All Ripley nonsense aside, it was fun to go on another adventure with Ripley. If Tim Lebbon had the stipulation to use Ripey, he did a great job. More over, we got to enjoy Ash again. That was his first reappearance in 35 years. It was plain old fun! As for canon? gee, I don't know.
I've always held the contention that Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection should be de-canonized by Fox and they should allow Cameron to pick up the story with Hicks, Newt, and Ripley. This wouldn't be the first time a film continuity has been reset. They did it in the Halloween films (I mean even before Rob Zombie did it), where they literally took one of the old films and ignored it in order to have continuity with one of the older films. It worked great. I am not disparaging Alien 3 or AR. They are great stand-alone films to be enjoyed on their own merits. Nobody will come and take away your copies of the films. But the core of the series that keeps bringing fans back in droves is Aliens. Its James Cameron. This way Ridley Scott can pursue his Prometheus tangent, and James Cameron can pursue the Aliens tangent. Who knows, maybe the stories could at some point re-converge? To me, this would be the only best way to bring back Ripley. I think I may actually start a Facebook petition for Fox to consider this. My three cents...
I know its a bit OT, but to add to my previous post, the plot of an Aliens sequel could be loosely inspired by Verheiden's 1988 graphic novels. Obviously the homeworld / Space Jockey motifs would need to revamped, but that story was otherwise the best of all the graphic novels published... From what I gather, it was Sigourney Weaver who really wanted the story to go along the lines of Alien 3 and to make her the focus of the series. That's why Hicks and and Newt got killed. It was Michael Biehn's openly stated greatest disappointment. I think Sigourney has a different tune these days. Is there anyone who thinks she wouldn't jump at the opportunity to be in a Cameron helmed Aliens sequel? I think this is the only way the fans will handle the return of Ripley without ridiculing the effort...