Review – Alien vs. Predator: Fire and Stone TP (Dark Horse/Turnaround)

July 23, 2015

3 minutes

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Christopher Sebela
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Release Date: 10th June, 2015

The Alien versus Predator chapter of Dark Horse’s Fire and Stone shared universe takes place after the events of Tobin and Ferreyra’s Prometheus mini-series as the surviving crew of the Geryon Armada find themselves fleeing LV-223, pursued by a truly horrific new foe. Oh, and there’s Aliens, naturally. Predators too. Just in case you were wondering.

The artwork here is provided by Ariel Olivetti, and while his smooth, painted style works wonders in some of the splash pages and dramatic reveals, it does look little too clean for the frenzied, chaotic events which are unfolding. The visual highlight of the entire arc, for me at least, is Elden himself – an impressively horrific creation complete with chillingly sadistic grin and distinctive, ‘mutated engineer’ appearance.

Unfortunately, the Predators – and the Xenomorphs, to an extent – feel almost like an afterthought early on as Elden dominates proceedings with a lengthy monologue as he rips through the Predators in search of Francis. I’m guessing ‘Mutated Engineers vs. Humans’ wouldn’t have been quite as compelling a title, but that’s essentially what we have here, in the beginning at least.

To be fair, during the first couple of issues, this arc was actually shaping up rather well. That is, until – well – something happens at about the midway point that completely turned me off for the rest of the series. I’m not going to delve into the details here for risk of spoilers, but suffice to say that the creative team tried to add something new to the conflict, but in doing so took this book so far away from where I thought it was heading that I all but lost interest for the rest of the way. Hey, I’m all for trying new things, but when you take what I hoped was going to be a tense cat and mouse game between a monster and its creator and throw in such a ludicrous new factor, it’s difficult not to feel disappointed, cheated almost.

The action scenes are wholly unsatisfying for the most part, mostly due to Olivetti’s artwork which – while stunningly impressive on stationary figures in dramatic poses – really falls apart when it comes to blows being landed or damage being done. Like I said above, everything just looks just too damn clean in this series, with the unnaturally sterile backdrops and characters creating a truly jarring aesthetic.

Thankfully however, Christopher Sebela’s strong writing impressively manages to right the ship eventually – to a point, at least – providing a powerful and thought-provoking conclusion to what was, in my opinion, a bit of a chaotic, mutated train wreck. His finale is truly moving, giving Francis’ story a sense of poignancy and cementing Elden’s place in the shared universe that has been created.

Overall, while it never quite manages to hit the dizzying heights of the other arcs in this event, Aliens vs Predator: Fire and Stone manages to pull out of its nosedive right at the end, finishing the series with a slightly bumpy – but still somewhat satisfying – landing.

Rating: 3/5.

INTERIOR ARTWORK
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You can purchase Alien vs. Predator: Fire and Stone TP from Turnaround Publisher Services (who generously provided the review copy of this title) via their official website.

The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson-Adams (aka Ceej)
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