While the Engineer will continue on in Issue #1 of Aliens: Life and Death, the enigmatic creature was in the background for most of its own title. In Dan Abnett’s otherwise capable hands (His work so far with the Aliens, who I’m a huge fan of, and Predators, who I’m not a particular fan of, has been enjoyable.), a creature that deals with the manipulation of the beginnings of life became nothing more than Frankenstein’s Monster. The only motivation for this supposedly highly intelligent creature is simply to make it more difficult for our Colonial Marines to escape the planet. A slow-moving, grunting plot device. It gives me little hope for exploring what it is and what it wants in the forthcoming Alien title.

Based on the title of this cycle of comics, Life and Death, I’m starting to think that’s basically what we’ll get out of this: very simply running for your life. That’s what we’ve gotten thus far. The book has succeeded at this, with moments of extreme thrill here and there, giving the Marines a bit of color just so they don’t become interchangeable cannon fodder. It is, though, a bit of a disappointment considering the steps that were taken to move the Prometheus mythology forward in the comic cycle a year ago.

I’m hoping that the Engineer will take a step to fuller realization by the end of this cycle, but even if it doesn’t ,I’m still looking forward to the Alien run.

The rest of this Prometheus run has been okay. The art is capable, and the coloring gives us a sense of the dark nature of the series, though neither gave me a true sense of space. Because of this, I felt uninvolved in the situation – I remained a spectator.