Predator: Fire And Stone #1

Predator: Fire And Stone #1
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Published on: October 22nd, 2014.
Written by: Joshua Williamson
Art by: Christopher Mooneyham
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Like all of the Fire And Stone books so far, Predator: Fire And Stone #1 opens with a text intro that sets things up. “When Captain Angela Foster uses the pretense of a routine salvage mission to lead her crew to the mysterious moon of LV-223, she actually hopes to learn the fate of Sir Peter Weyland and his lost Prometheus mission. What she uncovers instead is a terror beyond imagination. In the wake of Angela's deception, security officer Galgo Helder abandons LV-223, making a limping escape with the Geryon armada and a scavenged alien weapon. But soon a new threat presents itself, as a brutal conflict erupts between a mutated crewmate's xenomorph horde and a pack of ruthless alien hunters. Now, having fled the violence of the Geryon, the patrol ship Perses and her battered crew face a long journey home. But as Galgo prepares his beloved vessel for her voyage, an invisible stowaway makes ready for more bloodshed…” The intro also says that “This series takes place after the events of Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1- #4 and Predator: Fire and Stone #1.” That makes things a little tricky, continuity wise, but let's see how it goes.

On the opening page a man named Higgins is being woken out of a cryo unit, slapped out of his sleep by a man named Galgo who tells him that Piper is already up and moving. We learn that Eldon came after Francis, and that since they've split from the Helios but that the computers are saying that there is a stowaway of some sort onboard the ship. They need to figure out what this is and take care of it without using firearms as they don't want to blow a hole in the ship. Galgo is holding onto the alien rifle - he says he won't use it but it's not leaving his side, calling it a meal ticket. They split up to try and flank the stowaway, but as you'd probably have guessed, it's a Predator and not going to go without a fight.

Piper sees it and attacks it but gets injured. Galgo and Higgins run to help him but it's too late, a shoulder cannon takes Piper's head off. Higgins knows that Galgo knows more about this than he's letting on and pressures him to talk. As the two survivors stroll the ship looking for the Predator, he explains that this has something to do with what was on the moon but then coyly looks Higgins in the cargo bay that the Predator is in, with a giant security door in between the two men assuring Galgo's safety. Galgo empties the contents of the bay into space and figures he's safe and alone. He's wrong.

This first issue is basically a 'something's on the ship, gotta go get it' story for the bulk of its pages but there are hints here about how this will tie in with the other Fire and Stone stories that could lead to interesting things. By the time the last page is turned, those hints are confirmed as fact and the stage is set for an interesting story to be told. Where it will go from here obviously remains to be seen and how the Predator will fit into the Alien/Prometheus back story is a mystery at this point but there's certainly potential here for this to be a pretty interesting mini-series. Williamson's script movies quickly and doesn't give us a whole lot of character development yet as this is a more action-intensive introductory entry in the series but it stands to reason that we'll get there. If nothing else we're going to find out more about Galgo.

As to the art from Christopher Mooneyham, it's good stuff and at times a bit reminiscent of Walter Simonson (who, fans may remember, did the very first Alien comic in graphic novel format for Heavy Metal way back in 1979). That's a good thing. The line work here is thinner and more reliant on strong pencils than on thick, heavy inks but it works quite well. The Predator is drawn with nice attention to detail and the coloring is effective. The nice painted cover art by Lucas Graciano is worth calling out too.

So far all the three Fire And Stone series preceding this four issue Predator run have been worth reading. This looks like it will continue that trend.