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Aliens: Genocide, also known as Aliens, Vol. 4: Genocide, is a four-issue limited comic book series that was first published by Dark Horse Comics from November 1991-February 1992. It was written by Mike Richardson and John Arcudi, pencilled by Damon Willis, inked by Karl Story, colored by Arthur Suydam, lettered by Jim Massara, and edited by Barbara Kesel, with cover art by Suydam. The comic sees an attempted counter-expedition to the Xenomorph home planet following the events of Aliens: Female War, orchestrated by a billionaire for dubious reasons. The series was preceded by the short story prequel Aliens: The Alien.

In Dark Horse's Aliens comics line, Aliens: Genocide was preceded by Aliens: Reapers, published concurrently with Aliens: Countdown and Aliens: The Alien, and was followed by Aliens: Harvest.

Genocide was later adapted as a novel of the same name by David Bischoff, published in 1993.

Publisher's Summary[]

#1: Humans have just pulled themselves out of the ruins caused by the Alien infestation of Earth. The last thing anyone wants to see is more Aliens, right? So why is billionaire Daniel Grant leading an expedition to the Alien homeworld?

#2: There's trouble aboard the USS Razzia, en route to the Alien homeworld to capture a Queen Mother. Daniel Grant has brought along his own "pet" Alien, but somebody wants it destroyed. Meanwhile, zero hour approaches, and even with the new Z-110 Acid Neutralizing Wardrobe, the Colonial Marines are in for a tough time against a whole planetful of Aliens.

#3: The USS Razzia touches down on a world teeming with berserk Aliens fighting a bloody civil war against a faction of Red Xenomorphs, making it hard as hell to sneak in and steal an Alien queen. But the Marines have a job to do, so they'll find a way... Meanwhile, someone's trying to make sure Daniel Grant won't be going home.

#4: In the midst of an Alien civil war, it's into the hive for Daniel Grant, Major Lee, Dr. Begalli, and Cpl. Hendrickson. Many lives have been lost, but they came for the alien Queen Mother's royal jelly and they're not leaving without it. At least, that's the plan, but one of his group has other ideas...

Plot[]

After the majority of the Xenomorphs infesting Earth were destroyed, the fight to eradicate the creatures from the planet is finally reaching its conclusion and humanity is rebuilding. To celebrate, an international sporting contest, dubbed the Goodwill Games, is hosted in Baghdad, Iraq, with athletes from around the world competing. Several athletes use a legal performance-enhancing drug called Xeno-Zip, although one athlete overdoses and experiences spectacularly increased physical prowess before killing himself by running into a wall at extreme speed.

Xeno-Zip is in fact distilled from the Royal Jelly produced by Xenomorph Queens, and Daniel Grant, the selfish, egotistical CEO of Neo-pharm, the only company that produces it, is becoming increasingly desperate for supplies of the necessary Alien substance. In order to obtain more, he convinces the Colonial Marines of the potential military applications of the drug, and an expedition is duly organized to return to the Xenomorph home world to acquire more of the essential base ingredient. The mission is placed under the command of Major Alex Lee, who has extensive experience fighting the Xenomorphs during the cleanup of Earth but is racked with guilt over the death of her lover, Lieutenant Michaels, under her command.

Lee assembles her team, to be accompanied by a group of Grant Corporation scientists along with Grant, himself. The team departs aboard the USS Razzia and, after waking from hypersleep, begin training for their assault on the Xenomorph home planet. Grant's abrasive personality leads most of the Marines to develop a strong dislike for him, although he befriends a Corporal named Henriksen. Lee too begins to warm to Grant as she starts to see through his brash exterior, even finding herself becoming attracted to him. However, her feelings are tested when she discovers that Grant's scientists are incubating a Xenomorph Chestburster aboard the Razzia, hoping to use the Royal Jelly they intend to recover to evolve it into a Queen, thereby giving Grant Corporation a potentially limitless supply of Royal Jelly. Soon afterwards, the Chestburster is sabotaged and killed by unknown persons, although Major Lee denies responsibility.

Grant's scientists provide the Marines with prototype acid-proof armor to assist them in their assault, and the team descends to the surface of the Xenomorph home world. As they breach the cloud layer, they discover a scene of carnage — following the destruction of the original Queen Mother on Earth, the Xenomorphs on the home world have split into two genetically dissimilar rival factions, and the common black Xenomorphs now wage a brutal civil war for supremacy with the rival red creatures. Despite this revelation, the team elects to continue. They quickly establish a secure beachhead near the black Hive using a projected Outwall system, but an attempt to expand it leads to a perimeter breach and several casualties.

To show his gratitude and appreciation for those who lost their lives battling the Aliens to procure Royal Jelly for his company, Grant decides to join the expeditionary crew into the black Xenomorph's hive. In preparation for his journey, Grant finds the acid-proof armor set aside for him has been sabotaged and when a timer clamp disengages from a hidden Xenomorph egg, he is immediately attacked by the facehugger within. While Grant battles to keep hiself alive, Major Lee ultimately comes to his rescue.

To give themselves room to work, the team destroys the red Xenomorph's hive with a nuclear strike, killing the Red Queen Mother and causing the remaining red Xenomorphs in retreat in disarray, while the black Xenomorphs take up the pursuit. With the black Hive now mostly deserted, the Marines kill the few royal guards, along with the Queen Mother, and steal her Royal Jelly. As they prepare to leave, Henriksen reveals himself to be the saboteur, having been bought out by a rival company to Grant's. Major Lee is wounded in the ensuring struggle, but she and Grant manage to kill Henriksen and escape the planet with the other survivors.

Recovering from her wounds aboard the Razzia, Major Lee organizes a date with Grant, who vows to become a better man in light of the sacrifices made by the Marines and scientists on the expedition.

Reprint History[]

Dark Horse Comics[]

Aliens: Genocide was first serialized and reprinted in the United Kingdom in 4 parts in Aliens magazine, Vol. 1 #13-16, from February-May 1992.

In Germany, Genocide was serialized and reprinted in 2 parts in the anthology series Aliens #8-9, from June-September 1992.

Aliens genocide tpb1

Cover to Aliens: Genocide trade paperback by Dave Dorman.

The series was first collected as a trade paperback released in December 1992, edited by Kij Johnson and with a new cover by Dave Dorman.

The second collected edition, released in February 1997, was retitled Aliens, Vol. 4: Genocide. This release was part of Dark Horse's "remastered" Aliens Library Editions series — reprints that attempted to bring the content of all of Dark Horse's previously released Aliens comics in line with the updated continuity presented by Alien3. The Genocide trade paperback was edited by Suzanne Taylor and featured a new cover by John Bolton.

Aliens: Genocide was again collected as part of Aliens Omnibus: Volume 2 in December 2007.

The complete comic was released digitally through Dark Horse Digital on February 13, 2013, reusing Arthur Suydam's cover art from issue 1.

Marvel Comics[]

Following Marvel Comics' acquisition of the rights to Alien comic books, the series was collected as part of Marvel's Aliens: The Original Years Volume 1 collection, alongside many other early Dark Horse stories. The collection was released in May 2021.

Behind the Scenes[]

John Arcudi is a veteran writer of Aliens and Predator comics, having also worked on Predator: God's Truth, Predator: Big Game, Aliens: Reapers, Aliens: Alien, Aliens: Stronghold, Aliens: Alchemy, Aliens: More Than Human and Predator: Prey to the Heavens. He was also the original writer on Dark Horse Comics' The Mask, which was turned into a theatrical film of the same name starring Jim Carrey.

Trivia[]

  • Aliens: Genocide is one of the few Aliens comics — along with Aliens: The Alien, Aliens: Music of the Spears, Aliens: Crusade and Aliens (2009 short story) — that illustrates developments on Earth after its infestation by Xenomorphs and thereby explains how the planet was able to recover from such a devastating event.
  • Aliens: Genocide is also noteworthy for being the first Aliens comic series to shift the focus away from existing movie characters — the three previous series had starred Corporal Hicks, Newt and, later, Ripley. In their place, Genocide creates a cast of original characters. This would become the standard template for the Aliens line going forwards.
  • Genocide also established several key concepts of the Aliens comics universe, most notably "Royal Jelly", a substance secreted by Xenomorph Queens that in turn forms the basis of an addictive human drug known as Xeno-Zip. Royal Jelly and its derivatives would form instrumental plot points in numerous later stories. The Grant Corporation would likewise go on to appear or be mentioned in several other comics and novels.
  • The concept of a "civil war" between differing strains of Xenomorph would be revisited in the novel Aliens: DNA War.
  • Arthur Suydam's cover for issue 3 of Aliens: Genocide is one of the most reused pieces of cover art in the Aliens comics franchise, having also been used on Dark Horse Insider, Vol. 2 #1 and Aliens magazine, Vol. 1 #15.
  • For some unexplained reason, Xenomorph blood in the comic is colored red instead of its typical yellow-green color.

Gallery[]

Issue covers[]

Other[]

External links[]

Dark Horse Comics' official pages on


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