Origin

Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley was one of a skeleton crew on board the Nostromo that answered a distress call from planet LV 426. One of the crew attacked by a Facehugger, they left the planet and were returning to Gateway Earth when the egg that had been planted in Kane's chest cavity had become a Chestburster and exploded from his chest, killing him, and disappeared into the ship's vast chambers.

Having grown at an accelerated rate, the Chestburster had fully developed into a dangerous Xenomorph and began picking the crew off one by one as they sought to capture it for the sake of their own safety.

Soon being the only surviving crew member, save for those that had been cocooned and beyond help, Ripley set the ship to self destruct and escaped in a lifepod with her pet cat Jonesy. But getting ready for hypersleep until she would return to Earth, she found the alien hibernating in the hull of the lifepod and blew it out of the airlock, surviving to tell the tale to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation's board of directors.

Creation

Created and developed by the screen writer Dan O'Bannon it was not Ripley that was penned to survive but Lambert, played by actress Veronica Cartwright, only with the addition of Broadway dancer and actress Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, director Ridley Scott, who had replaced director Walter Hill of 'The Warriors', felt that not only was Ripley a stronger and more favourable heroine, but also Weaver was more suited to be a lead actress and heroine.

Character Evolution

Over the years Ripley moved from struggling survivor to aggressive and pro-active alien killer, fighter against the Corporation and protector and defender of Earth and its own survivors. However with the continuation of the films as Alien 3 was made, the stories deviated too far away from each other and it was only in movie Alien: Ressurection that she was brought back to life as a heroic anti-hero half-alien clone of the original character.

Major Original Story Arc

Aliens: Earth War

Dark Horse Comics created the Aliens comic in 1988 and starting with mainstay writer Mark Verheiden's 'Outbreak' and then continuing with 'Nightmare Asylum.'

This story continued 10 years after Aliens, the James Cameron directed sequel to Scott's Alien, with Colonial Marine Corporal Dwayne Hicks depressed and disenfranchised after the extermination of his whole squad on LV 426 and Newt being held in an asylum where doctors are considering wiping her memory to rid her of her alien nightmares. Rescuing Newt for both her sake and his, Hicks takes her with him to the alien world where they discover that the insane and delusional General Spears is cultivating and weaponising the xenomorph for his own deady plan; the conquest of Earth.

Unable to stop him, they manage to escape the bloody nightmare he has left behind, killing hundreds of his own men, and stow away back to Earth with him in an attempt to stop him. They fail but so does Spears, who is torn to peices by the aliens he hoped to be able to control.

Evacuating to Gateway Earth, Hicks and Newt are reintroduced to Ripley, who informs them that she will be leading the rescue of Earth ands its people.

Earth War is the continuation of those stories and centres on Ripley, Newt and Hicks' continuing relationships as they land and establish a contingency against the alien threat on a decimated alien infested planet Earth!