I've been a fairly devout fan of the "alien" films for many years, since my tender younger years when I first delved into the world of horror and sci-fi film. However, my earliest exposure to this frightening universe was through the various comic books released by Dark Horse. I made frequent trips to my local comic book store whereas I would pick up the newest Alien and/or Predator mini-series from Dark Horse as they came available, filling in between my regular comic book purchases within the Marvel X-Men universe. Without a doubt, my absolute favorite was a 12-issue Dark Horse mini-series written by Chris Claremont (coincidentally, also a major X-Men writer at the time), Being the hopeless geek I was at the time, I purchased the limited foil-covered first issue and each of the eleven following issues with much glee and anticipation. One day I found out none other than Chris Claremont himself was going to be at my local comic book shop, in person, for one day only to sign autographs. I was giddy! I met the man (briefly and awe struck) and had both my foil-covered first issue of Deadliest Species and my X-MEN issue #1 fold-out cover featuring Jim Lee's amazing artwork signed by the man himself. Kinda wish I'd held onto the X-MEN book now, but at least I still have the Deadliest Species complete run with issue #1 signed.
As for the films, my first experience with the genre was ALIENS, an incredible action-packed sensory feast firmly secured a space in this geek's heart for the xenomorphic kind. James Cameron's ALIENS (1986) nailed what was needed to make the sequel a success. With Ridley Scott's ALIEN (1979) being an almost purely horror film, a slow burn excursion of terror, we needed to take the story to the next level. We needed more and that's what we got! What's scarier than a single xenomorph picking off humans like gnats on a humid summer day? How about hundreds of them? Oh, and they're not going to be slaughtering helpless colonists. Nope. We're sending a crew of specially trained colonial marines to neutralize this mysterious threat, but the whole thing backfires and shit gets real... real fast! From here, the franchise leaves the realm of perfection on various levels, but each still maintains something of value for the fans. Here's my list of films that exist within the xenomorph universe, ranked in the order of my personal favorites:
7. ALIEN VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM (2007)
6. AVP (2004)
5. PROMETHEUS (2012)
4. ALIEN 3 (1992)
3. ALIEN RESURRENCTION (1997)
2. ALIEN (1979)
1. ALIENS (1986)
ALIEN CANDY T-SHIRTS
Both the Xenomorph Tootsie Roll Pop "How many licks?" and the Predator Twizzler "Makes mouths happy" versions are currently available in my Redbubble shop.
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