Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Alien: Paradiso #2!A Chestburster in theAlienfranchise is the first form of the series’iconic monster, the Xenomorph. When the Chestburster was introduced in the original 1979 film, it shocked audiences and instilled a level of visceral terror few other creatures in horror have accomplished before or since. However, the scare-factor of the Chestburster quickly took a backseat when the adultXenomorph came on screen, and it’s been like that ever since. At least, until now, asAlienfinally made the Chestbursters terrifying again.
In a preview forAlien: Paradiso#2 by Steve Foxe and Edgar Salazar, the guests staying on Paradiso - an island resort for the most wealthy individuals in the galaxy - are being confined to their rooms after the drama that unfolded in the dining room that night. In the previous issue, another guest who had just checked in was getting a drink at the bar, when suddenly, he started experiencing excruciating chest pains. Before long, a Chestburster had exploded out of his chest, and quickly ran into a nearby vent.
The preview opens with a woman and her son being escorted back to their rooms, as the owner of the resort has decided to lock down this part of the island to contain this creature. When the child goes into his room, he notices that the vent was open before hearing a noise under his bed. The boy looks and finds the Chestburster there, believing it to be a harmless animal native to the island. However, he couldn’t have been more wrong, and the Chestburster attacks the boy, assuredly killing him in truly gruesome fashion.
Alien Turns the Chestburster into a Literal ‘Monster Under the Bed’
A Chestburster Attacking a Young Boy from Underneath His Bed is a Truly Terrifying Scene
A ‘monster under the bed’ is a universal childhood fear that nearly everyone can remember experiencing when they were a kid, which is exactly why this scene is so scary. It’s not just a moment that showshow terrifyingly deadly a Xenomorph is, but it actually plays on that fear in the perfect way, with the fact that a child is the victim making this scene even more horrific. It’s as if the reader is taken back to their childhood, wondering if there’s a monster lurking under their bed, and what would happen if there actually was one.
Not only that, but anytime a child is the victim of gruesome violence in a horror series, it automatically makes the story that much scarier. Kids are more often than not off-limits in horror, as there are certain rules that are normally adhered to that audiences and readers can count on. So, when this particular rule is broken, it makes fans uneasy, as it means literally no one is safe. And to have a child die in a scene that plays on a universal childhood fear makes the whole thing that much more terrifying.
Alien’s Chestbursters were Never Scary AFTER Being Born, Until Now
A Chestburster was Always a ‘Shock-Scare’, but Now It’s a Horrifying Threat
While playing on the childhood fear of a ‘monster under the bed’ and actually pulling the trigger on having a kid be the monster’s victim makes this scene utterly horrific in a way thatAlienhas never really accomplished before, this moment also does something else for the franchise: it makes the Chestburster an actual threat. In the past, Chestbursters were only used for a ‘shock-scare’, as the visual of an alien parasite exploding out of someone’s chest is viscerally disturbing. But, after its birth, the Chestburster ceases to be scary. Now, that’s not the case.
ThisAlienissue establishes the Chestburster as a literal ‘mini-Xenomorph’ in terms of its deadliness factor. Sure, it would explode out of its victim upon its birth, but other than that, the Chestburster would run away and hide until it was fully grown, and only then would the Xenomorph run around and kill people. Now, however, it’s revealed that the Chestburster can be just as deadly as a full-grown Xenomorph, and arguably way scarier, as it’s small enough to hide where afull-grown Xenomorphnever could and attack its victims from unexpected places - in this case, from under the bed.
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This latest chapter inAliencanon actually made the Chestburster scary again, and it did so in a way that’s totally different from how it was scary originally. As previously mentioned, the Chestburster was always a ‘shock-scare’, but now it’s scary because of how unexpectedly deadly it is. Plus, in regard to this scene alone, the Chestburster literally became the ‘monster under the bed’ - a child’s nightmare come to life in theAlienuniverse.
Alien: Paradiso #2by 20th Century Studios is available June 23, 2025.
Alien
The Alien franchise, which began with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, is a Sci-Fi series comprised of several horror films, games, and comic books centered on humanity’s encounters with a hostile extraterrestrial species known as Xenomorphs. Characterized by their lethal prowess and capability to reproduce at an alarming rate, these creatures pose a profound threat to human existence. The primary series protagonist, Ellen Ripley, acts as the voice of reason as she seeks to keep the creatures out of the hands of greed-driven corporate scientists.
