All-New Predator, Alien, AvP and Prometheus Comics on the Way

At your computer everyone can hear you scream like a fanboy over this news.

Dark Horse is doing a heavy push with their famous science fiction properties and giving them a fresh start. ALIENS, PREDATORS and AvP comics are getting rebooted and PROMETHEUS will receive its first ongoing series. To make matters even more cheerworthy, they'll all be connected, too! The writers -- Chris Roberson, Paul Tobin, Chris Sebela and Joshua Williamson -- spoke with io9 about the upcoming titles, and as you probably guessed, there were quite a few questions about what is and isn't being treated as canon.

Chris Roberson, who will write ALIENS, says he'll consider Alien to Alien Resurrection as canon. Ripley and the gang won't be directly referenced and it'll instead focus on an all-new cast of characters. While Aliens gave the franchise more of a military vibe, Roberson states the series will have a bigger focus on horror by throwing ordinary people -- not trained soldiers -- into this frightening setting.

As for PROMETHEUS, Paul Tobins tells the site he's also going to focus on original characters instead of continuing Elizabeth and David's adventure. When it comes to heated debates over the film, the writer says the book will indeed give more answers, but it'll open the door to more mysteries as well.

For ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, Chris Sebela says when considering what is and isn't canon for his story, he's sticking to the solo movies. The writer states he wants to keep himself free of past Alien and Predator encounters so he can work with a clean slate and craft his own version of the iconic characters facing-off. Additionally, he says, "if you're looking for the most Alien and Predator interaction bang for your buck, then AVP is going to be a very wise investment." SOLD.

Last and most certainly not least, Joshua Williamson, the writer on PREDATORS, says all 3 Predator films are canon to him. "If you look at how the continuity works in the original films they each work alone, but still acknowledge the ones before it. That's the same attitude I've had with my Predator story. Listen, I'm a continuity junkie, to toss anything would be sacrilege, but I don't want it to overpower what I'm trying to do here." As for whether the Predators will be main characters or the villains in the narrative, Williamson says "both?" The book will include an older Predator who's searching for a final and worthy hunt.

The titles are scheduled to come out in 2014. For more details, be sure to check out io9's interview.

Source: io9

Aliens: Ressurection should never be considered canon in any form or media. That movie was terrible.

I am down. This is why Dark Horse is my favorite Indie company.

But Prometheus was God-Awful....and Alien 3 shouldn't be canon.

I might get a predator series.

might get it if i can get digital copy....

YAY!!!!!!!! BEST DAY EVER!

I liked Prometheus...

@the_stegman: Since when is DH an indie company?

Prometheus is up there with the Favorite Films of All time <33

ALL of the alien / predator movies where enjoyable to one extent to another, yes that includes avp 1-2 and resurrection

as they still have the kick ass monsters and action, regardless if the human stuff was not as good as the others.

and there was NOTHING bad about alien 3

@herokiller12344: It was pretty cool imo. Im not the biggest syfy fan but i enjoyed it.

Does anyone else have trouble with the Darkhorse app? It's crazy slow and it's impossible to move around on the app

Dang! Must watch Prometheus now to get the whole deal when reading about mo favourite aliens!

I actually like Prometheus I thought it was really cool. Sometimes people confuse plot holes with just things that are left unsaid.

@savagedragon: I hate that in films, the audiences expects the film to explain everything and all characters are infallible.

I know, I mean imo Prometheus was really interesting and a solid movie that definitely made you think but it was also a little frustrating that there wasnt much closure. Its for sure worth a watch in HD quality. I think people were really hyped for it and then it wasnt what they wanted. My entire LCS staff hates it with a passion. I liked it.

im trying to be excited :/

@cobra88king8: Since it's not apart of the Big Two.

I didn't think Prometheus was horrible, just left a lot more to be desired and too much hanging imo. Sure it sets up "how the aliens got born" but Elizabeth and David need to be elaborated on in the next film imo otherwise, no point outside of "how the aliens came to be"

I'm glad they're using the solo movies as a base. I liked every Predator's alone film. Alien on the other hand, Resurrection could have been better but I kind of enjoyed it more then the 3rd film.

Sold on everything but Prometheus. I'm not sure how that will translate, but I'm interested.

Awesome. Just, completely...awesome!

This is pretty awesome, I love Alien and Predator. never seen Prometheus, so I don't care much about that one. Otherwise, awesome news.

I always liked the AvP universe created by Dark Horse so I look forward to this... particularly the Prometheus ones. Since I like to see more of the Engineers with that having some potential for good cosmic horror stories. But will this mean we get Aliens versus Predator versus Engineer? Now that would be interesting.

Per the source:

Any chance of an Alien versus Predator versus Engineer brawl?

Sebela: I think the best analogy I can use here instead of actually answering this question is that each of these books is like throwing a deck of playing cards up in the air. When the dust settles, some cards will be touching others just on the corners, some will be laying right on top of others, some will be stranded all by themselves on the other side of the room, some are inexplicably wedged in the blinds. We have a lot of cards we're playing with in these books and some of them fall like you'd expect and some end up on the other side of the room, we're not discarding any possibilities.

I am not a fan of Alien 3 and Resurrection being canon, but they have room to take liberties I imagine. More so I am happy the AvP movies aren't canon. They had cool tech and monsters, but made the predators super weak. I look forward to these comics.

F#$% YEAH!

So happy! This day get's better and better!

@thenexusrebound:

No dude the first avp made them look weak

The "wolf" predator in avpr was a badass mother f::ker!

Which kinda makes sense story wise as the avp preds where like trannies being broken in to the sport

While the avpr pred was a older wiser professional

I like the first Predator, the first 2 Alien films, and Prometheus.

The rest were not very good, especially AVP and Predator 2.

Why do they keep putting out new cool looking series'? I can't afford them!

Sounds pretty cool, I think I'll give these a shot.

Agreed. Cannot wait!

@k4tzm4n: I should have read the source but I ended up commenting first :( Thanks for that reply! Kind of curious how they do it now.

I agree, its still surprises me that people forget Saint Joss Whedon wrote that bullshit. How can you make a film worse than Alien 3? Well Joss Whedon found a way!

Joss' script was reworked a ton, and the studio was involved throughout the movie. It was a disaster from the start.

What was wrong with the old expanded universe material? I mean it was already a unified and established universe from the get go! At least with the original continuity which was established long before PREDATORS and Prometheus anyway. And incorporating Prometheus with Predator and AvP just doesn't work, and PREDATORS and Prometheus aren't really supposed to link together! Did Dark Horse not get the memo on that?

Regarding PREDATORS, Robert Rodriguez has made it rather clear that his movie takes place after the original PREDATOR. He has even stated so in a webchat interview at Troublemaker Studios.

"I originally conceived it back in the day and they had already done Predator 2, and I… pretended that didn’t exist and I just went right to Predator 1 and wrote this as a follow up to Predator 1. Which is why this will be Predator and PREDATORS. Almost like ALIEN and ALIENS."

Robert Rodriguez has expressed his disgust with Predator 2 and his film doesn’t even reference Predator 2 at all, let alone the AvP films. However considering that Predator 2 was filmed in 1990 but the plot setting was set in a futuristic 1997, and since the AvP films are likely follow up sequels to Predator 2 seem to present conflicting timelines.

In the case of Prometheus, a similar ideal is held. Numerous sources have stated that Ridley Scott, when questioned about Prometheus and a potential connection with Alien vs Predator apparently stated that Prometheus has nothing to do with Predator or AvP, and that Alien and Predator meeting can’t happen because they are different universes.

Also to be noted, Lindelof had approached Ridley Scott about referencing Alien vs Predator in Prometheus:

"You mean in terms of Charles Bishop Weyland? Look, as to what’s canon and what’s not canon, for me as a screenwriter it’s transcended by Ridley as a director. Here’s the thing. Ridley invented this. He created this Alien universe. He birthed it out of his own heart and soul. So he gets to do whatever it is he wants to do and he wanted to use Weyland as a conduit in the story, and was not interested at all when I said to him, ‘You know, Weyland was a character in one of the Alien Vs. Predator movies,’ he just sort of looked at me like I had just slapped him in the face. That was the beginning, middle and end of all Alien Vs. Predator references in our story process."

Again, conflicting with the timeline— the TED Weyland Corp site lists that Weyland Industries was founded October 11th, 2012. In Alien vs Predator, Weyland Industries was formed prior to 2004 and merged with Weyland-Yutani in 2030 (Predator: Concrete Jungle).

Now I know that the Alien vs. Predator movies and expanded universe aren't going to be counted as canon within this new particular storyline, but they are not being jettisoned from canon or even retconned. Sebela had even suggested this over at his Tumblr:

"The old Dark Horse comics series about Aliens, Predators and Aliens fighting Predators never came up in the writer’s room as we’re working off a different angle of the universe, one that may touch on some of the stuff those old books did, but only by accident. But we’re not declaring all that stuff moot or rebooting it or anything, it’s just two different neighborhoods in a pretty big city."

Since Sebela has pretty much said that the twenty five years of continuity and lore which Dark Horse has established isn't going to be erased or even retconned out of the Alien-Predator franchise, to me this looks like a new and separate continuity altogether.

OMFG, can't wait for all of these, YEEEESSSSSSSSSS.

This.

Hoping the Prometheus comic will makeup for what was a very poor ending to a potentially great and very interesting movie.

@movieartman: I enjoyed AVP 1. How anyone could like Requiem is a mystery.

@superior_prime_maybe: it's still a famous company with properties over the intellectual products of others. That's the opposite of indie.

I'll be reading Aliens, Predator, and AvP.

K4tzm4n always delivers the cool news

Woot, these are some of the few comics I actually like :)

Not really. Unlike DC or Marvel who are all base on Original own IP, Dark Horse does not have any Original IP and makes comics base on already establish franchises.

@indiecomicsftw: yeah, but that doesn't make them "indie", which means "indipendent", as non-corporate/self-published.

@matteopg: True, however it does not seem to fall on the classic Comic area like Image, DC, or Marvel. I think its safe to say its unique as a Comic Company.