Alien fans are no strangers to alternate continuities. Is it Hicks and Newt who met General Spears, or is it really Wilks and Billie? Dark Horse explored the idea towards the end of their time with Alien, adapting William Gibson’s second draft of “Alien 3” and Dan O’Bannon’s very first draft of the original “Alien”. Now it’s Marvel’s turn with “Aliens: What If…”
For years, fans of James Cameron’s legendary Aliens questioned whether Carter Burke, a company man more hateable than the Xenos themselves, had actually survived the traumatic events on the terraforming colony Hadley’s Hope. Now the actor behind the beloved villain, Paul Reiser, joins his son Leon and the star-studded team of writers and producers Adam F. Goldberg, Brian Volk-Weiss and Hans Rodionoff for a journey back to Hadley’s Hope and the twisted escape of a man who should have died.
Written by Adam F. Goldberg, Brian Volk-Weiss and Hans Rodionoff and Burke himself Paul Reiser and son Leon Reiser with artwork by Guiu Vilanova, the first issue of “Aliens: What If…” will be hitting comic book store shelves on the 3rd of June 2024.
Following the announcement, writer Brian Volk-Weiss shared some information on Facebook on how Burke’s alternate fate came to be:
Ok, so def ending 2023 on a pretty crazy story; over a year ago I was talking to Adam F. Goldberg (creator of The Goldbergs) and as we were hanging up he said to me “hey, I work with Marvel Comics every now and then and they asked me to let them know if I had any ideas they could turn into a comic based on the IP Disney got after they bought FOX, so if you have an idea let me know!” And I responded immediately “Oh, I’ve had an idea for a long time that I can explain to you in four words; WHAT. IF. BURKE. LIVED?” Less than a day later he called me back and said Marvel loves the idea and wants to do it. So we did it! Then I called @paulreiserofficial, who I’ve know for over a decade, and asked him if he wanted to be a part of it, and before I could finish the sentence he said his own version of “YES!”
Make sure you stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Alien and Predator comic and novel news! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!
I think I was doing the same thing. Probably conflating it with the art from late in batman vs predator where he has the visor thing.
Same, it's why I asked here instead of googling it.
Despite not having any idea what they're dealing with.
Seriously a follow up with Lex and Weyland retrieving the Queen from Bouvet could be cool.
The Queen Alien managed to get to civilisation.
https://x.com/ushigashira/status/1609935014292250628?s=46
I think his son assisted in writing it.it may well have been his idea initially. Then they pitched it to marvel and I believe they were very quick to come back with a yes.
For consistency.
*Yawn*
*what if Ripley, newt, and hicks survived?*
yes, another what if alien 3 never happened
The difference, it won't adapt alien 3's rejected scripts and instead make its own original story taking elements of all of them
Yes he's a great character but obviously Paul Reiser felt he needed to revisit the character.
It's an awful story and Burke shouldn't be rehabilitated. He's a great character as-is.
No, it couldn't happen, easily or otherwise.
I'm not surprised that Paul Reiser wants to rehabilitate Burke in a way. Whether he succeeds is down to the individual reader.
It's a good story.
It plays things a little fast and loose with the initial continuity of trying to fit Burke's survival in with the movie continuity - I think it actually could have slotted in with both Aliens (specifically the deleted Burke cocoon scene) and Alien3 without too much difficulty, but oh well.
It's really light and breezy fare, Burke is very quippy but I'd say the vast majority of his lines land and genuinely sound like things 60-something present day Paul Reiser would say, even if not necessarily what Burke would say but I'm willing to give it a pass because people change in 30+ years so it gave it a bit of a blank slate for Paul Reiser to basically "play" himself in real life, and I'm okay with that. I don't know how much direct input Paul Reiser actually had in writing Burke's lines, but I got the impression that the writers had a good time lining things up with real world Paul Reiser's mannerisms and how he talks.
Tonally it's not serious at all and frankly I'm okay with that, I was reminded of some of the old Dark Horse Aliens stuff like Pig, Kidnapped, Lovesick, or Herk Mondo. You're not meant to take it seriously, the writers know that, you just kind of roll with it and have a good time seeing Burke bumble his way through a bunch of situations while Paul Reiser gets to do a little character rehabilitation 3 decades on. There's a lot of continuity gaffes if you really scrutinize it but I just don't think it's meant to be that kind of a story so I'm okay with letting it slide. It's a silly story for people who liked 'Aliens' and want to see Burke do goofy shit, it's not trying to be a hardcore groundbreaking entry in The Canon, and I'm totally fine with that.
I wish it didnt finish as it did and wrapped up. Focus on a new what if story instead
I got the feeling the reviews were positive despite it being so mediocre so maybe it will.
do you think there's any chance they'll get to make a sequel like they teased at the end of the story?
Would've worked better if it was Blade Runner.
Yeah, absolutely. Months later, I cannot stop laughing about the "Are you a Replicant or a RepliCAN'T".
If only it was.
This just unlocked a core memory
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rizXj1ZrDng/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgZShlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDVCym6jbrCRL6hdawmLzxkcbC02w
To be fair they had decades of continuity to mess with. There's a 200 year void between Alien3 and Resurrection.