Alien Reveals Major New Legacy Character Connected to Original Film

The Alien franchise has been finding new success by digging into its own past. Ridley Scott gave the movies a new lease on life by opening up the backstory of the original Alien (1979) film in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant; director Fede Álvarez took that baton and ran with it, making Alien: Romulus an Easter egg trove of franchise callbacks and connective threads. Meanwhile, the various Alien comic series from Marvel have been building entirely new lore around the content of the films – and now the latest anthology series Alien: Paradiso is introducing a major franchise character as its “final girl.”

The story of Alien: Paradiso takes place on the planetary resort colony of Paradiso, which has strict rules about banning weaponry of any kind. A smuggler/arms dealer named Ricky Valentine comes there with his crew to make a highly valuable deal with a cartel that could set him up for life. Unfortunately, that deal is for some xenomorph samples that are already being incubated inside live hosts. When one of the xenomorphs chest-bursts out of its host in the middle of the dinner hall, panic sets in and a strict quarantine is put in place.

Alien: Paradiso #2 sees Ricky starting to realize just how badly his plan is going. The guests are locked inside the dining room; Ricky’s grim-faced bodyguard Tsula Kane doesn’t hesitate, grabbing up meat forks, knives and other sharp utensils to use as weapons. Ricky chastises Tsula for being paranoid, but Tsula counters that she’s resourceful and prepared – and a flashback scene reveals why the dark legacy of the Alien franchise has made her that way…

Alien Introduces Kane’s Daughter

The Alien franchise’s very first xenomorph appearance was a Chestburster that had been implanted in the body of “Kane” (John Hurt), the executive officer of the commercial towing ship USCSS Nostromo. It was Kane who stumbled upon the ill-fated discovery of facehugger eggs in a crashed Engineer ship on LV-426, and was taken down by one of the parasites. Ellen Ripley and the rest of the Nostromo crew had no understanding of what the facehugger was or how to remove it. Everything seemed to work itself out when the facehugger mysteriously died and Kane suddenly awoke – that is until the crew’s “family dinner” turned into a nightmare when the chestburster emerged from Kane’s body.

Alien: Paradiso #2 reveals that Tsula Kane is (as her name would imply) the daughter of Thomas Kane, who died aboard the Nostromo. The flashback scene focuses on Tsula’s memory of how a representative of the Weyland-Yutani corporation came to see her mom and explain that the nature of Thomas Kane’s death and the Nostromo’s destruction meant the company wouldn’t pay out anything beyond the basic life insurance policy. Mrs. Kane was broken by being left with no explanation about her husband’s death, and no finances to support her family, imparting the harsh lesson to Tsula that life is brutal, and we are powerless against that brutality.

With this reveal, Alien: Paradiso has revealed the true protagonist and thematic angle of its story. Instead of undercover Colonial Marshals Dash Nanda and Lydia Reeves (as implied in issue #1), it will be Tsula who is our “final girl” protagonist. The story is also taking shape as a ‘cycle of violence’ parable that will explore how the original xenomorph’s violent birth and rampage aboard the Nostromo created a version of Tsula who is now prepared to revisit that same brutality upon them. For longtime Alien franchise fans, it’s yet another connective piece that’s adding to the larger puzzle of where the franchise is headed next.

[RELATED: Alien: Romulus Director Teases Sequel Heading Into “Uncharted Territory”]

Alien: Paradiso is available at Marvel.