Alien 3 Ruined Aliens' Epic Comic Sequel Where Newt & Hicks Survived
The decision to kill off Aliens' Newt and Hicks in Alien 3 has long been controversial and a comic sequel that came out before the third film was significantly altered as a result. Aliens: Outbreak and two more series from Dark Horse Comics provided a new story for Hicks and Newt to be part of. However, the release of Aliens 3 resulted in this comic not only becoming non-canon, it also changed up future printings of Outbreak.
Two years after Aliens was released, Dark Horse Comics started to release Aliens: Outbreak. This comic was then followed up by two sequels titled, Aliens: Nightmare Asylum (simply called Aliens at the time of publication) and Aliens: Earth War (which would later be renamed Aliens: Female War). These comics were published from 1988 to 1991. Outbreak has the creative team of Mark Verheiden, Mark A. Nelson, Ron Randall, and Willie Schubert. Aliens: Nightmare Asylum has the creative team of Mark Verheiden, Den Beauvais, and Roger Casselman. Aliens: Female War has the creative team of Mark Verheiden, Sam Kieth, Pat Brosseau, and John Bolton.
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Once Alien 3 released in 1992, the collective comic sequel (consisting of those three connected titles) was rendered non-canonical and underwent quite a few changes. Dark Horse Comics renamed Newt Billie and changed Corporal Dwayne Hicks to Sergeant David Wilks. Even more surprising is that the Ellen Ripley who appears within these stories was eventually retconned by a novel adaptation of Female War, making her a synthetic. This allowed the character to be present and for this story to exist somehow in the franchise's universe despite the heroine's death in Alien 3 since it takes place many years
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