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Resident Evil: Fire and Ice
Timed for release with the all-new Resident Evil 5 video game and limited to 5,000 copies! Umbrella agents attempt to dominate the world with their Zombie Virus, and S.T.A.R.S.' Charlie Team is the only force capable of standing in their way. But are they prepared to battle an entire circus full of zombie-fied freaks? Collecting the 4-issue miniseries (for the first time!) plus stories from WildStorm's RESIDENT EVIL magazine, featuring art by Lee Bermejo (JOKER HC)!
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 31, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 6, 2011
Okay, if you're a Resident Evil fan, this is a pretty sweet trade to have on your bookshelf. But Fire and Ice is proof that video games aren't meant to survive the conversion to comics. Writers can polish the story and mimic the gameplay all they want, but really, it's a little silly to see characters pointing out that they need more ammo and that they have to reload in a book. It's just boring. Given, it's an accessible reference to fans of the games (who actually spend hours running out of ammo and reloading), but not one that belongs on the page.
No matter how hard they try, comic books can't reproduce the same tension felt when playing a video game first-hand. That's a direct level of engagement that changes as the player interacts and reacts with the game's environment. Reading a book about characters experiencing fear is an experience twice-removed. Simply put: watching people (fictional or not) killing zombies? Not nearly as much fun as killing zombies yourself.
No matter how hard they try, comic books can't reproduce the same tension felt when playing a video game first-hand. That's a direct level of engagement that changes as the player interacts and reacts with the game's environment. Reading a book about characters experiencing fear is an experience twice-removed. Simply put: watching people (fictional or not) killing zombies? Not nearly as much fun as killing zombies yourself.
July 19, 2016
The video game Resident Evil has spawned a number of spin-offs and the like, including many game sequels, a series of movies (both live action and animated) and the graphic novel abomination known as Resident Evil: Fire and Ice.
It is the first real overall fail that I have read in a while. The plot summary from the back of the book reads:
Umbrella agents are once again attempting to dominate the world with their Zombie Virus, and S.T.A.R.S.’ Charlie Team is the only force capable of standing in their way. Each misfit member of this group as personal experience with Umbrella’s mutant horrors, but are they prepared to battle and entire circus of zombified freaks? Things look grim…and escaping with their lives will just throw them deeper into the battle for the future of humanity!
I looked it over. It could be good, I thought. I was very wrong. And I was wrong from the get-go. First of all, the zombie circus is the first chapter of the damn book! And the entire Fire and Ice story arc takes up 98-ish pages of a 254 page book! So how does it go so wrong?
I should warn you all that I came into this book with little knowledge of the Resident Evil universe. I know a very basic amount of info obtained by watching a few video game reviews of the series. I have not seen any of the movies, or actually played any of the games. Whether it affected my understanding of the story I’m not sure. But I can still tell good writing from bad and this is very, very bad writing.
First of all, the story has more plot holes than Swiss cheese. The first page is of a woman about to be attacked by zombies (done in 2 panels) and then we’re thrown right into the midst of a zombie battle with the S.T.A.R.S. Charlie Team. In captions it introduces us to the characters and the fact that everyone seems to talk in very bad one-liners. I’m not even kidding here. A sample of the dialogue goes like this:
“Just like we say in Brisbane – If the poppy grows too tall, you’ve got to cut it down.”
“Lunch is over, you fat fr-“
And after killing a zombie tiger … “Bad kitty!”
It’s physically painful. I found those on just the first couple of pages. As each of the “heroes” (and I’m using that term loosely) gets the spotlight turned on them, the captions give us a backstory. Now, that wouldn’t be so bad if we just had one or two main good guys. But no, we have a whole damn team of them. They give all 5 their own backstory in captions, for no apparent purpose. At this point, I don’t know why we’re supposed to care at all.
As for the characters, it starts off with a man named Patrick Brady. While he’s fighting zombie animals, it tells us his story of destroying a zoo full of the zombified things (which makes sense, but they also star the information and put a footnote saying “turn to such-and-such a page to read the story.) But he was found by a S.T.A.R.S. mop-up team after having been exposed to the virus by the last remaining animal. I was buying the story up until this last bit:
“A S.T.A.R.S. medical team worked feverishly to reverse the effects of the G-Virus, an effort that had always failed in the past. This time, though, they were successful.”
Really? The one and ONLY time that they don’t screw up and kill the guy is with him? This would have been so much more believable if they had given it a 50/50 chance, or 70/30. Hell, I would have bought 80/20 even. Some believable chance that it would work on him and not just as an impossible, less than 1% chance. Even if you had said that it had worked but everyone died in recovery because they weren’t strong enough to deal with what had happened would make this thing sound more likely.
Then we get that while in recovery, Patrick picked up a “sixth sense” about zombies and can sense the presence of the G-Virus. Go ahead and facepalm right now. At least they didn’t throw in the line “my zombie sense is tingling!”
As unbelievable as the backstory is, I figured the info dump had to do with something later on in the plot, so I let it go. The rest of the backstories aren’t as interesting, or nearly as long. They just give us some motivation for why they fight zombies. I’m not sure why we’re supposed to care.
They finally get back to real fighting, and through bad one-liners, they lay down bombs to blow the zombie circus up and fight the zombified circus freaks. Including zombie clowns, zombie trapeze artists (still up in the air) and a zombified bearded lady. After they blow the place up, they find an Umbrella agent injured, but can’t get out how Umbrella knew they were there before the guy dies. By the way, a lot of people have looked through the book and said to me “wow, it’s a shame is sucks because the art looks good.” This is also bullshit, but on a much smaller scale. It is during this scene that one of the characters, Falcon, is yelling at the Umbrella agent, and the face they drew looked more like Sinbad smiling than anything intimidating.
Back at team headquarters, Falcon starts talking about debriefing and introducing a new team member, who happens to be the chick about to be attacked by zombies in the beginning. Falcon mentions another time S.T.A.R.S. had been compromised by an Umbrella agent, which leads to another “see story on blah page” footnote. I was beginning to see why the story only took up half the book after this. Falcon introduces the girl, Raquel, to the team, giving us unnecessary character quirks along with what each person’s job is. He also gives us a bit of background into what S.T.A.R.S. is supposed to do.
After the monologue, we learned what happened to Raquel, or what she thinks happened. She lost her memory and they told her that she was knocked out by a rubber bullet during a training session. Except when she ducks into the restroom to change the bandage on her wound, anyone reading it can tell she’s turning into a zombie. So why can’t she?! She just thinks it’s a nasty wound that won’t heal, but she’s signing on to fight zombies so she must know what they look like (or will very soon.) She can’t figure this out? Put two and two together? It’s quite bothersome.
The Charlie Team’s new mission is to hunt down two Umbrella labs they got the locations of off a floppy disc one of the agents at the circus was carrying. The story was originally copyrighted in 2000. Compact disks anyone? The team breaks up to investigate.
Team one, following Falcon, Raquel and the computer geek, heads to Mexico where they uncover a Day of the Dead celebration using real zombies. That they can’t tell are zombies at first. I’m not even kidding, Falcon actually says “Those are just masks, or paint.” Even for a Day of the Dead celebration, that sounds like a stretch. Anyway, they blow some zombies up and find a painting that will lead them to the base. Also, during this, Raquel discovers some bone-like shit or possibly metal something growing out of he wound that she cuts off. Okay, even if you buy that she doesn’t get that she’s turning zombie, how in the world don’t you start asking questions after that? I mean, if I found shit growing out of my wound, it would be cause for concern and questions, not the cut it off and move on method she uses.
Meanwhile, in Alaska, Patrick is with the Australian dude and the chick (Quan and Rosa) and they split up in the snow to get things moving before a storm arrives. Quan goes to set up an emergency helicopter landing pad, leaving his radio on the snowmobile (because he’s too busy pining over Rosa) and misses that Rosa and Patrick get attacked by zombie critters again. Oh yeah, it introduces a love triangle that goes nowhere between the three, where Quan is in love with Rosa and Rosa’s in love with Patrick. It’s unnecessary dialogue that made me hope and pray and ultimately rejoice that it was another introduced plot that went absolutely nowhere. Rosa and Patrick defeat most of the animals, but get captured when Rosa gets punched by a bear and Patrick trips over a body in the snow. Yeah, the S.T.A.R.S. special agent, sent out to do all sorts of fighting and such, trips over shit he just killed. I don’t care if it is snow, he shouldn’t be that clumsy. He’s a damn special agent. Also, why is it that halfway through the story we still haven’t seen any of that zombie sense they told us Patrick had at the beginning?
So Rosa and Patrick get captured and taken to the lab, where the main doctor tells them that they are going to be injected with the new X-Virus. Patrick is wearing a mini-com he left behind so that Quan, who realizes how stupid he was, can find it and hear what’s going on. It’s also being broadcast to the other lab in Mexico where Raquel, who’s stuck in the air vents, hears everything.
So in Mexico, she tells the other two what’s happening, and they gas out the main lab, escape from an extra-strong zombie and the computer kid accidentally hits the self destruct while trying to find an antidote in the computer system. They realize, as they’re trying to fly away, that the cactus garden is arranged like a biohazard symbol and that in the dead center is an extra cactus and Raquel cuts the cactus in the exact place to locate the antidote. It’s like a bad action movie with not a lot of logic to actually figure out how they got their conclusions. At this point, though, I’ve stopped caring.
They fly to Mexico right after Quan rescues Rosa and Patrick, but not before they’ve been infected. Patrick turns first, because of his previous exposure or something, and Rosa turns after. The other team arrives, we find out the computer kid is a rogue agent (which comes out of left field and doesn’t have really anything to do with the story) and they attempt to give the antidote to their friends. It works on Rosa but Patrick flips out and attacks Raquel and they’re forced to kill him.
Okay, wait what? We got all this information on how special he was, that he was the only one to survive a procedure to reverse the virus, that he has zombie senses and YOU KILL HIM?! Really?! Then why make us care that much?!
It ends on a cliffhanger, about how S.T.A.R.S. isn’t really safe and it’s not really over and the plan has worked perfectly. It’s monologued by this doctor guy we don’t know and haven’t seen before and we never hear from this story again. I couldn’t even bring myself to care that it wasn’t over when they ended it.
The rest of the volume goes on a bad recap of the first couple of games, plus random stories about characters introduced there along with the two stories it told us about during Fire and Ice. They’re full of action and bad one-liners, but not much else and I don’t really care about them either. I'm never reading this crap again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 12, 2026
Resident Evil is entering its 30th anniversary this year, 2026. What better way to celebrate then to drench myself in the history of the series through the different mediums. Whether it’s admiring the gnarly art of graphic novels, reading the actual novelizations of the vast stories in the universe, playing some of the previous games, even appreciating the CG straight to home videos and reliving the Milla Jovovich questionable movies, I want to live and breathe the BIOHAZARD in. Especially in anticipation of the next chapter: REQUIEM.
I noticed that I read this in backwards order kind of. The graphic novel I read a few days ago (Resident Evil Vol. 1 2011) is a separate sequel to this one. All in conjunction with WildStorm comics which then folded into DC comics. I digress though, this will be a double review. First have discussing Fire and Ice four comic miniseries, while second half is a collection of old Resident Evil comics printed in the WildStorm magazine.
Fire and ice gave me such X-Men vibes. A diverse group of agents trying to take down bad guys with bio weapons. It has the banter and style of the late 90s action sci-fi thrillers. It’s better written than its sequel counterpart years later. The pacing until the end was much tighter. The panels and exposition coherent, I was able to follow along way better.
The characters had that swag of 80s and 90s cartoons, always rebutting each other with a sly comment but also having heart and drama. The villains nasty and the bio weapon mutations a bit basic in this adventure. The art while serviceable did feel lower budget and rushed in certain sections. I know sometimes they could take shortcuts to save time and money. Ultimately detrimental to the action itself. A lot of panels don’t have face expressions or even eyes.
I did enjoy it overall but the ending was brutal. Don’t wanna elaborate further on it, but damn.
___________________________
Now for the review on the recap and side stories in the resident evil game universe released episodically in these WildStorm magazines. First off the art is much stronger in this section. I guess they were taking shortcuts in the early 2000s but not here in late 90s. The hard lines pop, the dark action panels oozing with thrills and colors. Granted the artist changes with every issue. So there are some hits or misses. For example, Ada has blue eyes and doesn’t look Asian in one of them while Jill is drawn with harsher angles and more masculine presenting in another. It wasn’t too offputting just often surprised by each issue’s artist’s interpretation.
Same hit or miss energy goes for the adventures found in these sets of comics. Some of the recaps of RE1 & RE2 wicked to see in comic format. Others losing the mark with stilted exposition heavy dialogue accompanied by the harsher art I was talking about earlier. The original stories I was more forgiving, I like the one at the zoo and the one on the deserted vacation island. Some bringing cool tidbits to the world, others not coinciding with established lore. It’s really just a sandbox playing ground for these artists and writers to play in. Oh boy! Are some of the endings brutal and can put you in a downer mood.
Entertaining enough and a time capsule when the series was blowing up in its infancy. It really was a pleasure to reminisce and relive classic moments. I am just spoiled with the SD Perry novelizations, she knows those characters and lore. Sometimes Comics could have amazing artists but not a great writer to back these stories up.
I noticed that I read this in backwards order kind of. The graphic novel I read a few days ago (Resident Evil Vol. 1 2011) is a separate sequel to this one. All in conjunction with WildStorm comics which then folded into DC comics. I digress though, this will be a double review. First have discussing Fire and Ice four comic miniseries, while second half is a collection of old Resident Evil comics printed in the WildStorm magazine.
Fire and ice gave me such X-Men vibes. A diverse group of agents trying to take down bad guys with bio weapons. It has the banter and style of the late 90s action sci-fi thrillers. It’s better written than its sequel counterpart years later. The pacing until the end was much tighter. The panels and exposition coherent, I was able to follow along way better.
The characters had that swag of 80s and 90s cartoons, always rebutting each other with a sly comment but also having heart and drama. The villains nasty and the bio weapon mutations a bit basic in this adventure. The art while serviceable did feel lower budget and rushed in certain sections. I know sometimes they could take shortcuts to save time and money. Ultimately detrimental to the action itself. A lot of panels don’t have face expressions or even eyes.
I did enjoy it overall but the ending was brutal. Don’t wanna elaborate further on it, but damn.
___________________________
Now for the review on the recap and side stories in the resident evil game universe released episodically in these WildStorm magazines. First off the art is much stronger in this section. I guess they were taking shortcuts in the early 2000s but not here in late 90s. The hard lines pop, the dark action panels oozing with thrills and colors. Granted the artist changes with every issue. So there are some hits or misses. For example, Ada has blue eyes and doesn’t look Asian in one of them while Jill is drawn with harsher angles and more masculine presenting in another. It wasn’t too offputting just often surprised by each issue’s artist’s interpretation.
Same hit or miss energy goes for the adventures found in these sets of comics. Some of the recaps of RE1 & RE2 wicked to see in comic format. Others losing the mark with stilted exposition heavy dialogue accompanied by the harsher art I was talking about earlier. The original stories I was more forgiving, I like the one at the zoo and the one on the deserted vacation island. Some bringing cool tidbits to the world, others not coinciding with established lore. It’s really just a sandbox playing ground for these artists and writers to play in. Oh boy! Are some of the endings brutal and can put you in a downer mood.
Entertaining enough and a time capsule when the series was blowing up in its infancy. It really was a pleasure to reminisce and relive classic moments. I am just spoiled with the SD Perry novelizations, she knows those characters and lore. Sometimes Comics could have amazing artists but not a great writer to back these stories up.
June 10, 2025
(This is for Issue #1, not the series as a whole)
So in this installment of the comic Resident Evil adventures, our gang from previous stories has to fight a bunch of infected..... circus performers............. I mean, given what we had to deal with in the last comic series, this isn't surprising, but still, what the hell am I reading even? Also, gotta love how they had to give us a million boxes of text detailing who all of these characters are and their backstories at the start there. Makes sense though when you think about it, because if they are not Chris or Albert or Claire or any of the other good characters, I'm not gonna remember them.
Issue #1
So in this installment of the comic Resident Evil adventures, our gang from previous stories has to fight a bunch of infected..... circus performers............. I mean, given what we had to deal with in the last comic series, this isn't surprising, but still, what the hell am I reading even? Also, gotta love how they had to give us a million boxes of text detailing who all of these characters are and their backstories at the start there. Makes sense though when you think about it, because if they are not Chris or Albert or Claire or any of the other good characters, I'm not gonna remember them.
Issue #1
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2018
I am a huge Resident Evil fan, so my review may be a little biased. This one has a brand new feature length story in Fire and Ice, which introduces a new team of STARS. There's also pretty much a complete comic adaptation of Resident Evil 2, along with several shorter stories set in the RE universe. The art is good, and while there's nothing truly groundbreaking here, if you enjoy the games you'll probably like the additional expansion included here.
January 15, 2020
Mini kapitola hrdinů z předcházejících mini příběhů. Vytvořili STARS team Charlie a spustili razii na dvě laboratoře na Alijašce a v Mexiku. Odtud Fire and Ice. Tam je čeká nový X virus a jedno překvapeni.
May 21, 2020
Feels like an old marvel horror comic complete with stereotypical evil doctor with the Resident Evil logo on it.
August 2, 2020
Not a bad addition to the Resident Evil world.
August 31, 2022
Oh boy. This book varies from poorly written and absurd to uninspired and boring. And who woulda have guessed this book would contain 2 stories feature zombie animals... Ugh. Lol
December 10, 2023
It's good, some nice individual one-off stories and characters but, it's story with Charlie Team is unfortunately left unfinished on a cliff hanger and hurts my overall rating.
August 4, 2016
La franquicia nacida de los videojuegos Capcom "Resident Evil" sigue más en forma que nunca. Los muertos vivientes infectados por el virus de la Corporación Umbrella siguen vagando en busca de víctimas indefensas. A la espera del inminente estreno de la cuarta adaptación cinematográfica titulada "Resident Evil: Afterlife", a la que regresa Paul W.S. Anderson como director y guionista para acompañar a la insustituible Milla Jovovich, y del quinto videojuego de la saga (" Resident Evil 5"), llega un recopilatorio de Panini Comics en su colección 100% Cult Comics que recopila la miniserie de cuatro tomos de Wildstorm "Resident Evil: Fire and Ice" de Ted Adams y Kris Oprisko con dibujos de Lee Bermejo y Shawn Crystal, en la que aparece el inédito equipo Charlie, el tercer equipo de S.T.A.R.S., cuya lucha por destruir los diabólicos experimentos de Umbrella les llevará desde un circo, infestado por el G-virus, hasta los más tórridos desiertos y las más heladas cumbres.
Reseña completa en:
http://larevisteriacomics.blogspot.co...
Reseña completa en:
http://larevisteriacomics.blogspot.co...
July 5, 2009
Not a huge zombie fan but didn't know much about the Resident Evil thing so I read this graphic novel.
Pretty much what I expected--zombies, blood, and guts.
Pretty much what I expected--zombies, blood, and guts.
December 10, 2015
Maybe the artwork was OK. I don't know; I was too busy hating everything else about this book to notice.
Want to read
June 26, 2016Este tomo es tan largo y meten mano tantos autores que me da desconfianza e ilusión por partes iguales. Ya veremos cuando me toquen...
March 31, 2024
Uno de los dos tomos, creo, de Resident Evil publicados en castellano por Panini.
May 13, 2012
This version was ok. Wasn't as great as the other books though
April 19, 2017
Picked these up as an impulse buy in a thrift store because I wanted some early Resident Evil nostalgia. Bad call on my part.
Skip this. The art ranges between adequate and trash, with a leaning toward the latter. The characters are colossal idiots, the plot makes little sense, and the series regularly goes against established RE lore. If you've played any Resident Evil games, this story takes off after the events of 2 and 3 and is non-canon as heeeeellll thanks to the events described from 4 onward. Even then, I've read better fanfiction than this. As an added bonus, the creature designs are often lazy and uninteresting to look at. This is simultaneously more like offbrand James Bond and House of the Dead than Resident Evil. If you can enjoy campy early 2000s trash comics, you might dig it. Otherwise, hard pass.
Go read Planetary instead. It was also released by Wildstorm around the same time as this, and is a brilliant exercise in storytelling and fun sendup of comic book and sci-fi culture. Has nothing to do with Resident Evil, but that's probably a point in its favor if this series is any indication.
Skip this. The art ranges between adequate and trash, with a leaning toward the latter. The characters are colossal idiots, the plot makes little sense, and the series regularly goes against established RE lore. If you've played any Resident Evil games, this story takes off after the events of 2 and 3 and is non-canon as heeeeellll thanks to the events described from 4 onward. Even then, I've read better fanfiction than this. As an added bonus, the creature designs are often lazy and uninteresting to look at. This is simultaneously more like offbrand James Bond and House of the Dead than Resident Evil. If you can enjoy campy early 2000s trash comics, you might dig it. Otherwise, hard pass.
Go read Planetary instead. It was also released by Wildstorm around the same time as this, and is a brilliant exercise in storytelling and fun sendup of comic book and sci-fi culture. Has nothing to do with Resident Evil, but that's probably a point in its favor if this series is any indication.
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