Alien: Icarus, originally titled Alien, also known as Alien Vol. 3: Icarus, is a six-issue comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics from September 2022-February 2023. The story featured a cast of synthetic characters, formerly known as "Steel Team," who ventured deep into Xenomorph territory on Tobler-9 for a chance to combat human extinction. It was written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, illustrated by Julius Ohta, colored by Yen Nitro, lettered by VS's Clayton Cowles, and edited by Sarah Brunstad. Cover art was provided by by Björn Barends, while variant cover art was provided by various artists.
Alien: Icarus serves as the third and final installment of a multi-arc storyline that began with Alien: Bloodlines.
In Marvel's Alien comics line, Alien was preceded by Alien: Annual #1, and was followed by Alien: Thaw.
Publisher's Summary
#1: MAN, MACHINE, AND THE MOST TERRIFYING CREATURE IN THE UNIVERSE…IT'S AN EXPRESS ELEVATOR TO HELL, AND YOU'RE GONNA WANT TO BE ON IT! A small colony of synths have settled in secret on a backwater moon. When a company of United System soldiers come to them for help retrieving biotechnology on a hostile planet that could be the key to saving humanity, the synths must decide whether the prospect of peace between man and machine is worth the risk of betrayal.
#2: NOTHING ORGANIC EVER TANGLED WITH US AND WALKED AWAY. "Steel Team," the legendary, unkillable Synthetic Special Operations team, has been reactivated. Sent to an abandoned Weyland-Yutani outpost to recover a project that now could save millions, Steal Team is the United Systems' only hope as they navigate the hellscape that the once-idyllic Tobler-9 has become. Since its mysterious downfall years earlier, Tobler-9 is considered one of the most hostile environments in the known universe, a place where nothing organic could possibly have survived…could it?
#3: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW... While searching the Xenomorph-infested Tobler-9 for an alien sample that can save humanity, "Steel Team," the mythical Synthetic Special Operations team, has made a shocking discovery: a colony of humans who have managed to survive there for decades. With only their mutual mistrust in common, the humans and synths strike an uneasy bargain: the alien sample in exchange for Steel Team's help in clearing a subterranean Xenomorph nest. But while the humans have had to sacrifice some of their humanity to survive, Steel Team learns that the ICARUS alien strain has taken on some disturbingly HUMAN tendencies...
#4: BETRAYAL IS THE HEART OF EVERY END! Steel Team's human allies have led them into an ambush, leaving them for dead in the nest of a vicious Xenomorph Queen. As Steel Team suffers their first casualties, Eli's trust in Freyja is tested like never before. Meanwhile, the humans suffer the consequences of their betrayal as a new kind of monster awakens inside one of their own.
#5: RUDE AWAKENING! The ship the humans stole from the Steel Team has crashed, and from the fiery wreckage emerged a swarm of Xenos led by the monstrous Hybrid! The few remaining humans fled back to their base in a futile attempt to escape slaughter. Meanwhile, with their numbers quickly dwindling, the Steel Team must make difficult decisions that could result in the possible success, or utter failure, of this disaster mission.
#6: DEATH IS INEVITABLE! Steel Team is in fragments. Scores of innocent humans are dead after surviving years on an irradiated rock. A new kind of Xenomorph is emerging…hunting…killing. It’s all built to this. Is this the end – or beginning – of a new horror?
Plot
In 2205, two years after Weyland-Yutani used Xenomorphs to sabotage a UA terraforming colony on Euridice, one of the company's own research and development hubs on Tobler-9 met a similar fate. Following rumors that the company's ambitions for the XX121 had grown well beyond bioweapons, an alien outbreak and infestation ultimately resulted in the nuclear fallout that left Tobler-9 in ruin.
Due to an ongoing war between Weyland-Yutani and the United Systems, the planet Demeter-2, a farming colony crucial to the survival of human life, suffered a nuclear catastrophe when an experimental reactor exploded in 2217, putting the twenty–four colonies and 1.4 billion lives in the system it supported at risk. To survive the disaster, its inhabitants required protection by way of a biologic derived from a modified Xenomorph egg that could only be procured from an abandoned research facility on the irradiated, overgrown planetoid Tobler-9. The United Systems Army enlisted the help of a small group of five synthetic operatives known as Steel Team who they believed would be able to infiltrate the Xenomorph infested world undetected. Having been deceived by the United Systems once already, the synthetic operatives were reluctant to help their human counterparts.
With the promise of full United Systems citizenship, the synthetics ultimately agreed to join the mission, and were transported in a Bougainville class ship to Tobler-9, where they descended to the planet's surface in a UD-4L dropship. While traversing the city's apocalyptic landscape seemingly undetected, they found their target destination, a research and development lab located within an underground industrial complex. While the alien egg they were sent to retrieve was missing, they discovered a living catalogue of mutated insects, some of which they took as samples for safe measure. Unbeknownst to the synthetic operatives, the specimens they collected had been mutated with a dangerous chemical accelerant taken from the urns left in and around the abandoned lab.
During their initial investigation, the synthetic operatives were drawn into an ambush by Xenomorph drones and a Praetorian, mimicking the sounds of humans. To their surprise, an actual group of humans, wielding flamethrowers, quelled the attack and led the synthetics to safety in an underground bunker, where they found a colony of humans who have somehow survived the mostly irradiated, Xenomorph infested landscape of Tobler-9. While synthetic Seth was being repaired after being partially damaged during the ambush, Freyja, the most amicable out of the five synthetics, first encountered a young boy within the colony who was deaf and used Terran Standard Sign to communicate with him. Meanwhile, synthetic Eli caught a female colonist named Lee rifling through his gear when she unknowingly broke the specimen jar containing one of the mutated insects from the lab. Due to his distrust of humans, Eli deliberately allows the insect to bite and infect Lee.
As Freyja went on to learn more about the colony of survivors from their leader, a former Weyland-Yutani employee named Melody, she'd learned the company had been breeding Xenomorphs based specifically on the attributes of their hosts which ultimately came to be known as the ICARUS strain. Melody then revealed while there was no shortage of eggs for them to collect, they would have to infiltrate the Queen's chamber and kill her to obtain one. In the cover of night, while a storm raged on, Melody led the synthetic operatives directly into the hive for a chance to collect a specimen. Melody, who understood the catastrophic risks associated with letting an egg get off-world, intentionally trapped them in the hive with no way out, and swore she'd never let Weyland-Yutani's research further corrupt the human race, as it already seemed to be doing to Lee.
In an effort to escape, the synthetic operatives were drawn into close quarter combat with the Queen and her guards. After striking a devastating blow to the Queens head with a sword, synthetic Nora had been torn to pieces. In an unexpected turn of events, the ceiling of the hive came crashing down onto the Queen, allowing the remaining synthetics to escape. Seth, who considered Nora to be his partner, stayed behind to grieve her loss. Meanwhile, Melody and her companions took flight in the synthetic's dropship, while Lee started exhibiting abnormal symptoms from her infection before mindlessly killing Melody and the rest of the scavs onboard, causing the shuttle to crash, where Lee emerged from the wreckage, severely mutated and unrecognizable. After witnessing Lee's transformation into a Xenomorph-like creature, Eli unapologetically told the rest of his team about her interaction with the live specimen that bit her.
Back at the bunker, a mutated Lee, and the pack of Xenomorphs now following her lead, gained entry and killed every colonist she and her army of aliens came in contact with. The young, deaf boy, safely hidden away, witnessed the destruction of his community before Freyja came to his rescue. While providing cover for the rest of his team, Seth was attacked by Lee and nearly decapitated next to a dying colonist who blamed the synthetics for their demise before activating a nuclear detonation device that subsequently decimated the bunker. Having survived the radioactive blast, it was determined that "the kid" must have been given the biologic serum meaning he carried the genetic code theUnited Systems sent them to find. Soon after synthetic Astrid activated the extraction beacon given to them by General March, she received a debilitating headbite from the Queen. Eli, mad over the loss of Steel Team, sent "the kid" plummeting into a nest of Xenomorphs. Following a brief physical altercation with Eli, Freyja came face to face with the Queen. Having lost an arm in battle, Freyja ultimately shot the creature to death with a combat pistol.
Soon after the Queen's demise, General March and a cadre of United Systems soldiers flew in for extraction, only to be attacked and killed by a fully-mutated Lee, while the two remaining synthetic operatives and "the kid" escaped in the US space craft, leaving Tobler-9 and Lee behind.
Reprint History
The six issue series Alien was collected as a trade paperback titled Alien Vol. 3: Icarus and was released on May 9, 2023.
Trivia
- Many of the weapons used throughout the comic's six issue run like the Type 88 Heavy Assault Rifle, Type 95 Combat Pistol, and the L59 Minigun, were first introduced in the 2021 video game Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
- While it was not officially stated, it was strongly suggested that Lee ultimately became the mutated, hybrid creature known as "the woman in the dark," who Cruz was having visions of throughout the Bloodlines story arc.
Goofs
- In 2217, Eli mentioned to General March that Tobler-9 had been dead for decades while the devastating Xenomorph outbreak on the planet occurred only twelve years earlier, in 2205.
- While General March mentioned Demeter-2 by name within the pages of Issue #1, each subsequent issue mistakenly referred to the irradiated farming colony by the name Perseus-9.
Gallery
Issue covers
Variant covers
