Warning: contains spoilers for Alien #4 (2022)The truly horrifying Alien #4 (2022) has finally revealed the long-foreshadowed Xenomorph-Human hybrid creature - destined to become the "Woman in the Dark" - as the deepening lore of the Alien franchise's Xenomorphs confirms that humanity has created their own apocalypse.

Since 2021's first Marvel Comics Alien series - written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Salvador Larocca - the Alien franchise has been foretelling a horrific humanoid Xenomorph, clearly the result of genetic tampering between Xenomorph and human DNA, based on H. R. Giger's original disturbing art for the movie series. Now, it appears that Alien (2022) is finally showing the origins of the "Woman in the Dark," as the new Icarus Strain of Xenomorphs infects a human survivor, turning into a monstrous, deadly, but ultimately intelligent Xenomorph-Human hybrid.

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Alien #4 - again written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with gorgeous, action-oriented art by Julius Ohta - continues the series focus on the "Steel Team," a group of Synthetic super-soldiers hired by the government to infiltrate the Xenomorph-infested planet of Tobler IV to collect a Xenomorph egg for it's supposed disease-healing properties. Alien #3 saw the Steel Team partnering with a group of human survivors - unknown to the government and led by a woman named Melody - to retrieve the egg from the Xenomorph Queen's lair, only for Melody and her group of human survivors to abandon the Synthetics in the Queen's lair, barring their escape route. Sadly, one of the Synthetics named Nora is killed by the Queen - continuing the Alien franchises fascinating exploration of the true "humanity" of Synthetics, showing they are perhaps more human than mankind - before the rest of the team is able to escape. At the same time, Melody's group of survivors has made its way to the Steel Team's shuttle, while a member of their group Lee becomes sicker, vomiting up horrific black blood. Back in Alien #3 the Synthetic Eli noticed that the human Lee had broken open a cage and had an alien insect on her, but he decided not to say anything, presumably to wait and observe what happened.

The Woman In The Dark Finally Emerges

The human xenomorph hybrid in Alien #4

It turns out that this insect was apparently filled with Xenomorph "protein," and when it bit Lee it must have transferred this DNA protein into her body, slowly transforming her into the first true Xenomorph-Human hybrid. The horrifying company Weyland-Yutani has already been attempting to create Human-Xeno hybrids, but unsurprisingly their experimentation has clearly gone awry, as their science has now led to the creation of the first true hybrid of Xenomorph and Human DNA. Lee, now a terrifying humanoid creature with Xenomorph claws, feet, teeth, and tongue, slaughters her entire crew on the shuttle before leading a group of Xenomorphs to the survivors' hideout, continuing her bloody destruction of humanity. It has previously been hinted that the "Woman in the Dark" has access to the hive mind of Xenomorphs in the past, present, and future, letting her "time travel" through their consciousness to watch her own birth, an event that was most likely just revealed in the pages of Alien #4. While it has not been 100% confirmed that Lee is the exact "Woman in the Dark" Xeno-Human seen in Johnson's 2021 Alien series, it is clear that she is at the very least the origin of this new leader of the Xenomorphs.

The Icarus Strain - genetically engineered on Tobler IV by Weyland-Yutani - had already created Xenomorphs with human reasoning and cruelty, something standard Xenomorphs do not have, and this next step in the evolution of Xenomorphs gives even more human-level sentience to the deadliest creatures in the universe, confirming that this is Weyland-Yutani's greatest crime against humanity in a long list of horrifying atrocities, one that could spell the end of the entire human race in Alien.

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Alien #4 (2022) from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.