These guys just can’t catch a break.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dan Abnett
Art: Andrea Mutti
Colors: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Michael Heisler
What They Say:
How do you fight a god? The Colonial Marines had better come up with a plan—because the battle has already begun!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As we hit the end of the second miniseries within this cycle of Life and Death, there’s definitely some fun material to be had overall, especially if you just enjoying seeing the characters getting screwed over repeatedly. Dan Abnett has been working this incarnation better than the previous cycle, Fire and Stone, as I find myself more engaged with the characters and the situations themselves – helped by things coming out in order. This particular miniseries has also been really enjoyable for Andrea Mutti’s artwork as I love the rough and tumble feeling of it all, a very earthy and gritty piece without being so overdone that you can’t recognize anything. It all connects well but has its own feeling and that’s a whole lot of fun in and of itself.
With the recent arrival of the new team dealing with Galgo and his, they’re now making their move to get offworld and survive. Survival has been hell on both groups but you have to give props to Galgo and the others for handling it for the past year or so on this world and working with Ahab for it. This one works some of the “ethical” problems going on at the start with Jahil wounded and dying with some of them wanting to cut him and get going while others are insistent on bringing him along. Galgo really has the right of it because he knows that Jahil won’t make it and he’s just going to die somewhere, whether here or there, but bringing him along just means a lot more complications. Galgo’s certainly proven himself to be an ass more often than not but he’s also proven to be right pretty often.
Foster and her group may be newer to all of this but they are handling it well – and they provide for some additional bodies to make the next move in securing the ship and escaping offworld. I like how we get a solid split here in order to draw off the Engineer that’s hunting them while trying to keep the other away, but it goes about as smoothly as you’d expect with a good round of chaos, running around, and tense moments. It may be predictable in a lot of ways – you knew not all of them would make it offworld – but it’s a matter of how it’ll play out and whether those left behind end up dead in the moment or have a chance for something else interesting later on. Admittedly, it’s been difficult to keep track of who is who outside of some real prime players so it’s a mess trying to figure out the split here, but I love that the crews overall keep getting fractured and split and reconnecting in odd ways.
In Summary:
While not conclusive in any particular sense, the Prometheus arc of this cycle comes to a close with the teams split once again and things just a mess for everyone all around. Abnett’s script is keeping things moving quickly and in interesting ways but also stripped down to just what it needs to be. It really is all about survival at this point and they’re struggling with it – but attempting to keep at it. With what they’re facing it’s little surprise that it’s going as difficult as it is but it’s definitely proving to be a lot of fun to watch since there are so many variables in the mix right now.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 14th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
