Amph On Earth, Everyone Can Hear You Scream: The Prometheus / Alien Discussion Thread (Romulus, Earth)

I don’t think it’s noncommittal: it’s pretty strict and explicit. But yeah, some fans have issues with that approach, no doubt.

 

I didn't know that about the "separate continuities" actually, and that makes me feel very relaxed now.

 

I want to imagine a 20th century studios (Disney?) exec compelled to sign this continuity policy document like King John affixing his seal to the Magna Carta.

 

Sensible...but man wouldn't it be cool if you had an Alien film building toward the climactic finale...the protagonists are trapped, there is no escape!!!!

AND BOOM...A predator shows up and starts bulldozing Xenomorphs.

The plot completely implodes in the special effects chaos...but lets face it, these movies haven't had good plots in decades.

Might be the biggest surprise in cinema since Yoda vs. Dooku...and that was a cover for weak plot too.

----

NO!

BATMAN Shows up! Maybe the Batman Beyond Batman, so you can make it "futuristic".

WB/DC needs to hurry up and be bought by Disney.

 

How did they handicap Superman in that one?

It's always the most interesting part of any Superman story...how they "un-Superman" Superman...just so the story can actually happen.

 

In Superman vs. Aliens he's stranded somewhere in space where there's no yellow sun to regenerate his stored power so he gets weaker and weaker... I think he ends up getting ejected into space (a la a Silver Surfer comic in the 90s that basically did the same thing) where he gets enough solar radiation and then wrecks shop.

 

Those Batman V Predator comics were actually surprisingly good. Especially the first one.



What a ******* panel that is. I thought there would never be a cooler moment in a Batman comic than that one.

And then Alfred shot the Predator WITH A GODDAMNED MUSKET

 

Also:



Still looking for the Meets the Care Bears, though.

 

I'm pretty sure it was the second Batman V Predator that had the scene where Batman lassoed a guy off of a speeding motorcycle with a metal chain and drug him down the street and then went on a rant about how every human life was sacred to Huntress like four pages later. The man contains multitudes and I'm here for it.

 

Yah there is a lot of shade thrown at the various Predator crossovers but that first Batman vs. Predator one is aces. Batman took a Bane/Mutant Leader level beatdown and he needed a tech'd up suit to fight the Predator at the end ala Dark Knight Returns. All I remember from Superman/Aliens was he actually gets facehugged to end an issue with the caption box "It's forcing something down my throat!"

 

Predator just doesn't fit the vibe of the Alien universe, to me. Again, Carpenter's The Thing fits more with the type of aliens.

Like the classic line from the movie:

 

Yep. But in the sequels he isn't handicapped. In the second story, he and Orion have to get to Darkseid and get him to stop using the Xenomorphs, in part because Orion has a chestburster in him. In the third story, the World's Finest team learns that a clan of Predators are stuck on Earth with the buggers, and they need to help the former get offworld.

Yep.

He regurgitated the Queen Chestburster. The story was also designed to introduce a new Supergirl like the DCAU version with the Kara who was in the first story. She was to return in 1997, before the Peter David series. The Superman books references the crossover in Superman #119.

 

For what is worth, Andrew Gaska, the consultant who developed the current franchise bibles for Alien and Predator and went on to design the Alien RPG @blackmyron and I love, posted this SUPER NERDY list of Alien canon. The kind of **** that would’ve caused tens of creamed pants in the classic Lit form:

Spoiler

TIER I CANON

Definitive and authorized canon to the Alien/Prometheus universe:

• Film Series1
  • Prometheus
  • Alien: Covenant
  • Alien
  • Aliens
  • Alien 3
  • Alien Resurrection
• Alien Isolation video game
• Mike Tanaka Alien Isolation Twitter account
• Covenant Short Films:
  • The Crossing
  • The Last Supper
  • Meet Walter
  • Five Crew Messages
  • Phobos
  • Advent
  • David’s Lab: Last Signs of Life
• Prometheus Short Films:
  • TED Conference, 2023
  • Happy Birthday, David
  • Quiet Eye: Elizabeth Shaw
  • Project Prometheus: Mission
  • Weyland Industries Testimonial
  • Prometheus Transmission

TIER II CANON

These sources are absolutely canon until Ridley Scott or another producer throws a curveball:

• Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report
• Alien: The Blueprints
• Alien: David’s Drawings
• Alien Role Playing Game by Free League Publishing
  • Alien RPG: Starter Set
  • Alien RPG: Core rulebook
  • Alien: Chariot of the Gods
  • Alien: Destroyer of Worlds
  • Alien: Heart of Darkness
  • Alien: Map of the Middle Heavens
  • Alien: Colonial Marines Operations Manual
  • All upcoming Alien: RPG products
• The following Dark Horse comic series:
  • Aliens: Dead Orbit
  • Aliens: Dust to Dust
  • Aliens: Defiance
  • Aliens: Resistance
  • Aliens: Rescue
• Titan and Imprint Novel Series
  • Alien: Covenant – Origins
  • Alien: The Cold Forge
  • Alien: Into Charybdis
  • Alien: Infiltrator
  • Aliens: Phalanx
  • Alien: Prototype
  • Alien: Isolation novelization
  • Alien: Echo
  • Alien: Colony War with RPG Bonus Fallout
  • Alien: Inferno’s Fall with RPG Bonus EVAC
• The 40th Anniversary Short Films
  • Alien: Harvest
  • Alien: Containment
  • Alien: Specimen
  • Alien: Night Shift
  • Alien: Ore
  • Alien: Alone
• Aliens: Fireteam Elite Video Game
• Alien: Blackout Mobile Video Game
• Aliens: Colonial Marines Technical Manual

TIER III CANON

The majority of the content is canon with some minor problems that can be explained away as myth or hearsay.

• Weyland Industries Viral Website (some distances are exaggerated)
• Aliens: Colonial Marines Video Game (Creatures and Technology are canon, but the story is not)
• Movie novelizations (accurate except when contradicted by screen evidence)
  • Alien
  • Aliens
  • Alien 3
  • Alien: Resurrection
  • Prometheus (Japanese language only)
  • Alien: Covenant
• Alien Novels:
  • Alien: Out of the Shadows
  • Alien: Sea of Sorrows
  • Alien: River of Pain

MYTHS AND LEGENDS

This stuff should be thought of as tall tales told in bars. The events may or may have happened as described, but the locations exist:

• Alien Survival Manual (was intended as canon but has glaring errors)
• William Gibson’s Alien III in all incarnations:
  • William Gibson’s Alien III: Comic Adaptation
  • William Gibson’s Alien III: Audio Drama Adaptation
  • William Gibson’s Alien III: Novelization
  • William Gibson’s Alien III: Screenplay Draft I
  • William Gibson’s Alien III: Screenplay Draft II
• Unused Screenplays including:
  • Star Beast
  • Eric Red’s Alien III
  • David Twohy’s Alien III
  • Vincent Ward’s Alien III
  • Alien: The Original Screenplay (all formats and editions)
  • Alien: Engineers
  • Alien: Paradise Lost
• The Bantam Books and DH Press Aliens novels:
  • Novels in the Complete Aliens Omnibus Volumes 1-7 including:
    • Aliens: Earth Hive
    • Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
    • Aliens: Female War
    • Aliens: Genocide
    • Aliens: Harvest
    • Aliens: Rogue
    • Aliens: Labyrinth
    • Aliens: Music of the Spears
    • Aliens: Berserker
    • Aliens: Original Sin
    • Aliens: DNA War
    • Aliens: Cauldron
    • Aliens: Steel Egg
    • Aliens: Criminal Enterprise
    • Aliens: No Exit
• Concept art (includes all art books)
• Aliens: Adventure Game by Leading Edge
• Alien: Covenant Short Films:
  • x Audi lunar quattro
  • She Won’t Go Quietly
• Aliens: Colonial Marines Video Game (Storyline)
• Aliens: Bughunt (Labeled as such in the book)
• The following Dark Horse comic series:
  • Aliens: Field Report
  • Aliens: Fire and Stone 2 3 4
  • Aliens: Life and Death 2 3 4
  • Comics from Dark Horse and Marvel Comics:
    • Aliens: Dark Horse Omnibus Volume 1-6
    • Aliens: Marvel Comics Omnibus Volume 1
    • Aliens: Outbreak
    • Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
    • Aliens: The Female War
    • Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation
    • Aliens: The Alien
    • Aliens: Tribes
    • Aliens: Space Marines [Kenner Comics]
    • Aliens: Hive
    • Aliens: Newt’s Tale
    • Alien 3 Comic Adaptation
    • Aliens: Genocide
    • Aliens: Harvest
    • Aliens: Colonial Marines
    • Aliens: Rogue
    • Aliens: Sacrifice
    • Aliens: Labyrinth
    • Aliens: Advent/Terminus
    • Aliens: Reapers
    • Aliens: Horror Show
    • Aliens: Music of the Spears
    • Aliens: Stronghold
    • Aliens: Frenzy
    • Aliens: Taste
    • Aliens: Mondo Pest
    • Aliens: Mondo Heat
    • Aliens: Alchemy
    • Aliens: Kidnapped
    • Aliens: Cargo
    • Aliens: Survival
    • Aliens: Alien
    • Aliens: Earth Angel
    • Aliens: Incubation
    • Aliens: Havoc
    • Aliens: Lovesick
    • Aliens: Lucky
    • Aliens: Apocalypse – The Destroying Angels
    • Aliens: Once in a Lifetime
    • Aliens: Headhunters
    • Aliens: Tourist Season
    • Aliens: 45 Seconds
    • Aliens: Elder Gods
    • Aliens: Purge
    • Aliens: Glass Corridor
    • Aliens: Stalker
    • Aliens: Wraith
    • Aliens: Dark Horse Presents
    • Aliens: Dark Horse Insider
• Arcade, computer, and console video games
  • Aliens: Armageddon
  • Aliens: Infestation
  • Aliens: Extermination
  • Aliens: Thanatos Encounter
  • Aliens: Online
  • Aliens: Trilogy
  • Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure
  • Alien 3: The Gun
  • Aliens: Alien 2
• Kenner Aliens Toyline
• Alien War (“Total Reality” Experience)

SHOE-HORN CANON:

A similar concept, look, and feel to the film franchise, and a film that might as well be part of Alien even though it is not. These will NEVER BE OFFICIAL. They are absolutely not part of the Alien Universe but can be massaged into it if you squint hard enough.

• Blade Runner
• Blade Runner 2049
• Outland
• Soldier

NON-CANON:

Absolutely not connected in any way to Alien—save for possible similar themes and/or easter eggs. While not canon, these properties make for great inspiration for the universe.6

• Predator, its sequels, comics, novels, and games 3
• AVP, its sequels, comics, novels, and games 4
• Avatar (2009)
• Firefly (2002)
• Alien vs. any and everything 5
• Alien 2: On Earth (1980)
• John Carpenter’s The Thing (1981)
• The Thing (2011)
• Raised by Wolves (2020)
• LIFE (2017)
• Sunshine (2007)
• Pitch Black (2000)
• Riddick (2013)
• Virus (1999)
• Underwater (2020)
• Prospect (2018)
• Saturn 3 (1980)
• Pandorum (2009)
• Supernova (2000)
• The Rig (2010)
• Leviathan (1998)
• Deep Star Six (1989)
• Event Horizon (1997)
• Planet of the Vampires (1965)
• Ex Machina (2014)
• Annihilation (2018)
• Species, its sequels, comics, and novels
• Terminator, its sequels, series, comics, novels, and games
• Screamers (1995)

Footnotes

1. In the case of the films, you can count the special editions OR the feature versions as canon. I have used the special editions when writing the RPG but made nods towards the feature versions)
2. Only the Aliens issues of “Fire and Stone” and “Life and Death” are part of the Alien Universe. The Predator and AVP portions are not.
3. Anything with Predator in it is part of the separate Predator universe instead, or…
4. If an Alien and a Predator appear, that means it’s part of the separate AVP Universe. Even if it says it’s an ALIEN-labeled product and not an AVP one—if a Predator shows up it’s AVP).
5. As a rule of thumb, inter-company crossovers mostly do not count towards canon in any franchise. In regards to other companies who DO count the situations that occur during crossovers, those events are never directly referred to again. For example: you will never have Judge Dredd say, “Remember that time I punched Batman?” and show a recap panel of Batman’s face being smashed after the license has expired. What they did instead was say, “Remember when I punched that masked vigilante?” and did not show it again. You can’t use someone else’s characters past the limited time of the license. So while the event could define changes in the world, the details will forever be vague. If one of the companies involved pushed mentioning these things too far, the other could be like, um… excuse me…
6. Updated thanks to some suggestions by FB user and gamer Pete DeRosa

Ken and other nerds in denial: don’t look.

 

He didn’t blog anything about Predator or AvP, sadly; the only reason he posted the Alien one is that he went on to author the RPG and people were curious about the sources. As far as I know, those two are still internal franchise bibles.

Edit: The list was posted in the context of the then-upcoming RPG, yes, and is based on the franchise bible he developed for Fox. If you’ve read any recent Alien novels, you may have noted that they include concepts from Gibson’s Alien 3: this is why. He did add this, though: “The notes below about Predator, AVP, and Easter Eggs are guidelines I was given by FOX’s franchise department when I was brought on board as a consultant.”

 

Outland

 

That non canon list is hilarious. It is so specifically not exhaustive.

 

Oh, lol, i just noticed that I accidentally didn’t copy the last bullet point:

• Whatever

 

Have started going through the list in order, will be posting a five to six page review of each line item.

sarcasm, in case it's not clear and I understand why it wouldn't be

 

Spoiler alert:

 

I liked Screamers, but it’s not good.