Warning! This article contains spoilers for Alien #5
A bizarre fan theory involving cats that dates back to the first film of the Alien saga continues in the new series by Marvel Comics. Since the release of Ridley Scott’s Alien in 1979 the Xenomorph has stricken fear into the hearts of any who behold one. The only character, or species of character, that seems to be immune to the aliens' terror are cats. From Jonesy the cat in the first Alien film to the currently unnamed new feline, cats have always stood their own against the Xenomorphs almost to the point where one may wonder if they partner with them in their killing sprees, or perhaps the cats are simply aliens themselves.
In Alien #5 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX, the group of Weyland-Yutani hired soldiers led by the retired Gabriel Cruz are tasked with retrieving a sample from the in-orbit laboratory Epsilon Station. Gabe’s son, Danny, previously stole his credentials and unwittingly unleashed the Xenomorphs that Weyland-Yutani scientists were experimenting on with the help of his fellow freedom fighters. Gabe works to both bring back a living chest-burster while also ensuring his son’s safety. By the time what’s left of the team makes it to safety, most of them have died or are critically injured, but one of the survivors is none other than an on-board cat.
Just as Jones the cat constantly slipped through the Nostromo completely unharmed and without any regard for locked doors or Xenomorph infested pathways, this cat in Marvel’s Alien pulls off the same feat. One theory that works to explain this ongoing phenomenon within the Alien mythos is that cats and Xenomorphs are equally homicidal and the cats work with the aliens to kill their crew. In Alien #3, the issue in which the cat was introduced, the cat's owner had been impregnated with a Xenomorph and the cat sits idly by his side. Perhaps the cat is a loyal companion who is there for their person no matter what, or perhaps the cat is waiting for the payoff of their partnership with a previous Xenomorph in the murder of this man and the birth of another cosmic friend.
Another theory floated around by Alien fans ties in perfectly with the current publisher of Alien comics, Marvel. This theory claims the cats on board the many doomed vessels that Xenomorphs ravage aren’t cats at all, but Flerken. Flerkens are alien beings within the Marvel Universe who look like cats from Earth, but are in fact deadly creatures whose mouths open into a pocket dimension of tentacle-ridden horror. Based on this theory, the reason the cats aren’t attacked or killed by Xenomorphs is because the Xenomorphs instinctively know better than to mess with a Flerken.
While each of those theories are admittedly far-fetched, one cannot deny the peculiarity of cats’ seemingly invulnerability when it comes to Xenomorphs. Alien 3 proved that animals are not immune to a facehugger's life-giving grip as a dog (or an ox) was the vessel in which the film's big-bad grew. One could argue the cats are too small for a facehugger to register one as a potential host, but Xenomorphs are the most adaptable species in their universe, proving so by their genetic imprint upon impregnation. Whatever the case, even if it's as simple as they didn’t kill the cat in the first movie so now they never will out, the theory’s will continue to spread as Alien offers more evidence to support them, no matter how bizarre they may seem.