Marvel Officially Reveals the Most Dangerous Xenomorph Yet [Exclusive]

The X-Men have faced Sentinels, the Brood, cosmic gods, and more apocalyptic futures than anyone could reasonably keep track of, but their next threat comes from an entirely different corner of science fiction. Marvel’s upcoming Alien vs. X-Men is bringing the X-Men face-to-face with the Xenomorphs, and writer Kieron Gillen isn’t treating the crossover like another superhero fight.

That’s an important distinction when some members of the X-Men could theoretically make short work of a Xenomorph. Alien works because even capable people can find themselves completely outmatched, and Gillen is bringing that philosophy into the Marvel Universe. In an exclusive interview with Collider’s Hannah Hunt, Gillen explained that this is fundamentally a horror story, where the X-Men don’t necessarily have the protection that normally comes with being superheroes.

“This is a horror story. An action-horror story, but a horror-story nevertheless,” Gillen said. “This is the X-Men wandering into an Alien story.” According to Gillen, the heroes are “still themselves,” but this time, “they are fighting uphill.”

That raises one particularly interesting question: if the X-Men are entering an Alien story, which one of them gets to be Ripley?

Storm Is the Ripley of ‘Alien vs. X-Men’

Image via Marvel Comics

When asked whether there was one mutant who immediately clicked as the Ripley of the story, Gillen’s answer couldn’t have been clearer: “Yes. Storm.” It’s a perfect choice thematically, but it presented Gillen with a pretty significant problem. Storm is one of the most powerful mutants on the planet, and putting her against creatures whose greatest advantage is their ability to make their victims feel helpless means Alien vs. X-Men has to account for what Ororo Munroe can actually do. “Storm was a problem, as you allude to. She’s too powerful, in her modern form,” Gillen explained. That left the creative team with several possibilities, including leaving her out entirely or finding some suitably horrifying way for a Xenomorph to kill her. Neither was particularly appealing. “So we have a variety of choices — don’t include her (why would I do that?), kill her in any of the ways aliens could kill her (bad luck, a facehugger in her sleep, etc.) or… something else,” Gillen wrote. “We chose something else.”

Gillen stopped short of revealing exactly what that “something else” means, although he suggested that the artwork may already contain clues. Alien vs. X-Men takes place in its own timeline, allowing Gillen and artist Geraldo Borges to pull from different eras of X-Men history. The core team and costumes are inspired by the Astonishing X-Men era, with Gillen specifically pointing toward Agent Brand, S.W.O.R.D., and that period’s extraterrestrial connections. Whatever the series has planned for Storm, Gillen said the solution ultimately makes her “the perfect emotional heart of the story.”

That comparison says quite a bit about what readers should expect from Alien vs. X-Men. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) survives because she is observant, capable, adaptable, and willing to make difficult decisions when everyone around her is rapidly running out of options. Storm has spent decades embodying many of those same qualities. Her powers may make her considerably more dangerous than anyone aboard the Nostromo, but her leadership and ability to remain composed when everything goes wrong make her an even more natural fit for Ripley’s role.

The X-Men Aren’t Protected by Superhero Rules

Image via Marvel Comics

Gillen’s approach also makes the crossover considerably scarier than simply asking which mutant could beat a Xenomorph in a fight. As he pointed out, Alien isn’t a story about incompetent people making obviously terrible decisions. Its characters frequently make reasonable choices and still die. “In horror fiction, I mainly think that competent people dying is scary and stupid people dying is natural selection,” Gillen wrote. That philosophy applies directly to the X-Men. They can still behave like heroes, use their abilities intelligently, and make the decisions audiences expect them to make. None of that guarantees they survive.

“Heroes can still be heroes, and act like themselves… but they’re in a story where their luck often runs out.”

Storm isn’t the only mutant Gillen offered an intriguing tease about. Asked which X-Man might prove surprisingly well-suited or spectacularly ill-suited to surviving a Xenomorph outbreak, he gave exactly one name: “Logan.” Gillen refused to say which side of that question Wolverine falls on, adding, “Why choose, right?” Considering Wolverine’s healing factor, adamantium skeleton, heightened senses, and tendency to solve problems at extremely close range, either possibility could get very messy very quickly. Gillen offered one final warning about assuming audiences already know what Alien vs. X-Men entails.

When asked about the biggest misconception readers might have about the crossover before picking it up, he replied, “Well, there’s more than one Alien in it.” Collider can also exclusively reveal three new pages from Alien vs. X-Men, and along with them Gillen’s warning becomes much more ominous. The biggest concern may be Multiple Man, who appears to have fallen victim to a Xenomorph. A Xenomorph gestating inside a mutant whose entire power is creating more of himself feels about as close to a worst-case scenario as the X-Men could get.

Alien vs. X-Men #1 is on sale September 16.

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X-Men

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