Dark Horse Announces Aliens: Defiance

Started by RidgeTop, Sep 30, 2015, 06:29:00 AM

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Dark Horse Announces Aliens: Defiance (Read 189,170 times)

Perfect-Organism

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Oct 12, 2015, 05:23:58 PM
Quote from: tyrannosaurusjones on Oct 12, 2015, 05:08:54 PMI'd love to tell stories with Amanda to be honest.

I for one would really like to see more of her.

Amanda Ripley stories do make sense.  She has a strong motivation for hunting Aliens.  I really disliked Aliens stories that were random and unrelated to the overall main story arc.  They never moved the overall story forward.

Lonely Universe

Lonely Universe

#61
I liked the self contained stories as they allowed each new set of creators to express a quick, complete vision of how they saw the world of Alien. I was never as interested in the overall story as much as I was a glimpse into the future of humanity when faced with the threat of an ancient cosmic terror.

That said, I would really appreciate it if Dark Horse didn't just toss out all of the old canon they established for the EU. I'd love it if we could catch back up with Dr. Church & see what advancements he's come up with since Labyrinth. Maybe more stories set during Earth's recovery in the aftermath of Vol's. 1-3? It was always interesting to me to read about the average citizen's fear of the Aliens in the wake of near complete extinction.

Even at the level of sophistication our technology had reached in those stories it would still take decades for Earth to recover. What was that like for the survivors on ground level? Or even those refugees immigrating back from space? Many parts of Earth would have been sent back to eras resembling anything from the Stone Age to the 1930's. Once luxurious neighborhoods now the scene of abandoned warzones turned ghettos, where the remaining humans scrounge for food & survival, ever fearful of those vestigial Xenos that could be lying dormant somewhere.

Has Dark Horse completely dropped everything from before or could I still hope for the old series' to be referenced someday?

EDIT - Damn, I just did a little Googling & it seems the old EU has been tossed. I don't suppose it means we'll never see old characters & themes appear in the new canon though, perhaps they'll get the 'Ultimate' treatment.

RakaiThwei

RakaiThwei

#62
Quote from: 8BA on Oct 13, 2015, 01:46:38 AM
Has Dark Horse completely dropped everything from before or could I still hope for the old series' to be referenced someday?

According to Mike Richardson in an AMAReddit which I asked him, they more or less did drop everything from before to match current film continuity. This was asked when Fire and Stone was being worked out. Note that he said that they were basically starting over, as Fire and Stone was a hard reboot:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/25z06w/iam_mike_richardson_publisher_and_founder_of_dark/chm54bv

Also, the Weyland-Yutani Report more or less has an in-universe timeline which.. omits everything which came before, except Fire and Stone.

Lonely Universe

Lonely Universe

#63
Ah yeah, I was just editing my previous post after searching out some info.

I'm assuming the Isolation comic & new novels are also included in the new continuity. Uhm, at least I hope the novels are. Are Dark Horse & Titan even related?

EDIT - Ah, okay. Looks like they are. Whew.

RakaiThwei

Quote from: 8BA on Oct 13, 2015, 01:46:38 AM
EDIT - Damn, I just did a little Googling & it seems the old EU has been tossed. I don't suppose it means we'll never see old characters & themes appear in the new canon though, perhaps they'll get the 'Ultimate' treatment.

As much as I would love to see the old EU get the "Ultimate" treatment as an AU, I don't think we will be seeing that any time soon. However doesn't mean they can't be seen as such, and with Blomkamp's movie on the way.. depending on if he ignores the last two Alien films, not retconning them to be dreams however, they also could potentially be seen and enjoyed as such.. Still though, would love to see an "Ultimate" treatment done.

It's a treatment I've been contemplating on doing as a fan-work thing. Still.. I like your thinking a bit.

Quote from: 8BA on Oct 13, 2015, 02:46:59 AM
I'm assuming the Isolation comic & new novels are also included in the new continuity. Uhm, at least I hope the novels are. Are Dark Horse & Titan even related?

EDIT - Ah, okay. Looks like they are. Whew.

Wait, I'm a little bit confused... Are you referring to the Isolation comic and novels or Dark Horse and Titan being related? Cause I thought Dark Horse had their own novel publishing subsidiary unless that went defunct.

Lonely Universe

From my understanding they worked in conjunction with each other during the creation process of the novel trilogy and F&S.

http://www.tor.com/2014/11/21/christopher-golden-christopher-roberson-interview-aliens/

I'm guessing Isolation & the comic are also canon since both Defiance & the novels include Amanda. (I believe I remember Ripley thinking about her in Out Of The Shadows).

tyrannosaurusjones

Isolation is definitely continuity. I haven't had a chance to read the novels myself yet. That changes once I'm done with art on #1.

You don't need to have read anything going into this book. If you've seen Alien, and MAYBE Prometheus, then you're good. If you've played Isolation, better, but that's kind of the bulk of what we're running with right now. There's definitely ALIENS tech... There's a dropship in the first few pages of #1, and we've got the pulse rifles.

There'll be nods to things here and there that foreshadow things like Alien 3 and Resurrection where I can fit them in without it being shoehorned, but Brian's been really great with scripting and taking my feedback on. Seriously, I've written Brian, Dave and Spencer eye-rollingly long emails about the continuity between the films since Prometheus hit and how that affects things like "crew expendable" orders and Burke's motivations for what he does in Aliens. Also, why the alien itself is valuable to Weyland-Yutani. Also, the differences in morphology (domes vs ridges, etc.).

HuDaFuK

Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Oct 13, 2015, 12:45:49 AMAmanda Ripley stories do make sense.  She has a strong motivation for hunting Aliens.

I don't know if I want to see her literally "hunting Aliens"... Why would she? What would going after them achieve? It won't bring her mum back. Plus I like to think she saw the logic in Marlow's "the only way to fight them is to refuse to engage" spiel, even if his methods were... extreme.

Personally, I think it would be really brave to do more of a corporate espionage story with her where she's on the run from W-Y after the events of the game, maybe not even featuring the Aliens at all. The franchise could really benefit from something outside the box.

Quote from: RakaiThwei on Oct 13, 2015, 02:40:47 AMAlso, the Weyland-Yutani Report more or less has an in-universe timeline which.. omits everything which came before, except Fire and Stone.

It omits everything pre-Out of the Shadows - the recent novels and Alien: Isolation are all mentioned and/or referenced in the report, so they're clearly canon at the moment too.

Quote from: tyrannosaurusjones on Oct 13, 2015, 04:13:13 AMThere'll be nods to things here and there that foreshadow things like Alien 3 and Resurrection where I can fit them in without it being shoehorned, but Brian's been really great with scripting and taking my feedback on.

That's great to hear!

Corporal Hicks

The Titan books are canon and work alongside the newer Dark Horse titles. Tim Lebbon said Fox considers them canon when we interviewed him. The Weyland-Yutani Report also referenced them alongside F&S and Isolation. And the Chris' commented on talking to each other to ensure they all worked together.

"AvPG – That wasn't the only tie-in with Dark Horse you included. River of Pain also ties in very briefly with their current Fire and Stone story. How much did you collaborate with Chris Roberson and Scott Allie?

CG – Actually, that was a weird one. After I'd already written the novel, we got the heads up about what Dark Horse was doing. My editor at Titan, Steve Saffel, got in touch and asked me to coordinate with Chris Roberson to make sure that the events of the novel did not conflict with the events of the comic, and to establish the characters from the comic in the novel. The way I'd originally written it, nobody else could have escaped. I had to create space for Chris's characters to get off of Acheron. I've known Chris for years, so it was easy to get in touch, bang out a solution, and include it."


http://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/christopher-golden-2/

And....

"AvPG – Your Fire and Blood series overlaps slightly with Christopher Golden's Aliens – River of Pain novel. From our chats with him, we know you two spoke about making sure both your stories worked together and that he had to accommodate your characters escaping LV-426. Did you have to make any changes to accommodate his novel?

CR – Thankfully, no. I was in the very early stages of working on our comic when I found out about Christopher's novel, and so we were able to compare dates and details when I was still in the outlining phase."


http://www.avpgalaxy.net/website/interviews/chris-roberson/

Quote from: 8BA on Oct 13, 2015, 01:46:38 AM
I liked the self contained stories as they allowed each new set of creators to express a quick, complete vision of how they saw the world of Alien. I was never as interested in the overall story as much as I was a glimpse into the future of humanity when faced with the threat of an ancient cosmic terror.

I really love the idea of a big continuity. It makes it feel more real to me.  It's part of what I truly loved about the first 4 Alien comic series. They were all related and worked so well together. Of course, there was the gap that was filled in by The Alien and they missed a real treat with that post annihilated earth. They could have done more with it. However, obviously Alien 3 and Resurrection kind of messed those older stories up. I really want the new rebooted EU to work and to fit in well together. It's not so bad so far on that kind of level.

Quote from: Perfect-Organism on Oct 13, 2015, 12:45:49 AM
Quote from: HuDaFuK on Oct 12, 2015, 05:23:58 PM
Quote from: tyrannosaurusjones on Oct 12, 2015, 05:08:54 PMI'd love to tell stories with Amanda to be honest.

I for one would really like to see more of her.

Amanda Ripley stories do make sense.  She has a strong motivation for hunting Aliens.  I really disliked Aliens stories that were random and unrelated to the overall main story arc.  They never moved the overall story forward.

Assuming the Creative Assembly doesn't do an Isolation 2 (criminal, that game was phenomenal) then I would love to see Amanda's storyline tied up in comic or novel or film (animated, CG, whatever).

Tristan, has Isolation had any major influence on Defiance? Visually or narratively?

Ropley

While I'm curious to see how this comic goes my main interest right now is in Amanda Ripley there are so many unanswered questions that I want answered, who picks her up at the end of Isolation, if Burke was lying about her dying, not having children or even being dead, how she met Mcclaren and what kind of person he was to make her want to marry him, and the aftermath of Sevastapol's destruction was.

I like the idea of moving the franchise away form Ellen Ripley to other characters but since she's as amazing character any female main charcter would be unfairly compared to her and could never live up to that standard in most people's eyes.

tyrannosaurusjones

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 13, 2015, 07:47:23 AM

Tristan, has Isolation had any major influence on Defiance? Visually or narratively?

Oh yeah. Heaps. The great thing about Isolation is that I can walk around the sets of Alien and use it as visual reference for our ones.The same kind of goes for Colonial Marines. The only genuinely good thing about that was how accurate it was in its mise en scène. But I'm first and foremost an Alien fan... I love all the low-fi feel of it. Like a future you could only get from the 70's and early 80's.

Narratively not so much. We acknowledge places like Sevastapol. Seegson are present in dialogue. Nothing really beyond grounding Defiance in a particular place and time.

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: tyrannosaurusjones on Oct 13, 2015, 09:23:41 AM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 13, 2015, 07:47:23 AM

Tristan, has Isolation had any major influence on Defiance? Visually or narratively?

Oh yeah. Heaps. The great thing about Isolation is that I can walk around the sets of Alien and use it as visual reference for our ones.The same kind of goes for Colonial Marines. The only genuinely good thing about that was how accurate it was in its mise en scène. But I'm first and foremost an Alien fan... I love all the low-fi feel of it. Like a future you could only get from the 70's and early 80's.

I suppose being set concurrent with Isolation would mean it sticks to the same kind of lo-fi aesthetic from Alien and Isolation? Are you going to be using that same mentality CA did with keeping it grounded in the 70s/80s?

tyrannosaurusjones

I've been looking at it this way -- we still use weapons today that've been commonplace sometimes reaching as far back as the 50's. The designs are all fundamentally the same thing, and we know based on Prometheus that there's a fairly broad spectrum of tech available to different groups in that future, so there will definitely be some places that reek of cutting edge money -- but for the most part, you'll be looking at things that sort of run from the 70's through to the late 80's. Then you'll get other things -- the marines for example -- that I've redressed to look more contemporary, just to kind of make the military feel a bit more "this is actually war". The flip side to that is, I'm already planning on using the heavy armour suits from Alien 3 and Colonial Marines for a particular group. So it'll be a bit of a mix. I f**king love 70's fashion, so I'm planning on basing a lot of the fashion on the fantastic clothing designs that went into Isolation.

Someone brought up the Marshals before -- I'm sure we'll get around to using them, but given there's a very distinct connection to the military right out the gate, it'll be the Colonial Marines for a bit. I know Brian's planned something pretty spectacular that I'm looking forward to drawing that hasn't been seen in the Aliens saga yet... Nor in the comics from memory.

I'm planning on continuing some of the cheeky nods CA put into Isolation regarding a certain universe Ridley had a hand in that is always kind of loosely and lovingly linked to Alien, so keep your eyes peeled...!

Perfect-Organism

Are the cheeky nods to (let's just speculate a film that starts with B and ends with R) this other Ridley creation mandated by Fox or is that your own thing?  Also have you been instructed to treat Alien 3 and Resurrection as canon at this time?  Will it be the ALIEN or ALIENS imprint?

I'm really excited about this new series!  Good luck!

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: tyrannosaurusjones on Oct 13, 2015, 01:08:48 PM
I've been looking at it this way -- we still use weapons today that've been commonplace sometimes reaching as far back as the 50's. The designs are all fundamentally the same thing, and we know based on Prometheus that there's a fairly broad spectrum of tech available to different groups in that future, so there will definitely be some places that reek of cutting edge money -- but for the most part, you'll be looking at things that sort of run from the 70's through to the late 80's.

I'm with you. From what you've said so far, I'm expecting to see a visual style very much grounded in the style of Alien/s with that rusted used look. And that is perfectly fine by me!  ;D

QuoteThen you'll get other things -- the marines for example -- that I've redressed to look more contemporary, just to kind of make the military feel a bit more "this is actually war". The flip side to that is, I'm already planning on using the heavy armour suits from Alien 3 and Colonial Marines for a particular group.

As in the dog handlers/mercenaries/whatever else they're called?



QuoteSomeone brought up the Marshals before -- I'm sure we'll get around to using them, but given there's a very distinct connection to the military right out the gate, it'll be the Colonial Marines for a bit. I know Brian's planned something pretty spectacular that I'm looking forward to drawing that hasn't been seen in the Aliens saga yet... Nor in the comics from memory.

I was just talking in terms of that specific book. One of the books retroactively places a unit of Colonial Marines at Hadley's Hope before the film and it's very jarring because they shouldn't be there. It was explained perfectly well and made sense but it stuck out because the film doesn't allude to them at all. It would have made more sense and have been less intrusive to have the Colonial Marshalls.

That said...I'd love to see them eventually used! If Fox are wanting to go forward with this connected universe it'd be nice to see other elements expanded and used where appropriate.

And I'm intrigued by the last comment! Very intrigued! Any clues?  :P

QuoteI'm planning on continuing some of the cheeky nods CA put into Isolation regarding a certain universe Ridley had a hand in that is always kind of loosely and lovingly linked to Alien, so keep your eyes peeled...!

Does it involve unicorns of some form?  :P

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