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Xenopedia

Aliens: Matrix was a cancelled illustrated novella that was to be published by Dark Horse International in Aliens magazine, starting in Vol. 2 #25 in July 1994. It was to have been written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Chris Halls.

Aliens: Matrix was originally solicited for Vol.2 #23 of Aliens magazine, but a delay with the final two chapters of the publication's preceding original story, Aliens: Crusade, meant that Matrix was pushed back to issue #25.[1] Aliens magazine was then cancelled after issue #22 as Dark Horse International, who published the magazine, went out of business, leaving the illustrated novella unpublished.

Had it been published, Aliens: Matrix would have been preceded by Aliens: Alien, published concurrently with Aliens: Colonial Marines, Aliens: Stronghold and Aliens: Mondo Pest, and would have been followed by Aliens: Earth Angel.

Behind the Scenes[]

Aliens: Matrix is one of a limited number of Aliens comics that have never been released anywhere; others include Aliens: Hive Wars and Aliens: Colonial Marines - Rising Threat.

The only details ever made available for Matrix come from its solicitation in Dark Horse Insider, Vol. 2 #28 (April 1994), which reads: "Aliens: Matrix is a new illustrated novella, written by one of comicdom's top talents, Grant Morrison, with fully painted illustrations by cover artist and Alien3 special-effects designer Chris Halls. A ship of synthetics lands on a snow planet, but cannot imagine the horrors that lie in store for them." The comic's description ("illustrated novella") may indicate it would have been similar in format to Aliens: Tribes — namely a predominantly text-based narrative accompanied by illustrations depicting scenes from the story by Halls.

The unreleased Matrix remains Grant Morrison's only credit in the Aliens/Predator/Aliens vs. predator comic book universe, although he did later get to contribute to the wider franchise in the form of the video game Predator: Concrete Jungle (unrelated to the comic series of the same name), which he wrote. Morrison has also has also achieved much fame in the comics medium as writer of such titles as DC Comics' Batman, Batman: Arkham Asylum and All-Star Superman and DC/Vertigo's Animal Man and The Invisibles, among other works.

Chris Halls, whose real name is Chris Cunningham, has also worked as a conceptual illustrator and comics artist, and has since moved on to become a music video and commercial director and movie concept artist and designer, most notably working on Alien3, the robots in the film version of Judge Dredd (for which comic he designed a number of well known characters) and as a character designer on Alien Resurrection.

References[]

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