Warning! This article contains spoilers for Devil’s Reign: Villains for Hire #1
With the Kingpin’s hostile takeover of New York with the use of a new anti-superhero law in Marvel Comics, Wilson Fisk has deputized supervillains to maintain his version of law and order including one symbiote soldier who recently exhibited a forgotten ability used by Alien’s Xenomorphs. The symbiote villain known as Agony has joined the ranks of the Kingpin’s Thunderbolts, a team of villains that usually only form when there is crime to be done, but are now the highest law enforcement authority in New York City. While enacting their brutal form of justice, Agony displays a power that many fans have forgotten is also shared with the Xenomorphs.
In Devil’s Reign: Villains for Hire #1 by Clay McLeod Chapman and Manuel Garcia, a terrorist group attacks the Met Gala as they want to make the wealthy suffer for what they consider to be frivolous spending while so many people live in poverty around the world. Before too much damage is done, Kingpin’s Thunderbolts team arrives to bring the extremist group to justice, with one exception. The Thunderbolts’ form of justice is far more brutal as they are shown freely killing members of the organization rather than arresting them. One person is killed by the symbiote Agony in a way that is horrifyingly familiar to fans of the Alien franchise.
Agony spits acid on the extremist soldier, melting him until he is no more than bone dripping with mutilated flesh. That same attack has been displayed by Alien’s Xenomorphs most prominently shown in the film, Alien: Resurrection. In the film, a Xenomorph cloning facility on the deep space vessel Auriga becomes overrun with the creatures. A group of space pirates, along with the clone of Ripley, are trying to escape. While making their way to their ship, one of the space pirates named Christie is attacked by a Xenomorph just as the terrorist was attacked by Agony on Kingpin’s orders in Devil’s Reign. The Xenomorph spits acid at Christie and burns him horribly, permanently mutilating his face.
Aside from the acid-spitting attack, there aren’t too many similarities between Xenomorphs and symbiotes despite their similar nature. Symbiotes survive by latching to a host and multiplying with their offspring latching to their own hosts, a practice that could quickly take over a planet. Xenomorphs need hosts to multiply but once an alien is born, that is the extent of the host requirement making their one similarity not all that similar. However, in the case of Agony, the Xenomorph and symbiote share the same ability making them practically identical in the eyes of their victims.
The new Villains for Hire have made quite the brutal impression upon their first Devil’s Reign tie-in comic and it doesn’t seem like fans will have any shortage of them. Not only has a second issue already been teased, but this new Thunderbolts lineup are the heavy hitters in Kingpin’s superhero-free city who will assuredly continue to enforce Fisk’s new law throughout the Devil’s Reign event. Plus, with Kingpin having his own symbiote soldier in the form of Agony, those who rise up against him will have to face the terrifying ability Agony shares with Alien’s Xenomorphs.
