With the terrifying emergence of the synths, the xenomorphs’ position at the top of the galactic food chain may be about to change permanently.
Mankind has always looked up at the stars with a mix of awe and terror, asking what strange beings might make their homes in the darkness between them. And, 1979’s Alien gave humanity an answer. human beings’ true fear has always been the unknown, and with films, books, games and more, Alien’s Xenomorphs are anything but unknown today. Fortunately, Marvel Comics is ready to take the franchise into uncharted territory and introduce fans to a whole new kind of horror.
Set almost 80 years after the film, Alien #6 (by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX) follows retired security chief, Gabriel Cruz, as he attempts to rescue his son and retrieve an alien embryo from a compromised orbital research station. But a betrayal reveals that the activist group Gabriel’s son, Danny, thought he was working with was actually a front for something far more terrifying than the alien Gabriel was sent to retrieve. Iris, Danny’s contact, explains that she and the others are synthetic humans whose goal is to wipe out humans and replace them with the universe’s first, true post-organic society.
Marvel’s Alien Takes Power Away From the Xenomorphs
Though the prospect of the xenomorph being unleashed on Earth itself is certainly terrifying, it is the wider implication of the synthetic uprising that harbors the tale’s true horror. While taunting Gabriel about his visions of a dark alien queen, Iris solves the Fermi paradox by presenting the xenomorphs as a galaxy-wide biological reset switch, culling organic life when its arrogance leads it to spread through the stars. The implication is clear, that this is the natural state of the universe. The cycle of life and death that all must conform to. While every other living thing discovered in the universe is beholden to this cycle, the synths seem poised to surpass it.
Until now, xenomorphs have been considered the ultimate life form. But more than simple predators, they represent the universe itself. They are its black blood cells purging galaxies of contaminants that seek to spread beyond control and infect every planet and star across space and time. Yet despite this apparent universal truth, the synths, by virtue of their non-organic nature, have all the tools at their disposal necessary to break the cycle and recreate the cosmos in a way never seen before. Able to rise above the biological limitations of their creators and blessed with the knowledge of all those who have come before them, the threat of the synths dwarfs that of the xenomorphs.
Alien Shows That Humanity is Responsible for its Own Destruction
With many artificial people still firmly on the side of humanity, both in the case of those held in the grip of their programming and those who have inherited humankind’s sense of empathy, the threat posed by the burgeoning synth movement remains small. But it is growing, and with synth colonies spreading across the galaxy while homegrown mechanical terror groups sprout up on Earth it appears that the next great galactic threat is building right beneath mankind’s noses. It is surely only a matter of time before humanity takes notice. But whether it realizes the true scale of the threat in time to do anything about it is another matter entirely.
While humankind’s number isn’t up just yet, it nonetheless faces a cold and hostile universe filled with terrors beyond number and contemplation. However, while it struggles to create its own legacy among the stars, it must hope it hasn’t created the instrument of not just its destruction, but that of the entire universe itself.
