Marvel’s current Alien comic book series will be ending with its next issue, #5, which finishes the current “Thaw” story arc by writer Declan Shalvey, artist Andrea Broccardo, colorists Tríona Farrell and Ruth Redmond and letterer VC’s Clayon Cowles, but fear not, Alien fans, as that’s just the end of one chapter, and a new chapter will begin in a brand-new Alien series by Shalvey and Broaccardo that will launch in November, following an Alien Annual in October.
In the current series, the action is set on an icy planet, where a scientist is nominally meant to be researching ways to bring water to other planets for the sake of colonizing new planets, but she clearly has a secret objective that we see come into focus when her partner, Dayton, and her teenaged daughter, Zasha, bring back to base a facehugger frozen in ice. Soon, it is clear that the entire planet has frozen Xenomorphs below the ice, only after the drilling, eventually they are no longer frozen.
That was just in time for Weyland-Yutani to purchase the scientist’s company, and arrive to take the specimens for themselves, but their battalion of armed mercenaries are no match for the thawed-out Xenomorphs, but it appears that there is a new sub-species of Xenomorphs on this frozen moon, and we will learn more about this new subspecies in the upcoming series, which will be titled “Descendant,” and if the swimming Xenomorphs on the cover of #1, drawn by Javi Fernandez, are any indication, while the first arc was on ice, this second one will likely be set underwater.
What leads into this new Alien series?
An interesting twist with this upcoming series is that Shalvey, who is writing the series, will also be splitting art duties on the book with Broaccardo, as Shalvey will be drawing flashbacks featuring a doomed crew who had a Xenomorph run-in, while Broccardo will show the present-day affects of that earlier mission gone wrong.
Meanwhile, Alien Annual #1, out in October, will connect the two runs together. Marvel described the Annual’s plot in a press release as, “In deep space spins a world infected by the universe’s greatest killers. Most people – sane people – would construct a barrier thicker than the hulls of ten Nostromos and leave it to rot. But where most people see a death trap, Weyland-Yutani sees the biggest payout in the history of civilization. And if it costs a few human lives to secure? Those come cheap here. Prepare for more corporate corruption, personal betrayals and extraordinary violence!”
What does Declan Shalvey have to say about this Alien run?
In an interview with CBR when the current series launched, Shalvey explained what readers could expect his and Andrea Broccardo’s run, “The best iterations of the franchise are those with a clear definitive take on it. I believe I have that on this series while also starting with a fresh new story told with fantastic collaborators and storytellers. You can read this story with no previous baggage [and] feel like you’re enjoying an authentic Alien story with recognizable elements presented in a refreshing new way. I’m hoping to give the reader enough of what they expect while giving them a new and entertaining story that feels real to this world.”
Meanwhile, speaking of this upcoming chapter, Shalvey told Marvel, “It’s such a joy to continue to build out our own little corner of Marvel Comics’ Alien universe with this new ‘Descendant’ story arc. We’re building on what we’ve done before (with some nods to previous stories) and get to dig a bit deeper in this arc (both figuratively and literally). It’s also a real treat for me to draw a section of the story.”
Alien #1 goes on sale November 15
Source: Marvel