Alien: The Xenomorphs’ Grossest Evolution Ripped Off Marvel’s X-Men

The Xenomorphs from the Sci-Fi franchise Alien once underwent a disgusting evolution, and in doing so totally ripped off Marvel Comics’ X-Men. The Xenomorphs are famous for their horrifying reproductive methods, with Facehuggers laying Xenomorph eggs inside the chest of their victims. The X-Men’s version of the Xenomorphs, the Brood, have a similar reproductive technique except instead of using a host as an incubator for their children, they actually transform the host into a member of the Brood. In one alternate Alien story originally intended as the third installment of the film franchise but was instead turned into a comic book, the Xenomorphs ripped off the reproductive process of the X-Men’s Brood in disgusting fashion. 

In William Gibson’s Alien 3 by Willaim Gibson and Johnnie Christmas, the original script for the third Alien film was adapted into a comic book so fans could see what Alien 3 could have been before it was changed into the film that was released. In the third issue of the limited series, Weyland-Yutani scientists get their hands on Xenomorph biological material and are running experiments on it with that material kept in glass canisters. After an accident in the lab, some people nearby were exposed to that material and became infected by the Xenomorphs in an all new way. 

In Alien 3 #4, the exposure to the Xenomorph biological material takes effect in one of the people it infected. Without warning, the woman who was infected began to change as her body started to break down and horrifically morph into a Xenomorph. This marked the first time a Xenomorph was born without the use of a Facehugger as the scientists accidentally found a much more streamlined way to make more alien creatures. Instead of waiting for a baby Xenomorph to grow inside of someone and then burst out of their chest when strong enough, this Xenomorph mist just turns them into a fully grown Xenomorph which is exactly what happens when the Brood creates a new member of their race. 

One of the most extreme examples of Brood reproduction is when they turned Ghost Rider into one of their own. In Ghost Rider #26, the Spirit of Vengeance tracks the recent murders carried out by the Assassins Guild to their secret location in New Orleans. When he gets there, Ghost Rider discovers that the Assassins Guild had been completely overrun by the Brood who turned every one of the murderers into alien creatures just like them. Then, the Brood took things to the next level by turning the hellfire-powered Ghost Rider into one of them as well which speaks to how cosmically terrifying the Brood really are to be tangling with a hero of Ghost Rider’s caliber. Just as the Brood proved themselves to be one of the most horrifying forces in the galaxy, Alien’s Xenomorphs have regularly been described as the perfect organism as they have the capability to adapt and take over any planet they sink their teeth into. Now, it’s clear just how similar X-Men’s Brood and Alien’s Xenomorphs are—they’re both equally terrifying.

With the alternate take on Alien 3, Xenomorphs and the Brood become even more alike after Alien ripped off Marvel Comics’ X-Men with the Xenomorphs’ grossest evolution.

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