Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 pits a dystopian version of Earth's Mightiest Heroes against an overwhelming horde of Xenomorphs with little chance of survival.
But the answer to humanity's prayers may come from one of the strangest places of all: another type of alien parasite, the Venom symbiote.
Spoilers for Aliens Vs. Avengers #1 follow below
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 cinematic storyline exist in the Marvel Universe. Set in the future, the story depicts what happens when Weyland synths disguised as Shi’ar scientists launch a coordinated Xenomorph attack on Earth, designed to wipe out humanity with the goal of turning the entire planet into a hive of weaponized Xenomorphs.
The Earth quickly falls, and the inhuman city of Attilan, the nation of Wakanda, and even the underwater kingdom of Atlantis are taken over by the Xenomorphs, while the island of Krakoa is abandoned and all mutants flee to the planet Arakko/Mars. This leaves only one last human city standing, though the Xenomorphs are invading more by the day.
Fortunately, there are a few Avengers left standing to help fight off the Xenomorphs, but they're all aging and their chances are diminishing. They're all holed up in the Weyland Corporation building, a fitting setting for an Aliens story if there ever was one.
There's Carol Danvers, who's aging but still cosmically powerful. There's Bruce Banner, whose human body is starting to fail but who can transform into a fully intelligent Hulk seemingly at will. And there's Miles Morales, who appears to be the same old Spider-Man, all grown up. And there's someone called only “the old man from Weyland,” but who's vaguely hinted at might be an elderly Tony Stark. There's still time for this to be proven totally wrong, but both Iron Man and Captain America appear on the cover of the issue, so it's likely we'll see them in one form or another.
Finally, there is Valeria Richards, now in her 40s, the last of the Richards family, who has left the safety of her fortress on a mission to retrieve a Xenomorph egg in the hopes of creating a virus that can destroy all Xenomorph eggs on the planet, which she succeeds in doing, with some last minute help from Hulk and Miles.
However, when Bruce goes to her lab to check on her, he finds that it is locked, and that not even his override codes allow him to open the lab. Instead, a video message from Valeria plays, in which she confesses that while on her mission, she was infected by a Xenomorph parasite and has likely now succumbed to the Xenomorph life cycle. Her message begs Bruce to leave the lab locked, but he enters and finds a fully grown Xenomorph lying next to Valeria's corpse.
Hulk dispatches the Xenomorph, though its acidic blood is shown to be able to burn through his skin, proving why heroes like Hulk, who could normally crush an entire horde of alien monsters, can't do more to individually repel the invading Xenomorphs. But even worse than the Xenomorph that burst from Valeria's chest, the egg she was using for her experiment has hatched, meaning there's a Facehugger somewhere in the room, capable of implanting another Xenomorph egg and continuing the cycle of carnage.
Just as Captain Marvel tries to warn everyone about the facehugger, it appears and attaches itself to Miles Morales' face, attempting to implant its egg through his mask. The heroes attempt to remove it, but Hulk explains that not even magic or psionics have been able to effectively remove a facehugger.
But it turns out it doesn't really matter: Miles' suit isn't just any ordinary spider suit. It's a symbiote (maybe even the Venom symbiote), which not only repels the facehugger, but also draws him into a new symbiotic relationship.
With the symbiote seemingly in control of the facehugger, it leaps back towards Miles, creating a new type of Xeno-Venom symbiote, which may even provide some sort of window into how to defeat the Xenomorph scourge – though we'll have to wait and see if the symbiote is able to keep the facehugger at bay indefinitely, or if it turns into something even worse.
Aliens Vs. Avengers #2 goes on sale November 6.
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