In “Aliens Vs. Avengers #1,” a dystopian version of Earth’s mightiest heroes battles an overpowering horde of Xenomorphs that have little chance of survival.
But the answer to humanity’s prayers may come from one of the strangest places ever: another type of alien parasite, the Venom symbiote.
Warning spoilers for Aliens Vs. Avengers #1
Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Esad Ribić, colorist Ive Svorcina, and letterer Cory Petit presents an alternate reality in which not only the Xenomorphs, but also the Weyland Corporation from the Aliens film storyline exist in the Marvel Universe. Set in the future, the story shows what happens when Weyland synths posing as Shi’ar scientists launch a coordinated Xenomorph attack on Earth designed to wipe out humanity under the pretense of turning the entire planet into a weaponized Xenomorph hive.
The Earth is falling quickly, the inhuman city of Attilan, the nation of Wakanda, and even the underwater kingdom of Atlantis are taken over by Xenomorphs, while the island of Krakoa is abandoned and all mutants flee to the planet Arakko/Mars, leaving only one last human city standing, although the Xenomorphs advance further every day.
Luckily, there are still a few Avengers left who can help fight the Xenomorphs, but they’re all getting old and their chances are dwindling. They’ve all holed up in the Weyland Corporation building – a fitting setting for an alien story if ever there was one.
There’s Carol Danvers, who is aging but still has cosmic powers. There’s Bruce Banner, whose human body is starting to fail but who can apparently transform into a fully intelligent Hulk at will. And there’s Miles Morales, who appears to be the same old Spider-Man, just all grown up. And there’s someone only called “the old man from Weyland,” but who is vaguely implied to possibly be an older Tony Stark. There’s still time for that to be proven completely false, but both Iron Man and Captain America are featured on the cover of the issue, so it’s likely we’ll see them in one form or another.
And finally, there is Valeria Richards, now in her forties, the last of the Richards family, who left the safety of her fortress to retrieve a Xenomorph egg. She hopes to use it to create a virus that can destroy all the Xenomorph eggs on the planet. With a little last-minute help from Hulk and Miles, she succeeds.
However, when Bruce goes to her lab to check on her, he finds that he is locked out and even his override codes won’t allow him to open the lab. Instead, a video message from Valeria plays, confessing that she was infected by a Xenomorph parasite during her mission and has now likely succumbed to the Xenomorph’s life cycle. In her message, she asks Bruce to keep the lab locked, but he breaks in and finds a fully grown Xenomorph as well as Valeria’s corpse.
Hulk finishes off the Xenomorph, although its acidic blood can burn its skin – demonstrating why heroes like the Hulk, who could normally smash through an entire horde of alien monsters, can’t do more to fight off the invading Xenomorphs one at a time. But even worse than the Xenomorph that burst from Valeria’s chest, the egg she used for her experiment has hatched, meaning there’s a Facehugger somewhere in the room that can implant another Xenomorph egg and continue the cycle of carnage.
Just as Captain Marvel tries to warn everyone about the Facehugger, it jumps out and latches onto Miles Morales’ face, attempting to implant its egg right through his mask. The heroes try to get rid of it, but Hulk explains that not even magic or psionics were able to effectively remove a Facehugger.
But as it turns out, that doesn’t really matter – Miles’ suit is no ordinary spider suit. It’s a symbiote (maybe even the Venom symbiote) that not only repels the facehugger, but also binds him into a new symbiotic relationship.
After the symbiote appears to have the Facehugger under control, it jumps back onto Miles and creates a new breed of Xeno-Venom symbiote that may even offer insight into combating the Xenomorph plague – although we’ll have to wait and see if the symbiote can keep the Facehugger at bay indefinitely or if it gets even worse.
“Aliens Vs. Avengers No. 2” hits stores on November 6.
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