The Avengers have saved Earth from many extraterrestrial threats, but they're about to face their biggest challenge yet in Avengers vs. Aliens. That's right, Earth's Mightiest Heroes are taking on the Xenomorphs.
As revealed by Entertainment Weekly, this new four-issue limited series will reunite Secret Wars writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić. The series is set in the future of the Marvel Universe, as an older, grittier team of Avengers fights to protect Earth from a Xenomorph invasion (a doomsday scenario that has yet to happen in the Alien movies).
"I've never worked on a licensed or 'non-superhero' property the entire time I've been at Marvel, so when all of this came together almost two years ago, I kind of jumped at the opportunity," Hickman told EW. "I love the Aliens universe and the mythology, and obviously just how atmospherically and well-designed everything is has always gotten my creative juices flowing. It was tricky finding a way to make these two things work together, but I think Esad and I landed on something that works for fans of both franchises."
"Probably one of the coolest things about the project is how we've found really fun ways to 'Avengerize' Aliens and 'alien-up' Avengers," Hickman added. "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."
Marvel teases that the series will delve deep into the mythology of the Alien movies, including featuring the home world of the Engineers in the Marvel Universe for the first time.
Aliens vs. Avengers #1 will be released on July 24, 2024, ahead of the August 16 release of the new movie Alien: Romulus.
This isn't the first time Marvel's heroes have collided with the Alien/Predator universe. 2023's Predator vs. Wolverine chronicled a decades-long feud between Wolverine and a Yautja hunter.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
