WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Alien #1 by Philip Kennedy Johnson, Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX, on sale now
One of the biggest ambitions the Weyland-Yutani Corporation has in the Alien franchise is creating Xenomorph soldiers they can weaponize. With its proficiency in tech and biology, war's always been something the higher-ups could naturally profit off -- which is why the movies had their science teams -- despite being fearful of these dangerous creatures, intrigued by engineering them. And in Marvel's Alien #1, a shocking discovery reveals they may have just created the ultimate super-soldier.
In this story, set in 2200, a military general, Gabe, has been discharged from Weyland-Lutani's Epsilon space station and tries to restart life on Earth. However, he's dealing with serious trauma after an apparent Xenomorph outbreak on the station, which suggests Epsilon holds much darker secrets than is being let on. The flashbacks of Gabe mourning soldiers after escaping raises the question of whether they're just a manifestation of his guilt or if he truly did escape a fiasco.
However, the fact this ordeal happened and his son, Lucas, died due to the company says a lot since he hasn't yet taken the company to task. Plus, a key revelation comes to light towards the end of the issue that implicates him. His other son, Danny, is part of an extremist group that hates the company and heads up to Epsilon to steal info. After infiltrating Epsilon, they'd discover a lab with Xenomorphs in tanks, including a chamber for an unrevealed "alpha." Shockingly, these don't look like the aliens of old; they have humanoid features.
Sadly, in their haste, Danny's team causes yet another outbreak, which will likely shed light into what exactly has been created and which version of the Xenomorph has been unleashed. More so, it sets the stage for the bombshell of what role Gabe had in the soldiers' deaths. As for how this project could occur, a lot of it will depend on what access Epsilon has with respect to Ripley's past.
At the end of Aliens, set in 2179, Ripley is in stasis on the Sulaco ship after battling more aliens on LV-426. This set the stage for Alien 3, where the corporation came to harvest a queen's embryo from inside her on Fury 161, the prison colony, so it might be that Epsilon scavenged DNA from the destruction she left behind, or it could be genetic material was taken from separate missions hunting Xenomorphs, with Gabe's soldiers being test subjects.
Ultimately, Epsilon does seem to be the prototype for Alien Resurrection in 2379, where human-Xenomorph experiments are in full swing, including a cloned Ripley being mother to a new queen. However, in this story, these hybrids could be rougher and tougher to control.