Bodyburster

Origin

While a couple of smugglers were raiding a ship that had been downed by an Alien Queen for some of her Xenomorph eggs, they came across a particular egg coated in some strange pink slime. Despite some misgivings, they took this egg with them as well and tried to sell it to their black market buyer. He wanted nothing do do with it however, as he was certain the egg was infected with some kind of contagion, and anything that was capable of infecting a Xenomorph seemed too dangerous to have around humans. The smugglers ignored their buyer's warnings though and instead tried to sell the egg on the planet Barabazon to a Penga bar owner they knew - a Penga bar being a place where people could try drug-like extraterrestrials powerful enough to make a man be willing to eat a piece of his own brain - for example. The owner tried to pawn the egg off to media personality Darryl Zither, only for the egg to hatch its Facehugger after Zither licked the egg for no sensible reason.

Stuck with the Facehugger on his face, Zither was taken home by his not-that-helpful bodyguards. When Zither awoke the following morning after the Facehugger had detached and died, he had no recollection of what had happened, and so he went off on his scheduled trip to the newly opened pleasure planet Celeste, along with its owner, Ivy Derringer. During the flight to Celeste however, the Alien embryo that had been implanted in Zither hatched, bursting from his chest and killing Ivy, after which it devoured both her and Zither. The Alien "Bodyburster" then killed the ship's pilot after the ship landed on Celeste and Ivy's quarters were opened. It then went on to explore the rest of Celeste, leaving its diseased slime trail wherever it went.

Creation

The Bodyburster was created by writers Justin Green and Jim Woodring, along with the artist Francisco Lopez. It first appeared in issue #2 of the 1998 Aliens: Kidnapped mini-series, although the diseased egg and Facehugger from which it was spawned appeared in the 1st issue. It served as the primary Xenomorph threat for the mini-series, although the 3rd issue still had an Alien Warrior on the cover despite it not making an appearance in the series.

Major Story Arc

Aliens: Kidnapped

The Bodyburster roamed the planet Celeste and killed indiscriminately: employees, guests, young, old, infirm, any and all that crossed its aimless path died brutally. Celeste security forces mobilized as soon as they discovered their first victim and their head officer declared martial law for the planet until the as of yet unidentified Xenomorph threat was eradicated. Government officials meanwhile were alerted to a lethal viral outbreak on Barabazon, as well as the fact that Darryl Zither was presumably impregnated with a Xenomorph that carried the virus, and that the Xenomorph was now loose on Celeste. Celeste's security forces were left in the dark regarding this matter, and simply focused on eliminating the Bodyburster. Following the trail of bodies and pink slime, the security forces finally tracked down the Bodyburster after it had single-handedly killed more than a dozen people. The Bodyburster was dead when they found it though, having apparently succumb to the disease it was infected with.

Despite its death, the Bodyburster's trail of carnage continued however, as its pink slime had long ago dried and gone airborne, spreading all over Celeste. Now faced with what was classified a Class Ten virus, the government was left with little choice to prevent the disease from spreading. Barabazon was nuked, followed by the entire planet of Celeste before people could even scarcely begin panicking when the virus started making many of them burst like blood-filled balloons.

The people the Bodyburster had killed on its own were quite honestly the lucky ones in the end.

Powers & Abilities

Being essentially a large chestburster, the Bodyburster lacks the long clawed limbs and bladed tail of a full-grown Xenomorph. It also didn't appear to possess to second, inner mouth typical of most Xenomorphs. Despite these short-comings, the Bodyburster is still dangerous, as it possesses small but sharp claws, a long tail it can wrap around victims, surprising speed and leaping capabilities, and a voracious appetite. The Bodyburster was shown to have devoured nearly a quarter of an entire person in only minutes. It's small size also makes the Bodyburster very stealthy, able to hide and slip through areas most other Xenomorphs wouldn't be able to fit in.

Most devastating of all though is the virus the Bodyburster carries. It secretes this virus as a pink slime wherever it goes, after which it will dry into powder and become airborne. Once infected, a person will start exhibiting erratic behavior and spout delusional nonsense, until finally they die brutally when their body literally bursts apart like a human balloon due to a massive over-production of blood, somewhat like a hyper-accelerated form of polycythemia.