Dark Horse To Reboot Comic Series

[happypred]

Not too crazy about this art. A well-drawn alien should be both terrifyingly disturbing and yet eerily beautiful, a phallic-headed biomechanical monstrosity...these look cartoonish

[Xenomrph]

I just hope that these series' have a clean beginning and end.  The Dark Horse Aliens comics have a long history of not following up on hinted future storylines and developments, with things just left hanging.

Like Three World War.. Considering that these new comics are a whole and likely separate continuity, and probably the new Status Quo, it's likely that we will not see a sequel storyline to where Three World War left off from.

Seems as if the story of Machiko Noguchi has been told, and the book is closed.

-Rakai'Thwei

That, as well as the endings to Labyrinth, Deadliest of the Species, Xenogenesis, Colonial Marines, Wraith, More Than Human, and Superman vs. Aliens 2.  Tons of great arcs that were never continued.

They're not comics, but I'm also guessing we'll never see a sequel to AvP2 or AvP2010.  And I'm not holding out any hope for finding out what happened to the marine and alien in the first AvP game.

Of the ones you listed, I never got the feeling that Labyrinth or Wraith were "incomplete".

[Corporal Hicks]

Just noticed that one has the AvPR head and the other seems smoother.

[Ultramorph]

Just noticed that one has the AvPR head and the other seems smoother.

I'm digging the diversity in the design. Hopefully we get that in the books themselves.

[Xenomorphine]

I think they're just heavily stylised ridged-headed and smooth-headed creatures. Not intended to represent any one particular movie.

[RakaiThwei]

Deacons and Xenomorphs vs Predator vs Mutant Cover by EM Gist! Sebela just posted this on his Tumblr!!

[Ultramorph]

Even more from io9! http://io9.com/see-dark-horses-first-alien-predator-avp-and-prometh-1500505424?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

These are awesome!

[MrSpaceJockey]

Awesome!

[RakaiThwei]

Some of the statements which Allie had said just confuses me, because they don't seem to corroborate with what some of the other writers have said.

How "hard" is the reboot? Has all previous continuity been erased?

Scott Allie: It is hard. When more is revealed about the nature of this project, you'll see that this isn't really a reboot. It's a complex story with a lot of moving parts. It looks back at Prometheus, for sure, and it looks at the other movies that got these stories started, but it's not heavy with continuity. One challenge with these movies, with doing spinoffs, is that they don't leave you a lot of living characters running around for sequels, or for comics. So we've lined up a team that we think can introduce a lot of new characters into the world that'll make great comic book characters. Not superheroes, of course, but the kind of iconic characters that people follow in modern comics outside of the superhero genre. We think Ridley Scott and James Cameron and everyone else really set us up to be able to do that well.

Okay, so it is a hard reboot which pretty much ignores the previous continuity in the old expanded universe. Hence the term hard reboot, but they're using the films as a spring board. Not at all surprising. However I don't think that the interviewer is not aware that the old continuity isn't being erased, because Sebela did say to me via his Tumblr that it doesn't render them moot out of canon.

Do you plan on revisiting any classic Alien or Predator comic storylines, like Marvel does with its Ultimate comics?

Scott Allie: Nope, that's definitely not the focus here. We're more careful to not repeat things we've done before, although with so many comics in the past, there's a chance there'll be some similarities. But that's not a goal.

No Machiko. No Broken Tusk. We're not getting any revisited storylines.. Pretty much expected.

Which of the movies are you not treating as canon?

Scott Allie: I think we're treating them all as canon, but it's a big universe, and the human race has been around a long time. Some films are closer to our timeline than others, and we're guided more by the earlier films, and by Prometheus.

....AvP movies included? This is what doesn't corroborate here.

[SM]

Sounds pretty straightfoward.  They're focusing on Alien, Aliens and Prometheus.  Resurrection won't factor into things because it's too far into the future.  AvP 1 and 2, similarly, are too far in the past.  Alien3 may or may not be an influence depending on the story they decide to tell.  Any references to Weyland and/ or Weyland Yutani will draw on Prometheus more than AvP.

The Predator films, also in the relative distant past won't factor into things either, other than what they teach us about the creatures.

[RakaiThwei]

Sounds pretty straightfoward.  They're focusing on Alien, Aliens and Prometheus.  Resurrection won't factor into things because it's too far into the future.  AvP 1 and 2, similarly, are too far in the past.  Alien3 may or may not be an influence depending on the story they decide to tell.  Any references to Weyland and/ or Weyland Yutani will draw on Prometheus more than AvP.

Yeah, sounds about right.

[dragonthingy]

Just for clarification, is the new "reboot" an actual full-on continuity reboot like the New 52?

[RakaiThwei]

Just for clarification, is the new "reboot" an actual full-on continuity reboot like the New 52?

Pretty much, yeah... But the New 52 sort of clings onto the old continuity in a small way since characters remember certain parts of their lives which they shouldn't remember at Pre-Flashpoint. This is somewhat a bit different. They're using the films as a spring board for these new comics, but this reboot doesn't retcon the old comics, it just ignores them and does something completely new.

Think of it like this, we now have two Alien-Predator comic continuities to follow. Pick which one you want to follow because they're both canon. Unless Fox steps out and addresses the old comics as non-canon (which I highly doubt will happen since Fox likely doesn't care), this is pretty much the way things are. Pick between new and old which you wanna follow.. or both!

Win/Win situation if you ask me. If you don't like the new comics, stick with the old.. If you don't like the old comics, go with the new. If you like both, then you are a winner!

[Ultramorph]

From Dark Horse's Facebook:

"Predator vs Dredd vs Aliens:
Coming in September from 2000 AD and Dark Horse Comics! — with Raka Cakepzz."

I am excite. Looks like I was right about Dark Horse upping their A/v/P output beyond just the main reboots.

[RakaiThwei]

I am excite. Looks like I was right about Dark Horse upping their A/v/P output beyond just the main reboots.

I got no problem with the Dredd crossover. But wait.. doesn't IDW have the rights to Dredd now?

-Rakai'Thwei