I honestly think you're being a bit harsh on the poor guy. Afterall, I think you're missing the point, that Alien, isn't about the characters. That may sound angering, but its true. Alien, is a postmodern look at an old modernist horror story. The, It! Terror From Beyond Space!
If you want to talk about characters, the characters in Alien weren't all that interesting. But it was the environment that made them interesting! The same goes with Hicks. Even Ripley, is not that interesting of a character, it is, the art itself that is interesting. The whole piece. Ripley wouldn't be anything if Weaver gave the same performance in a dark star budgeted film with aluminum hallways that was hardly different than The Thing From Another World and all its countless knock offs.
Hicks' character is, The Gun, that is the point. He is, The Cool Gun, and it works perfectly in Aliens because, again, Alien is a wholly postmodern series. Vasquez is Cool Girl Gun, Bishop is The Scientist , Hudson is Coward Gun, the other marines are Fodder Guns, Ripley is Scorned Mom, Newt is Innocent Child, and all the background characters are Background Foliage (The Colonists being, Ouch Foliage)
The same could be said of the characters of Alien. Ripley is Tough Girl, Ash is The Scientist , Dallas is Average Man, Kane is Friendly Man, Lambert is Cynic Girl, Parker is Bitter Mechanic, Brett is Worn Mechanic. All of them have associated implications about their archatypes in the more indepth world of Alien, but without that world, they would hardly have depth.
Also what you need to take into account is what James Cameron set out to achieve with Aliens. Just like Alien was a postmodern take on The Thing From Outer Space! and It! Terror From Beyond Space!, Aliens set out to achieve with the technical science fiction, and action science fiction, and military science fiction, and shoot em up genre. So, you cannot expect a postmodern take from the 80's, on that, to have exceptionally deep marines. But from the trope of what Hicks is, Hicks is interesting in what they leave out. He is a blank slate character aside from the trope-y pulpy delivery, which imply enough to build from there. But you shouldn't build too hard, you just need achieve what Ripley was made into from Alien to Aliens, which fit into the demands set by Alien for a successful pomo sequel.
Am I saying Alien is doomed to be formulaic? Yes and no. It should be formulaic, because its a string off a very formulaic genre. The characterss are just always, part of the entire postmodern take, but they're terrific in what they do. Characters in Alien need to be relatable archetypes, or else it fails what it sets out to achieve. Hicks is perfectly fine, and honestly I'm interested what they do with him.
