io9 dropped the first details on the new books, which will feature Aliens by Chris Roberson and Patric Reynolds, Predators by Joshua Williamson, Prometheus by Paul Tobin, and Aliens vs. Predator by Chris Sebela, hit the jump to find out more!
“Everything in the original movies is canon as far as Im concerned,” Roberson said of his Aliens series. “We wont be directly referencing anything that happened with Ripley and company, but nothing that well be doing will contradict or conflict with anything weve seen before, either.”
Robersn says that his series will be more in tune with the horror aspects of the original film.
“One thing that [editor] Scott Allie and I discussed when I was first brought onto the project was his desire to get away from the more militaristic tone of the franchise from the second film onwards, and push back closer to the horror vibe of the original film. So were taking a similar approach here. These arent soldiers trained for combat, but regular people whose lives are thrown into chaos when they encounter the unknown.”
Writer Joshua Williamson, currently penning the amazing series Ghosted, will take on the duties for the Predators comic and he says all three movies are canon.
Williamson also says that his series will use the Predators as both the protagonists and the antagonists.
“I dont want to give too much away but we have a Predator who os an older Predator past his prime and [looking for] one last great hunt. Its our version of Moby Dick, with a Predator obsessed with hunting the impossible. A few humans get in his way and a few well, youll need to read to find out.”
Paul Tobin will also be using original characters for his Prometheus comic series, but he has the advantage of having the less established property.
“We’re definitely focusing on original characters. I think the Prometheus movie opened a wealth of questions about the nature of the Engineers, and the aliens, and the universe as a whole. It’s interesting how some people watch the movie with a feeling of, “Oh, well, THAT answered some questions!” and others have a different reaction, seeing the work as a springboard for even further mysteries to be answered, for more to be explored.”
With the Engineers of Prometheus being the least well known of the group, Tobin will have a lot of room to explore with them, and he wants to see how they handle certain things.
“Just what KIND of presence the Engineers will have… that I can’t reveal at this time. But they’re too enigmatic a race to stay away from, and the way that the various species interact… THAT’S very fascinating to me. How do humans see Engineers? How do Predators see Engineers? Where do we clash? Find common ground? When we first started having meetings to work out the overall story structure, these were some of the questions we were asking each other, so we knew that the questions needed to be addressed in the story.”
Writer Chris Sebela is taking a different approach altogether with his new Aliens vs. Predator series, especailly from the previous AVP comics.
Sebela also says that AvP might be the craziest of all the new comics.
“Right now nothing is off the table as far as how big or crazy we’re going to get on any of these books, but if you’re looking for the most Alien and Predator interaction bang for your buck, then AvP is going to be a very wise investment.”
He also confirmed that Prometheus elements aren’t off the table for AvP.
“Yeah, there will be Prometheus-adjacent things in AvP, but, wah wah, I can’t tell you what. Prometheus is the warm, beating heart of all these books, everything spins out from the Prometheus book that Paul is writing.”
We won’t be getting these comics for a few more months, currently a TBA 2014 release date on the lot of them, but this information is certainly enough to get us excited. What do you think of these announcements? Also check out full versions of the concept art by Patric Reynolds and Juan Ferreya below!
