Marvel Officially Acquires Alien and Predator Comic License

[Kailem]

A few days late but yeah, most of my own feelings have been summed up pretty well by many others here already.

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.

BTW I have a question.

There is no Predator superhero yet? I being serious, as I am not an expert in EU.

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:

[Corporal Hicks]

I think there was a bunch of Predator-style Justice League characters in the JLA crossover.

[Kailem]

Yup, them too:

[EJA]

Out of curiosity, how well would, say, the first two Predator movies fit into the overall continuity and history of the main Marvel comics universe??

[Nightmare Asylum]

Marvel is constantly rebooting , restarting, reinterpreting, etc. Anything can slide in if you really wanted it to.

[EJA]

True, Marvel's sliding timeline would mean that the Predator movies predate the first appearances of superheroes like the Fantastic Four, Avengers and Spider-Man. But it's been established that organisations such as SHIELD had already been operating for decades by then, plus earlier super-teams like the First Line.

[SuperiorIronman]

To my knowledge Marvel has never actually done a reboot. There has however been attempts in Heroes Reborn and the Ultimate Universe, but they both didn't stick. Post-Secret Wars 2015 was picking up where they left off albeit several months later for a clean slate so the universe is new, the continuity is identical.

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.

Yup, them too:

I feel screwed that Neca never did a toy of the Plastic man Predator.

[EJA]

I place the dawn of the Marvel heroes in-universe as 2008 (with the "current" time period in the comics a few years in the future).

[Voodoo Magic]

Out of curiosity, how well would, say, the first two Predator movies fit into the overall continuity and history of the main Marvel comics universe??

I just got a weird premonition while reading this of a Predator cover featuring Dutch and Punisher standing back-to-back in a jungle.

[EJA]

Punisher definitely seems to be a favourite in terms of who Predator should cross over with.

I just thought, is there any possibility that Marvel might produce an adaptation of the original Predator movie?

[Perfect-Organism]

Punisher definitely seems to be a favourite in terms of who Predator should cross over with.

I just thought, is there any possibility that Marvel might produce an adaptation of the original Predator movie?

That would be cool.  Let Den Beauvais adapt Aliens too.  We also need a Prometheus and Covenxnt Adaptations...

[RakaiThwei]

So I just got word from Jeff Christiansen, who actually is the site author of the Marvel Appendix website, and serves as a consultant for Marvel for their official handbooks in regards to the Alien vs. Predator Universe as being listed as Earth-94415. This is what he has replied with:

My understanding is that this Wolverine is from Earth-94415, but that we don't know if that is the Earth/universe of Aliens vs. Predator series.

I was the head writer of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for 10 years and am currently a consultant. I provide the designations for the realities, and the editors come to me for them, but until they see print, they aren't "official."

And anything official regardless of whether it appeared in story or in handbook is subject to change/retcon.

I hope that helps.

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.

[j0nesy]

That would be cool.  Let Den Beauvais adapt Aliens too.  We also need a Prometheus and Covenxnt Adaptations...

that would be awesome, though i'm pretty sure beauvais only does commissions these days   

[EJA]

I wonder if Dutch ever knew Nick Fury or Logan?

[Kailem]

They were college roommates.