Since its debut just a few weeks ago, Alien: Earth has quickly become one of the most popular shows of the summer season — an honor it fully deserves. Not only is it the first Alien television series, but it also breaks new ground by being the first installment of the original franchise set on Earth, rather than in deep space. Most intriguingly, it’s the first story to put a face on the corporate powers and interests driving the repeated — and costly — efforts to find and exploit the deadly alien species, despite the catastrophic risks they pose to humanity. However, this is not the franchise’s first exploration of the corporate greed and exploitation that have always lurked beneath the surface of the Aliens universe.
Indeed, fans of the Alien comic book franchise have long been immersed in rich backstory and lore that proves the series is far more than just a sci-fi horror tale. In fact, the foundation of Alien: Earth — so to speak — owes more to the comics than to the films.
Dark Horse’s Take on Greed and Xenomorphs
Around a decade after Ridley Scott’s original Alien premiered, and less than two years after James Cameron’s sequel Aliens, Dark Horse Comics debuted its Aliens comic book series by Mark Verheiden and Mark A. Nelson. This was the first in a long line of Alien-themed comics published by Dark Horse and, more recently, by Marvel Comics. Instead of strictly mirroring the films, Dark Horse largely treated its Alien storytelling as an expanded universe, building upon and enriching the core movie mythology. Marvel, on the other hand, has generally used its comics to stay within the established universe of the films, which primarily takes place in deep-space colonies, derelict ships, and alien worlds.
Some view Dark Horse’s treatment of the Alien narrative as less than pure, as it takes certain liberties with the established cinematic story. However, there is little argument with their approach in one specific area: the exploration of elements not deeply covered in the films. This includes stories delving into corporate conspiracies, background politics, and variant species beyond the main Xenomorphs.
The beauty of these tales is that they are often self-contained or part of their own internal comic continuity, making them plausible extensions that could fit within the broader movie canon. Interestingly, since Marvel gained control of the franchise, it has also begun to include more stories that explore the corporate world and culture behind the hunt for the Xenomorphs — the very elements that Alien: Earth seems to be placing front and center.
Dark Horse’s Expanded Universe of Notorious Corporate Interests
To fully grasp the corporate greed backstory that is unfolding in Alien: Earth, it’s best to start at the beginning with Mark Verheiden and Mark A. Nelson’s 1988 initial Aliens series. Although originally written as a sequel to Cameron’s Aliens movie, the later release of David Fincher’s Alien³ in 1992 meant its characters were later retconned. Nevertheless, the fundamental idea that corporate greed and the influential sway of corporations over government and the military served as a catalyst for the Alien tragedy on humanity holds true.
Corporate greed isn’t the only element the series exposes. The narrative reveals a significant degree of scientific overreach, personal greed, and a lack of professional ethics among crew members, medical professionals, and government officials, which also helped pave the way for humans to believe they could control the Xenomorphs.
These complex ethical issues are further explored in Verheiden and Sam Keith’s Aliens: Earth War. In that series, while the primary plot focuses on the plan to eradicate the Xenomorph infestation of Earth, the underlying narrative suggests that the true villains are not just the alien creatures, but also include the human actors who would risk humanity’s survival for a potential new weapon or exploitable resource. In essence, without corporate greed and systemic exploitation, the Xenomorphs would never have been brought to Earth in the first place.
The Long History of Profit Over Lives in the Alien Universe
But it’s Aliens: Hive by Jerry Prosser and Kelley Jones that zeroes in on corporate greed and personal ambition as the driving forces of the plot — forces that, time and again, give the Xenomorphs a fresh opportunity to slaughter and ravage humanity. In this case, two private entrepreneurs attempt to steal the Xenomorph’s “royal jelly,” an outrageously valuable substance. Naturally, this draws the attention of major corporations, all willing to go to any lengths to get their hands on it. And really, considering the long, disastrous history of human-Xenomorph contact, what could be more “half-baked” than the idea of building a cybernetic one?
In Brian Wood’s Aliens: Defiance, the story of corporate greed — particularly from the perspective of one company, Weyland-Yutani — is explored through the eyes of two employees: a space marine working for the corporation and one of its synthetic officers. Both characters find themselves hunted by Xenomorphs as well as by Weyland-Yutani itself. In the sequel series, Wood’s Aliens: Resistance, the examination of Weyland-Yutani’s corporate practices continues. Amanda Ripley, daughter of the original Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley, seeks to expose the company for the blood of innocents it has spilled in its relentless pursuit of exploiting alien species such as the Xenomorphs.
These examples demonstrate how Dark Horse’s development of the Alien narrative, while delivering plenty of sci-fi spectacle and thrilling battles, consistently suggests that the real horror lies not in the Xenomorphs or other alien species, but in human frailty — greed, ambition, and moral compromise that override clear warnings of danger. Now that Aliens storytelling is in Marvel’s hands, there appears to be a growing willingness to emphasize these themes. For instance, Philip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca’s Alien (2021) offers a view from inside Weyland-Yutani, revealing just how relentlessly the company —and many of its members — place corporate interests above all else. Thanks to the foundation laid by Dark Horse, Alien: Earth now builds on this tradition, showing the devastating consequences of unchecked scientific ambition, corporate exploitation, and the human cost of greed.