"There's too much of us in them. If they were beasts before, they're proper monsters now."
— Melody, Alien (2022) #3
Alien (subtitled Icarus for the collected edition) is a 2022 comic book series published by Marvel Comics, part of an Expanded Universe centered around the Alien films. It's written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and illustrated by Julius Ohta, with color art by Yen Nitro.
Set in the year 2217, it's a Sequel Series to Marvel's 2021 Alien series, showing the consequences of some events in that series. It features a group of five renegade synthetics, the Steel Team, who find themselves considering a bargain with their human enemies after Xenomorphs overrun a Weyland-Yutani R&D site.
The first issue was released on September 7, 2022.
Alien contains the following tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Steel Team has knives and swords that are easily able to cut through Xenomorph armored carapaces, at least when backed by combat synthetic strength. The blades are drawn as glowing, and don't seem to be ruined by the Xenomorphs' acid blood, though precisely what mechanism they use is not explained.
- The Cake Is a Lie: In the first issue, Lieutenant General March promises that if Steel Team completes the Tobler-9 mission, any synthetic who wants full United Systems citizenship will be granted it, a huge step forward for synth rights. Eli doesn't trust him, but the rest of the team are more positive. Predictably, when one of March's subordinates asks him about it in the final issue, he replies that the synths are "expensive toys with delusions of grandeur", and the promise was a lie - March just needed to string them along. However, his real plans for Steel Team after the mission remain unclear... as it's the hybrid, who March initially mistakes for Freyja, that meets his shuttle. By the time Steel Team's survivors get there, she's killed March's escort and disembowelled him.
- Contrast Montage: The first issue opens with Weyland-Yutani's promotional film for Tobler-9 and the 2205 Conference for Human Innovation. Scenes of a spacious, sunlit city are intercut with panels of panicked faces and a child's toy, both under red emergency lighting. A holographic presenter provides an upbeat welcome speech over the montage. The scene then fully shifts to the chaotic evacuation, with sirens sounding and Xenomorphs breaking in.
- Decoy Damsel: In the first issue, when General March's soldiers attack Steel Team's home on Europa-5, Nora falls on her knees claiming to be the synthetics' human prisoner and babbling that they made her "do things". The troops fall for it, and get Killed Mid-Sentence once they're close enough.
- *Drool* Hello: In the first issue prologue, the guards trying to hold back the panicking civilians on Tobler-9 don't realise they have a bigger problem until Xenomorph drool drips onto the barrel of one's gun. They're dead seconds later.
- Fantastic Slur: The humans call the synthetics "gearhead" or "milkman." Oddly, the synths don't seem that offended by this, but then again, they are beyond done with humans.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: One of the Tobler-9 guards in the prologue is torn apart at the waist when the Xenomorphs break in.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Steel Team member Seth gets skewered from behind by a Xenomorph's tail, then held aloft by the tail and carried off. As he's synthetic, it's not immediately fatal, though.
- In the final issue, when Freyja and Eli fight, she shoves a metal bar through his right eye socket so hard that it protrudes from the back of his head. It's not fatal, though, as he doesn't have a human brain.
- Killed Mid-Sentence:
- In the first issue prologue, one of the Tobler-9 guards is barking orders and threats at the civilians, then abruptly has her head torn in half by an unseen Xenomorph while she's still talking.
- General March's soldiers are hopelessly outmatched by Steel Team and at least three get killed mid-sentence during the first issue's fighting. Nora later mentioned that they're not all dead, but it's unclear who actually survived.
- Neck Snap: In the first issue, Seth takes advantage of Nora's Decoy Damsel speech to snap the neck of one of General March's soldiers, killing them Mid-Sentence.
- Noodle Incident: Something happened that turned the synthetics of Steel Team against the United Systems, and gave Eli in particular a grudge against humans in general. Exactly what that was is not explained.
- Off with His Head!: Eli wrenches a Xenomorph's head off with his bare hands. Even more impressively, he does it without being soaked in its acid blood.
- Retronym: The series was originally published in episodic form as Alien, but becomes Alien: Icarus for the collected edition, to help disambiguate it.
- Speech Bubbles: The Xenomorphs don't speak, but the Queen's roars, shrieks and hisses are represented by white text on jagged black speech bubbles.
- Tongue Trauma: In the final battle against the Xenomorph Queen, her tongue-jaws sink into Freyja's right forearm. Freyja's response is to grab the tongue with her left hand, then use her superhuman strength to tear it out of the Queen's mouth.
- Variant Cover: The first issue has five different cover variants.
