For a lot of fans Aliens, Predator and Dark Horse Comics are words that go hand-in-hand. It was Dark Horse’s success with the very first Aliens run that proved that media tie-in’s could be successful, as well as just plain good. And ever since Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, fans loyal to Dark Horse had been worried that the Alien and Predator licences would go the way of Star Wars – that is, to Marvel.
And for those fans it looks like those worries have become reality. IGN have exclusively announced that both Alien and Predator are now licensed to Marvel. While no new titles have been announced, Marvel did provide IGN with teaser images of both the Alien and Predator by artist David Finch.
“There’s nothing more thrilling than a story that will keep you at the edge of your seat, and Alien and Predator have delivered that time and time again!” said Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski in a statement to IGN. “I can clearly remember where I was when I saw each of these modern masterpieces for the first time, and reveling in how both masterfully weave extraterrestrial dread and drama into some of the most iconic scenes we’ve ever seen on film. And it’s that legacy that we’re going to live up to!”
“As a visual medium, comics are the perfect place to build on those moments, and we here at Marvel are honored to begin telling these stories for fans everywhere,” added Cebulski. “As our release schedule continues to return, we can’t wait to share more in the coming months!”
Editor Jake Thomas said, “The incredible legacies of both franchises offer some of the most compelling and exciting worldbuilding in all of science fiction. It is a thrill and an honor to be able to add to that mythology and continuity with all-new stories set within those universes.”
IGN was also keen to stress that none of it implied that Alien and Predator would be joining the main Marvel continuity in the way that Conan did.
We don’t yet know how this will affect the previously announced series from Dark Horse. Predator: Hunters 3 is still only halfway through it’s run, and series based on the original screenplays for both Alien and Predator were supposed to be releasing now but with comic publishing having shutdown due to the Corona virus, neither have started releasing.
On their website Dark Horse has dates up for the first 2 issues of Alien: The Original Screenplay, but Predator: The Original Screenplay has been removed entirely from their website. There are no dates for the last 2 issues of Predator: Hunters 3, but a trade is up for release in November. Likewise AvP: Thicker Than Blood only has a trade available on Dark Horse’s website, with a release date of November.
Update: According to Marvel’s website, we’ll be seeing Alien and Predator series from the new publisher as of 2021. Though we’re always eager for more content, and it’s fantastic to see that Alien and Predator aren’t being forgotten under Disney, there’s no denying it’s the end of an era. Thank you for all the hard work and fantastic stories you’ve put out Dark Horse. And we’re looking forward to seeing what Marvel do with the series going forward.
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The MAX imprint is pretty extreme and would suit the Alien/Predator world well. Here's hoping that's what they do with it and not just put the brands on ice because they own it but don't want to tarnish their "family" brand. I'd think they'd know what kind of a goldmine they're sitting on with those properties.
Granted as has already been said, I'm sure it's only going to be a matter of time before we start seeing Marvel reprinting a lot or all of Dark Horse's stuff. But still, if you're anything like me (aka a chronic procrastinator) and there's anything you've been meaning to pick up but just never quite gotten around to it for whatever reason, now might well be the time.
I really should post here a bit more but I am a bit burned out about Alien and Predator after the Alien prequels and those Predator movies.
My reception of this news is a bit mixed if I have to be honest. I have never been that big a fan of Dark Horse's Alien comics, a lot of the stories never really worked for me though the quality seemed to improve a bit in the last couple of years, at least regarding style as I disliked a lot of the designs of the earlier comics (spaceships and such).
I can't blame my disappointment about the Engineers on Dark Horse and its writers, that is more an issue with the Alien prequel movies.
My favorite Alien comic still remains "Aliens Apocalypse the Destroying Angels", and for Predator it is "Hell and Hot Water"
Sorry, going a little off topic here.
Seeing Marvel taken on the Alien and Predator universe might be interesting if I did not have a few personal criticisms and most of them are against Marvel and Disney.
I know Marvel can do "dark" though for me a good Alien or Predator story does not depend on how gory and bloody it is, more how well a story is told and how well characters are written (sorry but sometimes the characters in the DH comics were quite awful, ridiculous, or stereotypes).
Marvel writers' character writing these last ten year (perhaps fifteen) hasn't been exactly good. I am not throwing all of the writers onto one heap but the good ones tend to be more the exception than the standard.
Creative wise I think they will just follow up on what others have already been doing and I do not expect much "surprises" that could be exciting. Marvel/Disney is just going to milk these licenses for what remains to be milked.
As for crossovers, personally I do not think that the Aliens or the Predators work in a "supers" universe.
In the main Marvel universe there are various creatures already as dangerous as the aliens themselves, not to mention entities even deadlier than them, and the Predators are tech wise outdone by several of the major interstellar civilizations. The Predators would be just another random species Supers would run into.
They work much better in a universe which is much closer to our own reality, one that doesn't have incredible technologies other than FTL travel and communication and energy weapons (no teleporation or interdimensional travel), a universe that is cold and lonely because there are not dozens or even hundreds of technologically advanced species zipping between the star systems, life and especially intelligent life being quite rare and perhaps lasting barely a "second" in the universe's history.
Someone here suggested that it might be interesting to see the Predators hunt members of the various alien species of the Marvel universe and of course the Supers, Mutants, and other various other characters and human off shoots on Earth but to me it would just make it another crossover comic.
Marvel indeed had a tendency to incorporate other timelines into their main universe such as Conan which can work to a certain degree as most of it takes place long before the rise of the ancient world, but I feel that other licenses like Transformers, GIJoe never really worked and it was better to spin them off to their own universes. (Godzilla was kind of amusing and it was fun to watch SHIELD go against the creature, but I think it works better as a fun what if)
I am glad that Marvel never tried to make Indiana Jones and Robocop part of the Marvel universe back when they had those licenses. (well Indy could happen but I honestly hope it doesn't)
I don't have real expectations of this.
I never read Marvel's new Star Wars comics because they in general lack the space adventure/space opera vibe the older comics did back when the SW universe was still being established and was closer to Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon and other pulp sci-fi. There is nothing really exciting to discover any more.
The "616" universe designation is the main Marvel comics universe, as coined by Alan Moore back before Marvel made him mad and he left. There have been tons of alternate universe stories over the years, some just one or two issues and some entire lines that have lasted for several years. Often they're given numerical designations but in the cases of the bigger stuff like the Ultimate universe (the 21st century "reboot" Marvel universe that featured updated, more cinematic versions of their characters outside the continuity of the main 616 comics) they're known by names more often than numbers.
Any time anyone mentions "616" in regards to Marvel they basically just mean "the main universe and continuity".
Starlord bumps into a Pred in a cantina type bar and he gives it slme funny one liners before the actual anragonist shows up.
Or a Xeno in the collector's tanks.
I really wouldn't be surprised if Alien and Predator ended up getting incorporated in the Marvel 616. Star Wars is the exception that proves the rule. Godzilla, Conan, Transformers, and Rom were all worked into mainstream Marvel when they held the rights.
And it's been a long time since I read the Versus series. What referenced them in continuity? I kinda remember Access or whatever the original character was called showing up somewhere...
DC VERSUS MARVEL was in continuity. As were the numerous crossovers with Malibu Comics' Ultraverse titles in the 90s.
I've mentioned before that I'm not huge on AvP films, but the comics/games etc are the perfect medium for it, IMO.
If an AvP film was done right I think it could be decent. But I wasn't sold on Mayan-esque Temple in Antarctica is the Preds' hunting ground for Xenos.
I think he means an adaptation of the comic, with Machiko.
Wow an animation too?
Sounds like it could've been great!
There's an unreleased Netflix series??!?
What's the original AvP?
Assuming it differs from the film?
Practical sets like those have gone the way of green screens and processing power. I doubt we'll ever see the Geiger-esque soundstages in our future.
And in regards to larger budgets: Predator doesn't need one, actually I'd prefer it not to have it, but a large budgeted AvP film off-Earth would be a dream!
We all know it'll be Predator vs Wolverine or Punisher.
If they keep the franchises within their respective umbrellas EG - No Marvel crossovers and simply Alien or Pred or AVP content is generated then I think that's the "best" outcome. For me at least.
One thing I am interested in is does this mean Marvel/Disney have got one eye on more cinematic content? As I think Marvel budgets could really bring the franchises back to the fore. Well Pred seems to be better with shitty budgets like 1&2; but Alien with a massive budget to make Geiger-esque soundstages and sets could be incredible, IMO.
On te comics front, though - I think they'd do well with a rehash of the AvP Arcade Game and use San Drad as an Alt-World futuristic Californian Town (as The Predator introduced wormhole/dimension hopping tech, IIRC - as shit as that sounds). Maybe Yautja recon teams synthesised a training/battle android (salvaged from Weyland tech after a skirmish with a colonial ship?) based on Dutch after they watched Jungle Hunter's battle logs or something. And they use it to train hunters against to develop better but end up using it to fight Xenos.
That's just off the top of my head; but that sort of stuff would be more palatable than the "Hey bub" *snikt* nonsense I'm really hoping they don't churn out but likely will.
Was his college major Linguistics?
that would be awesome, though i'm pretty sure beauvais only does commissions these days
So as far as we know... This MIGHT NOT be official until it sees print in a Marvel Handbook Guide. And if it did appear in a handbook guide, well it's not subject to remain static and can be retconned or reassigned.
That would be cool. Let Den Beauvais adapt Aliens too. We also need a Prometheus and Covenxnt Adaptations...
I just thought, is there any possibility that Marvel might produce an adaptation of the original Predator movie?
I just got a weird premonition while reading this of a Predator cover featuring Dutch and Punisher standing back-to-back in a jungle.
The Predator films could work just fine. Marvel utilizes what is known as a sliding timescale so while there is an amount of years that have passed in-universe, the years or decades that took place in moves up as time goes on. So Predator taking place in 1987 actually doesn't affect anything in mainline Marvel continuity as most heroes wouldn't be active yet, (current consensus is that Spider-man for example would've initially became active in the mid to late 90's or early 2000's). Same goes for Predator 2 as West Coast Avengers would be much later, and given the Avengers debuted after Spider-man, City Hunter wouldn't encounter any Avengers or even the Green Goblin. Predators is who knows where but The Predator is even less of an issue simply due to it taking place over a very short period of time.
I feel screwed that Neca never did a toy of the Plastic man Predator.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/rQJOjylL_duGlncVr7vH1uw7zM5HGSRiu-gKoTt67xBBJ3yc_43j5r2u57qv4o7b-5glLgkKnWrxllu1SRgMm8itjnQSd_F2d60r9YA
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/avp/images/c/c5/501562-jla_vs_predator_super.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111015140847
It was something we all knew was coming yet still felt like a bit of a surprise just because it seemed like Disney had been leaving Dark Horse well enough alone for this past year since the takeover (unlike say the AVP: The Hunt Begins miniatures game that they pretty much shut down immediately). And given that their recent output of Alien and Predator comics has been really good, and with those awesome-looking original screenplays on the horizon, the timing of this news does sting that bit more as a result. I really do hope they're able to publish everything they had planned for the year, as the disappearance of Predator: The Original Screenplay from Dark Horse's own site and others is concerning.
And yeah overall it's very bittersweet. Dark Horse has been the home of these franchises in the comics medium since the beginning. Not everything they've put out over that entire 35 year period has been good, but it's hard not to feel sad at the prospect of such a lengthy era coming to an end.
Looking at the more positive side though, a big, fresh beginning like this is also somewhat exciting. I've not read any of the Star Wars or Conan books Marvel have put out so I've got no idea how any of those have been handled other than hearing the odd "Vader is great!" comments from people who have, but I'm just hoping that ultimately we get a bunch of good stories from big-name writers and artists some of whom may not have worked with these characters before (and of course some who already have under Dark Horse).
I'm totally cool with the idea of Aliens and Predators going up again Iron Man, the Punisher, Captain America etc., just as they've gone up against Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Judge Dredd and others before. In fact I'm looking forward to it! And there's no reason we can't have those sort of one-offs ("Predator Kills the Marvel Universe", or the Marvel Zombies-style Alien invasion idea someone mentioned earlier would be awesome) and also have the "main" line of comics be their own thing, off in their own little Alien and Predator corner of the universe. They haven't tried to make Star Wars part of the 616, though there's potentially more likelihood of a Conan-type situation where they do bring them at least in part into their main continuity, if only for the odd series here and there. But otherwise I'd still imagine they'll be kept separate for the most part.
And yeah no worries here about the level of violence they'll be allowed to get away with. Plenty of people have pointed out that Marvel often doesn't shy away from some pretty extreme and graphic scenes in their books, and even though the gore has never been one of the reasons I've enjoyed Alien or Predator, I'm not concerned about them being in any way "neutered" by this.
But yeah I guess we'll just have to wait and see what we see. Those promo pieces certainly look really nice. David Finch did a great job with both of them. But it's definitely going to be weird reading Alien and Predator comics in the future without that little Dark Horse logo at the top of their covers, that's for sure.
Probably one of the closest things to that was the Sinestro Corps Predator that showed up as a brief cameo in Green Lantern a while back, and NECA made a figure out of:
https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/scale_small/2/28028/680061-predator_corps.jpg
https://mlpnk72yciwc.i.optimole.com/cqhiHLc-OTCThk6L/w:640/h:960/q:75/https://bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/67648714_2548215845240785_2779239127827087360_n.jpg
Honestly, so did I. I could have sworn that was the end result a few years back when the news broke. But alas...
For some reason I thought Allie got canned years ago.
Yes, yes, yes... I know, everyone knows. Back then it was a neat nod and Easter Egg, but then this happened and I had happened to come across that the universe which Deadliest of the Species was set was listed as an official Marvel universe within the Marvel multiverse just seemed interesting.
I also got some answers from the folks over at the Marvel Database Wiki who answered my question. The universe listing of Earth-91445 which could be the AVP Universe, came from the Marvel Appendix website. According to the folks at the Marvel Database website, the Marvel Appendix website IS mantained by writers and information gatherers who have worked on the official Marvel handbook guides and is even reputed as being a reputable site by the handbook guides and Marvel themselves... While interesting, this... doesn't really answer whether or not the universe designation for the AVP Universe, Earth-94415 is Marvel's official designation for the AVP Universe. This isn't the first time where Marvel has given numerical designations to outside company properties... as they've listed universes where DC and Marvel co-exist, as well as Capcom and Marvel.
So if Marvel designated the AVP universe, prior to the Disney purchase or sometime after, is something interesting to think about.
I've still yet to get an answer from the folks at the Marvel Appendix website.
This doesn't shock me. It has been coming out now that Mike Mignola and Dark Horse have continued to work with editor Scott Allie even after information about his sexual misconduct became known.
Employee abuse accusations at Dark Horse.
I really thought they'd taken positive steps when they severed ties with Brian Wood, but I guess they didn't.
My only hope is Chris Warner knew Dark Horse's stewardship was coming to an end, and in knowing that, was able to give the Predator Hunters series some sort of closure in Volume III.