Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!
In 1979, Ridley Scott’s Alien taughtmoviegoers that in space, no one can hear you scream.
On September 30, 2026, Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma Frost, and the rest of the X-Men might just learn the same lesson in Alien Vs. X-Men. Featuring writer Kieron Gillen‘s first X-Men work since the conclusion of the Krakoan era and art from Geraldo Borges, the four-issue limited series will pit Marvel’s merry mutants against the Xenomorphs.
Ahead of Alien Vs. X-Men #1’s release, Kieron agreed to return to X-Men Monday to discuss his “little coda,” whether we can expect an appearance from Unit, and more. Let’s see what he say to say.
AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Kieron! Having departed the X-Books on an incredibly epic one-two punch (Rise of the Powersof X #5 andX-Men#35), what madeAlien Vs. X-Menthe right vehicle for a return to writing Marvel’s merry mutants?
Kieron Gillen: It sounded fun.
Regular readers of my nonsense will know that I likely could summon up some of my usual pretentious gibberish, but in reality, it was… “Actually, that’s fun. Four issues? Why not.” Easy to say yes, hard to say no, delightful. It feels like a little coda for my time with the X-books.
AIPT: It seems likeAlien Vs. X-Menkicks off with the Astonishing X-Men team searching for a Phoenix egg. What can you share about the story you’re telling across this four-issue limited series?
Kieron: I’ll say that’s the inciting incident, in exactly the same way that the USCSS Nostromo was on a hauling mission. In the X-Men’s case, they went looking for an egg and found eggs. What could possibly go wrong?
AIPT: The preview art we’ve seen so far looks appropriately moody. How has it been collaborating with Geraldo Borges onAlien Vs. X-Men, and what can readers expect from its visuals?
Kieron: So much in comics is aesthetic — working out a point between the romantic heroic fiction of the X-Men and the absolutely 1970s-dieselpunk future ofAlienwas the trick, and selling the tone of the book.
Geraldo has made it agreeably grimy. We can tell at a glance we’ve wandered into a dark corner, and so that’s what we’re going to find there. This isn’t just a world that hates and fears them — this is a worldtheyshould fear.
AIPT: Speaking of those Astonishing X-Men, X-Fan Ian A. wonders what made you want to set this story during theAstonishing X-Menera.
Kieron: We haven’t. I’m treating this story as a movie adaptation — as in, free to take from whatever comics we wanted to create a story that best served our needs. The backbone is similar to theAstonishingsetup, but we lift elements from earlier and later.Astonishing X-Menis a strong backbone, as it’s an iconic team in a relatively trimmed-down X-Men setup (as in, Mansion-centric) with one firm foot in the space stuff. It’s the run in which S.W.O.R.D. was introduced. That may be relevant too.
Don’t worry. I didn’t decide to bring Unit into it. Even I’m not that self-indulgent.
AIPT: X-Fan Evelyn asks if it’s challenging to write a Xenomorph story where some of the protagonists have superpowers that eliminate most of the danger that Xenomorphs pose. For example, Emma Frost’s diamond form and Wolverine’s healing factor and adamantium bones.
Kieron: Absolutely. Working out how the aliens could be a threat to the X-Men is very much baked into my thinking. The acid blood goes a long way, for example. However, it also very much influenced the mutants I chose to center on, and the powers in that period. It’s not a story where Phoenix Jean Grey could turn up, for example.
But at the same time, the Colonial Marines had weapons that absolutely can deal with the aliens. All you need is things to go poorly briefly, and things can cascade. Some of this is tonal. Is this the Alien in an X-Men story or the X-Men wandering into an Alien story? This is the latter. The level of luck the X-Men have in their own universe is not true here. They’re as competent and brave as ever, but in the same way that all it took was Dallas looking in the wrong direction with his flamer to die, things can go poorly here.
AIPT: You’re also sharingAlien Vs. X-Menwith Chris Claremont. Have you had a chance to see what Chris is cooking up in his part of the series?
Kieron: I did read the first issue, which made me smile. One of the responses I’ve seen folks say when the book was announced was “But isn’t that the Brood?” and for Chris to just take that head-on is perfect.
AIPT: X-Fan John Klein III asks if there’s any chance Lockheed will appear in Alien Vs. X-Men. John says he is the greatest enemy of the Brood.
Kieron: I have yet to read Chris Claremont’s [full] script, but as he’s actually doing the Brood with them, he could. I actually did include the possibility of Lockheed in the script, but we ended up going a different way. Maybe Lockheed knew better than to get involved with this mess.
AIPT: X-Fan Michael Mitchell needs to know… what mutant ability wouldyouwant to have to survive an encounter with the Xenomorphs?
Kieron: Teleportation, ideally to teleport myself as far away as possible from these horrible alien things.
AIPT: You’ve got Cable appearing inAlien Vs. X-Men#2, which just seems perfect. But he’s also bringing a handpicked team from the future. Any teasers for who we might see among this group?
Kieron: Absolutely not — though I will say that wanting to use Cable is the main reason I included Hope in the present-day part of the story. Alien‘s parental stuff is one of the themes I like best in it, and I wanted to echo it.
AIPT: You’ve spoken aboutyour love for theAlienfranchise. Obviously, you’re no stranger to writing comics within iconic multimedia franchises (Star Warscomes to mind), but as a writer, does being a lifelong fan make an assignment likeAlien Vs. X-Menchallenging or a piece of cake?
Kieron: I think we come back to the first question. I said yes as it sounded like fun, and I was pitching something I felt would be fun to write and a delight to read. I mean, a horrible delight, but a delight anyway.
I think it helps that they are two universes with such strong flavors. I would be more intimidated writing Aliens alone — in fact, I can’t imagine myself doing a straight Alien comic. However, when you have two such powerful ideas, there’s a sense of the story dictating itself. I’m a fan of both. As such, there are ideas which I suspect anyone who loves both will very quickly think of if they chew over the idea seriously… and they’re ideas I’ll do (because they are fun ideas, and it would be rude not to give us what we want!) but also do quickly, so we can press on to more unexpected terrain.
Also, four issues. The size of the container helps determine the size of the story I’m telling.
AIPT: Finally, X-Fan Alex Dee, who is so happy to have you back in the world of X, wonders if you’re open to doing more X-related work in the future.
Kieron: Never say never, but no present plans — or, really, desire. I’ve been lucky to have two big stays in the X-Office, and the reason why I could do that is that there was a big break between the two. Doing a smaller project like this feels like a significantly different thing, at least to my brain.
AIPT: Hey, we’ll take it! But on that note, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday, Kieron!
Remember, X-Fans, Alien Vs. X-Men #1 goes on sale September 30, 2026. We’ve got that issue’s eXclusive preview below, featuring words from Kieron Gillen, art from Geraldo Borges, colors from Rain Beredo, and letters from VC’s Travis Lanham.
Next X-Men Monday – September 21, 2026
In the next edition of X-Men Monday… well, that would spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it? It’s like an X-Men Monday Blind Bag — rip it open on the 21st and see what you get!
Until then, X-Fans, stay eXceptional!
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