“Aliens: Fire and Stone” #3, the 10th release in the “Fire and Stone” series still manages to impress with shocking violence, new monster types, and strong character interaction. This issue has the camp spitting up, half going to take on the aliens aboard their ship and the other half realizing that that is a nonsense idea and staying put. Meanwhile, Russell has seemingly lost his damn mind as he discusses his revelations with a lifeless probe and makes a crazy map on the wall. This book stands apart from the other “Fire and Stone” series in a number of ways, but it lacks nothing in comparison. Halfway through, and I still wish it would never end.
WRITTEN BY: Chris Roberson
ART BY: Patric Reynolds
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: November 26, 2014
Reviewed by Eric Switzer
This issue is narratively different than issue 2: we don’t have the consistent monologue from the perspective of Russell over the action. I praised issue #2 for the way his narration undermined the struggle to survive that the rest of the crew was going through, but this issue works just as well without it. It would seem the reason is to remove us from Russell who is beginning to disassociate and generally show signs of craziness. The emphasis put on the silent probe in certain frames is a clever and effective way to communicate Russell’s state of mind. What he does next will certainly impact the rest of the “Fire and Stone” series
This is the certainly the climax of the series, things are happening as expected, but there are still some good surprises in this issue. In fact that is something I like best about this event: it has never become predictable. It would be understandable, given the genre and source material, but “Fire and Stone” is constantly surprising, which is part of the reason I have been so engaged with it.
I’m really starting to run out of things to say about the series, it is consistently well written, consistently clever, consistently well drawn, and has never lost the sense that it is building towards something truly awe-inspiring. If you haven’t gotten on board yet, you may want to wait for the trades or read them digitally, but you won’t regret it if you are a fan.
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Eric Switzer is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.
