Aliens: Fire and Stone

Aliens: Fire and Stone is a four-issue limited comic book series that was first published by Dark Horse Comics from September-December 2014. It was also published simultaneously in the digital format via Dark Horse Digital. The story was written by Chris Roberson, illustrated by Patric Reynolds, colored by Dave Stewart, lettered by Nate Piekos, and edited by Roxy Polk and Philip R. Simon, with cover art by David Palumbo. Fiona Staples also provided a variant cover for the first issue. It follows a group of colonists who managed to escape from Hadley's Hope as the Xenomorph outbreak there began. The series was released alongside the tie-in short story Aliens: Field Report.

Aliens: Fire and Stone formed the Aliens component of Dark Horse's franchise-crossing Fire and Stone event in 2014/2015, and was released in conjunction with Prometheus: Fire and Stone, Alien vs. Predator: Fire and Stone and Predator: Fire and Stone. The four series all share an interconnected story.

In Dark Horse's Aliens comics line, Aliens: Fire and Stone was preceded by Alien: Isolation, published concurrently with Aliens: Field Report, and was followed by Aliens: Defiance.

Publisher's Summary[]

#1: During a vicious Xenomorph outbreak, terraforming engineer Derrick Russell leads a desperate group of survivors onto a rickety mining vessel. They hope to escape the creatures overrunning their colony — but they'll face horrors both in space and on the strange planet they crash on. Ties in with the Prometheus and Aliens films!

#2: After crashing their clunky mining ship on a strange planet, a group of human survivors face both Xenomorph attacks and friction among themselves — which could spell doom for everyone! The stranded and desperate group has a single chance: one of their scientists, who seeks the key to their freedom.

#3: With their numbers dwindling and hopes for rescue fading, the desperate survivors on the strange planet known as LV-223 fight among themselves. A lone scientist may hold the key to their freedom, though — if everyone can live long enough to hear him out! Ties in with the Prometheus and Aliens films!

#4: Tying in with the Prometheus and Aliens films, this tale of stranded survivors and the tenacious Xenomorphs that stalk them comes to a close! Scientist Derrick Russell makes more stunning discoveries about the strange planet the Hadley's Hope refugees crashed on, while Aliens close in on him!

Reprint History[]

AliensFaSTPB — Cover to *Aliens: Fire and Stone* trade paperback by Palumbo.

Aliens: Fire and Stone was collected and released as a trade paperback in May 2015, reusing David Palumbo's cover for issue 3 as the cover artwork.

In October 2015, the series was collected, along with the tie-in story Aliens: Field Report, for inclusion in Prometheus: The Complete Fire and Stone, a hardcover trade paperback that brought together the complete Fire and Stone saga. As well as the comics, the trade paperback also included work-in-progress artwork and details of the crossover's original storyline, which was altered quite significantly during development.

The series was collected again, along with the other Fire and Stone stories, as part of the Aliens/Predator/Prometheus/AVP: Fire and Stone trade paperback, released in April 2018.

Behind the Scenes[]

Aliens: Fire and Stone is notable as one of the few Aliens stories from Dark Horse Comics to depict an alien species other than the Xenomorphs. Other notable non-Xenomorph aliens featured in the franchise include the lizard-like space travelers in Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation, the Reapers from Aliens: Reapers, the reptilian Xenomorph-eating alien from Aliens: Taste, the alien pilot shown in Aliens: Earth Angel, the hunting village aliens from Aliens: Alien, the extraterrestrial scientists in Aliens: Incubation and, of course, the Predators and Engineers. Such species were for many years limited to Aliens comics from Dark Horse, although several recent Alien novels have also introduced non-Xenomorph species, such as Alien: Out of the Shadows and Aliens: Bug Hunt.

Cover artist David Palumbo also provided cover artwork for the Prometheus: Fire and Stone series, as well as the one-shot conclusion story Prometheus: Fire and Stone - Omega. Not counting editing staff, he is the only person to work on the creative team for more than one of the series in the Fire and Stone event. He subsequently went on to provide artwork for the Life and Death crossover.

Chris Roberson stayed in contact with Alien: River of Pain writer Christopher Golden to ensure that their respective stories did not contradict each other.^[1]

Chronology[]

Aliens: Fire and Stone takes place before the events of Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1.

Trivia[]

The comic shows that in the early stages of the Hadley's Hope infestation, the Xenomorphs, or at least the majority of them, had smooth, domed carapaces like the Alien seen in the original film. This lends further credence to James Cameron's supposition that the ridged heads of the Drones in his film are a result of the creatures being older than the one seen in the original movie.
The comic is also the first source to show that Newt was not the only colonist to survive the destruction of Hadley's Hope. The novel Alien: River of Pain would also show that some of the colonists succeeded in escaping LV-426 before the USS Sulaco arrived, going as far as mentioning the names of the protagonists of the comic as well as the ship they left on.