Alien vs. Predator

I’m a big fan of a series crossover. I am fully aware it’s almost always a gimmick to pull in fans of two characters or storylines into one uber-fan base. But I also don’t really care. Batman vs. Superman? Sweet. Venom vs. Punisher? Kickass. Alien vs. Predator? Now we’re talking. I am so enamored of the series that I attempted to determine just what is so compelling about the triumvirate of forces: man, alien, and predator. In layman’s terms, I tried to figure out why it’s so freaking cool. The first thing I noticed was the nature of the human component of the trio. The race, religion, background, and personality of the human varied widely but one thing was constant; it was always a woman. Truthfully, this made no sense to me. From an archetypal perspective, the most common role of a woman in battle is the Psychic. From Cassandra of Troy to Jean Grey the leading lady always has mystic abilities like seeing the future or sensing the actions of the enemy. Women’s intuition is famous throughout time and across all cultural lines. But the human protagonist in Alien vs. Predator was always quite mundane. I didn’t get it so I moved on… The Predator is pretty easy to break down. He’s over seven feet tall and ripped like Mr. Universe. He packs an awesome arsenal of Alien-killing weaponry and has an iron-clad code of honor that forbids him to kill women, children or unarmed men. It was so obvious once I really looked at the image of the Predator: he’s a dreadlock-topped, laser-toting, Alien-killing God of War. And being a God excuses his inhuman characteristics, like having a repulsive crab-like orifice where his mouth should be. Plenty of religions—from the ancient Egyptians to modern Hindus—have worshiped gods with human bodies and animal heads. Also, the Predator is what psychologists call “male identified.” He has all the typical male characteristics: he’s big, smelly, ugly, and likes to kill stuff. His honorable masculinity is in total contrast to… The Alien is one of the best characters in sci-fi because it achieved what so few fictional characters have: utter inhumanity. Not only are the aliens physically repulsive, with their phallic-shaped heads, phallic-shaped secondary jaws, and general hissing, clawing, sliminess, but they are elevated to a whole ‘nother level of icky by the fact that the bigger, slimier, ickier matriarch sends out her drones to collect and infect humans with her arachnoid offspring, forcing human men to go through a really hideous parody of birth when the larvae explode out of their abdomens. She’s like a horrible alien rapist. Which brings us back to… The Human woman is key to this whole struggle. Both the Alien and the Predator blaze a bloody trail through all the men in the series: geeky scientist and brawny soldier alike. As alway in literature and the movies, it takes Beauty to tame the Beast. The female character is always rather pretty, reasonably brainy and a total badass. She is smaller and weaker than her male counterparts. But as those who read the books will know, in the Predator's species, the male is smaller than the female: and he is the interstellar hunter. And it is not her powerful muscles that impress the warrior; it is her powerful sense of honor. The Predator and the human woman have a special kind of relationship, a mutually respectful male/female duo that is constrained by biology to be chaste: a union of honor. For humans, it is a special combination of everything male and everything female that eventually conquers the Enemy. It is that appeal to our collective memory that makes Alien vs. Predator so compelling. That, and the shoulder-mounted laser cannon. Disclaimer: My loyal fanbase (a.k.a Justin) has pointed out something that needs clarification. While most of the images on theis page are from the AVP movie, that is only because they were the most appealing to my aesthetic sense. The actual content and all my commentary are based on the graphic and literary novels. I not condone, recommend or even deign to review the movie. Thanks for reading!