Alien Franchise May Be Reinventing the Queen in a Surprising Way

The upcoming, sixth issue of Marvel’s Alien has seemingly given readers a first look at a brand-new kind of Xenomorph queen — one spinning out of the events of the first five issues of the comic, as well as lore established in 2012’s Prometheus. The cover for Alien #6, which is due in stores on Wednesday, features an H.R. Giger-inspired humanoid woman, seemingly a new stage in the merging of DNA between humanity and the xenomorphs. This new Queen seems to be the peak of that merger, at least at first glance, and a potentially wildly different kind of threat to the humans in the comic.

It’s technically Screen Rant who have speculated that this appears to be a new Queen, with the solicitation text for the comic book only allowing that “a new kind of Xenomorph is emerging.” Still, given the differences between her appearance and that of the Xenomorphs flanking her on the cover, it certainly seems likely that’s the case.

The idea of a Queen Xenomorph first appeared in James Cameron’s Aliens in 1986, and is pretty easy to tell apart from the drones who serve under her due to her extra pair of arms and the large crest that extends backward and out from her head, resembling not just a “crown,” but the head of the human/Xenomorph hybrid on the cover. The notion that humanity had encountered Xenomorphs in the past is also not new, with Shaw seeing one burst from the chest of an engineer in the prequel Prometheus.

You can see the cover in question below.

Alien #6 will be the final issue of the current volume of Alien, which launched in 2022, ahead of a relaunch later this year. It seems safe to assume that the newly-introduced Xenomorph variant will set up a bigger role in the next volume — but what’s potentially interesting is the idea that they could carry over from the comics into future TV and film projects.

Here’s the solicitation text for the issue:

Alien (2022) #6
Published: February 08, 2023
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Penciler: Julius Ohta
Cover Artist: Bjorn Barends

DEATH IS INEVITABLE! Steel Team is in fragments. Scores of innocent humans are dead after surviving years on an irradiated rock. A new kind of Xenomorph is emerging…hunting…killing. It’s all built to this. Is this the end – or beginning – of a new horror?