Disney has the xenomorph ball rolling, it would seem. In addition to the Alien spinoff series that’s reportedly still in the works at FX, word hit the internet recently that a new movie is being developed. What’s more is that the film already has its lead in Cailee Spaeny. She has been carving a place for herself among Hollywood’s upcoming stars, turning heads in On the Basis of Sex, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and as Erin McMenamin in The Mayor of Easttown.
Whether or not the Alien show and the new movie will overlap is not yet known. Here’s hoping we’ll get something better than those horrendous Alien Versus Predator movies. I don’t look for it to match the only truly great films of the franchise, Alien and Aliens, but at this point, I would settle for something that was somewhere in the Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrections range.
With all this attention on the franchise, it should put a renewed spotlight on those classic Alien keys as well as a newer issue that could inspire the upcoming projects.
ALIEN: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY (1979)
After the May ‘79 issue of Heavy Metal featured a preview, the brand published the full comic later that year. That makes this a great addition to any Alien fan’s collection and the first time the franchise was featured in the medium. These don’t sell often, at least not the graded variety.
So far this year, the only ones to sell online have been the 9.0, which brought $175 in February, and an 8.0 that sold for $114 in April.
ALIENS #1 (1988)
It wasn’t until Dark Horse Comics got their hands on the publishing rights that the franchise was fully introduced to the world of comics. While the Illustrated Story predates this 1988 issue, it was Aliens #1 that provided the first original stories outside the movies. For that reason, many collectors regard this as the xenomorphs’ first true comic appearance.
Finding these in near-mint grade can be tough, especially for the first print, which is why the 9.8 has been selling for $3k+ in recent months. If you downgrade to the 9.6, your investment falls to a more reasonable $500.
ALIEN #1 (2021)
After much fanfare when Disney purchased the Fox properties, Marvel Comics ran with the publishing rights for the franchise. Last year, they debuted their first xenomorph title, Alien. Although it hasn’t set the fandom on fire, most readers have been generally pleased with the comic.
Marvel Studios tends to use newer comics to draw attention to characters and plots that could be used in the MCU, and that may be the case here as well. With the comic series following the events of the first two movies, this could be the source material for either the FX series or the upcoming film. That would make this a great issue to own.
Typical for most modern comics, especially #1s from Marvel, there were numerous variants to choose from. For the sake of brevity, let’s focus on the standard edition, at least for today’s post. Graded at a 9.8, it has been firmly nestled in $50-$60 territory for months. Head over to eBay, and you can find raw copies for a fraction of the cost.
RESIDENT ALIEN
Is there still life in the tank for the Alien franchise? Fox had been bleeding it dry for decades, and Ridley Scott didn’t exactly blow minds with his most recent additions to the mythos with the confusing Prometheus followed by Alien: Covenant. Between the FX show and the Spaeny film, hopefully one of the two projects will give us something to be excited about.
