Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1
Written by Paul Tobin
Art by Juan Ferreyra
Letters by Nate Piekos
Covers by David Palumbo
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 10, 2014
Cover Price: $3.50

The command ship Helios drifts through deep space on its way to LV-223. They are on a quest to find, perhaps, the origins of life on Earth. With a full crew of scientists, and soldiers, the ship lumbers towards what is supposed to be a desert moon. Much to the crew’s surprise, they land in the middle of a dense rainforest that holds terrors beyond their imagination.

There’s a problem with deep space: it’s boring. Space is huge. It’s hugely, bigly huge. Did you ever take car trips with your family, and drive through the so-called “fly-over states” and learn why they’re fly-over states? Space is one big fly-over state. Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1 is hobbled early on by the vastness in that where there is nothing to do, there is nothing to read about. The story begins near enough to the landing that we meet some of the crew, and figure out what their objective is, but there was still a lot of nothing happening. So, long review short, the beginning bit is tedious.

However, the story picks up the pace quickly, and then Fire and Stone turns into a real page-turner. For all of its problems with character and plot in the past, the Aliens franchise sure knows a thing or two about, well, creepy aliens. From the “ass-ugly horror monkeys,” to the xenomorph looking ants, to the “killing field” of dead, skinned creatures, this book has a veritable wildlife refuge of horrifying creatures with sharp teeth. Juan Ferreyra‘s art truly shines in the character design, and it alone is strong enough for a recommendation of this title. Paul Tobin uses these creatures to lead us along a nice trail of bread crumbs to what you know is certain death for someone, at some point.

Therein lies the real strength of Fire and Stone; even with a beginning that churns slowly, you stick with it because you know, at any moment, someone is about to get face-hugger’d, or chest-bursted, and that’s why you come to the Aliens party time and time again. Whether or not any of that happens in this title, I’ll leave up to you to find out. I will mention, though, that the build-up in the last few panels of this book was the kind of wide-eyed, hairs-standing-on-end moments fans of the Alien series have come to know and love.

Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1 opens the door to what could be one of the great entries to the Aliens franchise. This title would be perfect for long-time fans, or those just being introduced to the series.