Fans of the Alien vs Predator franchise are assuredly familiar with the Predalien–the unholy mixture of Xenomorph and Yautja DNA. While this creature is iconic within the franchise, one original AvP story accidentally made its existence impossible.
While Alien vs Predator is most widely known for its short-lived live-action film presence, the series has been around since the early ‘90s in the form of novels, video games, and comic books. In fact, the first AvP story appeared in the comic Dark Horse Presents #36 before becoming a legitimate Dark Horse Comics series, simply titled Aliens vs Predator. At that point, both the Alien and the Predator franchises were well established on their own, with 1979’s Alien, 1986’s Aliens, and 1987’s Predator all being huge hits. The obvious purpose of Alien vs Predator was to take those two massively popular series and merge them into one epic new franchise–unfortunately, some established Alien lore didn’t initially make the cut.
The Xenomorphs’ DNA Reflex Wasn’t Originally Included in AvP
In Dark Horse Comics’ first official AvP series, Aliens vs Predator (by Randy Stradley and Phill Norwood), a group of Predators has seeded an alien planet with Xenomorphs in order to hunt them during their Blooding Ritual (a rite of passage that every Predator must go through that requires them to kill a Xenomorph). However, this particular planet has already been claimed by a human colony, Prosperity Wells, and the people there unfortunately found themselves in the middle of a future war zone. When the Predators brought the Ovomorphs to this world, the Facehggers inside didn’t attach themselves to any humans to create Xenomorphs, but rather rhino-like alien cattle that were being raised on this world for later human consumption. After the cattle were loaded into a spaceship, the Xenomorphs growing inside a number of them hatched from their bellies–but when these Xenomorphs are shown, there is something strange about them: they look perfectly normal.
Xenomorphs only look the way fans are most familiar with because they are usually born from humans, meaning human DNA is mixed with the biological material implanted by the Facehugger in a process known as DNA reflex (also referred to as genetic or biological imprint). This is why Xenomorphs can take on drastically different appearances based on the Facehugger’s chosen host. One example of this is in the film Alien 3, when a Facehugger impregnates a dog (or ox, depending on the version of the film) and the resulting Xenomorph is much more animalistic than the ones shown in the two previous movies. Another example of the genetic imprint in-action is–quite obviously–the Predalien, which was a result of a Predator being impregnated with a Xenomorph.
The fact that the Xenomorphs looked as though they just popped out of a group of humans rather than taking on traits from the rhino-like cattle they were growing inside means that, within Alien vs Predator’s continuity, Xenomorphs didn’t originally have the genetic imprint ability, indicating that it didn’t matter what host was chosen by the Facehugger–every Xenomorph was going to come out the same anyway. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make any sense because the Predalien only exists within the Alien vs Predator universe–meaning the first official Alien vs Predator series accidentally created a plot hole that made the existence of the Predalien (arguably the most iconic and unique creature to come from the franchise) utterly impossible.
