Dark Horse Comics 2016
Written by Dan Abnett
Illustrated by Andrea Mutti
Coloured by Rain Beredo
Lettered by Michael Heisler
As the rest of the marine company returned to their own ship to escort the captured alien vessel back to Earth, the humanoid pilot of the alien vessel awoke from stasis. Helpless against the pilot, the humans onboard hid within the bowels of the ship while its pilot changed course—leaving the marine vessel behind and heading for a remote world known as LV-223 . . .
OH MY GOD yes this is just another ongoing example of why I profess my undying loyalty to the genius that is Dan Abnett. So the Engineer has taken control of the ship and has returned to Prometheus where there are still survivors from the previous story arc. Now if you remember this planet has those few survivors, working alongside a Predator, and a slew of Xenomorphs, who were created by the rest of the crew that were taken, running around. The planet is covered in that black goo that has transformed its landscape since it was featured in the motion picture.
As two of those survivors watch the Engineer exit the ship they start to make plans to go back to camp and make plans when that’s interrupted by those who were on the ship exiting. Oh yeah this is literally when the real excitement begins. Forget the incredible characterization because while i’m totally into that it’s the prospect that these United Colonies Marines with the scientists and where they are headed that make this issue what it is.
Meanwhile Paget and the rest of the crew will hopefully be heading in this direction and end up here by story’s end. So what do these folks do they run the opposite way that the Engineer went and unknowingly have entered the hornets nest. So I’ve touched on the characterization here and to see these folks all in various stages of denial and shaken up by recent events their interaction with one another is superbly played out. I love seeing them not only talk about their situation but the speculation that we’ve already covered previously as they work out what the Engineer is.
Andrea is such a talented artist and make no mistake I mean artist. What he does here on these pages is incredible. From the dank, dark and ominous feeling permeating the pages of this world to the real life folks and their faces, facial expressions and attention to detail in their dress he brings this to life with all the feelings that you need for this type of story. Rain’s colouring only enhances all that too with the shading and dark tones. The use of angles, perspective and backgrounds all conspire to tell the story in a grand way that really fleshes everything out.
The highlight is the confrontation that leads the new guests to the survivors on this planet. Talk about a fanboy’s delight this is the stuff that dreams, legends and nightmares are made of and why we rush to see it done! Dark Horse and Dan just keep this franchise moving in a direction that the films could never achieve but beautifully serve as the template for!