Xenomorphs And Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Battle In Marvel’s Upcoming ‘Aliens Vs. Avengers’

Marvel has announced another entry into their growing Aliens canon with Aliens vs. Avengers, due July 24, 2024 from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić. This will be the first ever meeting between the two iconic and beloved franchises. 

The four-piece mini is set in a new timeline many years in the future and features older, grittier versions of Marvel characters. That tracks with the inherent grittiness of the Aliens Universe. It will also be the first time Marvel dips into certain parts of Aliens lore, like the home of the Engineers. Xenomorphs will touch down on Earth, and the universe’s most perfect killing machines will find themselves up against a planet infested with superheroes. 

Marvel’s take on the iconic Aliens franchise has been hit or miss. I still can’t help but get excited every time a new story is announced, hoping against hope that it’s going to be a super dark, violent piece of space horror. I am sincerely hoping that this Summer’s Aliens vs. Avengers is more than a superhero puff piece that uses xenos as generic fodder for the heroes to mow down. 

This Entertainment Weekly quote from Hickman also makes me a little nervous:

Probably one of the coolest things about the project is how we’ve found really fun ways to ‘Avengerize’ Aliens and ‘Alien-up’ Avengers. I think fans will be surprised at how elegantly some of those things fit together. It really turned out to be a chocolate-and-peanut-butter situation.

Please, please, please don’t ‘Avengerize’ xenomorphs to the point where the monster becomes the butt of the joke. Someone told me it’s bad form to laugh at Internecivus raptus. That’s a good way to catch a face full of razor sharp teeth. 

The first issue hits stands on July 24, just ahead of the premiere of 20th Century Studios’ Alien: Romulus film.