Warning: Contains spoilers for Alien (2022) #3 As Marvel Comics continues to deepen the lore of the infamous Xenomorph from the Alien franchise, a settlement of survivors reveal that human scientists are responsible for the horrifying evolution of the homicidal creatures.
Marvel has been doing some truly amazing work with the Alien franchise, building on established lore while introducing fascinating new faces, exciting evolutions of the Xenomorph species, and glimpses into the lives of synthetics, the Alien franchises infamous sentient androids. The current Alien series takes place 15 years after the finale of Marvel's last run, which saw a religious Spinner colony horrifically overrun by a group of Xenomorphs while a main group of survivors desperately attempted to stay alive.
Alien (2022) #3 - from writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Julius Ohta and color by Yen Nitro - follows the Steel Team, a squad of brutal Synthetic soldiers, as they attempt to retrieve an Ovomorph (the egg capsules that Facehuggers emerge from) from a specific strain of Xenomorphs after finding out the planet Tobler-9 is more inhabited than they believed. It turns out an entire clan of humans survived after the Weyland-Yutani company attempted to nuke the planet to stop the spread of the aliens, and the surviving humans know a lot about this new strain of Xenomorphs. Before the leader of the survivor's group, Melody, unsurprisingly betrays the troop of Synthetics, she reveals that the new strain of Xenomorphs - dubbed the "Icarus Strain" - have evolved to develop human-like emotions and intelligence levels. This is... truly terrifying, and completely changes the future of the Xenomorph, which has previously been described as an almost cosmic creature. Traditionally, Xenomorphs have little desire or thought towards "conquering" humanity, instead being seen as more of a Brood-like alien, operating with a level of uncaring and mindlessness that makes them a true nightmare. While some might feel that this evolution takes away from the horror of the Xenomorph, it is important to remember that the Icarus aliens on Tobler-9 are just one strain of the alien, and are not the "end game" evolution of the alien for all future adaptations.
Humans Will Always Be Their Own Worst Enemies
Unsurprisingly, Melody reveals that the highly evolved and human-like Icarus Xenomorph is a result of human intervention, with Weyland-Yutani scientists purposefully injecting the human genome into Ovomorphs before they lay their eggs in a human. It has been established for a while now that a Xenomorph's biology, intelligence level, and appearance will change depending on the host they are born within. Aliens born in four-legged creatures - called "Runners" - take on a four-legged body and lowered intelligence as opposed to the bipedal and highly intelligent human-host Xenomorphs. Melody reveals that the human-Xenomorph hybrids started as a way for scientists to develop new cures for human ailments, but the experiment quickly got out of hand. The Icarus strain evolved a group of hive Xenomorphs who are sadistic and cruel, shown to kill humans for fun while seemingly torturing the survivors with remains to "have a laugh."
In an interesting foreshadow, back in Philip Kennedy Johnson's previous run of Alien a Synthetic named Iris explains that the true purpose of the Xenomorphs is to "test" different cosmic species, and that one step of this testing will involve humanity attempting to merge with the alien in an attempt to make humans stronger, something that is clearly playing out in the pages of Alien (2022). As the lore and future of the dangerous Xenomorphs from the Aliens franchise deepens throughout Marvel Comics, it seems clear that further experiments by Weyland-Yutani will be revealed, promising to maintain the human corporation as the true enemy of humanity throughout the franchise.
Alien (2022) #3 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.