History ComicBook / AliensVsPredator

* AuthorityGrantsAsskicking: Machiko Noguchi is the highest-ranked corporate executive on Ryushi, and quite the Action Girl. Also, when Machiko first sees Broken Tusk leap into battle against the Aliens, she assumes she's about to see a replay of all the other Predators who leapt headfirst into glorious slaughter, only to get overwhelmed and butchered by the Aliens' superior numbers. But she doesn't realize he's the eldest Predator, the master of this particular hunt, and the rank-and-file Aliens pose zero threat to him.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Downplayed. Machiko and one of her people have been ambushed by the Aliens coming out of the ''Lector'', her companion snatched away. Then a Predator appears and begins fighting the horde. Machiko is initially predisposed towards the Predator, since the Aliens killed one of her people, the Predator looks more human, and recalls the stories of samurai and warrior monks from her childhood. See BigDamnHeroes for how it all turns out.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Downplayed. Machiko and one of her people have been ambushed by the Aliens coming out of the ''Lector'', her companion snatched away. Then a Predator appears and begins fighting the horde. Machiko is initially predisposed towards the Predator, since the Aliens killed one of her people, the Predator looks more human, and recalls the stories of samurai and warrior monks from Machiko's childhood. See BigDamnHeroes for how it all turns out.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: {{Discussed}} in the second, Predator-centric prologue. Tom Strandberg advances the idea with his copilot, Scott Conover, and Scott starts deconstructing it. Tom points out that human political infighting isn't so different. And of course, the discussion is counterpointed by showing the Predators operating on literal Asskicking Equals Authority.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Machiko Noguchi is the highest-ranked corporate executive on Ryushi, and quite the Action Girl. Also, when Machiko first sees Broken Tusk leap into battle against the Aliens, she assumes she's about to see a replay of all the other Predators who leapt headfirst into glorious slaughter, only to get overwhelmed and butchered by the Aliens' superior numbers. But she doesn't realize he's the eldest Predator, the master of this particular hunt, and the rank-and-file Aliens pose zero threat to him.

* ShesGotLegs: In Machiko's singular instance of {{Fanservice}}, she's woken up wearing only a baseball shirt.

The original ''Aliens vs. Predator'' comic book miniseries by Creator/DarkHorseComics. The idea came about when some Dark Horse comics creative types were sitting around, talking about other comics companies doing "versus" titles to boost sales, and started brainstorming their own "versus" title. Suggestions got increasingly ridiculous, before someone finally said [[EurekaMoment "Alien versus Predator,"]] and everyone looked at each other, shocked that it hadn't been the first thing they thought of. Not only was the pairing completely natural, but Dark Horse Comics already had the license to print comics for both the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise and the ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' franchise (at the time, only consisting of [[Film/{{Predator}} the original movie.]]) Fox licensing was all over the idea, a writer and artist was attached, and it was full-steam ahead.

* ActionPrologue: PlayedWith. Fox wanted one "Aliens" story and one "Predator" story to proceed the first "Versus" story. So one issue focuses on the Alien Queen (held captive by Predators, though no actual Predators appear in the issue), and the next shows a bunch of Predators fighting over potential hunting grounds, before we finally see Predators actually (successfully) hunting Aliens, to create a contrast for how dramatically the hunt in the main story is about to go awry. These first three issues (chapters in collected editions) feature basically narration by Conover and Strandberg debating the merits and flaws of humanity's high-tech, corporate lifestyle, the nature of manifest destiny, and so on. While there's plenty of action in two of the three prologues, there's also a lot of philosophical narration counterpointing it.

It doesn't take long for things to go completely pear-shaped. The facehuggers infect the rhynth of one of the settlers' herds, and he covers up that his rhynth might be infected with something so he doesn't lose money on the roundup. The infected rhynth are loaded aboard the freighter ''[[MeaningfulName Lecter]]'', where the aliens hatch and get the two pilots. The freighter is docked in the middle of the colony, meaning the aliens can come barging out at any time to attack the colonists, and the Predators have to go through the humans to get to their prey. And the colony's doctor, intrigued by the facehugger the rancher's assistant gave him, heads to the totally wrong spot to look for them, encounters the Predators, and accidentally puts the hunt's leader in a coma, leaving a large group of effectively unruly teenage Predators on a world with humans and Aliens with no adult supervision. The colonists have to fight for their lives against the Aliens and the Predators, the Aliens have to try and fight off the Predators while attacking humans to build their hive, and the young, inexperienced, more-balls-than-brains Predators have to try and take on an entire Alien hive and some badly overwhelmed but extremely pissed-off human colonists. Needless to say, HilarityEnsues.

* FacialMarkings: The comic posits that Predators who have successfully hunted Aliens are marked on their brow with a symbol, presumably of their Clan, in the Aliens' acid blood, signifying they have passed a trial of some kind. Broken Tusk's sigil is a lightning bolt, and he has one not only scarred into his forehead,, but on a few pieces of his gear. At the end of the comic, he gives Machiko the same marking as a sign of respect and admiration from one warrior-hunter to another. This mark becomes critical to Machiko's character in later ''[=AvP=]'' stories, a symbol of her being half-in-half-out-of Predator culture.

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: As soon as the realize they have two hostile sets of [=XTs=] closing in on them, the colony sends a distress signal requesting Colonial Marines to help deal with the problem. The Company holds this cavalry back because they want to know more about the assorted aliens, ordering Machiko to take steps to preserve all specimens. [[ColonyDrop Machiko is disinclined to acquiesce to their request.]]

* FacialMarkings: The comic posits that Predators hunting Aliens are marked with a symbol, presumably of their Clan, signifying they have passed a trial of some kind. Broken Tusk's sigil is a lightning bolt, and he has one not only scarred into his forehead by the Aliens' acid blood, but on a few pieces of his gear. At the end of the comic, he gives Machiko the same marking as a sign of respect and admiration from one warrior-hunter to another. This mark becomes critical to Machiko's character in later ''[=AvP=]'' stories, a symbol of her being half-in-half-out-of Predator culture.

* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Downplayed. The Company is named Chigusa in this story, and the two highest-ranking Company representatives are Hiroki and Machiko Noguchi, both with strong Japanese names and drawn with strong, Japanese features. When the Company in the ''Alien'' 'Verse was finally revealed onscreen to be Weyland-Yutani, Chigusa was retconned into their less-successful competitor that eventually went out of business.