The Alien franchise has been a fan-favorite within the realm of science fiction since the very first film in 1979, but the series reached all-new heights in 2022 under Marvel Comics–and it’s not done yet, as the storyline so far has set the stage for Alien’s ultimate endgame.
So far, there are three distinct eras that have taken place with Marvel Comics’ Alien (with one of them still ongoing) and each of them being defined by their location: ‘Epsilon’, ‘Euridice’, and ‘Tobler-9’. Epsilon is a space station controlled and operated by Weyland-Yutani where experiments on Xenomorphs were taking place. This first storyline also introduced a man named Gabriel Cruz who was impregnated with a Xenomorph before it was surgically removed from his body–an experience that left him with vivid visions of what was seemingly the future. Euridice is a moon settlement funded by the United Systems government and populated by a religious colony, but it was sabotaged by Weyland-Yutani as the company sent a ship-full of their Xenomorphs to the world, and the Xenomorphs quickly made it their own. Tobler-9 is a planet settlement controlled by Weyland-Yutani where they did more Xenomorph research and experiments before the planet became overrun with the creatures, leaving it practically unlivable and the company’s research completely vulnerable.
In the latest addition to the ongoing story being crafted by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Julius Ohta, Alien Vol. 2 #4, a spec-ops team of Synthetics known as Steel Team went to Tobler-9 and infiltrated one of Weyland-Yutani’s underground labs where they found an odd mutation that was a result of gene-splicing Xenomorph DNA with mosquitos. In this issue, one of those ‘Xeno-squitos’ gets out of its containment and bites one of the human survivors on Tobler-9–and the result is more horrifying than one could imagine. With one bite from this ‘Xeno-squito’, the woman it bit was exposed to a specific protein that altered her DNA, and she was effectively transformed into a human/Xenomorph hybrid–thereby fulfilling the first stage of a prophecy that was introduced all the way back at the beginning of Alien Vol. 1.
Human/Xenomorph Hybrids are the Dark Future of the Alien Universe
After Gabriel Cruz was impregnated with a Xenomorph, and then had it removed, his mind seemingly became connected to the intergalactic hive-mind of the creature, giving him insight into otherworldly realms of cosmic horror the likes of which he couldn’t comprehend–though there was always one aspect to those visions he could see clearly, even he didn’t know what it meant: the Woman in the Dark. The Woman in the Dark is a female figure with Xenomorph features who stands amid an endless horde of Xenomorphs in every one of Gabriel’s visions, and the reason she’s so terrifying isn’t because of who she may be as a character, but because of what she represents. The Woman in the Dark is the perfect amalgamation of humans and Xenomorphs. She is what will become of humanity, and eventually, what will become of the entire universe as the Xenomorphs continue their march across the cosmos–and this ‘Xeno-squito’ bite was the first step in making her a reality.
When the Woman in the Dark was introduced, and her purpose explored, the series from that point onward became a question of if humanity could avoid this horrific fate for its species–but the storylines that followed seem to indicate that it can’t. ‘Epsilon’ introduced humanity’s fate, ‘Euridice’ saw Xenomorphs being portrayed as beings sent by a god to cleanse the unholy, and ‘Tobler-9’ physically created the human/Xenomorph hybrid the Woman in the Dark represents. Each story adds to the overall theme that Xenomorphs are an otherworldly and inevitable force that will corrupt the universe itself, and there’s nothing humanity can do to stop it–a revelation in Alien’s 2022 series that has set the stage for its ultimate endgame.