Written by: Paul Tobin
Art by: Juan Ferreyra
Publisher: Dark Horse
In my review of Aliens vs. Predator: Fire and Stone #1, I said that Dark Horse was attempting a large shared universe similar to that of Marvel or DC. Prometheus: Fire and Stone #2 cements this into reality, though Dark Horse’s attempts at weaving so many stories together is, perhaps, clumsy.
If you’ve read AvP:FaS #1, you’ll know how the P:FaS storyline will ultimately end, which is a bit of a problem given that it’s only on its second installment.
That all being said, P:FaS is shaping up to be something pretty entertaining, though as of Issue 2, there are enough Xenomorphs running around for this to be another Aliens comic. That’s…on the whole, a good thing, though it feels a bit too coincidental for my tastes. Still, more Xenomorphs!
Our plotline is thus: Another crew of astronauts has landed on LV223 in the guise of a salvaging mission, though the real goal is to finish Weyland’s original search for mankind’s God. They land on LV223 expecting a wasteland only to be greeted with a jungle. As it turns out, the black mutagen the Engineers in the Prometheus film were carrying spilled all over the place and populated what was once a desert.
Issue 2 opens up with the main research group uncovering not a Weyland craft but a very old ship from LV426 (this would be the craft in Aliens: Fire and Stone #1). They enter and immediately get attacked by Xenomorphs.
As they run from the aliens we all know and love, they quickly learn that the jungle the black goo created decided to populate it with an ecosystem based off of the Xenomorph design and aggression. There are some very impressive monsters in this series, and all of them are violent.
Meanwhile, Francis and his android pall Elden are off experimenting with the black goo, though if you’ve read AvP:FaS #1, you’ll already know how that turns out.
On the art front, the comic looks great. I love the different wildlife LV223 now possesses, especially the monkey things. The jungle looks ominous and overly present, and the Xenomorphs are as delightful as ever. That being said, there’s something that just isn’t as engaging going on here. I liked the art, but I didn’t notice it as much as I did other comic books in this Dark Horse universe.
As far as shared universes go, this one is a bit too chaotic and messy as of right now. I really shouldn’t know the end of this four-issue arc simply because I read the first issue of a different arc; however, the content here and in the first issue of P:FaS is entertaining. I’m looking forward to more.
(I’ll also need to track down Predator: Fire and Stone #1 to see how those monsters fit in with all of this.)
