‘Alien Vs. X-Men’ Brings A Cosmic War To Mutantkind
by Tony Thornley
This fall, Marvel Comics and 20th Century Studios come together to bring to life one of the most frightening crossover events to date.
In the tradition of the now classic Alien Vs. Avengers and Predator Kills The Marvel Universe, Marvel Comics will debut Alien Vs. X-Men. The four issue limited series will be written by Kieron Gillen with art by Gerardo Borges. It will also include a special four-part story from X-Men legend Chris Claremont featuring the first meeting of the Brood and the Xenomorphs.
The solicitation reads: The X-Men went looking for a Phoenix egg. They found something else.
The X-Men return to Earth with deadly cargo, and a violent battle between mutant and alien begins. Will an unexpected ally turn the tide in the X-Men’s favor? Will anyone survive the experience? The next evolution of Marvel’s mightiest mutants begins!
On his love for the Alien franchise, Gillen shared, “Alien was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. Aliens is one of the four founding teenage films that I built my understanding of story structure upon. As a hormonal teen, I had a looming Alien poster hung over my bed. I love Aliens so much that I am unhelpfully explaining beats to Geraldo by referencing two-second sequences featuring tertiary characters, as if he cares about Ferro and Dietrich as much as I do. So, yes, this is some prime-grade bucket list stuff for me, and I’m highly enjoying taking the X-Men on an X-press elevator to hell.”
In the back-ups, a young Kitty Pryde faces her greatest nightmare when she’s hunted by two of the galaxy’s greatest terrors: the Brood and the Xenomorphs!
“For me, the coolest aspect here is returning to a universe where I can pit my deadliest alien predators against their movie counter-parts, with Kitty caught in the middle,” Claremont said. “Kitty brings a hero’s perspective to the challenge that embraces the heart and soul of the X-Men. This story is cram-packed with adventure — plus some crazy surprises along the way.”
So far, all of the crossovers between 20th Century Studios properties and the Marvel Universe have been good to great. Alien Vs. Avengers was an incredible science fiction epic, and Benjamin Percy’s Predator Vs. The Marvel Universe quadrilogy was an intense action story, beginning to end. Seeing these two X-Men legends writing this limited series shows this has the potential for the same, and the concept has the potential to match its predecessors.
Check out the first covers to the event, from Ryan Stegman and Ivan Shavrin, and watch for more information about the event from Marvel Comics soon.
