A Review of Prometheus: Omega
Part Sixteen of "James Versus Fire and Stone"
I was going to say that “Fire and
Stone has been a real shit show,” but then I realized that calling
it such terms doesn't do it justice. The real value of Fire and Stone
is that it's been a learning experience for me. This comes on the
heels of me realizing some things about my “career” (which is a
term that needs some bold quotation marks). Fire and Stone hasn't
pointed me towards this exactly, but one thing I've learned, or at
least one thing that has really codified a philosophy I've been
developing for some time. Basically, I realized that as bad as
something might be, it's not my job to fix it. And it's certainly not
my job to fix it for free. As flawed as Prometheus might be as a
comic and as just plain incompetent as Alien Versus Predator is, it's
not my job to sit there and think of ways that I could make this
better.
Because that's a sucker's game.
And that bums me out. I should be the
target of internet vitriol. I should be the one with snarky blog
posts aimed at me. I should be the one losing sleep to meet a
deadline on a book that nobody will remember in two years time. I'm
not saying that a “creator” is inherently better than a “critic”
(they aren't, just tell me that Roger Ebert hasn't contributed more
to art and civilization than Uwe Boll). I've just been struck by this
general sense that I need to do more. Whatever that means.
Maybe I should thank each and every
book in the Fire and Stone line-up. It wasn't the straw that broke
the camel's back, but it has pushed me. In different ways, each one
of these books has pushed me to be a better writer. Maybe.
Anyways, with all of that said, when I
found out that Fire and Stone was seventeen parts and not sixteen, I
know I groaned. I must have. There's no other sane response to
finding out that I'm going to get suckered out of another four bucks
on a self-imposed dare. All of that said, this last book came as
something of a surprise. Because, Blimey. Prometheus: Omega is
really, really good.
Omega is written by Kelly Sue
DeConnick, she of Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet (which shares the
same pulpy/political DNA that made up the first three Alien movies).
That should have told me that this was going to be an excellent book.
Of course nobody told me this. It's nice to be pleasantly surprised,
though. As much as Pretty Deadly is most certainly not my thing, she
is a writer with a point of view and a set of skills that I like to
see put to work. There's also this tinge of liberal guilt in the back
of my head telling me that it's nice that women are writing more
comics and that these comics are good (I'm currently reading a trade
of the new Ms. Marvel run. It's so good, guys). There's no inherent
value to that, I suppose, but it's nice. And it certainly can't be
any worse than the men who worked on AvP.
Agustin Alessio deliver some solid work
as the book's artist. Like the artist behind Prometheus, Alessio
delivers a painterly quality that gives the work a level of class
that you don't see in a lot of other books. Often when you see this
style of work in a comic, it ends up being a series of good looking
pictures that, when put together form a bad comic book (the companion
to this phenomenon would be when a screenwriter or a novelist tries
their hand at making a comic). Fortunately, that isn't the case.
Alessio's work isn't perfect, though.
His work does lack some of the impact and the kinetics of Mooneyham
had on Predator (a very different book, but one with a steady hand
behind the art). Yet, conversely, therein lies its strength. His work
isn't fantastical. It isn't showy. It's grounded and it gives the
story the kind of weight that a horror (or adventure) story like this
should have. The world of Prometheus: Omega looks less like a comic
version of an alien planet than it does an alien planet. Tonally, it
shares the most similarities with Patric Reynolds's work, which
couldn't look more different stylistically.
I like it a lot is what I'm saying. I'm
sorry I lack the vocabulary for writing about art. I should work on
that.
MUTANT OF THE WEEK: Dare I say. . .
It's Elden.
That's right. Elden: My Most Hated of
Characters. Elden the Abomination. Elden the Plot Device That Just
Won't Die. Elden the Least. He's kind of great in this. As listless
and silly as he's been in the hands of other writers, DeConnick
actually manages to put him into the right place at the right time
and turn out a corker of a story.
As I say this, keep this in mind: There
is a mutant mountain full of alien juice that the team has to escape
from. Elden, for his achievements in this book, is cooler than a
living piece of the planet- Cooler than an actual xenomorph as
defined in the dictionary.
Then again, Elden's final scene is him
becoming a Giger tapestry. How can anything in the world compete with
that?
 |
| Nothing to do with the topic at hand. I'm just excited for this movie. |
After a long spell in the cold, it's a
relief that I can give Prometheus: Omega FIVE OUT OF FIVE
CHESTBURSTERS. It's nice to see something this well put together cap
it off the only miniseries event that I've ever partaken in. I'm glad
it's over, but I'm also glad for the few highlights cut inbetween the
crap. Omega is a rare beam of light.
As a stand alone comic it also works.
It's well written. It's funny. It's weird. It's good looking. Like
Predator, it's everything a comic book should be and, even better,
it's everything this
particular comic should be.
If you have any affection at all
towards Prometheus, Aliens, Predator, or any combination there of,
this is a comic you should pick up. Or you should just pick it up
because Kelly Sue DeConnick is a talented lady who deserves your
adoration and dollars. If Fire and Stone only provided her (and the
team on Aliens and on Predator) a forum for more people to see them,
then perhaps it was worth it.
Perhaps. . .
You can read all of "James Versus Fire and Stone" here! There! It's all there! Read it!
Alien Versus Predator #4 Predator #3
Aliens #4
Prometheus #4
Alien Versus Predator #3
Aliens #3
Predator #2
Prometheus #3
Alien Versus Predator #2
Aliens #2
Predator #1
Alien #1 and Prometheus #1
James Kislingbury is basically over it.
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