Aliens: What If...? #3

History

The series grew out of a concept pitched to — and co-developed with — Paul Reiser and his son Leon Reiser, television producer Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs), documentary producer Brian Volk-Weiss (The Toys That Made Us), and comics writer Hans Rodionoff, with Rodionoff serving as the primary scripter on every issue including #3. Reiser, by his own account in interviews, focused his contributions on character notes and the Burke-Brie father-daughter dynamic rather than plot mechanics, deferring action-writing to Rodionoff and Leon Reiser. Artist Guiu Vilanova — previously known for work on Cosmic Ghost Rider and Eternals — handled interior pencils and inks across the entire run, with Yen Nitro on colors and VC's Clayton Cowles lettering; Phil Noto provided the main cover for each issue, with Mahmud Asrar and Stephen Mooney supplying variant covers for #3 specifically. The book was edited by Sarah Brunstad and published concurrently with Alien: Black, White & Blood within Marvel's broader 20th Century Studios Alien comics line.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released May 15, 2024, by Marvel Comics under the 20th Century Studios license; issue #3 of a five-issue limited series running March–July 2024.
• Written by Hans Rodionoff (script) with a concept credited to Paul Reiser, Leon Reiser, Adam F. Goldberg, Brian Volk-Weiss, and Rodionoff; art by Guiu Vilanova; colors by Yen Nitro; letters by VC's Clayton Cowles; main cover by Phil Noto.
• This issue first introduces the narrative complication that the Xenomorph embryo implanted in a miner named Harold is not a standard drone but an Alien Queen, whose accelerated gestation and emergence kill Harold and threaten to overrun the mining asteroid.
• Burke's ally Cygnus — a damaged combat synth introduced in issue #2 — plays a central role in the failed containment operation, with his malfunctioning calculations directly enabling the Queen's escape.
• The issue deepens the relationship between Brie (Burke's estranged daughter, introduced in issue #2) and Hiro Yutani (revealed in #2 as the son of Weyland-Yutani's owner), who bond over shared resentment of their respective fathers.
• The issue closes on a cliffhanger mirroring Burke's fate in the original film — he and Brie are both cocooned in a Xenomorph hive — inverting the film's karmic ending by trapping his innocent daughter alongside him.
• Represents the first use of the What If...? format applied to a non-Marvel-Universe licensed IP, expanding the format's conceptual scope beyond Marvel's own continuity.
• The complete five-issue series was collected as a trade paperback released October 1, 2024, reusing Phil Noto's cover art from issue #2.

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