Joint Review – Prometheus: Fire and Stone #2 (of 4) (Dark Horse)

Xenomorph sharks. 

Wait, are you still here?  Surely those two words alone should be enough to convince you that the latest chapter of Dark Horse’s stellar ‘Fire and Stone’ event is most definitely worth your heard-earned cash.  No?  Okay then, for those of you who aren’t already convinced (and are, presumably, dead inside), I guess I can go into a little more detail…

After a relatively slow-paced start in issue one, the second issue of Prometheus: Fire and Stone hits the ground running with a frenzied back and forth battle which perfectly encapsulates the sheer terror and chaos that goes hand in hand with a Xenomorph attack.  While writer Paul Tobin took his time in the first issue to establish our supporting characters and their mission, here he gleefully dispatches these same characters at an almost dizzying pace, ably assisted by the utterly spellbinding visuals of artist Juan Ferreyra.  Seriously folks, Aliens have never looked better, and Juan’s gift for creatively horrific set-pieces gives this book an undercurrent of tension and a visual appeal that few artists these days can hope to touch.

It’s an interestingly structured conflict, given that – due to the events of last week’s AvP: Fire and Stone, which takes place after this arc – we pretty much know what the end destination is for our main characters.  However, the journey is still genuinely intriguing, as we get to see the mistakes of the crew playing out before our eyes and find ourselves practically screaming at the pages – “No! Why would you do that?!”.  Like a sorority girl creeping into the basement with a flickering torch in a slasher movie, we know that things are definitely not going to end well for the majority these characters, but in a lot of ways, that’s part of the appeal of this series – especially when you know that the spiralling chain of events are going to be illustrated by Ferreyra, who is rapidly becoming my favourite artist of the moment (assuming he isn’t already).

Once again, there’s a lot going on here, but rather than becoming overwhelming, Tobin’s frantic pacing actually adds to the drama of the situation.  Menacing new faces are introduced, existing characters are developed and slaughtered in equal measure, and everything gradually starts to tie in to the events of the other series’, not to mention the pre-existing Prometheus movie canon.  It’s difficult not to be impressed by the multi-layered world building that the writers in this project have achieved, tying four separate stories into one fluid narrative, and each issue of Fire and Stone I pick up leaves me wanting to find out more, eagerly waiting to get my hands on the next one.  Thankfully, with the weekly release schedule of this event for the rest of 2014, it looks like I’m never going to have to wait too long for my next ‘fix’.

And once again, people, in case you’ve forgotten… Xenomorph sharks.  Seriously, what  are you waiting for?