Alien vs Predator Duel 30th Anniversary Retrospecive (Fanbase Feature Crossover)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Game Over, Man Game Over, Hello, and welcome to Geek
History Lesson. I'm Ashley Victoria Robinson and you may have
noticed it's just me this week, but don't worry. I
got a ton of fun guests joining us to cover
Professor Jason EDMNT continued absence working on You Hop with
Doctective John Watson himself. This week, we are diving into

(00:36):
another fan Base feature. You heard our Godzilla nineteen eighty
five retrospective a couple of weeks ago, and I was
so grateful to be invited back by president of fan
Base Press and writer of Something Animal and Identity Thief
Bryant Dylan to discuss a comic book, this time on
Geek History Lesson. Can you believe that is right? We
are going back to our comic book roots here friends,

(00:58):
as we take a look at the third partieth anniversary
of Aliens Versus Predator Colon duel. So, if you loved
Alien Earth and if you love Predator Badlands, is this
the episode for you? Let me tell you so. Not
only do I join Bryant Dylan in chatting about this
really interesting duology of comic books, we are also joined

(01:19):
by podcaster and writer Philip Kelly. The three of us
make the ultimate podcasting machine that can evolve to take
on any podcast pots. It was really, really fun to
get to explore nineteen eighties comic book style, the expansion
of the Alien and the Predator franchises for the first time,

(01:40):
and to get to sit down with such incredible talent
as these guys. So, without further ado, take it away
for this Fan Base feature on Aliens Versus Predator Duel
thirtieth anniversary retrospective. I'm Josh Shrehio of Death Saves, and
you are entering the fan Base.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Hello, and welcome to a new episode of the Fan
Based Weekly Podcast. This is a special edition of our
show as we are conducting a panel discussion on the
thirtieth anniversary of the dark Horse comic mini series Aliens
Versus Predator Duel. Now, before I introduce my panelist, I
do you want to note that all episodes of the
Fan Based Weekly Podcast this month are sponsored by the

(02:23):
digital comicsapp Comics dot one. We're honored to have Comics
as a sponsor and look forward to sharing details about
that app with you later in the show. For anyone
that doesn't know, I'm Brian Dylan. I'm president of fan
Base Press. I'm the co host of the fan Base
Weekly podcast. I've also written several things, including the graphic
novels Something Animal and Identy Thief, and I'll be your.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Moderator for this podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm joined by two special guests today, so let me
go ahead and introduce them.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
First.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Up, we have Ashley V.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Robinson. She's a three time Ringo nominated comic book writer
whose credits include Jupiter Jet and Aurora and the Eagle.
Ashley is also the co host of the Geek History
Lesson podcast, and you've you've heard her voice here before
on the fan Base Weekly.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Ashley, welcome back again.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Thank you so much. I am the self proclaimed Godzilla
person here on the Base. Yes, supplementals, So it's going
to be really, really fun to talk about a different, big,
scary monster today.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I know. Are you genuinely excited different monsters being smashed
together this time?

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Definitely.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
We're also joined by another returning guest, Philip Kelly. He's
a fan Base fan Base Press contributor, a member of
the podcast group Popsicle, as well as a professional performer, writer, filmmaker,
and comedian.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Phil you on the other.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
End, you almost seem to be on all my Alien
and Predator podcasts.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, it's it's not like I don't put myself down
for other.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
No, no, you you do discuss it. I think you've
just discussed.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
You've just gotten me. You've just like nailed me down
as a predator go to.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh, yes, know what what You've been rejected here now.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Everything else? And like I emailed Brian, didn't say anything
other than Predator this year anything.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
It's fine, it's stuck in our DNA. Phil, as we've
noted before. I know and I became friends because we
lived close to each other, did not know each other,
but got in an argument online about Prometheus and then
met at the bus stop. One.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yes, I thought I fought someone online and then we
became friends. It's not like I fought someone online and
then there was a police report that.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It worked out.

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Wait did we meet at a bus stop?

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
I was waiting for the bus because at the time
I was I was working as a server in Burbank
and I was waiting at the bus and you walked by,
and you went Bryant, and I said, Phil, really, we
were just on Facebook before that.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's hilarious.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
So good times, good times. I'm glad to have you
back for this one.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Well, let's dive in.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
I'm going to give a spoiler warning for anyone that
hasn't read the comic. We are going to talk about
what happened and who dies, So if you're worried about that,
then read the comic first. It's only two issues.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
And we're going to see if we can remember anyone's
names exactly. In the tradition of every Buzzli.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Body list. Yes, well for anyone, I'm continuing on with us.
As I mentioned, it's a two issue limited comic book series.
It was first published by dark Horse Comics in nineteen
ninety five. It's written by Randy Randy Stradley, penciled by
Javier Salterrez, ranked by Jimmy Meatti, colored by Jim Sinclair,

(05:43):
lettered by Steve Ditro, and edited by Chris Warner.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
With cover art by Warner as well.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Some people know that Warner is one of the artists
from the original Alien Versus Predator comic. He stepped in
for Phil Norwood I think in some of the later issues,
but this series is one of the few Aliens and
Predator or Alien Versus Predator comics that serves as a
direct sequel to an earlier story. Specifically, it follows up

(06:10):
on the events on the planet Ryushi after the destruction
of the colony Prosperity Wells that is seen in the
original Alien Verse Predator comics series. Now, this comic follows
a platoon of colonial Marines. Has Ashley noted that we'll
see if we can remember most of their they received Lady.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
There's that other guy Sargeants corporal.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
But they receive a distress call from from this planet Ryushi,
and after examining the call it appears to be extraterrestrial nature,
the squad forms a rescue plan. They land on this planet.
The first step is finding Machiko Naguchi, who is the
only listed resident of the planet and the survivor of
the events from the original comic. But when they get

(06:52):
to replace, however, it's ransacked and she is missing, and
so continuing their investigation, they come upon a crash predatorship.
They enter find an unconscious predator. They extract this surviving
predator and are shocked when a chessburster erupts from the
alien hunter and from there we essentially have a story
where the Marines are caught in a crossfire as we

(07:13):
have a one armed predator who is known as light
Stepper leading a team of hunters to destroy this pred
alien born of their companions, and ultimately only Light Stepper
and Captain Glass, the one name that we will remember
from the Marines left, are left alive to face this
pred alien. They cooperate to defeat the creature, collapse from exhaustion,

(07:36):
and then we leave them waiting to see which res
rescue squad will show up first. So in the publishing line,
this is after the original series, but it's also concurrent
with Alien Verse Predator Deadliest of the Species, Alien Verse
Predator Booty, and is followed by Alien.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Verse Predator War.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
It just occurs to me that Alien Verse preador Booty
has such a different uh say.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
It again, as like an adult parody that would be
very easily located on the internet.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Absolutely and appropriate title. Maybe in nineteen ninety five, not
so much.

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Oh that that pretty's got dunk clear of that predator drunk.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Inside that I can't quite make it scared.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, there wasn't much in critical reception, but I did
find that the popular fan site Alien Verse Preader Galaxy
did say the following about Dual Quote. Though a simple
set of comics, it's all It is as all we
expected from a two shot series, and that's what makes
it so good. It doesn't try to outdo itself. This
comic is well worth getting your hands on, comic lever

(08:52):
or not. It depicts what all Alien Verse Predator fans
want to see and would have been a great storyline
for the Alien Verse Predator movie. End quote. I don't
know if I agree with that, but we'll get into that.
The last thing I wanted to note for all those
those super hardcore Alien Verse prayer fans like me, we
got to note that the dog James Roth's the Dalmatian

(09:13):
dog Creep, who is who is seen in the original
series and who was eventually left with Machico prior to
Prior to her departure when she joins their Predator clan,
she's left on Ry. The dog is left on Ryu.
She he's not present when they show up. We don't
know what happened to him. I know everyone's worried about

(09:35):
the dog speculations.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
It's kind of what happens to Jonesy, you know, like
Jose the first movie Alien and then gets like a
little not in Aliens and then is sort of never
seen from again. And it's that old movie thing of
like that cat's that cat's dead, huh.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, and probably died like years ago while you're in
while Ripley's in cry asleep.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
It is interesting.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
There's a weird little bit in the Alien three novelization
where like Ripley thinks about Jonesy and makes a comment
that he like passed away, like safe back at Earth
or something. And I always thought, like, how does she know?
Did she get like a message somewhere?

Speaker 1 (10:21):
This is the problem of being the types of hands
that we are. There's the question of but holmpst, did
Jonesy get back? Did we put him in a you know,
kal El esque Kryptonian crystal ship and be like, don't worry,
You'll get to Earth someday, everything will be fine. These
are questions that nobody wants us to be asking. Frankly,

(10:44):
none of the creators ever gave it this much thought.
It's honestly kind at all that someone was like, oh,
for you nerds, yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Fine, Yeah, exactly, especially because you've got to imagine in
the corporate dystopia that is the Alien universe. I don't
think that there's like some sort of cat you cop.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yarn where everybody goes and has a lovely time, right right?

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh, all right, well, let's let's dive into this comic.
We heard what Alien Verse Prayer Galaxy had to say
about it, but what are everyone's overall reactions?

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Do you think it holds up?

Speaker 2 (11:18):
You know, three decades after a release, and uh, feel
free to throw in if you have any kind of
personal connection to the Alien Verse Predator comics, Ashley, go
ahead and start us off.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah. So I had never seen Alien Versus Predator the film,
and I had never read the comics, so this was
a really fun excuse to dive into both. So I
watched the movie knowing full well that it comes out
much later than this comic book series did, and sadly,
I will say, I do agree that I would rather

(11:49):
just see a straight up adaptation of these two issues
in the course of maybe a hot ninety minutes. So
getting into this, I was like, don't know what this
is going to be about, love Jimmy Palm, Let's see
what happens. And my first thought was this is a
totally great fun, kind of cool rob Leifeld esque early

(12:11):
Image comics, esthetic adventure story and like I said, I
don't remember anybody's name.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah, but I.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Read two issues and I was like, I would have
read six of this. This is fun, and I'm excited
to kind of drill down into some of the action
sequences because I do think some of the fight scenes
are one well choreographed and two kind of beautiful in
the coloring. The coloring is very late eighties, early nineties,
and I love me some classic Wolfman Perez the New

(12:38):
Teen Titans that comes to an end around this era,
and I was like, oh, this gives me all the
feel goods that I have on the inside. So I
was actually shocked at how much I hated the movie,
despite Colin Salmon being there, and then really really got
into this comic.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, it's unfortunate. I mean, we can get more into it.
But the movie, I feel like, is a very it's
down Yeah, it's a very downgraded version of you know,
the Alien and Predator franchises. It's fine for what it is,
but it doesn't I don't know, it doesn't hold up
the care.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
That much more potential there, right, And as we see
in this comic, which again is not super complicated, but
they do even though I wouldn't. I wouldn't say it's
one of the smartest comics I've ever read, but they
do more sophisticated storytelling than a VP does. Weirdly enough, Actually, oh, go.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Ahead, Cooe.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
I was gonna say, it's not difficult to do more
sophisticated storytelling than the movie.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Right right right therefore see not to get on in
a tangent, but one thing I always think when I
watched that movie too, is it starts out as like
dumb Prometheus.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
It's like there's a.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Wailing guy and he's like, I'm dying. I need to
do something to extend my life. And where we found
this alien signal? We're going to go look at it, and.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I'm just weird because we've seen not we're gonna talk
to much about the movie, and I apologize for being
a person who brought us.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
That's okay.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
It's very strange because we've seen real beautiful, frightening, well
made versions of both Xenomorph and the Predator, and these
look like a really cool costplay costume that you would
see like at La Comic con or or San Diego,
and you're like, but I'm I've genuinely seen just a
cooler version, and why is everything so bright? Why is

(14:19):
it so bright?

Speaker 2 (14:21):
I agree?

Speaker 4 (14:22):
I agree you want if you want darkly filmed check
out check out the second film where you can't see
almost anything happening.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh god, it's not not on my radar to enjoy
with my toxicative jacks.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
That one enjoys a strong word, very strong, that it's
so hard bad, that it's kind of good to watch
in some ways if you can separate yourself, well.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
I look forward to the future. Fan base press.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yes, well, one thing before we hear your opinion film.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
The one thing that I do really agree with with
you on that, Ashley, is that for me, as a
big alien and prayer fan, I feel like these early comics,
especially ones that had people like Chris Warner Randy Stradley attached,
there was an understanding of sort of the body movement
or language or look of the aliens and predators, and

(15:20):
I feel like some of that gets lost in that
AVP movie. It feels very much like it becomes like
we're running at each other and like hitting each other,
and I'm just like I don't think these creatures would
fight like that they especially when we see these beautiful
depictions of them fighting, you know, insequential art well.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
And I think the comics does manage to capture the
dancerly quality that is so inherent in what we think
of as being a xenomorph at the height of its power.
And maybe maybe that's because we don't make comics like
we used to.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I don't know, Phil, what are your thoughts on on
Alien Versus predatoral? Was this your first time taking it on? No?

Speaker 4 (15:59):
I think I it back in the nineties when it
first came out, because I that's one of my dad
owned a comic book store, so excellent, everyy thing. But it,
I mean, looking back at it reading it now, it
does feel like a little bit like a fan service
cash grab. You know, here's two quick issues. Let's give
them the pred Alien, some Colonial Marines. It's fun. I

(16:23):
couldn't tell you who won. Characters for the next is
were you know, discussing You can't remember the names because
they really don't have any sort of real characteristics other
than being little g I Joe men, you know, kind
of lined up to get taken down, which is fun
in and of itself. You know, you need you need
to have fodder. But yeah, yeah, I mean it's a

(16:47):
it's a fun little romp, but it starts. The action
doesn't stop once it starts, and then you know, then
you got that nice little couple panel ending, which I like,
I do like the end of this one quite a bit.
But yeah, it doesn't give you a moment to think
until the end, and then you've got that nice little moment.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah. I think that's in a stude observation. Like the
comic does struck like we go, We basically land on
the planet and give you, I don't know, five or
six pages of exposition and then it's like now fight fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight,
and then kind of two pages of reflection at the
end of fifty or so much as the story.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
It's a good point, and I think that's why it
does work, is it is it is only two issues.
It's super strong throughout the only the real I guess,
the real thing when I look back at it thirty
years later is I'm like, this was a huge deal
at the time because this was the first time we
had seen a predator born of or an alien born

(17:48):
of a predator. And it was a continuation obviously the
original series to some degree, you were kind of interested
what happened, you know, on this planet, But I don't
know that it delivered like it delivers a lot of
action and fun and like the things that you want
out of that, like typical alien predator I guess, experience.

(18:08):
But there's also now with a critical I go, oh,
you know, the alien, like the pread alien doesn't do
much like he shows up. Yeah, he shows some people
and then he dies. Yeah, so he's more.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
He's a little more like flash than than than a substance.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
But it gives very.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Much what more could you possibly want from the corporate
overlords who sectioned this, you know what I mean? And
you're like, yeah, but I'd like to remember someone's name,
one person, right right right.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
It feels like there's with another issue or something. It
feels like maybe we could have could have flushed it out,
flushed it out a little bit, but maybe that's not
its purpose because I almost at the same time while
I'm talking about that, in some ways it feels like
a side story because I feel like there's an alien
versus predator storyline following that character of Machico, who goes

(18:59):
off to you know, live with the Predators, and this
is almost like a side note like, oh, yeah, here's
what some people showed up to look at her house.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
What does her house look like a year later? It's
like one of those little YouTube videos. Right, let's go
through Machico's.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
House, right, right, And it has some of those like
soft soft reboot notes where you're like, I I got
like sort of that feeling of like, oh, when they
take you whatever through the Millennium Falcon after such time,
or through like the spaces that you know for like
you know, Jurassic Park, you have that feeling of like, oh,
here's here's the house that we've seen that she lived in,
or here's like the planet we remember from the original series.

(19:40):
So it kind of plays on that almost the nostalgia
for the original series to your degree, and then just
gives you a fun little I don't know want to
say meaningless because I don't think it's meaningless, but but
sort of I don't know, bite sized if you will story.
You know, right, well, what are some standout moments in

(20:01):
the story, given that you know it is it is
pretty short, but as we've noted, it's it's pretty strong throughout.
What do you think is like the standout moment of
the comic for you?

Speaker 4 (20:13):
Honestly, I like I said, I love the last few panels,
but they're like, well, I guess we're kind of stuck
here and we're going to see who arrives first. It's
kind of that waiting game. And I really did like
the last couple of panels of the book quite a bit.
I think that's my favorite moment.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
The Dark Horse books were really good in the sense
that they would they stuck with that feeling or atmosphere
of the alien franch I guess it's a preatior franchise too,
where it was like it almost had like a European
sci fi comic feel to it, where it's like, hey,
sometimes mostly ship is not good, you know, it ends,
maybe everyone's dead, Maybe maybe I'll get screwed in a

(20:53):
different way, you know, right right, And this definitely has
that that feel. So I agree it's a really weak
but interesting ending.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
You know, Yeah, that's interesting because the thing that stands
out to me is when they're first entering the cave,
it's the real haunted house like og to the roots
horror vibe, and we can tell that something is wrong.
We've got some of the skeletal remains of for a
few panels at least, you the audience are left to

(21:24):
be like, which monster is this? Because I know there's
two that are coming, and there's some really cool, creepy
viby art. But again it does the coloring really touched
my soul and clearly made an impact on me because
it's that really bright eighties coloring. It's all like highlighter
yellow and orange. Even though if this was a film,
I think it would be like what you guys are

(21:45):
kind of talking about with the second AVP movie, where
it's really really dark, and you'd be like you would
you would barely see the outline of you'd be like,
I don't know whose eye sockets those are? Do they
have eye sockets? So up until the point where they
initially come to fight both the alien and the predator
within a couple frames of each other, because it's only
two issues, I really like that whole sequence because I

(22:05):
think it's one of the only moments that we have
to breathe where we're not just being exposition dumped on,
because everything leading up to this point in the story
is just like, here's a bunch of words that you
might recognize from the franchise before, and then from the
point that that kicks off. As we've said before, it's
just fight, fight, fight fight. I hope you like bullets.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Yeah, I do. Like the moment where they mistake the
what do they call it, the briar Wolf or something?

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, or feel like, in my opinion, a villain of
the Court of Thorns and Roses series. Yeah, yeah, it
sounds like a sexy werewolf who would be the story
and then is thrust to the hilton side of someone
for the back half, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (22:54):
You know, it's also interesting and maybe this is more
obvious than I'm making it, but I had the thought
this time of like, what is going on with this predatorship?

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Is this predatorship?

Speaker 2 (23:08):
I mean we assume it crashed, I you know, I guess,
and it was responsible for the aliens, But what do
you I mean, I guess. What makes me really confused
or go, like, what is exactly happening is there's a
predator skeleton that is found, So a predator died in
there and was eaten supposedly what they assumed by the Briarwolf.

(23:28):
There's another predator in there that has an alien inside it.
There is a hibernating I guess queen alien that is
is chained into the ships which the predators carry with them.
And then we have aliens outside underneath the sand, and
we have predators watching the ship. One assumes to not

(23:50):
let the pred alien escape. But what were was there
another predator in there that was also infected or I
guess I'm trying to figure out what question.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, they don't want you to know, because nobody
rot about it rightly. I like that you brought up
that they were hiding under the sand, because I did
think that that was a very cool, smart moment, and
it did make me wonder because every every time it's
a desert planet, right, you have to go, is this
tattooine or is this aracus? But also for the nineteen
eighties and like, is this a you know, a reaction

(24:23):
to some of the socio political conflicts upon which the
United States was engaged in at the time. I'm always
interested in why we choose to make it an alien planet,
because I just think it's one of the least interesting
choices that you could make. But I also wonder if
I hold that opinion thirty years later, through the long
lens of reflection and larger pop culture where we've had
twenty thousand more Star Wars movies and a Dune franchise

(24:45):
and all that. But that moment where they come up
out of the sand is really cool.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
It's a great visual well, and I also like the
as you're saying, the Haunted House element of like them
putting together the elements. They're like, why didn't the brier
wolf weave? What's going like? It's like sort of trapped
in here.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Eating on the corpses I guess.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Which Again you go like, all right, what is going on? Like,
I mean, maybe I'm picking the story to history a
part too much, but I'm like, that's cool in the
sense that the xenomorphs are hiding and like keeping it
in there, But like, why do why wouldn't the xenomorph
not be like, you know what, I'm gonna get out
of the sand, going there and get that because.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Mister red Herring sense.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah, yeah, interesting.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Well, let's let's move on to the characters of this.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
Uh well, actually, before we touch on that, I would
love to you noted the artwork, the coloring Ashley. Let's
let's focus on that. We've got pencils by Javar Saltarras,
and then we've got covers by Chris Warner.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
And then combers are sick.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Chris Warner is just one of my favorite favorite comic artists.
For Alien and predit he did. He just gets it
in a way classic way, and yeah, the covers are
just unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
I would actually argue.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Nothing against Saltierre's but I think that the pred Alien
looks so well designed on the cover and maybe not
as well designed within the actual art or interior art.
But I'm trying to find the color colored by Jim Sinclair.
So we've got colors by Jim Sinclair. And then, as

(26:26):
you noted, Ashley, Jimmy Palmiatti did inks for these What
do we think about the artwork, what works, what is successful,
what is unsuccessful? And feel free to, you know, touch
on both interior and cover art.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Ashley start us off.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Man, I'm such a like I said, I'm such a
sucker for this period. I am a nineties comics apologist.
I'm an eighties comics lover. So like I was, like,
this makes my brain really happy. It does have a
lot of the flaws of the same era of art.
All the women look real mask which is fine. There
are some masculine women in this world, but there are

(27:05):
like scenes where they're running and you know, as a
as a woman, I am always looking for where the
women in the universe are. And I was like, when
we're in a wider shot, I'm like, I don't know
where she is right now. I don't know what's happening
they are. They are difficult to tell a part when
you're not quite close to somebody's face. Everybody's got too

(27:27):
many teeth. If you are into anatomy, what anatomy? I
would say those are some of the shortcomings. But I
do think and ultimately this is a long form fight scene.
I do think the fight scenes are super dynamic, and
I think the environments are interesting enough as a backdrop

(27:47):
that wants everything the inks and the collars are put
on top of it, You're like, oh cool, this is fun,
this is interesting. Yeah, just like I'm like, man, everyone
looks like a Rovel Eifeld character. I would say, may
be done a little bit better, or maybe rob at
the height of his powers. Because I'm also a bit
of a lifeled apologist. I'm like, it's not all it's

(28:08):
not all laughable. There's some cool stuff in there.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
He clearly he was successful for a reason.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yes, yeah, exactly that. And I'm a huge Palmiatti fan
in all of his expressions and in every form that
he takes. And I always think it's interesting when people
kind of come from a little appreciated position like inking,
because I think a good inchor, like a good letter
and a good editor are worth their weight in gold.
And I think Jimmy was a really good inchor. So

(28:36):
I'm in here like looking for the Jimmy Palmiotti style,
but a good inchor doesn't do that. They are enhancing
the art that they're presented with. And it's just interesting
that he's kind of the biggest name that comes out
of this. But you know, in the in the wider
scope of the comic book fandom, you're like, oh wow,
Jimmy Palmiotti sick. And I do think I think the

(28:59):
Xenomorphs particular, and I just think it speaks to the
strength of the design and H. R. Giger hated women,
but was a hell of a designer. Uh. They're just beautiful,
and there there are some panels where they are particularly beautiful,
especially with the I'm a sucker for black with blue highlights.
I love Robbins hair. Uh. There are some moments where
they're really really striking. But I just don't think I'm
gonna be able to say anything as eloquent as Briant

(29:20):
did about how amazing the covers are, So I'll leave it.
I'll leave my thoughts at the interior art.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
No worries. I think you said it very eloquently. But
so what what uh? What are your thoughts on on
the artwork?

Speaker 4 (29:34):
I mean, what what more can I say? I you know,
you got the the the chisel like jaw on the
same choosel jaw, and a lot of the like. I
had a hard time telling the characters from each other
when even when we were close.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
When Natal was saying, like trying to find characters, I
was like, yeah, even the men, It's just.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
Like, yeah, you're all kind of the same, like the
chisel jaw, the they all they always have their mouth open,
you know, And he's one of those.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
I guess there's movies like this too, where you start
going like, well, that's the soldier with the bandana, and
that's the soldier right right.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
And there was nothing like that about.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
It was a bit like that. That one is Toby Keble,
and then that one to you, Gene Cordero, and then
everybody else. That guy's got a hat, that guy's got
the goggles. There's always someone of the glasses.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, they always give them some signifier right here.
I didn't get really much of anything. I and there's
a there's an image specifically, I remember, you know, we're
kind of back a little bit away from the troops,
kind of up up above a little bit looking down
on them, and they're all sort of standing stiff straight,
you know, and they're all about the same height, they're
all the same standing exactly the same way. And I

(30:42):
was literally minded of the little green Gi Joe toys,
you know, the little plastic figures. They're just sort of
like caught and caught in a position, and they were
even wearing green. I'm like, oh, these are just g
I Joe men running. I feel like a kid running
g I Joe men around on the floor fighting my
own little alien battle at home, you know what I mean.
That's that's the kind of vibe it gives off that

(31:04):
it doesn't matter who these characters aren't necessarily that you're
just playing in a sandbox essentially.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
You know, it's so funny that you say that, because
it takes me back to like a sense memory because
these you know, in the nineties, I was literally like
playing Alien Versus Pressure while getting these comics. You know,
I would be out in my backyard, you know, with
a bat or something and you know, playing with or
we had action figures, and this really was I just

(31:31):
have this feeling of what you said being so true
because it really was like this feels like a kids
like fantasy of like what a Verse Predator adventure would be,
you know. And so some of those I totally agree
with all of the criticisms, but there's also this neat
feeling of like this is this is almost like just

(31:53):
a fun fans story in many ways, you know, it's
all sugar to some degree.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, it feels like they put this together really fast.
They're like, okay, we've got a two month opening here,
we need something. Anybody, Well how about this, all right,
quick do it? And you know they spent you know,
like a two weeks to put it onto paper and
you know, draw and it just feels like really quickly
put together.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
But it's interesting because I don't feel like any of
us have an issue with that, Like I feel like
we all got to enjoyment out of it while still
which I think is as a fan, where you really
want to land where you're like, yeah, I can love
it because it is all of these recognizable things that
I enjoy, but I can also see where its shortcumings
are because there are sure topics and.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
It lands in this interesting point in licensed comics because
a dark Horse is clearly doing really interesting things with
the Alien versus Predator license. For anyone that doesn't know,
dark Horse literally was the one that put the franchises together.
They had both licenses. They were looking for something to
cross over with Predator, and someone suggested, well, we got
Alien and we can talk to twentieth century Fox. You

(32:59):
don't have to deal with any other companies. And that
was the start of it. And so they they were doing,
you know, these really sort of innovative in the sense,
innovative in the sense that they weren't just like slapping
a franchise on a cover and putting out like a
story with nothing inside, you know.

Speaker 6 (33:18):
Chris Claremont wrote the first series, which is three rate
one of them. He didn't read the first one.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Well. He wrote the second one, one called Deadly at
the speech. He wrote the longest one. It was twelve issues.
It's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
But can I ask you as as certainly the deepest
alien fan that I know? Yeh, do we do we
like the Claremonts He should I read it?

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I would say it's worth reading. But it's insane.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
It's super it's super like that appeals to.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Me, super cosmic and I we did a podcast on
it last year that you know, listeners go check it out.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
I was like, well, I'll be downloading that right now.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
It's a little bit hard to break down. But it
has so many things with like past lives and resurrections
and uh really takes the alien and predators into like
weird cosmic places that feel feel like kind of like
his cosmic X Men.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
You know, it might I might misremember it as the
first one because it's the first one I read.

Speaker 6 (34:23):
Okay, so to me it's the first one. It was
a big It was a big deal.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
I remember it was a big deal. They we were
talking about it on the podcast. They promoted this by
just having they just had a poster with like the
Predator clause, you know, going against an alien hand and
it was just the hands and it said snip, you know,
because it was.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Just a sound.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
You can find that with a really quick Google search
and it looks cool.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
It was just super cool and a really great way
to you know, sell a comic at that time, especially
because Clermont was coming off of X Men Believe, so
he was at the top of his game, you know,
or a top of his popularity. Anyways, I was just
saying that, I think it's really interesting that this sits
at this turning point almost because I feel like when

(35:15):
we get into two thousand and eight and things like
the Buffy licenses and what happened with license comics. Then
license comics were certainly done in a different way. They
were cannon, they had the showrunners involved. This was this
is one where it was almost like most licensed comics,
Like I said, it was just like put the you know,

(35:36):
Jaws on the cover. It was a barely the Jaws
story and it was just what you saw on screen
and that was it, you know.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
And Star Trek was very that for all and then
so it was Star Wars, especially when they were lying
fallow in terms of like on screen adaptations, it was like, oh,
who cares, do whatever you want. We're never going to
see these guys again.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Right, and people will buy it just because it says
Star Wars or Star Trek on there. You know, we
don't have to do a lot of hard So it
is interesting that this is sitting in between. When it
comes to characters, we've kind of we've kind of touched
on that that there are not many characters that that
stand out. Do you feel like I guess what I

(36:17):
would ask is do you feel like we basically have
I would assume where Captain Glasses are our main character.
We I don't even know if most people know his name,
but they know him as the Captain.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
The leader whatever that We're like, we just got this.
Same goes for the Predator.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
We know that there's a preder with one arm who's
fought like pursuing them as he was leading to the pretors,
but no one. I've seen him referred to as light
Stepper online multiple times, but I don't know where people
picked that name up. I'm assuming there's a script somewhere
because he doesn't get a name in the comic. In
some ways, I almost wonder do you feel like these characters.

(36:57):
I mean, we've expressed there was a desire to have
more fleshed out, But is there something to a story
like this leaving these characters as almost archetypes in a sense?
I mean, I guess there's part of me that wonders
if fleshing this out further almost plays with the structure
too much. Or do you think that that is just

(37:20):
do you think that's just inherently the flaw of like
a two issue you know, run that there's not enough
time really to dive into these characters, Phil What.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Would you say? I?

Speaker 4 (37:31):
Yeah, I mean that's I think that's just kind of
the constraints of a two issue like series that covers
so much ground. I mean, you introduced like a whole
new platoon, you you know, the situation, and then it's yeah,
I mean there's there's way too much to cover for
two issues to really flesh this out. They don't even
completely feel like archetypes to me, you know, they don't

(37:56):
give much like what sort of captain is this captain?
Even like I don't even know is he a caring captain?
Is he a rough around the edge his captain?

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Like?

Speaker 4 (38:04):
Is he like, what is the archetype they're playing with?

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Oh, just captain okay, you know, like the generic hero.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, I mean he's he's sort of he's sort of
noble in some ways. He don't we don't see him
doing anything this disgraceful.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
You don't really see him do anything heroic.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Anyone has cannon fodder. But yeah, to the Phillip's White,
he doesn't exactly like throw himself on the sword for
anyone either.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
No, like he just okay, run that's his that's his
one command that he gives a lot. Get out of here,
run well and the ground.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
And he seems like care when is when his soldiers die?
I guess, so he seems to care. But who it
is it is sort of the predator is in sort
of a similar fashion. I think we're used to not
understanding the predator, but there's also this sense of like
this predator is kind of like saving humans sometimes killing
humans the other time. Yeah, like we don't really understand

(38:55):
like what is his his mission and his purpose as well,
like or how it works. You know.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
So I think you could also be rude and you
could ask the question as a counterpoint of well, how
many characters in either universe. Can you name who aren't Ripley? Sure,
and I know there's a there's a handful. I would
also I'm definitely add Andy as one of the most
recent additions because I love her with all of my
heart and soul. I will always remember sitting watching aliena

(39:23):
Romus being like, oh no, I love him. So I
wonder if that is even though it's the comic series
in particular, is hamstrung by how short, by the less
than one hundred pages of storytelling that we have. But
I wonder if that is just inherent in both franchises
to begin with. So I wonder if that's maybe like
a perk not a bug. Maybe that's not that's not

(39:47):
quite right, But I wonder if that's an inevitability.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
I think, I think that you hit on something because
I don't know that I I will say, for my
my enjoyment of the franchisees uh, the stories that they have,
the films they have where the characters are characters that
have impact on me that I can remember. Are those
tend to be the films or stories that I that

(40:10):
I like more than the ones like a VP where
I'm like.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Tell me, anyone's yeh, scientists.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Who's guy who likes guy who didn't want to die
because his kids.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
The main the main girl who was climbing the ice,
the guy with the accident, the woman.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Who says, I remember there's a woman who says I
carry a gun because I carry condoms too, or yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
And then and then Colin, Colin Salmon and the guy
who played Spun in Trainspotting.

Speaker 7 (40:39):
A good job by the way, you know, no shame
on any of the actors, but they are they're not
They're not a memorable crew of the way like the
Stromo or the Marines or or or some of these
those characters are.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, man, the Marines, there's one of the coolest parts
of the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
But I guess what I was i to say is
I do agree with you Ashley in the sense that
I feel like I'm coming more and more to feel
like this is not a main story. This is like
almost like a one shot that's extended. And they were
telling as I was saying, I think they were tailing
because Randy Stradley wrote the original Alien Verse pretor comic.

(41:19):
He continues on, I believe, and this just feels like
a little detour this is like a little fun thing
of like, hey, here's some marines that showed up on
Ryushi and he got fucking chewed up.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know, like it feels like a video game cutscene.
And I mean that complimentary, not derogatory. Like it's like
it's like a yeah, some bonus material for honestly, like
folks like us who are like, give me more, give
me more, give me more.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yeah. Yeah, It's like it's like a little treat and
it's not supposed to be the main meal, and and
so it doesn't really get distracted with with going beyond
what it what it wants to be. So it makes
some sense. Let me roll that into themes and when
what we think this story is saying, which again I
think it's pretty light thematically, but the things that I

(42:08):
the thing I did center on was this line that
we open with with, uh that everything's about choices. And
what I really found interesting about this story is reading
it this time, I almost went, is this the character
we're following? Glass says like, Oh, it's all about choices.
You make the right choice, the wrong choice, it sets

(42:30):
you up or destroys you. But also the aliens and
the predators are sort of bigger I guess bigger forces,
but you know, larger than life forces in this in
this story, and it's almost a story about like, well,
what happens when you don't have a choice, there is

(42:51):
no choice. You're just you're not. It's almost like you're
not part of the story. You are the fodder in
the story. You are the casualties in the story, not
not the wead characters. Wead characters are the predator and
aliens that are battling out the pred alien and this predator,
and these are just people caught in the waves essentially.
I don't know, let me know way you think about that,

(43:13):
or if you have a different take on what you
think the themes are this story, Ashley, go ahead and
take us on this one.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
I definitely think you've nailed it with that. And I
appreciate the nod by even telling the story in the
first place that those characters in those stories still matter,
because it is easy to dismiss in any kind of
conflict real historical fiction or sci fi or fantasy. It's

(43:42):
really easy to like look at everybody at Helm's Deep
and be like, well, there's that guy and then he died.
Oh well, we didn't know him. We don't miss him.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Guy who got an arrow in the neck.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yeah, that one kid where Aragorn was like, this is
a good sword and you're like, well he's dead for sure.
I'm glad that key we kid got some lines. Congratulations.
And the noble part of me, like the real artsy,
soft part and the part of me that grew up
as an army rat, really appreciates taking the time to
tell the story of those people. I think it also

(44:17):
flushes out in grounds a universe that is very fantastical,
like this is closer to science fantasy than science fiction. Sure,
and sometimes I think that when you're doing licensed media
or adaptation, that that's a good place for it to live,
because no matter what you say, no matter what any

(44:37):
of the studios say, it's a bit like you're never
going to be telling the main story, you know. So
I think this is a good place to live because
this can be canon and it's never going to mess
with anything that we're going to see in a future,
like why would you ever decanonize this? And that's the
value of telling these character stories even though we will
never remember their names.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
So it's interesting too because I feel like you hit
on a lot of things that I feel are are
integral elements of the at least the alien franchise in
the sense that people are expendable. You know, over and
over in various ways, lots of people just get crushed
under the boot of larger entities, and that's just kind

(45:22):
of the life that people face in that world. So
seeing something like, you know, seeing another story of people
who just end up sort of devastated by the world
that exists the roughness of this existence is somewhat appropriate.
Phil What are you what are your thoughts on the
idea or I guess the theme of choices and what

(45:45):
else this story has to say.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
Well, I you know, the story starts off with them,
you know, getting that distress signal and deciding whether they
want to go. They're like, I was hoping you ignore
that or not tell me about it, because right right,
so it does start out with I mean, very do
we do we stay apathetic to somebody else's possible situation

(46:11):
or have empathy and go check this out? You know,
there's there's like that kind of thing right away that we're.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I you hit on these like thing too or in
this universe they they talk about they know about the
events that happened to the marine squad at LV four.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
So they're all sitting there. Yeah, oh hey, there's a
big story.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
About people getting it distress called it didn't go Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
Yeah, do we really want to do this?

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (46:38):
But there's also part of there's a part of that
underton which is inherent in anything that's horror horror jacent,
where it's like, well what could possibly go?

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah again yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:50):
How many bugs can there be in the universe?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Like, yeah, they do throw bugs around a lot. That's
a very popular vocabulary word in these panels.

Speaker 4 (46:59):
Yeah. I do think the theme of choice would have
worked better. And this idea that you know, these very
real human beings sort of cut in the caught in
this ongoing thing that they have no control over. If
we got some specific elements about who the characters were,

(47:23):
even if it was just small just to crush those
specific small hopes and dreams, would have you know, it
certainly made a more dour and depressing and tragic, but
it would have I think, heightened those thematic elements a
little more. Like if like if Cadet Jimmy was, you know,
needing to get home, you know to do you know,

(47:46):
save the farm or whatever the hell it is. Well,
you know what I mean, something that one or two
of these characters have to live for outside of just
answering the distress call.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah, is that element with Lake Hudson and Bill past
and aliens when he's just like, oh, you know, I
had four more weeks, man, I was out in four weeks.
You know it's you said that little bit of humanizes
him just.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
A little bit. Yeah, And I think you know throwaway
line or two would have helped sort of.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Retirement.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is supposed to be my last
job out. Yeah. How many cliches could we have stuffed
in there?

Speaker 3 (48:26):
But I always wanted to see you, right, that was
my dream.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
I was supposed to retire here one day.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I was gonna build my house right.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Oh man, well, I think that's that's fantastic. I guess
one thing that before we move on from this, I
just want to dig a little bit deeper because I
always think these stories are more interesting when we will
get them and how they reflect what we're going through currently.

(49:00):
And there's so much I mean, I don't think that
we are dealing with the events of alien vers predator duel.
But there's so much in our world that is dependent
on the idea of choices, what choices we make, and
then the idea I guess at least that I have
very often when I'm having existential crisises by myself of like, well,

(49:21):
what does your choice matter? You know, just as as
we're looking at this comic, what do you do if
there's this feeling that there is no choice, that the
choice that you make is not in reality a choice,
It has no impact on where we go forward or
where you end up. Anyone have any any thoughts on that,

(49:43):
you know, given the strife we're all all going through, and.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
I thought we were coming here and talking about levity.
It's interesting because I am very much like your choice
always matters. I love the quote from the Fellosh with
a Ring movie that even the smallest person can change
the course of the future. And I think that's the
only way to contextualize what happens to these characters, because otherwise,

(50:09):
because it is a side quest, because it is a
secondary piece of media, it's like, well, that's the thing
that happened. Huh again, we can't remember their names. And
it's so funny because I think you bring this up,
I'm like, wow, you just made this comic one hundred
times better. Trying to contextualize, like, oh, but does this matter? Like,
I know, we're gonna brush up against the discussion of community,

(50:31):
and I think that's also going to be a very
interesting distillation of what is you know, less than one
hundred pages of action. But I also think in terms
of predators and aliens, all of their scariness as villains
comes from their ability to adapt and predict. So inherently

(50:54):
anyone they come across at least pluses up their ability
to slaughter us. So whether or not we ever see,
they have learned something from encountering these characters. So I guess,
in terms of like a meta narrative, look at the
effect on the shared franchise, like they've at least made
an effect on the villains, who will then go on

(51:15):
to a bunch of other people and maybe that's not
a good thing, but that's the impact that they had.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
It's very true, it's very true, And I guess there
is also as we look at the you know, I
think about the lives of these characters and of colonists
and stuff in this universe. There's simply a reflection on
the choice to continue to allow things to be as
they are. I guess you know if you I.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Mean, there is a very strong I think accidental anti
colonial meant to both franchises where it's like, don't go
where you don't belong and don't go there in a
fool hearty way because it will kill you back.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Well, and if we're people that choose to just let
the world we have now, you know, the corporate control
of the capitalist goals, if we choose that ourselves, well,
there might be things that lie down the road that
will make us. Yeah, feel any any thoughts on choice

(52:18):
in our world right now, whether it matters, how how
you approach that.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Yeah, I mean, sure it matters. I do think every
you know, everything that's out of our control, how we
handle it, even on a small scale, affects other people.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
You know.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
There's a great book Man Search for Meaning, which is
very much about that, where you always have one of
two choices to act like a human with empathy or
to act like an animal. You know, like if I
were caught in some you know, and I mean that's
literally what it is. It starts in a holocaust, and

(52:56):
it talks about this guy who you know, he wrote
this book about himself and how everything was distilled down
to two options one act like a human or act
like an animal because he had he couldn't decide anything
else that like, they were literally in a camp, right,
So it's a really uh I mean, I think, you know,

(53:17):
we look at these characters in this book as fodder,
and any character in any alien story is essentially fodder
for the corporations that's out of their control. They're always
going to be treated as fodder by a higher sort
of entity. But in those small decisions, they do have

(53:39):
the ability to act like a human or act like,
you know, a monster themselves. And you see that play
out and over and over again in the Alien franchise.
Less so in the Predator franchise. It's a little little
different thematically. The Predator franchise.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
It's almost only in the first one. I feel like
it's just where they kind of find out that they've
been wied to to get into.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
The right right. Well, I do think the the animated
movie predatoric movie dealt with some really great themes kind
of along those Yes, yeah, it was, it was really fantastic.
I think he's bringing some that director's bringing Tract and
Bird is bringing some great stuff back into the Predator
franchise that's needed. But yeah, yeah, you know, even even

(54:26):
these little characters, their decisions definitely still matter. Uh It's
they're they're about as human as you could get in
like like an elongated action sequence, you know, fighting for
survival against these sort of esoteric forces. Uh, you know
it's you.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
You really hit on.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
I like something that I just love about the Alien franchise,
and that's I I am. As you know from our discussions,
I'm a huge devotee of Alien three. I worship at
the altar of Alien three. But there is a moment
where a character and that essentially says like, you know,

(55:09):
I've never been Yeah, well I've never been given any
but he says, he says, I've never been given anything.
And the only thing that we're going to get to
choose is how we die. Are you going to die
crying or cowering? Are you going to die standing? And

(55:29):
And I feel like Alien three was designed at the
time to be sort of like the end of the
Alien franchise and sort of a definitive end to the Xenomorph.
We have as a franchise expanded that beyond, and so
now it feels there's always that competing feel of like, oh, ripley,
it feels like her sacrifices is less impactful. But I

(55:52):
would actually argue that I think it's even more appropriate
because her sacrifice isn't entirely about like I'm going to
change the world and I'm going to save everyone, like
the savior thing.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
It's it's it's more of like, what do you in
a world of.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
No choices, of hopelessness, of impression, what can you choose?
And choosing your fate is one of the most important things,
And it's even more I mean, I don't love the movie,
but it's even more terrifying in some ways that there
is a entry where they go, Nope, in this corporate world,

(56:28):
we can bring you back to life.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
You know, you didn't get to kill yourself.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
And interestingly enough, tron Ares, which is coming out in
I don't know, a couple of months, a few weeks.
At this point, I don't know enough because I don't
care and I will not be seeing it, but it's
sort of dealing with that same thing where they've literally
brought a character out into the real world and they're like, well,
if he dies, we'll just make another one, right, Like,
this is a theme that's continually being explored and maybe

(56:53):
additionally being explored and even more relevant now than when
it was first introduced by this French.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
It's very true. I mean, you just make me think
about how I'm happy I am with the state of
the world in the sense that everyone is leaped.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
To AI so quickly that you especially.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
With the sole goal of like we can cut costs,
we can cut workers, and you can just imagine how
quickly we would rush into having what would essentially be
a slave race of like androids or non people if
you will, you know, there's so many forces that would
be like yep, sign me up.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
So there's some serious reflection in.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
These films, I guess to warn us about the cost
of humanity right now. Well, we are going to leave
it there. We do have more to talk about that
we haven't even talked. We haven't dived deep on the
pred alien. We're going to come back. We're gonna we're
gonna get serious on the preed alien and a few
other topics. But stick with us. Everyone will be back soon,

(58:00):
all right, Welcome back to our thirtieth anniversary retrospective on
Alien Versus Predator duel. As I said before the break,
we're going to get into the pread Alien, but before
we do, I did want to touch a little bit
more on the ending that you talked about. Phil. We
have this ending that I noted in the questions that

(58:23):
I sent to you that is very reminiscent of John Carpenter.
Is the thing, you know, essentially just two characters sitting
at the end with a fate where we don't know
if they're going to be allies, they're going to be enemies,
if anyone's going to survive. I mean, we're just kind
of left with that. Now. What is interesting is that

(58:44):
if you do follow the comics that come after this,
the fate of Captain Glass is ultimately left ambiguous. We
see light Stepper encounter other Predators in Alien Verse Predtor war,
and at that time he has his glasses bandana in
his possession. So the assumption among readers has been, you know,

(59:07):
the yatcha arrived first, Glass with either killed or given
his band give gave his bandan over to Lightstepper as
some sort of prize. But I just wanted to get like,
what is everyone's thoughts on this ending. It feels like
it sits one way if we never see these characters again,

(59:28):
and it's it's a different way if we have this
predator show up again with the bandana and I just
wanted to see how that that affects either of you.
Do you feel like, is there something disappointing if Glass
is just murdered at some point? Is that do you
think that there is some understanding that perhaps Glass and
light Stepper could have reached What are your thoughts, Ashley,

(59:50):
I'll throw it to you.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Like Light's that were gonna rip someone's head off any time,
and the a VP even does this as well. Anytime
someone trins UH to team up with the Predator, it
doesn't go well. I haven't seen uh for Is it
first Hunt? I keep wanting to call the it first

(01:00:16):
the new Yeah, yeah, I get.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Blood, bad blood? Or no, what is it the new
one that's coming out? Is that?

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Yeah? The moment, the moment the sexy alien, you know,
who's clearly supposed to be like the hot guy that
we're rooting for because it's one of them.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
Is it bad?

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
It's not bad Blood? I'm losing it right now to
bad lands.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Yeah, but like, regardless, anytime, anytime someone teams up a predator,
I'm like, this is not going to go well for you. Friend.
You're going to live thirty more minutes past the last
time I see you, and then you're gonna die, especially
because we never do see these characters again. So yeah,
I'm assuming a light Stepper, which what a what a

(01:00:57):
great name, what is like, what a cool phrase? I'm
assuming light Stepper eventually is like, I'm tired of you now.
It would have been fun to see him show up again,
and it would have been fun to see the bandana
either in another comic or I mean certainly on screen,
right because we all live for that, for like Easter

(01:01:18):
eggs fun. But I'm not assuming it goes well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Frankly, I tend to feel the same, especially because I
guess what the context I should add is we see
him come on to a predatorship while we're following Machico
yea being trying to integrate into his predator culture. And
he comes on and it's clear that he is some
sort of honored you know, hunter, everyone's treating him very special.

(01:01:44):
And she sees the bandana and she's kind of like
that's that's a human bandana. What are you doing with that?
And he just kind of backslaps her get away from
and so I'm like, it doesn't seem like he had
an ally in glass. You know, what are your thoughts, Phil?
What do you how do you think it went down?
Doesn't matter if we have a reappearance. Well, bandana, the banana, the.

Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
Banana he has. He has a banana.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Glasses, don't touch, don't eat glass, right right, it's so funny.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
He gave banana to me. No, it's a At one
point I would have suggested that predators have some some
level of nobility to them, but after the last few stories,
I've decided that predators is just petty ass bitches. Yes, yes,

(01:02:47):
very very much. And and so I think he did
a petty ass bitch thing. And probably they they either
put him in one of those crying.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
I guess they could have been back to their home world.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
They could have done that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
But he took with me.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
Taking your boots. Yeah right, So yeah, I thought, Yeah,
I think the most petty ass bitch thing you can
think of is probably what happened here.

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
It does seem it does seem like that. And I
mean I guess way I would roll this into is
I who was thinking about your petty ass bitch predator
quote that comes from our our fan base feature on
on uh Killer of Killers. One thing that's really interesting
here is there's some of that attitude in how they

(01:03:42):
approach the pred alien, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
And and part of the reason I kind of go.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Like, yeah, you probably write that Glass dies is they
seem like they are not hunting in this story. This
is very much like pread aliens can exist. That's offensive
to us. Everyone dies like for just being around it
or allowing it, and and so it does feel like
against I guess what I was thinking is I was like,

(01:04:09):
I got to talk to Phil because I got to say,
you know, it is kind of a petty ass bitch
move to be like, you know what we should do,
let's drop face huggers all over the universe. But then
one of them gets on a fucking predator. You guys,
we're gonna fucking and ship.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
I'm sorry I share this a little bit. I really
want to drag show that's just confront Pettis and it's
like Brat and a bunch of like Saccer and pop Saw.

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Well, let's dive a little bit more into this the
pread alien, because I think it is both interesting as
a concept.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
You know, this is and a big part of this comic.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Obviously, the success of this comic is is uh in
many ways. They fact that it had this pread alien
appearance and on the c these are.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
I guess, well, the first pread alien.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Just to give it a history, the first pred alien
was designed by Dave Dorman and that was done as
a commissioned piece for an unproduced Alien vers Predator screenplay
that was by Peter Briggs. It's the Hunt Alien Verse Pretta.
I had not heard of that one before, but then
the creature did appear in Duel and has appeared in

(01:05:27):
games collectable card games that that film we talked about
Alien Verse preada requiem not the best appearance of a
pred alien, but he did make it on screen. But
the current mythology around this pred alien that the things
that I found interesting is really that the mythology suggests
that it's an affront to the Atcha and they are

(01:05:50):
very insulted and they will kill the shit out of
any pred alien that that exists. They drop everything and
go kill it. And then the other thing is that
the predila have like some sort of I don't know,
genetic memory of being a predator or a predator like instincts,
and so they tend to rip the skulls or spines

(01:06:13):
out of their their prey or mutilate.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Them in various ways.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
There's been stories where they hold on to things almost
like a pseudo trophy, but they it's almost like they
don't understand what they're doing. They're just doing it out
of instinct.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
God, I want to see that trophy room though. That
would be such a good just like a quick Easter
egg machine, a.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
Little like Siller, a little serial killer. That's where.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Room on a cat.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
And I know that for the Alien Predator movie they
didn't show up, but they did design some like having
the predator or the pred alien skin things like it
was leading skinned victims places. But long way of saying,
there's all these interesting ideas around this concept, we don't
see a bunch of we don't see many of them
appear in this comic. But I wanted to get your

(01:07:05):
thoughts on the creature and how it, you know, operates
within the franchise. Do you do you like this creature?
Is it something that is unnecessary. How do you feel
like it works in the comic duel? And what more
could we do with it? You know, is there more
to be mined from how what this creature is and

(01:07:25):
what it represents within predator culture yatchu or yatcha culture,
Phil go ahead and take us on this one first.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
Yeah, I mean so, I mean predators are essentially uh
species supremacists, right, they they're supremacists, you know, they everything
bounce to them. They're the best, They have the best genes.
So anything that sort of defallos their genes, I guess
should die like any you know, huh mud blood or

(01:08:01):
whatever you want to call like a fictional tarnish tarnishing
of you know, the genetics. Yeah, a lesser Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah,
it is going to die. Like that's just it, you know,
the which makes any story like the ongoing sort of

(01:08:23):
Aliens versus Predator with what's her name? The female character
that's brought in in the movie in the series Michico,
thank you. It was a great character. The fact that
they allow her in as a sort of the supremacist
species is really interesting, and I don't know many stories

(01:08:47):
that actually highlight that sort of supremacist attitude as a
supremacist attitude, but it very much is, and so it
makes sense that they would go after any sort of
defilement of you know who they are in that sort
of way. And yeah, I feel like there hasn't been

(01:09:09):
a story that's really dealt with the pred alien in
a in a thoughtful way. And like, you know, we
get two pages of it here. It's not that they
don't really deal with it in a thoughtful way in
the movie doesn't really deal with it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Would you like to see it dealt with in a
more like as opposed to just a gag of like
ain't the school though.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
I think where I would like I would like that
is is I think where the predator mythology really is
strengthened by the alien way connecting it to the alien
mythology is to make it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
More than just the combat.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
But if the if the xenomorph plays an integral role
in like predator culture, you know, it's an important creature
to to their their life cycle or their their I
don't know if I don't consider the manhood rituals, but
whatever they're they're rise through society. They seem to have

(01:10:08):
coming of age or coming. I think something like that.
I would like to see them because I feel like
this is a thing where they have a certain respect
for the creature and use it in certain ways. But
I also feel like what is the potential there is?
The idea of the Predators, I think, is to project

(01:10:29):
a a a sense of a culture that's based on honor,
that's based on like individuality and you know, earning things yourself,
but then revealing the flaws or lies within that culture.
You know that every culture that that focuses on its honor.

Speaker 3 (01:10:49):
Usually doesn't put its shame in the light.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
They find a way to hide it or manipulate it
or tell you know, reinvent it in some ways. And
I think that that's what I find interesting about the Predators,
and maybe there's something like the predalien could play into
that with the idea of this inequity that they feel like, well, we, yeah,
we are, as Phil says, we're above everybody, and if

(01:11:15):
we get infected by any alien, that's a horrible thing.
But if anyone else does, that's for our honor. What
are your thoughts, Ashley, What do you think.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
It's interesting because I've always seen the xenomorphs as being
very female, very feminine, and I think that's just because
I love the Alien Queen and she's a femine cyclon,
and the Predators, to me, are always very masculine. And
I think we're missing out on the very important thought
of they both belong to Disney now, so we now
have a Disney Prince and Princess romance, and the predalien

(01:11:49):
can have an entire musical beat. We're in he she
or they are really coming to their own and develop.
I do think I think the pretty Alien is fascinating.
I think it's visually interesting. I think it can serve
the very simple obvious choice of being like, well, we
could just have a real fun, big dumb monstervie with

(01:12:12):
this character. It's not intellectually stimulating, but like, I'd watch
two hours of that creature killing a bunch of random
people or other random critters from whatever death desert planet
they want to whack them onto. But I do think
there is such a storytelling possibility that would enrich both

(01:12:32):
sides of this franchise duel. I do wish we'd gotten
a little bit more of it in the comic, because
comics are movies without a budget, so there's just I
just think there was a lot of possibility. But you know, again,
when you only have two issues, like what could you
realistically expect? But it is one of those things that

(01:12:53):
moving forward, I'm always like, would love to see more of.
It could be real cool.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
Though, what would be for either of you?

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
What would be and it can be something that we've
already named, but what would be something that would make
the pred aliens stand out for you as like being
something bigger or scarier or or more dangerous than the
Aliens that we've seen.

Speaker 7 (01:13:16):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
My initial thought and I don't. I don't think it's
a particularly clever one. Would be if there was any
sort of we have a lot of particularly with Alien,
we have a lot of historical references to the Engineers
and where these characters have come from. And I'm initially like,
what if in one of those glyphs, or if we
discover that historically been there was a pret Alien and

(01:13:42):
maybe the engineers or some other culture that's no longer
with us destroyed it, and why, like, I would like
to see it. I want to retcon is what I
think is my first, my first, probably worst thought, but
just see it in the history a little bit more
I think would be neat.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
So any thoughts what would make it interesting or dangerous?

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
I mean, I like, I like that. I think giving
it some sort of backstory that this has happened before
and nothing good came of it, Like maybe you know,
maybe there maybe a ped alien is a little more
predator than alien. Uh for some reason. I mean, how

(01:14:25):
did the how does the alien feel about the ped alien?

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Yeah, we've we've seen ones where they're they're on the
same team, and we've seen ones where like the pred
alien is kind of like outside of alien culture if you.

Speaker 4 (01:14:40):
Are right, right, So where does this? Uh? Is the
pred alien a lonely creature? It has no side it
can go to because it's stuck in the middle, And.

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Maybe there's some sort of like you know, it's just
like I mean this this sometimes feels like the cheap answer,
but because it reminds me of like the ad Dominus
rex from dress World.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
But it could be one of those creatures where it's like.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
It's not meant to exist and so it's just kind
of off, you know, it's it's like killing the thing
less and right.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
And if you're doing that story, then you can if
you if you center it from more of like a
predator point of view. I'd be like, set a bounty
on it and show me, like, your your five best
predators who are going to come and hunt this thing
down and then have it slaughter all of them, mix
up the last guy like that. I'd watch that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
No, I think honestly that that is enough to have
a change of like even the idea of like, hey
we have we have this squad that we send out
when we have to get rid of heresy an abomination. Yeah,
and and they're the best of the best, and they
don't We're no longer fighting.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
We're not hunting anymore. We're not doing a hunt for honor.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
These are predators just going there to kill, kill, kill,
you know, right, So that could be interesting to see
a different approach.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
We're basically asking for. Is John Wick with alien?

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
So someone has to kill the dog?

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Oh god, away is there?

Speaker 4 (01:16:01):
Well we know what happened to the dog, then I
guess in the story.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
Yeah, just like Jonesy, you know, no one makes it
out a lot. Let me ask this. This is sort
of off off topic, but I'm just beginning to realize
we're expanding the predator in alien universes.

Speaker 3 (01:16:18):
Dan Tracktenberg, as you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:20):
Mentioned, Phil is really adding a lot to this and
building out.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
The mythology of the predators.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
And we are now getting our first movie, bad Lands,
which has a predator lead or hero if you will,
paired with a a android. And we've encountered this a
little bit with the Alien franchise. We've encountered this a
little bit with the Terminator franchise. How soon are we
going to see a predator in a human hookup?

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
I mean, this is the sexy this is the sexy
alien guy. Like like they've very clearly even changed the
makeup or the way they're doing the visual effects to
be like there is a hot guy.

Speaker 4 (01:17:01):
Yeah, yeah, you can.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
See them cheap bones, right. And part of that is
because you can't do that because the you know, the
effects are better. It's not a giant rubber head piece
that you can't really have much expression with it. If
it if it doesn't happen in this it's five years,
three years, you know, sooner than I think any of
us would probably.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
Human Loves Predator will be in the name of it
or something.

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
Again, if that is not an adult parody, it will
be very soon. I'm betting it already exists.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
Get that booty.

Speaker 1 (01:17:33):
Yeah, Alien Heart Predator, Predator Heart Alien is coming. It
is coming for sure, crazy rich predator like this. Oh
my god, it is so funny. It's or like it's
fangs do that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
Yeah, it makes the heart symbols.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
Yeah, you can do it with that little red laser.
You know he can make little yeah. Well, let me uh,
in general for the comic duel for is there anything
that this adds to the mythology that you either like
or dislike in regards to predators or aliens, anything that

(01:18:10):
we haven't touched on already.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
Is it rude to say? I don't. I just don't
think there's enough there to say that it adds much
to the mythology like it besides being a fun romp
for fans. But I just think, yeah, it's so limited
in its scope, and through no fault of anyone who
worked on it, I don't think there's a huge contribution.
But I'd still recommend it if you're into either Alien
or Predator.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
I definitely agree, And I guess the only thing that
I would add is that I find we touched on
it a little bit, But I do find it interesting
to revisit a world where people know about the events
of the Alien movies and sort of like the Marines
are aware of it and when they go into something
and it even hits a little bit differently now with
Alien Earth when we're talking about these characters referring to bugs.

(01:19:00):
I mean there's there's a notion Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's
a notion in the Alien Aliens movie the Camera movie
that they talk about bug hunts, and like you get
the idea like, oh, there are some alien creatures that
they've encountered, but not like the xenomorph, but you get
this feeling now like oh, well, there are these like
things out there. You know, they might not pop out
of your chest, but they.

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
You know, there's like nasty bug hunt as like a
big dumb action movie. I'm like, I'd watch that. That'd
be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
You know, there's there's some real meat for a Colonial
Marines TV series.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
It just doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:19:35):
You know, I can't believe we've never done a series
another film focusing on them. I'll put the souther Jason
Inman is ready to write that at any time. If
someone would like, tired do it, let's do it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:46):
I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (01:19:47):
Yeah, it would be to me, it's such a layup.
But anyway, that's a different discussion.

Speaker 3 (01:19:53):
Definitely a different discussion.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
But I agree with you. Synthetics, bug hunts, all sorts
of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
That we yes, ryots also ready to show run one
of these shows. Let's get it going.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
Well, let me ask you this, because then this sort
of ties into that. Do you think there's something that
these franchises Prairie and can learn from a comic like Duel?
Where do you think, Ashley?

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
I think what you can take away from Duel is
that one you can always go back to because this
is beta canon, right, I believe it's about Trek and
Wars as well. You can always go back to beta
canon for really cool inspiration. And Brian, I know you've
been championing championinging. Oh boy, it's really early. It's like

(01:20:36):
not that early. Sorry, but you've said that for years
where you were like, there is so much good stuff
in the comics that could be lifted or if not
directly adapted, certainly inspired. I think that's the main lesson
and I think that then you can take away from
Duel specifically is that it doesn't have to be that complicated.
It's nice when there is morals, meanings and messages and

(01:20:58):
depth and things to explore. But ultimately, these are action movies,
and these are horror movies. And as long as you've
got some cool visuals and some fun scares, that is
going to carry a lot of what I think most
of us want from either of the franchise. More mythology
always good. But I will just watch a big dumb
action movie and I will just read a big dumb
action comic and have a lovely time.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
Well, and we're now seeing with Trackenberg that both are positive.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
I think both are possible because I feel like something
like Killer of Killers is like, why couldn't you do that?
With the Alien series? Have like a.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
Pray is fantastic, but it's it's not like pray is
going to make you re examine your soul or anything.
But it's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
Yeah, Sometimes it's just delivering a decent, well told story.
Sometimes you don't have to reinvent the entire franchise. Phil
you what are your thoughts? What else can we learn?

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
What could the Alien?

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
What could the Alien and Presitive franchise learn from this comic? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
Yeah, I mean I think I think there is is
room to tell stories with uh, you know, side characters,
and I think, yes, yes, yeah, I think actually you
were you were saying that earlier, like you know, the
there is you know, I think space for the characters

(01:22:17):
that don't normally matter in these worlds.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
Two.

Speaker 4 (01:22:21):
I mean, who are a bunch of like fucking you
know space truckers, you know what I mean. We started
out with the side characters the very first Daylien movie.
They were side characters, you know, we were on a
side quest. And I think it's easy to forget that.
You know, the characters we care about the most in
these stories are the ones that are just trying to

(01:22:44):
make it bye, yes, yea.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Let's be real, like that's we would all be space podcasters, right,
Like none of us are working for Royal and New Donnie, Like,
what are we doing in that universe? And it's easier
to see yourself. I love the pitch for space Truckers.
I've watched that heck out of that.

Speaker 4 (01:23:01):
Yeah, I mean, even Alien Romulus, it's just like a
bunch of workers stuck on the planet. You know, they're
they're the side characters, they're not the main characters.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
I do think it's you know, obviously with Predator. That's different.
You get the very first Predator movie. You get the
main characters, right, you get the Son of a Bitch,
you know, you get the guys who are like you
know they are, they are the they are the guys
that see themselves as the main characters. So to see
them drop one after the next, you're kind of horrified
that these eighties you know, Max show archetypes are being

(01:23:36):
just tore apart. So there's there is some fun to
be had in that, but it is I do think
sometimes we lose the simplicity of what these stories where
they actually come from.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
Do you think that's because we're in this like metamodernist
time where we've told all of these stories and now
we're telling derivatives of derivatives of derivatives, and so it's
not just enough to simply make a solid action movie.
You have to have a dark Knight of the Soul
in the middle of there somewhere like it all. It
all becomes deeper and more complex than maybe what the

(01:24:15):
original source material was.

Speaker 4 (01:24:17):
Sure, yeah, I mean I think building on it over
these last you know, thirty years, you're gonna you're gonna
have storytellers want to be like, well, there's a lot
to mine here, and I love that. I love that
these these worlds have so much to mine when done well.
You know, the first Alien film set up so many
different things, you know, with the corporations, with the the

(01:24:42):
the android characters, you know that are you know, how
human are they?

Speaker 6 (01:24:46):
You know via morev and zen More Ship, you know,
and yeah, there's there's there's so much that they set
up in that first Alien movie.

Speaker 4 (01:24:57):
But again, the characters stuck in that sort of this
is terrifying esoteric situation or just truckers. So I mean, yeah,
there's a lot to mine. But I think it shows
us that in this ever expanding and involving kind of world,
which you know, I think you need to do, the
characters themselves can be pretty salt of the earth and

(01:25:21):
it'll still work, you know, in Alien Earth. Not to
give too much away to people who haven't watched that,
but you know, Joe is very salt of that. You
have some very salt of the earth characters stuck in
this situation that they have no control over on so
many levels, and it's you know, it's interesting, like dealing

(01:25:43):
with stuff well beyond his pay grade on any given day.
You know, it's yeah, And I think that's really interesting,
and I think that you can do a lot of
stuff of that, like the kid and Killer of Killers.
You know, who's just wants to be a pilot. Suddenly
he is on an alien world fighting predators, like still

(01:26:04):
beyond his pay grade, you know, just dealing with something
so much bigger. He's sold of the earth. He's just
he's a mechanic. And I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
I love that well in that story too. Again I go,
I keep going back to how well I think Killer
of Killers works because it's it's something that connects to
the greater mythology that they're building, but it's also something
that could probably be enjoyed on its own.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
Like you could go, I mean, you could give it
to like a twenty one year old who's like, I
just think this looks cool, but can I watch it?
You'd be like, yeah, of course you could.

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
Yeah, And so you can just jump in or you
if you don't watch it, then you're a Predator movie fan.
You probably are fine to go to bad Lands and
not worry about having seen Killer of Killers. And so
I guess the thing that I feel like is that
I that I really wish that they would take away
is like, there's many ways that Hollywood wants to be

(01:26:58):
lazy about making these these franchises, finding ways to cut
corners or cut costs. And you know, it's exactly as
you were saying, Ashley, I just go back to like
you can you literally could pick one of these books
off the shelf and be like, let's make an animated
short of this.

Speaker 3 (01:27:12):
You know, totally throw it up.

Speaker 2 (01:27:15):
And that's continuing that franchise helps promote things that you're
going to be putting in theaters. It's just it's like
a no brainer for both fan enjoyment and this the
corporate strategy for the franchise.

Speaker 1 (01:27:29):
Especially in the world where we have stuff like Scavenger's
Rain and stuff. You're like, we can do this and
it can be really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
Yeah, yeah, very very much. So, well, let's let's talk
about to build your community initiative, because this is a
little bit outside outside Alien First Predator duel. This is
something that we're doing at fan Base Press. It's been
a tough year. We think that community is one of
the solutions to everything that we're going through. We're putting

(01:27:57):
a focus on it and you can learn more about
that at a fan base pres dot com. With these stories,
what we've been trying to do is just look at
them through lens of community. What do they say, if anything,
about community? Is there something we can take away about
the power or role of community or lack of it.
So that's the question of before is what do we

(01:28:17):
think Alien Versus Prayer or Duel has to say about community?
If anything? Ashley, I know that you had something to say,
so why don't you start us off?

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
Yeah? I think it's actually twofold. You'd have to squint
a little bit to find it. But firstly, I think
on a macrocosmic level, it is this fun, weird little
story that we as fans of either of both franchises,
can engage in, and that is something that is going

(01:28:47):
to build our community as the people consuming these stories
by doing things like these podcasts or reading and posting
about it on social media. Like it can be that
simple and that basic can be a starting point. But
I think with in the narrative itself, it's not quite
as trite as relying on the kindness of strangers, because
there's not very much kindness that there is despair within Duel.

(01:29:10):
But I think it's even though again I don't know
if I think anyone makes it out of this alliance,
but you can find a helping hand in the unlikeliest
of places. I don't know how long it may remain
a helping hand, but it's always there no matter how

(01:29:31):
dark things get, and I didn't. As I was reading this,
I was like, oh boy, where stem I going to
find some meaning in this? And that was where it
really resonated for me. Was like, there's always there's always
help and support to be at. It might not be
what you think it is, it might not be what
you want it to be, but it is. It is
out there even on RAE.

Speaker 3 (01:29:53):
It's true.

Speaker 8 (01:29:54):
You know, I I agree with you, and it's something
that I hadn't really put together. But I don't know
if I attach this to community, but it's such a
great message that we need allies that we don't agree
with very often. You know, like there are there sometimes
there's lines, but there are there are always lines.

Speaker 2 (01:30:16):
And it doesn't mean you're going to be an ally
in every situation, but sometimes there's a threat that requires
you to align yourself with people that you wouldn't normally
align yourself with or have issues with serious issues with
I keep going back to because this seems to be
a real struggle in you know, the more left wing

(01:30:38):
ends of the political spectrum, and I keep going back
to what I feel like and or the series tried
to argue so hardly that you know, everyone puts a
little piece and you can't really figure out what everyone
is contributing. But sometimes, yeah, you are aligned with people
that you see the world very different from and they
have a place a hard to play. But but that

(01:31:02):
doesn't mean you have to I don't know. Doesn't mean
that you are married to them. That doesn't mean that
you agree with every idea. It doesn't mean that you
won't be on the opposite side of an issue later
with them, but or that you lose.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
Any of your humanity in your point of view and
your ethics by by daring to uh extendacle.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
Yeah, well, allow them to be part of the cause
for for a necessary moment, Uh yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:32):
Fighting alongside a predator. Fighting alongside a predator is like
agreeing with Ted Cruz for a moment about the First Amendment.
You have to It doesn't have to be this guy,
like I guess, so okay, for the moment I don't
know a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
Of us, a lot of us feel about that that
way about Newsom right now. You know, there are things
that Newsome is sure is doing that are positive, but
there's also lots of things that don't.

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
Favorite memes is like, don't make me like you?

Speaker 4 (01:32:00):
Yeah? Uh so about community in this story? Uh And
for some reason, I just thought of that goddamn predator
of Bazuka he pulls out for I think that is.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
How do we not talking about that?

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
Frank?

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
Right, it's so great one one shot. You know, this
might be one of the best moments of the comedy.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
I believe we didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
We didn't. It's just like here comes the ship.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
What it's it's the moment in the Pacific room where
it's like we have a sword. You're like, where was
this an hour ago?

Speaker 2 (01:32:39):
No one's shooting there alien with that that Bazuka.

Speaker 4 (01:32:42):
Rights take it out.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
But because it shows the great feeling of like all
the predators. Yeah, they're not they're not.

Speaker 3 (01:32:49):
They're not a joy hunt right now?

Speaker 8 (01:32:52):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:32:53):
Ship up?

Speaker 4 (01:32:54):
Yeah, this is a serious business.

Speaker 3 (01:32:57):
Big guns.

Speaker 4 (01:33:00):
Yeah, I don't, I it's ye, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:33:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
Like this the series is.

Speaker 4 (01:33:09):
You have these colonial marines who are basically cut off
from any larger sort of infrast working structure that's there
to support them. And I feel like that's how you
are in any sort of space situation. You're sort of
like lampooned in a spaceship with any sort of help

(01:33:30):
who knows how far away.

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
Sometimes what wrote real space travels like, because I just
watched the thirtieth anniversary release of Apollo thirteen and it's
very much that.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
Yeah, I mean, your community is are the people literally
right next to you. You don't sometimes don't get a
choice in who your community is because of that, there's
no larger community they go to, and so you you
kind of have to make the most of it. Like
and obviously we don't get a well fleshed out platoon necessarily,

(01:34:01):
but you know, when it comes down to it, the
person next to you is your community will be a
human or predator or whoever well said, And I think,
you know, oh, thank you. And I think science fiction
deals with that a lot, sometimes well and sometimes kind
of sloppily. But I feel like any sort of space

(01:34:23):
exploration or adventure kind of story is essentially you know,
the community are the people you're just happen to be
stuck with make the most of it. So I think
that's that's when we get here a little bit. I
guess it doesn't really like linger on any of that
or or deal with it, but I think that's just

(01:34:44):
the reality of the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Well, it reminds me of reminds me a lot of Westerns,
you know, because there's so much that with Vishire, just
the frontier and like how you're cut off out there,
and what the power dynamics are when when you are
in a place like that. Yeah, that's who are you
going to marry?

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
Oh, I guess just the one woman that lives on
your street, you know, and we need to do that
to survive, you know, that's your community already, just the
one other person who happens to be around.

Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
Brian, You bringing up Westerns in particular reminds me a
lot of the pilot episode of Star Trek Deep Space
nine where we meet young Julian Basher, young hot guy
fresh out of the academy, and he's like, Oh, I'm
so excited to be here on to Frontier medicine right
on the on the on the border of the Beta
Quadron by the word wole and then Kira is like,
this is my home, you absolute dick, And that's that

(01:35:37):
same kind of vibe, and it would be the same
thing as like when Doc Holiday right like rolls into
whatever town.

Speaker 2 (01:35:44):
Yeah, and you and you and you even. You can
see elements of that in the in the the first
Marine visit as well, where we have like Ripley sort
of hearing the bravado of the Marines and they're talking
about you're going to help these dumbass colonists here, you know,
we're going to buck some colonists. Like they're all just
like Jo joking around and She's just going like, oh,

(01:36:05):
my friends died from these things, and they're probably a
bunch of you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
And for me because I've been in Carlos like ten
minutes ago.

Speaker 2 (01:36:12):
Right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:36:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
Now, it is a very interesting juxtaposition, and it's interesting
how much this comes up again and again too. I
feel like the the feel of the frontier and especially
the press, the pressure it puts under people because there
is a financial possibility of like making something, where with
the idea of like, oh, I'm going to earn something

(01:36:35):
by being the first people to go out and take
the risk, it feels like this becomes more and more
something that people are seeking these days. You know, they're
they're looking for opportunities like this and and uh, I
don't know, it's it's it's uh, it's an interesting part
of American culture given that that's like so much of

(01:36:56):
the formation of our nation was like, yes, just go
out to the wild and make make it yourself, you know,
And it's it's sort of a fallousy.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
So many of us share, uh that you know, not
to get too weird to feel talk of that genetic memory, right,
like that's in our DNA, if your if your people
also came over during that.

Speaker 2 (01:37:15):
Time very much so.

Speaker 3 (01:37:18):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
One thing I also wanted to touch on before we
wrap up is and in this uh, this is just
going back to something I forgot about to mention when
we were talking about things that the franchises or other
stories could learn from this comic, and I wanted to
get both of your opinions on it. But this comic
is essentially, you know, one where everyone dies. We we

(01:37:41):
all of our characters. I mean maybe the Predator service,
Yeah yeah, maybe you know, he shows up with the bandana,
but we'll see where he ends up. I feel like
there is a sometimes a fear of letting characters go
these days, and and it feels especially noteworthy in the
Alien franchise because it feels like you got.

Speaker 3 (01:38:01):
To it's kind of like rogue one.

Speaker 2 (01:38:03):
To some degree, those characters need to die in a way,
because otherwise the story is not going to feel correct.
You're going to kind of be like, how did they
continue on after this? And there's a lot that with
the Alien franchise, at least in my opinion, like, well,
if the alien, you know, the company seeking the alien
was not horribly incompetent, there can't be a bunch of

(01:38:26):
survivors of alien encounters.

Speaker 1 (01:38:29):
We also we also see that in the in the
corporate art right that is making a studio film, because
I believe after the success of Alien Romulus, it was like, oh, well,
well now we're going to see Kelly Spainey come back
and we're going to be and you're like, the story's over.
My brother in Christ, that was a great story and
I enjoyed it. But in our modern in our modern

(01:38:51):
media culture too, and in our modern fan culture, there
is also that refusal to let go of anything that
is perceived as beloved, which so I think that's really
interesting that you've brought this topic to us.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
Well, and he's very sore subject in this one because
everyone is still hurting from Michael Bean and carry, so
they're very they're very worried. Although I did I made
this joke. I don't know if it's an actual joke.
I kind of hope it's not. But I kind of
like that for Alien Romulus, Fedi Alvarez killed the alien.

(01:39:25):
He brought it back the alien then killed it off
screen before before the movie started, and I was like,
that's got to be an alien nod. That's got to
be a hate's a new nod. But yeah, I do
think that it would be helpful to let some characters
go from time to time.

Speaker 4 (01:39:45):
I mean, I mean Ridley Scott did it, going from
Prometheus into Covenants.

Speaker 2 (01:39:50):
He did. He did another female femail lead.

Speaker 4 (01:39:53):
That horrible things happened to her off print camera.

Speaker 1 (01:39:57):
You know anything, what if Magneto made out with We
loved that?

Speaker 4 (01:40:01):
That was kind of that was kind of hot. Actually
let's play let's let's play the flute as I play
the flute. Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 1 (01:40:24):
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
Things like that, Like I maybe I was I didn't
have an attachment to Newt and Hicks when I was younger,
because I saw Alien three first when I was younger,
and then I saw Aliens later, so I didn't have
the attachment to their death. But I like the like Aliens.

(01:40:47):
It's a scary universe and it's a horror story. It
is about facing things that so I have no like it.
I actually liked that those two characters die off camera
because it brings the horror immediately right back into the hoole.
I mean, it's like, you're never going to escape this.
It is always going to be present. There are no

(01:41:08):
happy spaces like this is. This is an ongoing threat
even when you're not watching. So I've always actually liked
that decision. I'm sorry you wanted a happy ending. I
want to you know what I mean. It was like,
you know, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
Well I love that you said it's it's a horror
story because I feel like you meant this too. But
just for clarity, it's a horse story before the Aliens
show up. You know, it's a horse story. You know.

Speaker 4 (01:41:39):
Yeah, It's like there, You're never not under the thumb.
And as we've discovered in the last two Alien storylines,
these are people working off debt that they are never
going to get out from under.

Speaker 2 (01:41:51):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:41:52):
You know, you don't get a choice in what happens
to you and your life and a larger schemes unless
it's escape and you'd rather you know what I mean,
Like we need to escape and get out of the
system somehow. So, yeah, this is a terrifying world. It's
a claustrophobic world. It's cold, icy world that humans are

(01:42:13):
trying to find. It just a shred of hope and
on a day to day basis.

Speaker 2 (01:42:19):
So going back, sorry, but going back to your frontier
comparison to yeah, I feel like the death of Newton
Hicks is so true to like what those historical stories
feel like. When we read the history, it's always always like, oh,
well this person did all this stuff and they accomplished
all this and then they died of dysentery when they

(01:42:41):
got it.

Speaker 4 (01:42:43):
Yeah, it made drink a drink a little bit of
water and then died.

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Wagon rolled over them or something.

Speaker 4 (01:42:49):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:42:50):
If you like that, check out American Primeval and if
you in eighteen eighty three, and if you like a
sci fi shows where your favorite character in the entire
franchise dies very quickly and unceremoniocy. May I recommend you
Apple TV's for all Mankind.

Speaker 3 (01:43:04):
They will definitely I need to wash that.

Speaker 4 (01:43:07):
I need to wash that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:08):
I mean, it's one of my favorite shows of all time.
I think I bought the whole thing like five times.
But they will slaughter your beloveds with absolutely no, no
monicum of fear.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
And again reflect very reflective of what seems to be
the reality of space travel and what we do when
we break those those barriers like a.

Speaker 4 (01:43:29):
Space Yeah, there's like there's like just a thin glass
wall or a sheet between you and oblivion when you're
in outer space.

Speaker 2 (01:43:38):
That's just like, Yeah, you sit in there and go
this is an insane.

Speaker 1 (01:43:43):
Write it up up and show me up there. There's
a quote that I will I will miss quote from
roman Kind where they said, well, you strapped yourself to
however many tons of rocket fuel for government pay. It's
not smart, but it's something, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:43:55):
Like, wow, damn, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:43:58):
That's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
Well let's let's I know you threw some out there, Ashley,
but let's have some recommendations. If you think someone liked
if someone liked this discussion, if they like to revisiting
Alien Verse player do or what else should they check out?

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
Everyone should always check out for All Mankind because it's
the best thing ever and nobody watches it because it's
on Apple TV, which is fair, but I assure very good.
It's it's worth paying the one month subscription to Binge. Also,
they film it often on the road, not that far
outside my home, and always paint them at the road
to JSC Bryant is like a ten minute walk where

(01:44:34):
Gordo and Ed have that discussion in season two about
it is going to go back up. I'm like, exactly
where that is?

Speaker 2 (01:44:39):
That's great?

Speaker 8 (01:44:40):
Great.

Speaker 1 (01:44:40):
Yeah, they film it in LA and just paint the
mountains out and call it Houston. So it's fun if
you're an LA person to be like, I know where
that is, I know where that is. I know where
that is. And if you don't like Joel Kimman, it
will make you believe that he deserves an Emmy because
he is very true.

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
It's very true. He's probably the best thing I've seen
him in.

Speaker 1 (01:44:55):
Yeah, Alien Earth, I think is unbelievab phenomenal. I'm I
was anti seeing anything on Earth and I'm I'm not
a Noah Hawley apologist, but I have to say it
really works, uh, and it's really really good. I think
I think it's a lazy, easy recommendation, but I meet

(01:45:16):
it with my whole heart. And then on the Predator
side of things, I just think Pray is like the
coolest thing that's honestly come out since Predator. So I'm
a wreck.

Speaker 2 (01:45:25):
So what what do you recommend?

Speaker 4 (01:45:28):
I mean, if we're talking just sci fi and for
all mankind, the Expanse is amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
Also, sure it's going to be it's not going to
be Star Trek and going to be for a maka
or sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:45:42):
The Expanse. Yeah, but that's got a great level of
you know, political and corporate sort of uh you know,
world building and uh you know, esoteric threats that you
don't understand that are just beyond our understanding and kind
of building building that yeah. Yeah, the books also, but yeah,

(01:46:02):
you also have the sense of community building, the community
just around the people that you're surrounded by that you
have to do it with. That was yeah, great, great
show if you've never seen it. And yeah, what what
else can I recommend? What what can I pull from
my you know what? Because I think you know, we

(01:46:26):
talk about westerns, but I think Samurai films also deal
with a lot of these same sort of things, especially
honors and things like that. You know, check out some
KSA sure, go for it. Check out you know seven Samurai,
which again is about building a community of just the
people that you can get your hands on to kind
of do something that you think is good, and it

(01:46:48):
does deal with honor. Really, any Kodasawa film will kind
of have similar ish themes, but yeah, I would recommend
could in those.

Speaker 1 (01:47:00):
Sure it's cent I know, I know we've talked about
a bunch of different comics, but also like, are there
any other alien comics because I know you're you're like
our resident alien Derek just.

Speaker 2 (01:47:11):
In just in general or that specifically relate to this one?
Are you what are you looking for?

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
I'm going to I'll go specifically relate to this one.

Speaker 2 (01:47:19):
Okay, I don't know that there, you know, I will
say this, the alien versus Predator War continuation continuation of
this is worth reading, but it's not as satisfying as
what has come before. You get. What you do get
is the interesting feel of like essentially like a dances

(01:47:40):
with Wolves with predators you have Machico living with the
predators that I'm really not really fitting in. There's a actually,
here's what I'll give it the recommendation because what is
really cool about that comic is the scenario of what's
going on with the aliens isn't as exciting, but living
with the predators is really interesting. There is a predator

(01:48:01):
that she refers to as Shorty, who is smaller than
the other predators and so he's got like a chip
on his shoulder and sort of starts targeting Machico because
someone's finally like lower on the totem pole than him.
And there's just a lot of interesting I don't know
revelations about like what the way she sees predator culture

(01:48:21):
and how she eventually leaves it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
I'm literally pulling it up right now because that sounds great. Also,
just calling your predator shorty's very funny to me.

Speaker 2 (01:48:32):
Make sure you get the zero issue because that has
Chris Warner. Chris Warner does the art for that one
one issue and it also you'll know it because it's
them going to a alien world and capturing an alien
queen and like kidnapping her from the hive and pulling

(01:48:54):
them and pouring her into the ship.

Speaker 1 (01:48:55):
Also, this is just a question for me, Brian, do
you own any of his art worker prints? Because it
does feel like I wish a collection here.

Speaker 2 (01:49:04):
I'm actually gonna in the comment section and I'll share
this in the video with with people who are watching.
But I do not own. But here are two images
I was going to share. These are the prelim sketches
that Chris word. I had an opportunity to buy these
last year and it was just way out of my
price range, so I had to say no.

Speaker 3 (01:49:25):
But it broke my heart.

Speaker 1 (01:49:27):
That's like me with every time a George Perez Titans
piece comes up, I'm like, I just that's too many zeros.

Speaker 2 (01:49:32):
It is, especially when you're like you're going like, yeah,
he's worth it, but when it's like you're like, that's
my majority of my paycheck there? Yeah, yeah, wow, just
the penance.

Speaker 4 (01:49:43):
Eventually I'm going to die and it won't be mine anyway,
so why spend the money.

Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
Well, you know, the one thing that I'll say about
art is you can always cock yourself and to be like, well,
this is an investment. You know, when the apocalypse happen,
no one, no one will buy it, but is.

Speaker 1 (01:49:57):
Concs are much like gold. They do consistently go up.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
They do, they do.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
If civilization continues, you should be able to resell that art.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
Yes, to feed yourself or get some water or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
Yes, yes, And and I did also want to note that, Phil,
I think we're gonna and naturally you are of course
welcome to this, but I think we're gonna have more
predator conversations about honor because I'm I'm just there's something
that's so interesting about this concept of looking at like
samurai knights, you know, with the concept of chivalry, even

(01:50:31):
like uh, you know the white hat, you know in
Old West, these these concepts of oh, that's this honorable figure,
they live by honor, and then that the reality that
we find about samurais about knights, about the way that
they actually had very little codes of honor. Many did
not live by those codes of honor. I feel like

(01:50:53):
that is such a insight into what we are going
to see with the predators, because that's how we as
fans have viewed the predators, and now there is we're
going into stories that have to reveal like, hey, there's
more to this any as vicious.

Speaker 4 (01:51:09):
Yes, it always comes back to Baba.

Speaker 2 (01:51:14):
Yep. Well, before we wrap up, the one thing I
do want to share that I will recommend is some
fan base features. We've got one on thirtieth anniversary of
the original Alien Verse Predator comic that came out in
nineteen ninety, and then we also have the one that
we talked about earlier, thirtieth anniversary on Aliens Slash Predators,

(01:51:36):
not a Verse preador Aliens Slash Predator, the Deadliest of Species.
I talked to Chris Claremont once about this comic because
he was tabling next to us, and I said, this
is an Alien Verse Predator comic, and he was very
upset and told me, no, this is not an Alien
Verse preador comic. This is an Alien's Predator comic. Look,
there's no verse in the title.

Speaker 1 (01:51:55):
I love that very much.

Speaker 2 (01:51:59):
So yeah, I look forward to hearing your thoughts about
that one. All right, Well, before we wrap up, let's
let people know where they can find both of you
and your work online. So Phil start us off. Where
can we find you?

Speaker 4 (01:52:13):
Yeah, I'm met Philip creates mostly on Instagram, I guess,
sometimes on Blue Sky and my my podcast at Popsicle
Pod p O p s k l p O D.
Also you know Spotify, Wherever, Instagram sometimes Blue Sky and
we've been talking about Alien Earth on a weekly basis.
So if you want to listen to those conversations, they

(01:52:36):
are over there on our That episode was series.

Speaker 2 (01:52:40):
Yes, I've listened to a little bit of that. It's
very interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:52:45):
A lot of questions.

Speaker 2 (01:52:46):
Well, there's a for me. I'm not enjoying Alien Earth
as much as everyone. I have a lot of questions.
You had some similar you all had some similar questions. Yeah,
we'll see where it ends up and see where it
goes the final final episode. If I still have Disney Plus,
which I don't know that I will. So, Ashley, where
can we find you in your work?

Speaker 1 (01:53:06):
You can find me all over the internet at Ashley v. Robinson.
The v is very important because Ashley Robinson is a
WNBA player who's six week tall, and I don't want
to fight her for met for SEO. She doesn't live
in LA. If you know her, I want to meet
her and take a picture. She will not answer my
Instagram dms. Also, if you are coming to New York
Comic Con in a couple of weeks, because I'm assuming

(01:53:27):
this episode will come out before New York Comic Con.
I'm gonna be there with Pop Verse, hosting a bunch
of stuff and running around on the main stage. Please
say hello to me, and that's all I'm gonna Oh
and sorry, I lied my podcast Key History listen can
be foun We're all fine. Podcasts ahead. Thank you so much, Ashley.

Speaker 2 (01:53:48):
Is there anything alien related or kind of related that's
going to be happening for you at New York Comic Con.

Speaker 1 (01:53:55):
I'm trying to think about what has been publicly announced,
and I can tell you you can just say yes.

Speaker 3 (01:54:03):
You don't have to tell us the answers.

Speaker 1 (01:54:05):
Yes, but I don't think any of it has been
announced yet, but yes.

Speaker 2 (01:54:10):
Or keep or keep our ears and eyes open. Well,
I just want to say again, Ashley, Phil, this is
always a joy to talk with both of you, and
to do it on such subject that's close to my heart.
I look forward to our next alien and Predator discussion.

Speaker 1 (01:54:27):
So fun.

Speaker 2 (01:54:31):
All right everyone. If you're looking for more of my
alien and Predator opinions, you can follow me on Twitter
at Comic book Slayer. I'm also on Instagram and Blue
Sky as Comic book Sniffer, and I will encourage you
to follow and like us fan Base Press on Facebook
and Twitter.

Speaker 3 (01:54:51):
Also the fan Base Weekly. We're both on there.

Speaker 2 (01:54:54):
You can subscribe to and rate the fan Base Weekly
on Apple Podcasts. Those ratings and reviews really help us out,
so please give us those if you can.

Speaker 3 (01:55:03):
And then don't forget. You can be part of the conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:55:06):
If you have any any thoughts or additions to our
Alien Versus Predator dual conversation or anything else, you can
email us at the Fanbase Weekly at gmail dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:55:16):
We get those emails.

Speaker 2 (01:55:17):
We'll address them on a future episode if you send
them to us. I also want to give a shout
out to our sponsor, Comics dot one. Comics dot one
is a global marketplace, crowdfunding platform, and app for independent
comic creators that puts the creators first. The marketplace has
over one thousand books and counting. The crowdfunding has inbuilt fulfillment,

(01:55:39):
and the e reader has multiple reading modes with a
big selection across several genres and books by award winning creators.
They have something for everyone. Signing up as a user
is free, and they'll even give you access to a
handful of comics for free to help you get started.
Head on over to comics dot one to grab a
copy of your next favorite indie comic. That's com i

(01:56:00):
x dot one. Thank you for listening everyone. This has
been Brian Dylan for fan base Press, where we celebrate
fandoms and create new ones until next time.

Speaker 4 (01:56:11):
This has been part of the fan base Press podcast network.

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