Let us wish you a warm and welcoming Alien Day, that annual dark spot on the calendar where xenomorph faithful worldwide honor perhaps the greatest sci-fi horror franchise in the universe.
In a salute to Alien Day and all its companion festivities, Marvel Comics is cultivating more nasty xenomorphs for a fresh and frightening new "Alien" title and we've got a five-page peek at the debut issue hitting comic shops today.
Check out this nerve-rattling preview for the ongoing series in the gallery below.
Related: Alien streaming guide: Where to watch the Alien movies online
It was back in 1979 when 20th Century Fox took a gamble on visionary British filmmaker Ridley Scott and released his terrifying R-rated science fiction saga, "Alien."
Spawned from a script by Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shusett originally titled "Star Beast," and featuring a menacing biomechanical monster conjured from the twisted brain of Swiss artist H.R. Giger, "Alien" and its nest of sequels and prequels has become one of the most influential films in Hollywood history.
Alien Day, or April 26, was officially recognized and promoted by 20th Century Fox starting in 2016 to celebrate the rich history of the franchise. It's so named for the numerals in the name of the notorious LV-426 planetoid orbiting the planet Calpamos that the Nostromo and her crew of space truckers set down on to investigate an SOS emanating from what they discover to be a derelict spaceship. What horrors they find inside and bring back to their towing vessel is the stuff of nightmare fuel, and so begins the survival plot of the iconic film "Alien."
Penned by Irish writer Declan Shalvey ("Batman," "Deadpool," "Moon Knight") and illustrated by artist Andrea Broccardo ("Star Wars: The High Republic," "Deep Beyond"), "Alien #1" thaws out a new chapter of the "Alien" mythology in an isolated corner of the galaxy on a frozen moon.
Here's Marvel's official synopsis:
Scientist Batya Zahn will do just about anything to get her family off the icy moon where they've been conducting research on water conservation. But there's more than glacial springs to find in this forgotten corner of the galaxy. When they discover an extraordinary organism buried in the ice, it won't take long for tensions to heat up. What is hidden in the snow comes forth in the thaw … and no one will be welcoming this spring.
"It's incredibly exciting to take on such a brilliant franchise ... the potential for great stories is limitless," Shalvey noted in a statement. "I feel like the themes from the films remain quite relevant to today, which makes me feel like we're able to tell contemporary stories set in that iconic universe. I'm very much hoping to channel the mood and atmosphere of those films while doing something new, and Andrea has done an incredible job of putting the reader in that recognizable world. With this new series, I think we have a really interesting addition to the lore of 'Alien.'"
Marvel Comics' "Alien #1" lands on April 26, 2023 accompanied by an icy main cover from artist Dike Ruan and chilly variants by Declan Shalvey and Gabriele Dell'Otto.
Every film in the franchise, from "Alien" to "Alien vs Predator Requiem," can be streamed in the U.S. and U.K. on Amazon Prime video for free with a STARZ trial.
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