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Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures,

ideas, and monsters in time.

Previously on The Monster Fact, I devoted an eight-part series to the various xenomorphic organisms

of the alien universe, along with bonus episodes on the creatures of alien Earth

and the events of the Aliens versus Avengers comics crossover.

If you're new to the podcast, you can find these and other episodes in the Stuff to Blow

Your Mind archive wherever you get your podcast.

So I covered a number of alien forms, but I skipped over one of the most iconic xenomorphs

of all time, the alien queen. Perhaps because she's such a high profile and beloved monster,

I figured there just might not be that much new to highlight. And hey, maybe there isn't, but here we go.

You'll of course remember the queen from

1986's aliens in which Ripley and her fellow survivors find out exactly what's laying all of

those eggs at the heart of the LV-426 terraforming colony. The xenomorph queen proves a deadly and

highly intelligent adversary, capable of coordinating the other xenomorphs in her hive, as well as exploiting human technology.

Basically, she resembles the various other alien morphs in her hive, only much larger in stature, with an enormous armored head crest, dorsal spikes on her back,

in a second set of arms,

I assume for egg manipulation

or possibly resin manipulation.

Because of course, when established at the center of a hive,

...