As a big fan of 1997 sci-fi horror Event Horizon, I went into the prequel series, Dark Descent, cautiously optimistic. However, it was plagued with too many issues that seem to befall most prequels; filling in details that didn’t need to be covered, unengaging characters and a lack of drama overall, given that we know where things end up. It ended in a very unsatisfactory way too; though I finished the series, I couldn’t even be bothered to review it past issue 1. I’ll give it this: it was suitably nasty and gorier than may be expected for a mainstream comic book.

So where does this leave Inferno? With the prequel gap already filled, we’re thrust a few hundred years into the future; a couple of centuries after the events of the movie.

A twisted tech bro with an eye on securing access to very dark power leads a team of corporate marines on a mission to investigate the wreckage of the Event Horizon. Naturally, chaos ensues.

This feels very much like Aliens to Event Horizon’s Alien, and it’s full of the clichés you’d expect. It does set its stall out early though, with a glimpse of two brothers in their childhood (he’s a tech bro in more ways than one) engaging in some very gruesome activities. Their bloody quest for power starts for them at a very young age.

It’s a shame we go from this overtly horrific opening to a standard ‘team of ragtag space marines investigate a dead ship’ plot so quickly though, because the rest of it just doesn’t feel particularly unique or interesting.

Of course, it’s not as if the original movie was all that original, and Event Horizon creator Paul WS Anderson is well known for being a cinematic magpie, stealing from all kinds of familiar sources (and even himself, surprisingly regularly). So it does at least fit with the pattern of the movie, and you can certainly imagine a cinematic sequel playing out a lot like this.

The return of a few faces necessitates some familiarity with the movie, but I suspect anyone picking this up will likely know the source material well.

Despite the clichés, I did think that this was a much stronger start than Dark Descent #1, and the fact that it doesn’t need to move chess pieces in place for another story means that it can, hopefully, take a few more storytelling twists than the prequel too. Fingers crossed it moves away from its tropes a bit and takes us to some more unforeseen, and very dark, places.

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