and super fans will notice
Speaker 2: that nineteen eighty nine means this is the first time
Speaker 2: the Predator and the Alien crossed over, further kind of
Speaker 2: cementing that groundbreaking tradition of the dark Horse era, and
Speaker 2: that would go unlikely to become I would say the
Speaker 2: most famous thing about these comics because by the mid
Speaker 2: nineties dark Horse had worked out a deal of.
Speaker 1: Some kind with DC.
Speaker 2: So by the nineties you had DC crossovers with Aliens
Speaker 2: that began with of course the pinnacle of DC, it
Speaker 2: was Superman versus Aliens. I also had it interesting that
Speaker 2: they went for the aliens. It was always aliens rather
Speaker 2: than Alien. I would have gone for Alien, but I
Speaker 2: get it. They're saying there's more than one's enomor, like,
Speaker 2: don't worry. So Superman Versus Aliens is like a three
Speaker 2: issue comics series, little mini series where Superman kind of
Speaker 2: learns about some signals coming from space and along with
Speaker 2: the help of Lex Corp, shocking, he realizes their Kryptonian
Speaker 2: distress calls and they essentially go and they want to
Speaker 2: help the Kryptonians and they send a space station and
Speaker 2: guess what dun done.
Speaker 1: There are aliens and face huggers and.
Speaker 2: Also some weird stuff where like both Kara and Superman
Speaker 2: are infested with like special chest bursters, so no aliens
Speaker 2: will attack them, and then Superman like teleports the chest
Speaker 2: bursters out of their bodies. Of course, of course, guys.
Speaker 2: So that was the first one. And as you can tell,
Speaker 2: something that I think was very cool about these when
Speaker 2: you can really start to see they are not cannon
Speaker 2: to the movies. This is an era before the movies
Speaker 2: were really defining everything, so you could just do the
Speaker 2: most bonkers stuff like they were. Like, this is just
Speaker 2: a crossover.
Speaker 1: It costs a lot to say. All these spaceships out.
Speaker 2: To keep getting infected by xenomorphs, so please listen to
Speaker 2: some man. There were so many different crossovers with aliens
Speaker 2: and all of them are absolutely bonkers.
Speaker 1: The next one was Batman Aliens.
Speaker 2: It's interesting though Superman Superman versus Aliens but then Batman
Speaker 2: slash aliens, so you get anything out of the name difference.
Speaker 2: Here Batman, he is leaving Gotham, he's looking for a
Speaker 2: missing Wayne Enterprises geologist, heads to the Guatemala Mexican border
Speaker 2: and runs into some xenomorphs who are just chilling and now,
Speaker 2: yeah at the border, what are they doing there?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you're telling me that Bruce Wayne Batman himself
Speaker 4: is going and doing the search and rescue for the
Speaker 4: Wayne Corporation.
Speaker 2: I'm sharcked, but I'm assuming that they're probably like dating. Okay,
Speaker 2: that would be I'm like Batman's probably like he's like,
Speaker 2: this is my girlfriend, because otherwise why he he's invested. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there is like, of course this is very like ninety ship.
Speaker 2: So there's like he's like working.
Speaker 1: With a group of special forces.
Speaker 2: And he's like getting face huger samples where I'm like,
Speaker 2: I do not think Batman should do that. Also, this
Speaker 2: one is very iconic because you get like a weird
Speaker 2: xenomorph crocodile hybrid.
Speaker 4: Oh I love that.
Speaker 2: And this is like this has got Yeah, this has
Speaker 2: got like a very iconic moment to where he like
Speaker 2: loses that he uses this is a this is a
Speaker 2: good Oh that is bad ass. Yeah, it's really cool
Speaker 2: right and alien. Yeah, it's very very wild to me
Speaker 2: because they are like he like uses the blood to
Speaker 2: drop it through the acid bud, their acid blood, and
Speaker 2: he uses it to weaken the floor to like drop
Speaker 2: the crocodile into a volcano.
Speaker 1: So like good for resourceful he is. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's actually something.
Speaker 5: He's got a giant spear on his tail.
Speaker 1: That's just how it is.
Speaker 6: He looks so cool, guys, like, let's bring him back,
Speaker 6: but with an alien head.
Speaker 1: Let's bring him back guys.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I just need to say as well, this
Speaker 2: is another crazy thing about this. So when you're talking
Speaker 2: about Batman aliens, this is Ron Mars, who is no joke,
Speaker 2: like a complete legend, who wrote so much Silver Surfer,
Speaker 2: Green Lantern DC versus Marvel crossovers and then penciled by
Speaker 2: Bernie Wrightson, who is like a horror comics legend who
Speaker 2: created Swamp Thing.
Speaker 1: So these team ups like they.
Speaker 2: Were drawing these huge creators because I think people were
Speaker 2: excited I would want to write this, you know, like
Speaker 2: it makes sense. Then finally in like two thousand, they
Speaker 2: did Greenland and Versus Aliens and now Versus is spelled out,
Speaker 2: so we've got a third title format.
Speaker 1: This is like a no market confusion here. No, this
Speaker 1: is a issue series. Ron Mars is back.
Speaker 2: Good for you, Ron, but he's now illustrated by Rick Leonardi,
Speaker 2: who I actually have his art tattoed on my arm.
Speaker 2: He drew my Bover tattoo. And Mike Perkins, who is
Speaker 2: another once again like Captain America that he did swamp
Speaker 2: thing again, Like these are just huge creators and stars,
Speaker 2: several green lanterns, including Kyle Rainer, who is definitely the
Speaker 2: hot boy at the time.
Speaker 1: We love Kyle Reiner.
Speaker 2: It is outside of the DC cannon, but again very
Speaker 2: contested because people were like, well, you're not telling us,
Speaker 2: And the only reason we kind of know that is
Speaker 2: because there's green lanterns who are alive outside of this
Speaker 2: story that don't survive. But yeah, we got all kinds
Speaker 2: of green lanterns and a chest Burster announces itself from
Speaker 2: a dying green lantern called Baron char and how Jordan's like, boom,
Speaker 2: I'm here and I've got to find out what's going
Speaker 2: on in the DC comics.
Speaker 1: He'd been dead for a long time, so that was
Speaker 1: kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2: But yeah, this is the Green Lanton Ones, which I
Speaker 2: would say is not surprising, is much more in depth
Speaker 2: and has to do less set up of how the
Speaker 2: xenomorphs are there because it's a space story, so it
Speaker 2: actually gets very into Green Lantern Law. I would also
Speaker 2: say that one has like an extremely cool cover, so
Speaker 2: definitely worth checking it out. Okay, next we go to
Speaker 2: the indie crossovers, which kind of really blow my mind.
Speaker 1: This stuff was happening. So in the nineties, Jim Lee and.
Speaker 2: Some other creators who are Mike's and Marx Silvestri, Atom McFarlane,
Speaker 2: Rob Eifeld, wils Potaccio, they came together Jim Valentina to
Speaker 2: create Image comics and one of the segments of that
Speaker 2: was Jim Lee's Wildcats, which would become Wildstorm Comics, and
Speaker 2: he created them with Brandon Troy and they did a
Speaker 2: Wildcat's Alien What suh because it's always aliens, So Wildcats
Speaker 2: aliens slash.
Speaker 1: This is a very classical Yes slash, This is a
Speaker 1: slash guys. When we're talking about title format.
Speaker 2: This is actually a very wild one because you have
Speaker 2: like now you.
Speaker 4: Know there's Witch Blade, a part of the Wildcat.
Speaker 7: Which Blade is not generally like the part of the Wildcats,
Speaker 7: but we do get some there is some crossover here
Speaker 7: between them.
Speaker 2: This is a definitely very this is very late nineties.
Speaker 1: This is your.
Speaker 2: Team who would be known for this, which includes Warren
Speaker 2: Ellis Boo, we don't talk about him anymore, but Chris Browse,
Speaker 2: Kevin Nolan, Bill Oakley, so many different massive names at
Speaker 2: the time, and that one is like much more classic.
Speaker 1: They go away into space and then ship comes back
Speaker 1: full as animovs.
Speaker 2: Who I mean, who would ever know that that was
Speaker 2: going to happen in an alien's book?
Speaker 1: You you think that Wildcats is the weirdest crossover.
Speaker 2: Incorrect, guys, because next you have Judge Dread versus the
Speaker 2: best crossover I know, Judge Dread versus Aliens Incubus, which
Speaker 2: is actually a sequel to Predator Judge.
Speaker 1: Dread Wow Witch.
Speaker 6: I will within a sequel crazy comic books.
Speaker 2: I will say that something is really cool, something really
Speaker 2: cool about it is The Predator comics have been one
Speaker 2: of the most ongoing crossover potential series in comics. There's
Speaker 2: even a Predator Archie Comics, which is I think just
Speaker 2: one of the best things you can read. It's it's
Speaker 2: such a joy. Yeah, it's really really fun and silly,
Speaker 2: and they really go out of the box with them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Judge Dread versus Aliens.
Speaker 2: And the reason it's called Incubus is, as super producer
Speaker 2: Aaron has pointed out, Incubus is the code name for
Speaker 2: the plan that a space pirate mister Bones has. He's
Speaker 2: bringing the xenomorphs to Megacity one to get revenge on
Speaker 2: the judges, and honestly, who can blame him because those
Speaker 2: judges they really suck. Obviously in this book we are given,
Speaker 2: we're like, oh the judges, they got to stop them.
Speaker 2: But I feel like in every other Judge Dreads or
Speaker 2: they'll probably be like, good for the aliens, good for
Speaker 2: mister Bones, like do your best. So we get Judge
Speaker 2: Dread and Judge Santas who are infected by chest burners,
Speaker 2: but of course they're able to, you know, get chest
Speaker 2: bursters removed. They're aliens definitely are like slightly less deadly.
Speaker 1: In these crossovers. I would say, because you can't kill.
Speaker 2: Some of the most famous people, you can't kill Judge Dread.
Speaker 2: In a comic the way, you can kill off every
Speaker 2: character apart from Ripley in the original Alien. But you know,
Speaker 2: that's why we love comics, because no one ever really dies.
Speaker 4: I'm seeing here on the Google that there was a
Speaker 4: follow up to this that was Predator Versus Judge Dread
Speaker 4: versus Aliens.
Speaker 2: Yes, you do get a lot of those we also,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken, I deeply remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Would they love to do like a double crossover?
Speaker 4: Like that's amazing?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: As Aaron pointed out, the Wildcats was the first one
Speaker 2: that was then followed by a sequel overkill that was Witchblade,
Speaker 2: Aliens The Darkness and Predator.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: So the best thing about.
Speaker 2: Most of these comics too, is they've all been collected
Speaker 2: or you can find them in a backish you been
Speaker 2: in your comic shop. I have collected a lot of
Speaker 2: the big crossover comics like this because they overprinted them
Speaker 2: and we can easily find those issues in the back
Speaker 2: issue bins. Now, Carmen, this one is especially for you
Speaker 2: because it's Aliens slash Vampirella. Yes, yes, yes, yes, And
Speaker 2: this is like fantastic. You're talking about a delightful crossover.
Speaker 2: I mean it's perfect. It's this mix of like.
Speaker 1: Camp and fantastic, also notable because it amazing. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: covers are super super cool.
Speaker 2: This is a later one because it's like twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, but also written by a woman that's rare
Speaker 2: Karina Beco, pencil by Javier Garcia Miranda and lettered by
Speaker 2: Simon Boland. And the really cool thing about this is
Speaker 2: this is actually one of the few alien comics that
Speaker 2: shows other aliens than just the xenomorphs.
Speaker 4: Oh yeahycle yeah.
Speaker 2: And also just like he's having some outrageous like just
Speaker 2: some alien adventures are occurring, and obviously this is a
Speaker 2: I love these kind of setups because I feel like
Speaker 2: I really relate to them as a creator. This starts
Speaker 2: when Vamparella is just investigating a suspicious cave. Sometimes when
Speaker 2: you meet they're like they're like, how are you going
Speaker 2: to bring Vamparella in the aliens together? And you're like,
Speaker 2: you know what, she just investigating a suspicious cave, guys,
Speaker 2: that's just how she just she's.
Speaker 1: Like, what's going on in that cave? Or guess what
Speaker 1: xenomorph eggs it's giving?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, fifties B horror film and yeah, I
Speaker 6: want the movie.
Speaker 5: It sounds delightful.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm seeing that she faces off with a queen'senomorph
Speaker 4: an issue. Yes, vibe, it looks like that's yeah.
Speaker 2: And the really cool thing about that is like the
Speaker 2: face Hugget impregnates Vamparella and comes out as the xenomorph queen.
Speaker 1: So it's like to become the queen, it has to
Speaker 1: be inside Vamparella. Also, wow.
Speaker 2: Favorite thing that happens is she survives and then she's
Speaker 2: like Nosferatus awakened, Babe, Now we've gotta fight. I gotta
Speaker 2: fight with nos Faro against Aliens. They were like, not
Speaker 2: enough is going on in this comic, so we need
Speaker 2: to make we need to make that happen.
Speaker 1: And this is this is the really funny thing.
Speaker 2: So if you look at the comics that were being
Speaker 2: published by Dark Horse in their Crossover comics line, this
Speaker 2: is just preceded by Archie versus Predator, so vibes like,
Speaker 2: the vibe change here is so huge, then followed by
Speaker 2: another Predator versus Judge, Dread versus Aliens Splice and Dice Wow.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you are getting like, and that's John Layman,
Speaker 2: who's like a solid Predator an Aliens comic book writer,
Speaker 2: it costs a lot to send all these spaceships out
Speaker 2: to Key getting infected by xenomorphs, so please listen.
Speaker 1: To some mats.
Speaker 2: It's very interesting to see the kind of journey that
Speaker 2: these comics have gone on so so far.
Speaker 1: What do you guys think your favorite crossover is?
Speaker 6: Oh Man Alien versus Archie is just so it feeds me.
Speaker 6: But then apparently Killer Croc gets cross with an alien
Speaker 6: at one point in the dark Horse Cannon of comic books,
Speaker 6: and I would like to see. I love Killer Croc,
Speaker 6: I love Alien Smash And to guest, I.
Speaker 2: Believe that is in Batman Aliens, and that is how
Speaker 2: we getastic. That's the one crocodile hybrid who doesn't want
Speaker 2: to see Batman Aliens.
Speaker 5: Would Carmen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean Vamparella is obviously I'm gravitating towards Vamparella.
Speaker 4: But when you tell me that there's a crocodile Zeenamore
Speaker 4: and the Batman Aliens one, I'm really curious about that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I do just feel tonally that Batman Aliens. It
Speaker 2: just feels right. Yeah, you know, that feels like they.
Speaker 6: Both had the darkness and the ridiculousness required for that
Speaker 6: level of like over the top crossover.
Speaker 5: I have two thoughts.
Speaker 6: Okay, One, the Alien movies are often so much about motherhood.
Speaker 5: It's one of my favorite things about of motherhood. The
Speaker 5: horrors of being a woman who.
Speaker 6: Is right surrounded by men one of my favorite aspects
Speaker 6: of the series. Do we get any of that in
Speaker 6: any of these comics? Are we exploring similar film themes
Speaker 6: or is?
Speaker 5: I would most of these sort of I.
Speaker 2: Would keep say say, in like a three to four
Speaker 2: issue crossover, you're gonna get.
Speaker 1: Less of that directly.
Speaker 2: But I would also say that all of the a,
Speaker 2: especially the first Alien movie, it very much is about
Speaker 2: like the fear of pregnancy and like the horrific idea
Speaker 2: of like a.
Speaker 1: Man being impregnated, Like what would that be like? What
Speaker 1: would it be like to give birth?
Speaker 2: And because of the nature of the chest bursters and
Speaker 2: the face huggers, I feel that it's still there in spirit,
Speaker 2: even if not in it. Though I would definitely love
Speaker 2: to see a contemporary crossover all female creative team that
Speaker 2: kind of really explored that, because that is the interesting thing.
Speaker 2: So obviously, we've talked about Dark Horse and this extensive
Speaker 2: comic book line that they've had since nineteen eighty eight,
Speaker 2: so sadly rip to those comics.
Speaker 1: You can still get them in your local comic shop, but.
Speaker 2: The Alien comics are now under the purview of Disney
Speaker 2: because of the Folk Disney merger, meaning that both the
Speaker 2: Xenomorphs and the Predators are now under there, so they
Speaker 2: are actually doing Currently there is a Wolverine Predator comic,
Speaker 2: which I do think is a very cool ie. You
Speaker 2: are a lot of fans we'd love to read, I'm sure. Interestingly,
Speaker 2: Marvel has basically they're aware of what this can be,
Speaker 2: so they have pretty much consistently published Alien comics since
Speaker 2: they took over the line in twenty twenty one, doing
Speaker 2: like a mini series at a time, kind of mimicking
Speaker 2: that dark Horse model, and we do have coming up.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is huge and could kind of
Speaker 2: reset the tone of the Alien comics as a new era,
Speaker 2: kind of post the dark Horse stuff, which is the
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen Secret Wars creative team Jonathan Hickman and Asad
Speaker 2: Ribbic are tackling Aliens Versus Avengers, which is.
Speaker 1: Going to begin this August, and that's going to be
Speaker 1: a big mini series.
Speaker 2: So I think that is like a huge crossover, and
Speaker 2: it kind of could really be something that. Again, you know,
Speaker 2: it's Hickman, so he's probably is going to be thinking
Speaker 2: about those He's going to.
Speaker 6: Be getting into Waylan Katani for sure show internal story.
Speaker 2: He loves the backstory. And the good thing is whereas before,
Speaker 2: I'm assuming this is one of the few positives of
Speaker 2: the monopolies that we live under now as consumers. I'm
Speaker 2: sure that before the dark Horse Comics likely had to
Speaker 2: go through licensing to be able to get approvals, Whereas
Speaker 2: now if you did want to do something about the
Speaker 2: whalan Utani Corporation, now Disney owns it. So I'm sure
Speaker 2: that Hickman and Nasad probably have a lot more freedom
Speaker 2: to tell this story. So that is very exciting. I
Speaker 2: want to ask you guys before I start, what's the
Speaker 2: most exciting thing that you learned aside from Crocodile, because
Speaker 2: I feel like he really.
Speaker 4: Spoke to.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like, what's the most exciting thing you learned
Speaker 2: during this fun look back at the Alien comics history
Speaker 2: before we begin to look at the future.
Speaker 6: Oh man, I think just that there's an entire series
Speaker 6: of like goofy crossovers like I knew about the Archie
Speaker 6: one because that was right as I started getting into
Speaker 6: comics and it was freaking everywhere, people like Gangbusters for it.
Speaker 6: But I didn't know about Vampirella, and I didn't and
Speaker 6: it's kind of like thrilling. I was thinking, we should
Speaker 6: do an episode of either TV series and movies that
Speaker 6: have thrived in comics or that have like gone like
Speaker 6: orph and Black went to comics just to keep being
Speaker 6: a TV series on TV anymore totally.
Speaker 1: And then if you think.
Speaker 5: About yeah, mm hmmmm.
Speaker 6: And then after the Last Airbender, was like, we can't
Speaker 6: be queer on TV, but we'd be gan as hell
Speaker 6: in these comics, and so like, I really think there's
Speaker 6: something interesting about Alien being the sort of maybe original
Speaker 6: like source of that ability to like crossover vibe adapt
Speaker 6: in between major cinematic projects.
Speaker 1: It's kind of yeah, I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is definitely all blowing my mind, and
Speaker 4: I would love to see a lot of these adaptations
Speaker 4: made into like movies or animated features or something like that.
Speaker 2: But I was gonna say, I feel like animated we've
Speaker 2: seen like the Warner Brothers especially, they're so prolific with
Speaker 2: their animated stuff, and they've done more combat, and they've
Speaker 2: done all.
Speaker 1: These different properties.
Speaker 2: I think they could do a fantastic like alien versus
Speaker 2: Batman versus Superman type situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that, Yeah, really cool.
Speaker 4: But yeah, the Vampora, I mean Vamparella giving birth to
Speaker 4: the Queen's anymore? Like come on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, come on, come and go to the
Speaker 1: comic shop. Get it now?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, So next up, we're gonna do what if, and
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about the alien crossovers that we
Speaker 2: would love to see in the world. Welcome to If,
Speaker 2: where we're going to talk about the alien crossovers that
Speaker 2: we are most excited for that don't yet exist, that
Speaker 2: we're going to try and speak into existence. So I
Speaker 2: will go first because I do think the biggest one
Speaker 2: that has never happened, that goes all the way back
Speaker 2: to the origins of these comics.
Speaker 1: Is Star Wars versus Aliens.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, both now.
Speaker 1: And I feel like fans are eager.
Speaker 2: To see if the Xenomorphs could like make an appearance
Speaker 2: in the galaxy.
Speaker 1: Far far away.
Speaker 2: It seems like a long shot, but the circumstances are
Speaker 2: prime for it that under all the rights are under
Speaker 2: the same roof Marvel is currently publishing both Aliens and
Speaker 2: Star Wars comics, alongside the mainline superheroes and a beloved
Speaker 2: character like Bilart Valence who people love.
Speaker 1: That would be like a poetic way to.
Speaker 2: Join the franchises and a convenient way to blend the worlds.
Speaker 2: It would also be like a full circle moment, as
Speaker 2: Valance was created by the first creative t to ever
Speaker 2: take on the Alien comics. So that's my pitch. I
Speaker 2: don't think we'll ever see that in a cinematic way,
Speaker 2: but I do think we could see it in the comics.
Speaker 2: I feel like we could definitely see it in the comics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that would be amazing, even as just like a
Speaker 4: side story.
Speaker 5: I have absurd ideas.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Joell'll go crazy my saying My first my saying
Speaker 6: pitch would be Star Trek would be very interesting, especially
Speaker 6: if you look at the corporate side of it all
Speaker 6: and then the scientific like morality of it all. I think,
Speaker 6: just thematically and it as serious. If you wanted to
Speaker 6: keep like a very serious Prometheus esque tone, you could
Speaker 6: easily blend that with any with the majority of Star
Speaker 6: Trek's and have like a really good storyline. But if
Speaker 6: it was very ridiculous, I would say aliens times Pokemon,
Speaker 6: I would die.
Speaker 1: I would love to say animal.
Speaker 4: Into a face hugger.
Speaker 2: Also like Ash is like trying to catch those animorphs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, that's.
Speaker 6: Pretty great, and then imagine them over time like either
Speaker 6: getting like Mewtube where scientists start experimenting on them, Like
Speaker 6: I feel like Whalen, we are always sort of stuck
Speaker 6: out in space and like we don't get to see
Speaker 6: like what are y'all doing with the alien stuff?
Speaker 2: Like what?
Speaker 6: And I would really like it if you know, they
Speaker 6: could Professor Oaks down there being like, guys, this is
Speaker 6: a bad idea and they're like, no, we could definitely
Speaker 6: do it, ha ha. And then yeah, a final poblemon battle.
Speaker 6: I don't know who they face, but I'm very interesting
Speaker 6: by the idea and the keenness.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 4: What would what would the xenomorphs type be?
Speaker 2: Type babe because I think, yeah, I think steal poison.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go steal poison.
Speaker 1: I think poison.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's I think that's definitely the right
Speaker 2: type common.
Speaker 1: What about you? What's your high concept pitch?
Speaker 4: Can I steal the one that Aaron put.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, please talk about that.
Speaker 2: I think I'm super producer put his pitch in and
Speaker 2: com fully expanded on it, So tell us more.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I'm obsessed with the Metroid game franchise, and it's
Speaker 4: actually what got me into the Alien franchise because I
Speaker 4: remember distinctly as a young child playing Metroid and when
Speaker 4: you die, you get the game of her She's a girl.
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was obsessed ever since then.
Speaker 1: But one of the greatest moments in games.
Speaker 4: Yes, and I would love to see Samos fight the Xenomorphs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, explain, explain the impact, Yeah, and the like.
Speaker 4: We wouldn't have the Metroid franchise without the Alien franchise,
Speaker 4: And it's all clearly like Samus is directly inspired by
Speaker 4: Ellen Ripley, Ridley the Big bad Our, Big Bad Dragon,
Speaker 4: space pirate, whatever you want to call him. He's named
Speaker 4: after Ridley Scott and the Choso the Birdlike supernatural people
Speaker 4: in the world are modeled after the engineers that we see,
Speaker 4: or at least the one engineer that we see in
Speaker 4: the first h Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, also, there has been like an extensive Alien video
Speaker 2: game franchise too, so I feel like there is space
Speaker 2: for it in multiple frames. But I would love to
Speaker 2: see a Metroid Alien crossover. I think that's really cool.
Speaker 5: Yes, are so smart.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys so much for joining me on this
Speaker 2: wild journey through alien comics history.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having us.
Speaker 5: I now have a new hold list at my comic bookshop.
Speaker 5: They won't be just yeah every day.
Speaker 6: I'm like, I'll spend less money yeah this week, and
Speaker 6: they're like try.
Speaker 1: Also as well.
Speaker 2: I just want to say, like, these comics are so
Speaker 2: delightful to have in your hands, like they are just
Speaker 2: a lot of them are prestige, which means like they're
Speaker 2: bound differently or they're a little you know, and and
Speaker 2: they just really feel like a great old vintage comic.
Speaker 2: So I'm just like, go out, go to your comic shop,
Speaker 2: dig through. We've basically given you a reading list here.
Speaker 2: We can make a little list for the show notes too.
Speaker 2: So yeah, thank you so much, guys. I appreciate you.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Tune in tomorrow borrow when Jason and I recap all
Speaker 1: the Alien movies. We'll be discussing our favorite moments. Sneaky
Speaker 1: old men hiding aboard spaceships, and of course all of
Speaker 1: our favorite so called.
Speaker 2: Scientists who will absolutely take no precaution whatsoever when confronted
Speaker 2: with a hostile species.
Speaker 1: In the middle of space.
Speaker 8: X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kitsupsion and Rosie
Speaker 8: Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
Speaker 8: producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer
Speaker 8: is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and
Speaker 8: Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord. Kenny Goodman
Speaker 1: and Heidi are discord moderator.