Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Avengers vs. Aliens #1!Alienof Xenomorphs are perfect living weapons, nearly invincible killing machines that don't just kill their victims, but use them as hosts for reproduction – which still results in the death of their victims. Everything else must die for the xenomorph to survive, much like a virus that spreads and spreads until there is nothing left to infect this alien species. But now humanity may have found the 'cure' Alien introduces an anti-xenomorph weapon that can completely destroy aliens.
In Aliens vs. Avengers #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić, two synthetics, breeding xenomorphs to plant worlds in the universe, one of those worlds being Earth. The events of this series only took a year after the Xenomorph transport ships landed on Earth for the aliens to take over completely. The rest of humanity is forced to hide in a mega-city fortress, but they're not out of the fight yet. Among the survivors is Valeria Richards, daughter of Sue Storm and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four and arguably one of the smartest Marvel characters in this or any other universe.
Valeria Richards is absorbed by the Xenomorph Facehugger
For a genius like Valeria, this proves to be the undoing of the Xenomorphs
In search of a solution, Valeria successfully enters a xenomorph lair and takes an Ovomorph to experiment on the Facehugger egg and discover the Xenomorphs' weakness. Unfortunately, Val doesn't make it out unscathed as he's impregnated with a Xenomorph embryo. However, he still returns to the fortress of humanity and, knowing that he doesn't have much time, gets right to work.
In the end, Valeria is unable to complete her objective without the Xenomorph inside her exploding from her chest (as it is known), but the progress she's made up to that point gives her the chance to acquire a true anti-Xenomorph weapon with enough weapons. work done for others to continue. The bottom line is that humanity now has a fighting chance. And that weapon is the Xenomorph virus.
Alien reveals the best way to defeat the Xenomorphs: infect them with a deadly virus
The image above is from the cover of Titan Books.
Alien: Prototype
which explores the idea of the Xenomorph virus!
The biggest weakness of the Xenomorphs is their supposed susceptibility to infection from a virus specifically designed to kill them, given that they have existed as something similar to a virus for potentially eons. While clever, this isn't all that surprising since the Xenomorphs are too resilient to withstand anything other than a species-wide pandemic. It's just that humanity has never had to resort to anything like this before, and there's never been anyone smart enough to develop such a weapon – at least not until now.
Valeria may not have finished the Xenomorph virus, but she set the stage for others to finish what she started, and the Marvel Universe has no shortage of geniuses, even after being decimated by the Xenomorphs. Earth isn't the only planet the two synthetics have sent the Xenomorphs to, meaning the Avengers simply have to communicate with other affected worlds and share their research. If there is no one left on Earth who can do it, someone out there can finish Val's job and create a virus that will destroy the Xenomorphs forever.
Humanity has another way to defeat the Xenomorphs in Aliens vs. Avengers: Symbiotes
“A parasite chooses a parasite. The Symbiote is superior to the Xenomorph in appearance”
When Miles Morales gets the Facehugger, the symbiote Spider-Man wears prevents the alien from impregnating him. The symbiote infects the Facehugger and completely takes over the alien, which seems like it will play a role in how humanity defeats the Xenomorphs (especially now that Valerie is gone), and it's a pretty solid strategy. However, symbiotes beating the Xenomorphs is not the same as humanity beating the Xenomorphs. Sure, it would work for humanity in the short term, but then there's the matter of the symbiote-controlled Xenomorphs being unleashed, which would be just as bad, if not worse.
Even with the strategy of using friendly symbiotes as weapons, the only real way for humanity to win is to create a virus strain that only attacks Xenomorphs. Currently, the idea of such a weapon has only been introduced, and the only person who knows how to complete it has died. However, this idea is enough because it shows that there is hope that humanity can actually defeat Xenomorphs in Alien knowledge once and for all.
Aliens vs Avengers #1 Available now by Marvel Comics.