Back in the late 1980’s, Dark Horse Comics blew my mind when they started publishing original stories from the Aliens universe.  Published before Alien3 came along and kind of screwed up their continuity, the first series I picked up was actually their second, a fully-painted tale of Ripley and Newt after the events of James Cameron’s Aliens.  I don’t remember much about the series, but I do remember it was well written, and beautiful to look at. Future storylines came, some set in the movie continuity (or adaptations of the movies), others not.  Some were fantastic, some not so much.

Aliens/Predator FCBD Comic Book
Aliens/Predator FCBD Comic Book

In 1989, Predator: Concrete Jungle started, a storyline featuring Detective Schaefer, the brother of Dutch Schaefer, Ah-nuld’s character from the original Predator movie.  The predators invaded NYC and, to this day, I haven’t read a movie tie-in comic as well written and drawn as this one.  This comic series was used as the basis for a video game, a novel and, for a while, there was talk about making Predator 3 based on this series.  Never happened, obviously.  I’d be okay if Predators was based on this storyline.  Just as with Aliens, the stories continued until the early 2000’s.

Of course, crossovers soon came about – the excellent Aliens vs. Predator mini series, and some that shouldn’t have been good, but were all excellent – Batman vs. Predator (with art by Andy Kubert!), Aliens vs. Predator vs. Terminator, Predator vs. Magnus Robot Fighter…the list goes on and on.

More after the jump!

Dark Horse is planning on reinvigorating both franchises with Aliens, coming May 27th, and Predator on June 24th.  Here’s a description of Aliens from Dark Horse’s site:

Aliens #1
Aliens #1

Writer: John Arcudi
Penciller: Zach Howard

A group of wildcat planetary prospectors plant their flag on a distant new world, rich in land, resources . . . and mystery. Within this seemingly uninhabited planet lies the greatest archaeological discovery in history, an ancient, abandoned complex of impossible proportions carved deep within the living rock, a mind-numbing labyrinth of passages, ramps, bridges, and galleries that seems to extend limitlessly. But as the exploration of the leviathan dead city proceeds deeper and deeper, the members of the team slowly begin to lose their grip on reality. But madness gives way to fear as the explorers begin to disappear one by one. Something else lives within the necropolis, a faceless horror as deadly and merciless as space itself, a lethal terror that has waited centuries to awake . . . and destroy.

And for Predator:

Predator #1
Predator #1

Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Javier Saltares
Cover Artist: Raymond Swanland

The world’s attention is focused painfully on a brutal third world Civil War, a merciless sectarian conflict sparing neither soldier nor civilian, grandmother nor child. But amidst the terror and carnage, where great nations and powerful interests jockey for position and advantage, another blood feud rages in the shadows, one no more humane but decidedly less human. Two warring tribes from the stars have chosen Earth’s killing fields as their arena, with each clan sworn to eradicate the other . . . and all who stand between them. Each is the other’s prey, each the other’s Predator.

To get everyone amped up for the new series, Dark Horse is releasing an Aliens/Predator flip book this Saturday, featuring previews of both books!  For a preview of what you can expect in the FCBD book, click here!

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