When Disney bought 20th Century Fox, it seemed inevitable that the company would find a way to get Marvel to crossover with the Alien or Predator. It took some time, but thanks to comics it came to fruition last year with Wolverine fighting the Predator (because who else would?), and now it’s continuing by pitting the Avengers against the Xenomorphs.
In the upcoming Aliens vs. Avengers miniseries by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic, the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are called in to deal with the Xenopmorph threat after they crash land on Earth. From that point, things are going to go… well, if you’ve seen any Alien movie, the Avengers have their work cut out for them. They’ve fought alien invasions plenty times before, but not like this. (The X-Men might be better suited for this, given the Brood, but that’s probably why they’re not here in the first place.)
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Hickman explained that he’d never done any licensed work during his Marvel time, but jumped at the chance to do this. Being an Aliens fan who loves its mythology and “how atmospherically and well-designed everything is,” bringing the two properties together was an exciting challenge for him and Ribic. “We’ve found really fun ways to ‘Avengerize’ Aliens and ‘alien-up’ Avengers,” he continued. “I think fans will be surprised at how elegantly some of those things fit together. It really turned out to be a chocolate-and-peanut-butter situation.”
In the past, the Alien specifically has crossed over with DC Comics—namely to fight Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern—along with Judge Dredd, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Vampirella. Even Star Trek would’ve gotten in on the crossover action, if the comic announced in 2016 hadn’t been canceled. (Plus, there’s that whole Fortnite business, which is canon to every universe it touches.) While it’s just par for the IP course, it’ll be interesting to see what follows on from this—are any Marvel heroes going to wind up on Planet of the Apes, for example? Or could Marvel take a page out of DC’s book and adapt this comic for an animated movie/miniseries?
Aliens vs. Avengers kicks off its four-part run on July 24. The following month, the Xenomorph comes back to theaters with Alien: Romulus on August 16.
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