Alien: Bloodlines (2021): Plot, Characters & Lore

Published: March to August 2021
Issues: Alien (2021) #1 to #6
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colors: GURU-eFX
Lettering: VC's Clayton Cowles
Cover: InHyuk Lee
Editor: Jake Thomas, Darren Shan
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Format: Six-issue comic series
Setting: Epsilon Station, Earth
Followed By: Alien: Revival

Alien: Bloodlines is a six-issue comic series published by Marvel Comics from March to August 2021, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and drawn by Salvador Larroca. It was the opening arc of Marvel's first ongoing Alien series, released as Alien #1 to #6. Set in 2200, it follows retired Weyland-Yutani security chief Gabriel Cruz, who was sent back to the orbital research station Epsilon after his son Danny helped militants break in and the station's Xenomorph specimens got loose.

Plot Summary

Nightmares Of The Hive

Gabriel Cruz cocooned in a Xenomorph hive during his nightmare in Alien: Bloodlines

In January 2200, Gabriel Cruz was the chief of security aboard Epsilon Orbital Research and Development Station, a Weyland-Yutani facility in orbit around Earth. He was haunted by a recurring nightmare of a hive full of Xenomorphs and a biomechanical woman waiting in the dark. Cruz described the dream during a counseling session with a Bishop-model android, who treated the woman as the key to the dream and suggested they look into her meaning once Cruz was back on Earth.

The company had retired Cruz early, and executive Ted Reynolds hosted a farewell party for him on the station. Cruz thanked the staff in a speech, told them their research was crucial for the survival of the species and called Weyland-Yutani the good guys. He also told the crowd that he hoped to spend as much time as he could with his son once he settled on Earth. The crowd cheered him, and Cruz then left Epsilon for the United Americas.

Danny Raids Epsilon Station

A secret biolab of specimen tanks aboard Epsilon Station in Alien: Bloodlines

Back on Earth, Cruz invited his estranged son Danny to his new apartment. The visit soon turned into an argument about the company and about the family Cruz had left behind, and Cruz shouted at Danny as he walked out. Danny was secretly a member of the anti-company Minute Hand Movement, and he left with his father's Weyland-Yutani security card. That night Cruz dreamed of being cocooned again, and the next day he told a different Bishop unit about an illness he had kept from Danny.

Danny and a group of militants flew a shuttle to Epsilon Station and used the stolen card to get aboard, killing two security guards in the control room. Their target was the station's server farm, but they found a hidden biolab full of tanks holding deformed creatures and a container marked A5823-26A Alpha. A scientist named Jackie triggered a lockdown with a voice override and was shot. The lab then released its specimens, and the intruders were attacked by facehuggers.

Sent Back To Epsilon

Gabriel Cruz in a dropship with Weyland-Yutani defense agents bound for Epsilon Station in Alien: Bloodlines

Early the next morning, Ted Reynolds visited Cruz and told him that Danny had used his card to break into the station. The facility was overrun, losing its orbit and cut off from contact, and the company held Cruz responsible. Reynolds offered him one way out. Cruz would return to Epsilon and recover the Alpha embryo, or face life in prison for corporate terrorism. Cruz agreed on the condition that Danny receive full immunity, but his request for combat synthetics was refused.

Reynolds instead sent two Weyland-Yutani defense agents, Hamilton and Lewandowski, who mocked Cruz as an old man on the flight up. Cruz told them the operation was off the books, that nobody else was coming, and that going home without the specimen would be worse than staying aboard. On the way, Cruz remembered a mission from twenty years earlier, when a company squad had boarded a ship that had gone silent. The dropship then docked with the damaged station.

Ambushed In The Laboratory

A Xenomorph Drone standing over Lewandowski in a red-lit lab aboard Epsilon Station in Alien: Bloodlines

Inside, the team found wrecked corridors, blood and abandoned belongings. Cruz warned the agents to treat anything that was not human as a threat and to kill any survivor who might be carrying an embryo. In the red emergency light of the biolab, he discovered that the Alpha container had been opened and the specimen was gone. A young woman who called herself Dorsey, an intern in a lab coat, came out of hiding and told them the creatures had been released.

Facehuggers then attacked the group. In the struggle, Lewandowski was caught by a full-grown Drone that ripped into his chest. Hamilton and Cruz fired on the creature, and Lewandowski kept shooting as he died, until the Drone dragged him away into the station. Hamilton argued that they were outmatched and should leave. Cruz refused, because returning without the Alpha would still mean prison for him and no immunity for Danny.

Remembering The Hadley

Corcoran Highland goats with facehugger marks aboard the livestock ship Hadley in Alien: Bloodlines

Twenty years earlier, Cruz had been one of the Weyland-Yutani security agents sent to investigate the drifting livestock and freight ship Hadley, along with a Bishop unit. In the cargo hold they found a herd of Corcoran Highland goats, beasts of burden used on off-world colonies. The animals had strange marks on their faces, and some of them had already been torn open. The squad moved deeper into the ship to find out what had happened to the crew, unaware that the herd had been used as hosts.

Back on Epsilon, Cruz and Hamilton fought off two Drones in the corridors and then reached the quarters of Mitch, a resident Cruz knew. Mitch was grieving for his granddaughter Trudy and told them that a creature had taken her from the room. Cruz noticed fresh facehugger marks on the old man's face. Knowing an embryo was already growing inside Mitch, Cruz shot him in the back of the head.

Unmasking Iris

The Epsilon Station Bishop holding an incinerator in a burning corridor in Alien: Bloodlines

Cruz then turned his pistol on the intern. She admitted that she was not Dorsey, but Iris, a member of Danny's group who had come aboard with him. Iris accused Cruz of caring more about the company's specimen than about his own son. Before the standoff ended, a chestburster broke out of Mitch's body and attacked Hamilton, biting off one of his fingers. In the confusion, Iris escaped into the station.

A Drone then forced its way through a door and moved in on Cruz and Hamilton. The creature was driven back by a burst of fire from an incinerator. The weapon was carried by the Bishop unit assigned to Epsilon, who had stayed aboard the failing station. Bishop told Cruz that there was always something he did not know, and offered to lead them to the place where the creatures had been taking their victims.

Finding Danny In The Hive

Cruz, Hamilton and Bishop entering the Xenomorph hive aboard Epsilon Station in Alien: Bloodlines

Bishop led Cruz and Hamilton through the burning engineering decks to the hive the creatures had built inside Epsilon. The resin walls were full of residents who had been taken there alive, and Cruz searched them for his son. The resin had spread over whole sections of the engineering deck, and the walls were lined with victims. Inside, they found cocooned crew members, some already dead. Among the victims was Danny, held in the resin with a facehugger on his face.

Cruz drew his pistol to kill his son before the embryo could hatch. Iris stepped out and held him at gunpoint, insisting that Danny could still be saved. Bishop sided with her. Cruz answered that the decision was his, and revealed how Weyland-Yutani had obtained its first Xenomorph. The specimen had grown inside his own chest after the Hadley mission, and the company had cut it out of him. In the end Cruz gave in and cut Danny free.

Racing To The Docking Bay

The horned Alpha Xenomorph roaring in a corridor of Epsilon Station in Alien: Bloodlines

Carrying Danny, the group fought its way out of the hive with Xenomorphs closing in from every side. Bishop covered their retreat with the incinerator while Cruz and Hamilton fired behind them. They reached the docking bay, where Hamilton ran ahead and opened the airlock to the dropship. Several creatures were already waiting on the other side and killed him, and Cruz sealed the door to save the others, cutting them off from their ship.

Cruz then ordered Bishop and Iris to take Danny to the executive quarters, where a life raft was attached to the station. Opening those quarters required Cruz's authorization, and he agreed to join them there. He knew that the creature hunting them was after the embryo in Danny. A roar came through the corridors, and the horned Alpha appeared, fully grown, the creature that had once been cut from Cruz's chest.

Running From The Alpha

Xenomorphs with goat-like horns attacking Cruz's squad aboard the Hadley in Alien: Bloodlines

Cruz drew the Alpha away from the others and took the long way around the station. As he ran, he remembered the end of the Hadley mission. The goats had been hosts, and horned Xenomorphs born from them had killed or cocooned his squad. Cruz woke in the hive with a facehugger on his face and the others dying around him. The squad's Bishop pulled him out and put him into a hypersleep chamber on their ship.

Bishop wrote the words Alien Inside on the glass of the chamber, and the ship reached Epsilon just in time. Company surgeons removed the creature from Cruz's chest, and it became Weyland-Yutani's first captured Xenomorph and the start of the station's research. The survivor was praised as a company hero and became chief of security aboard the station. Twenty years later, the same creature was hunting him through the corridors of Epsilon.

Escaping In The Life Raft

An explosion tearing through Epsilon Station in orbit in Alien: Bloodlines

While escorting Danny, Iris told Bishop what she knew about the Cruz family. Years earlier, Danny and his older brother Lucas had been playing aboard Epsilon when Lucas became trapped in an unmarked maintenance shuttle and suffocated. Cruz's wife sued the company, but Weyland-Yutani persuaded Cruz to drop the lawsuit. His wife then left him and took Danny with her. Iris mocked Bishop for being artificial and said Cruz had stayed on the company fast track ever since, until a recent diagnosis ended his career.

Cruz arrived at the executive quarters wounded, with the Alpha and other Xenomorphs close behind. He threw a belt of grenades behind him and sealed the hatch as they boarded the life raft. The raft broke away from Epsilon, and an explosion ripped through the station behind them. Inside, Cruz found that the raft's hypersleep tube was broken and could not keep the embryo in Danny from growing. He begged Bishop to cut the creature out by hand, but Iris shot Bishop in the head and knocked Cruz down.

Iris And The Woman In The Dark

The Woman in the Dark from Gabriel Cruz's visions in Alien: Bloodlines

Iris cradled Danny and told him he was finally going to save the world, then contacted her group to report that she had him. Bishop was not destroyed. He got back up, took a pulse rifle and shot Iris down. Her wounds showed that she was a synthetic as well. Iris had broken free of her programming and acted on her own will, and she had wanted the embryo in Danny for the movement.

Dying, Iris told Cruz about the Woman in the Dark from his dreams. She called the figure the end result of humanity's attempts to control the creatures, a cleansing fire that kept the universe clean. Iris blamed Cruz for finding that fire and bringing it home, then shut down. Ted Reynolds then appeared on a screen. He warned Cruz that the embryo was company property and that the raft would be sent falling from orbit if they removed it.

Fighting The Alpha In Orbit

The Alpha Xenomorph attacking Gabriel Cruz in a spacesuit on the hull outside the station in Alien: Bloodlines

Cruz refused. He pointed out that Reynolds, once a defense agent himself, had called in sick before the Hadley mission, and asked whether he had known what was waiting aboard. Reynolds ended the call and shut down the raft's engines. Cruz put on a pressure suit and went outside to separate the raft from the station manually. Bishop guided him over the radio toward the coupling mechanisms that held the raft in place. Cruz released the first lines, but the Alpha, which had survived the grenades and clung to the outside of the station, came across the hull and attacked him there.

Cruz fought the Alpha on the hull until a blast threw them both into space. As they burned up together, Cruz did not see the Woman in the Dark. He saw his wife, Lucas and Danny, smiling in an old family photo. Hours later, Danny woke in the raft after Bishop had removed the embryo surgically. Bishop told him they were entering United Americas airspace. Danny said he had dreamed of something in the dark looking for him. Beside his bed was a black cat with small facehugger marks on its face.

Key Characters

Gabriel Cruz was the retired chief of security of Epsilon Station and the only survivor of the Hadley mission. The Alpha was cut from his chest, and he died fighting it in orbit to save his son.
Danny Cruz was Gabriel's estranged son and a member of the Minute Hand Movement. He stole his father's security card, was facehugged aboard Epsilon and survived after Bishop removed the embryo.
Bishop was the Bishop-model android serving aboard Epsilon. He saved Cruz and Hamilton with an incinerator, survived being shot by Iris and operated on Danny in the life raft.
Iris was a Minute Hand Movement operative who first posed as an intern named Dorsey. She was revealed as a free-willed synthetic and shut down after Bishop shot her.
Ted Reynolds was the Weyland-Yutani executive who hosted Cruz's retirement party, forced him back to Epsilon and shut down the raft's engines when Cruz defied him.
Hamilton and Lewandowski were the two company defense agents sent with Cruz. A Drone killed Lewandowski in the biolab, and Hamilton died at the docking bay airlock.
Mitch was an Epsilon resident whose granddaughter Trudy was taken by the creatures. Cruz shot him after seeing facehugger marks on his face.
The Alpha was the horned Xenomorph born from Cruz after the Hadley mission and kept by the company as specimen A5823-26A. It died with Cruz in orbit.

Alien Annual #1 Prequel

Alien Annual #1 was a double-sized one-shot released on July 20, 2022, again written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and drawn by Salvador Larroca, and it was Larroca's last issue as the series artist. Set in 2193, years before Bloodlines, it followed Cruz in his prime as a Weyland-Yutani security chief aboard the USS Francis Marion, sent with a squad to retake Nishimura Station from anti-company militants. The team's combat synthetic Charlie secretly released a Xenomorph on the ship as a trial run for the company.

Charlie turned out to be Ash in a new body, and Cruz was the only survivor of the ship. Marvel promoted the issue as the story of Cruz's original deadly run-in with the Xenomorph. Johnson said the chapter was meant to belong on the shelf beside the films and beside Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a game he had played since its release, with Cruz facing Xenomorphs and combat synths alongside his fellow soldiers. The annual was not part of the Bloodlines trade paperback. It was collected in Alien Vol. 2: Revival and later in Alien: Galaxy of Nightmares.

Collected Editions

Marvel Comics released the six issues monthly from March to August 2021 under the series title Alien, each with a main cover by InHyuk Lee. Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote the series, Salvador Larroca drew it, GURU-eFX colored it and VC's Clayton Cowles lettered it. Jake Thomas edited all six issues, joined by Darren Shan on the final one. The first issue was the first new Alien comic from Marvel after it took over the license from Dark Horse Comics.

The trade paperback Alien Vol. 1: Bloodlines was released on October 19, 2021, collecting Alien #1 to #6 with Lee's first cover and a gallery of variant covers. On June 3, 2025, Marvel collected Johnson's whole run in the 456-page paperback Alien: Galaxy of Nightmares, which reprinted Alien (2021) #1 to #12, Alien (2022) #1 to #6 and Alien Annual #1. That volume put Bloodlines alongside its sequel arc Alien: Revival and the later Alien: Icarus.

Behind The Scenes

Phillip Kennedy Johnson told Bloody Disgusting that he learned of Marvel's Alien license from the public announcement and contacted Jordan White, his editor on Marvel Zombies: Resurrection, to ask for the book. He chose to tell the story from the perspective of a company man rather than a clean hero, giving a rare look inside Weyland-Yutani's bureaucracy. The comic introduced the surgical removal that gave the company its first Xenomorph, as well as the Woman in the Dark later revisited in Icarus.

The first issue carried a large set of variant covers, including art by David Finch, Patrick Gleason, Peach Momoko, Todd Nauck, Salvador Larroca, Steve McNiven, Ron Lim and Skottie Young. Later issues had variants by Stephanie Hans, Carlos Pacheco, Adam Kubert, Philip Tan, Olivier Coipel, Ken Lashley, Mico Suayan, Jay Anacleto and Leinil Francis Yu. In Marvel's Alien line, the series ran at the same time as Aliens: Aftermath and was followed by Alien: Revival, which continued in Alien #7 to #12.

Conclusion

Alien: Bloodlines is Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Salvador Larroca's 2021 Marvel series collected as Alien Vol. 1. It follows Gabriel Cruz from his retirement party back to the failing Epsilon Station, where the specimen once cut from his chest had been released. The story ends with Cruz dying in orbit while fighting the Alpha, Bishop removing the embryo from Danny, and a black cat with facehugger marks waiting beside the survivor's bed. It is listed among the best Alien comics on the site.