Prometheus: Fire and Stone is part of Dark Horse’s four-part crossover project, involving the Aliens, Predator, Aliens vs. Predator (AVP), and Prometheus franchises, and coming before the release of the second Prometheus movie sometime next year (I think).
I must confess that I didn’t like the first Prometheus movie—though director Ridley Scott of course did a technically masterful job (as he always does)—mainly because I didn’t see a need to ‘explain’ where the aliens from Aliens franchise came from. I liked having it as a mystery, and a horror ‘out there,’ versus related to us humans. And to find out that we were created by the “creators” was somehow a let down, made up for only by the fact that once the creators came out of cryofreeze sleep (or whatever) they were horrified at what we’d become, an par with the aliens!
Prometheus: Fire and Stone Issues #1 and #2 take up well after the first Prometheus movie, with a salvage crew returning to Moon 223, from the movie, to find and take back a crashed ship, though, as these things go, the Captain knows a wee bit more than the crew about what exactly they’re looking for. And we readers know even more, since we’ve seen the first Prometheus movie. And, if we haven’t, Tobin does his best to explain what’s going on without spoiling things, or slowing them down. Though even then, having seen the movie, I found myself a little lost. But lost is OK, I guess; it helps add to the horror to come.
Tobin slips in exposition with the premise of a documentary. Clara Atkinson is attached to the crew as the documentarian, and the first part of issue #1 involves her going around interviewing the main characters with her roving flying camera-balls, and panels from camera POVs are interspersed throughout both issues, which adds to the story, in that, like in the original Prometheus movie, some characters are motivated by a quest for a God-like Creator, and we readers end up assuming that role, omniscient (a little) and knowing more than any of the characters, yet also helpless to help them after some of the bad choices they make, which is an interesting way to think about God.
By Issue #2, the Aliens xenomorphs are in action (sorry for the spoiler, but you kinda knew something like that was gonna happen, right?) which actually I was a little surprised about, since the story thus turns into an Aliens story, instead of Prometheus, but the whole point of this project is to tie together all four of the franchises and give an explanation of a timeline. Still, I thought the actual xenomorphs were a little farther in the future, and we might see earlier versions of them. And, there are still some other surprises. And, some of the humans inevitably make bad decisions, which just makes everything worse, like in real life.
One weird problem in Dark Horse’s four new series is the timing: Prometheus takes place before the other series, yet the other series are already coming out, with some of the same characters. I kind of want to finish this one before I jump into Aliens vs. Predator: Fire and Stone, since I’ll know which characters survived Prometheus: Fire and Stone. And I’m sorry for that spoiler too.
Hard to believe Prometheus: Fire and Stone will only be four issues. At the end of #2 the crap is only just starting to hit fan, though, my god, another spoiler, all four four-issue series seem to be one long story. Makes one want to wait for the collected Volume….
(Look for my review of AVP #1 in Singles Going Steady)
[…] Read my review of Prometheus #1 and 2 here. […]