Dark Horse To Reboot Comic Series

[Ultramorph]

Those are straight up Xenos I'd say and the change doesn't surprise me considering how the Deacon was created and the fact Prometheus' Deacon is female and it's gender isn't ambigious like Xenomorphs.

On a second glance, they did change the jaws, too, so they might be regular xenos.

On the "part of the old EU" note, I find myself wondering if any of the writers or editors ever visit sites like this, and have backtracked on the old EU because of the fan response. Sebela had that line about even people who think they have a handle on what the story will be will wind up being surprised in the end. That just made me think maybe they've seen some of our speculating. 

[RakaiThwei]

On the "part of the old EU" note, I find myself wondering if any of the writers or editors ever visit sites like this, and have backtracked on the old EU because of the fan response. Sebela had that line about even people who think they have a handle on what the story will be will wind up being surprised in the end. That just made me think maybe they've seen some of our speculating. 

I've probably said this before but I honestly would've preferred this to be it's own continuity.

Also, this isn't the first time that someone who has worked on the canon actually drop by the forums. We've had Steve Perry, John Shirley, and Jeff Van DerMeer actually visit and interact with the fans. So it wouldn't surprise me if people from Dark Horse have dropped by and visited. So we know, or can guess that they won't be changing Predator culture. That's cool.

I just don't like how they shoe-horning this new story into the old EU. I think that might be my only gripe.

[Kimarhi]

Steve Perry pretty much got chased away if I remember right.

[RakaiThwei]

Steve Perry pretty much got chased away if I remember right.

....How was he chased away? I briefly participated in that thread but I stopped looking at it after my question was answered. If he was chased away, why?

Of course I do know a pair of brothers who were chased out of the forum. Heh heh!

[SM]

EU writers care little for canon.  Not in a bad way, in that they deliberately go out of their way to ignore it - they're job is to tell a decent story and let others worry about continuity.

[RakaiThwei]

EU writers care little for canon.  Not in a bad way, in that they deliberately go out of their way to ignore it - they're job is to tell a decent story and let others worry about continuity.

The same reason why we have the Hish mythos as well?

[Kimarhi]

Steve Perry pretty much got chased away if I remember right.

....How was he chased away? I briefly participated in that thread but I stopped looking at it after my question was answered. If he was chased away, why?

Of course I do know a pair of brothers who were chased out of the forum. Heh heh!

I seem to remember a bunch of the forumgoers being displeased in his portrayal of the Aliens asking him the same question over and over until he just signed out and never came back. 

[SM]

EU writers care little for canon.  Not in a bad way, in that they deliberately go out of their way to ignore it - they're job is to tell a decent story and let others worry about continuity.

The same reason why we have the Hish mythos as well?

Probably.

[Xenomrph]

It has been interesting seeing their attitude toward the old EU evolve over the last couple months.

Just seems kind of a sudden now.

Which either means two things... either the AvP movies are no longer canon, despite the old EU keeping elements and direct references to events and characters, which means they are somehow still canon.. Or.. Xenomrph was right all along.

Well, someone make a "Xenomrph was right!" shirt.. I might end up having to wear it.

There's a difference between "not canon" and "choosing to not use some elements from".

Or Fox just doesn't give a shit.

Which is nothing new at all.

I'm of the opinion that they do care, they just go about it in a different way than most people expect (or might prefer).

writers in general care little for canon.  Not in a bad way, in that they deliberately go out of their way to ignore it - they're job is to tell a decent story and let others worry about continuity.

Fixed for accuracy.

Continuity can be a neat novelty for a shared "universe" work of fiction as a way for writers to acknowledge that there's other stories besides their own contributing to the overall narrative, but I'm never going to expect any writer worth his or her salt to be strictly beholden to "continuity" at the expense of a good story.

[happypred]

Steve Perry pretty much got chased away if I remember right.

Yes, quite sad really: Ask Steve Perry

Would've been nice if some people didn't behave like complete d*cks to the man who did the novelisation of the original comic. IMO the novelisation is actually better than the comic itself. It really fleshed out the much more "bare bones" comic

[RakaiThwei]

There's a difference between "not canon" and "choosing to not use some elements from".

So you're suggesting the AvPs are still canon then. Mm'kay.

Would've been nice if some people didn't behave like complete d*cks to the man who did the novelisation of the original comic. IMO the novelisation is actually better than the comic itself. It really fleshed out the much more "bare bones" comic

Agreed.

[happypred]

LOL...this is what started the sh*tstorm

. . .

As to how dangerous the Aliens are, you can see that they are physically dangerous, but -- save for the Queen -- not very bright. Somewhere along the way I got the idea they were probably not as smart as the average German Shepherd Dog (I know some people who probably aren't that smart), so they are less dangerous by far than the Predators. The guy with the gun and the brain is the nastier enemy, and since the Predators use the Aliens as training tools (and war toys), it's pretty obvious to me who is more dangerous.

- Steve Perry

I still remember this...

The Queen, yeah. The drones do what she tells them. If they cut the power, it's because the Queen sent them to do it.

I didn't come up with the notion that the aliens are war toys, but it makes perfect sense to me that they were artificially-developed as bioweapons by *some*body. Why would a naturally-evolved creature need acid blood, save as a form of protection from something nastier that was apt to eat it?

-Steve Perry

My my, what a trip down memory lane, more choice excerpts

Go back to the beginning. The first Aliens movie was essentially a haunted-house-in-space. It only worked because of what we in the biz call an idiot-plot -- that is, everybody in the movie has to be an idiot. This is right out of those old Universal monster films from the late thirties and early forties in which people do really stupid stuff and the monster gets 'em. And it serves them right.

If you were on that space-truck and there was a nine-foot-tall-monster eating the crew, would *you* go to the bathroom by yourself? Crawl into an air duct hunting it? You would? Then you deserve to die, 'cause them ain't survival characteristics where I come from. I needed to go pee, we would *all* go pee. Nobody leaves the pack until the thing is for sure dead. We'd all sit with our backs to the wall armed to the teeth and if anything moved, we'd barbecue it. It wanted one of us, it would have to take us all.

Nowhere in that movie did the critter evidence any IQ higher than a dog.

The second movie, which was essentially a Heinlein bug-hunt, the Queen showed intelligence, but I didn't see any from the drones. Smart animals don't throw themselves at armed men in waves, they come up with a better way than dying en masse.

Only place you are sure the Queen is thinking is when she is looking at the elevator after Ripley. So give it to the Queen, but the drones? Never saw 'em do anything a trained bear couldn't do.

So you have Aliens, who, save for the Queens, are ot-nay ooh-tay ight-bray. Nasty critters, but dangerous in the way that tigers are dangerous, no more.

Then you have the Predators, a species farther along the path than humans, given that when we first see them, they have FTL travel and better sidearms, and who could, if they found it, nuke the Alien planet from space without the Aliens even knowing about it -- if there was an Alien homeworld and they weren't genetically-enhanced lab rats.

So the who-wins argument is moot. Yeah, a man going barehanded against a Kodiak bear is in deep dung; give him a high-powered rifle or even a handgun, the bear is toast. You gotta go with the toolmaker. Sooner or later, they will rule.

While folks might have liked to see the Aliens with a little more on the intellectual ball, they never had anything, in the movies or the books. They might not be run-into-the-wall stupid, but they can't run with humans or Predators. It just isn't there.

[RakaiThwei]

I actually remember asking Perry if he viewed the Super Predators as the Hish or some other cousin race which may have evolved separately from the Yautja. If there are future comics or novels which will feature the Super Predators (it's only a matter of time), I would like to see the Super Predators addressed as the Hish.

Not that I like either of them or wanna see them but.. it'd make sense if you think about it.

[Corporal Hicks]

The Hish was because John Shirley didn't know about the Yautja.

I always used to try and get the authors to interact here but...not always a good idea unfortunately.

[Xenomrph]

There's a difference between "not canon" and "choosing to not use some elements from".

So you're suggesting the AvPs are still canon then. Mm'kay.

Sure, why not?