Written by: Chris Roberson
Art by: Patric Reynolds
Publisher: Dark Horse
Of the five ongoing stories in what I’ve been calling the “Dark Horse Shared Universe,” Alien: Fire and Stone is the weakest. Issue 1 was a bit lopsided, being strong on the gore but weak on the narration; Issue 2 tries to fix that narrative balance by going in the completely opposite direction. Be prepared for lots of exposition.
The problem isn’t in what information is being delivered as its all mostly interesting; no, the problem is in quantity. There are narrative bubbles in every panel, and the constant barrage of facts and developments turns what could be a good story into a vomit of exposition.
Things are moving along too quickly, yet in a way, it feels like very little has happened.
Russell and company are now stranded on LV223 with a small army of Xenomrophs after them. This is our Issue 2 opening, and one that I’m perfectly fine with. But a few panels later and nine days have passed. In the next panel, another nine days have passed. The immediate threat gets washed away in time jumps, and that’s a real shame as the immediate threat wants to feel so…threatening.
The surviving humans spend their whole time on LV223 in an ongoing debate: Should they go back and kill the Xenomorphs or find a place to plant and build fortifications? By the end of the comic and after a few months, this debate hasn’t been solved. I can’t tell if this is realistic or not (political satire!), but I don’t like the wishywashyness of it. Nothing concrete happens, and this series is only four comics long. Spending an entire comic just advancing the time and nothing else feels like a severe waste of page space.
And the sad part, really, is that the background ideas really are terrifying. To spend months on an alien planet being followed, stalked, killed, and all in a leisurely fashion, is horrifying. But I don’t get a real sense of that, despite all of the Xenomorph attacks. I almost feel jaded to them. “Well of course you guys keep dieing! You’re not doing anything but running and hoping for the best.”
The upsides here remain the same as in Issue 1 though. The art is great, and though there are less close-up shots of death , the comic more than makes up for that in wonderful scenery. Russell, too, remains a fun main character to follow along. He’s a little geeky, and probably too inquisitive for everyone’s own good, including his own.
And who is he talking too!?
Alien: Fire and Stone #2 is a step down, but the last panel gives me hope for better things to come. If nothing else, I feel compelled to read it just to see how Russell’s story effects the other stories in Dark Horse’s shared universe.
