Alien Finally Answers a Xenomorph Question Fans Have Had for Years

Alien has finally answered a big question that fans of the franchise have had for years: how do the xenomorphs “see” with no eyes? The many Alien movies have made it clear that xenomorphs do have acute senses, which allow them to pursue, infiltrate, and evade with uncanny precision. While the xenomorphs’ franchise rivals, the Predators, have had their visual spectrum explored in detail, Alien hasn’t really bothered to address the issue, until now.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Alien: Paradiso #1

20th Century Studios and Marvel Comics’ new series Alien: Paradiso is set 11 years after the events of Alien: Romulus and 26 years before the events of Aliens. The setting is “Paradiso,” a luxury island resort world that serves as a front for smugglers and arms dealers to do deals, due to the resort’s dogmatic zero-tolerance policy regarding weapons.

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The story centers on Ricky Valentine, leader of a crew of arms dealers who comes to Paradiso to make a deal with a cartel that will give him unrivaled control of black market trade in the colonies. Unfortunately, poor gullible Rick doesn’t know that it is xenomorph embryos the cartel is bringing to Paradiso — incubating inside of live hosts. The deal is even more compromised by the fact that Colonial Marshals are onto it, and have two officers working undercover at Paradiso. None of that cops-and-robbers game matters, though, when the cartel contact arrives in the resort and promptly has a xenomorph burst out of his chest.

Alien Reveals How Xenomorphs “See”

There are two sequences in Alien: Paradiso #1 (at the beginning and end) which depict xenomorph POV, and reveal how the alien monsters track prey. As you can see below, the creatures have a strange sort of spectral vision, able to detect all kinds of different wavelengths that human eyes cannot register. That includes the ability to “see both the electrical impulses inside of a human body, as well as the trail of pheromones that are flowing from the panicked victim’s body.”

The second scene depicts a xenomorph’s POV of its own “birth,” when bursting out of the cartel courier’s chest. The creature instinctively zeroes in on the small space of a nearby vent as an escape route and evades capture.

This is a pretty big reveal for the Alien franchise, as it helps explain virtually every one of the xenomorph attacks we’ve seen in the film — starting with the original Alien (1979). With this type of extraordinary sensory “sight” through that elongated eyeless head, the human prey never stood a chance — not the crew of the Nostromo, the Colonial Marines or colonists of LV-426, or all the doomed souls aboard Renaissance station in Romulus.

Unfortunately, it’s also a pretty decisive contradiction of David Fincher’s Alien 3, which is partially famous for using its own version of xenomorph POV (nauseating twirling camera shots on long dolly lines).

Alien: Pardiso (2024)
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Peter Nguyen, Edgar Salazar
Cover Artist: Iban Coello
Synopsis: WELCOME TO PARADISO! Welcome to Paradiso, where the money flows like blood and the blood flows like acid! The Tulum of space, Paradiso is a hidden gem among the colonies with its tropical climate, white sand beaches and a remarkable population of hyper-wealthy criminals. When Colonial Marshals Dash Nanda and Lydia Reeves are sent there to bust a smuggling ring, they think they’ve hit the job-assignment jackpot. But the only ones getting lucky here are those HUNGRY enough to take what they need. Steve Foxe, Edgar Salazar and guest contributor Peter Nguyen shine neon lights on the horrors of the Alien franchise with a bold story of the gambles we must take to survive!

Alien: Paradiso #1 is now on sale. All Alien movies are currently streaming on Hulu-Disney+.