Prime directive, Primortal directive, same thing.

Ooh, behind schedule today, and the first thing I grabbed was a spare copy of DC Comics Presents: Green Lantern #1--and not the Hawkman issue I needed! So we have the choice between an old Superboy, or a title we've never read or blogged before. Let's try that: from 1995, Leonard Nimoy's Primortals Origins #1, "the Origin of the Primortals, part 1" Plot by Leonard Nimoy, script by James Chambers, additional story concepts by Christopher Mills, pencils by Scot Eaton, inks by Mike Barreiro. Cover by Arthur Adams!

The aliens known as the Primortals have only been on earth for like three days, in search of their enemy Zeerus. The U.S. government has faked a jet crash, to make it seem like the Primortals and their human friends are dead; and the humans quickly realize that means not only do their families think they're dead, the goverment can now do whatever it wants to them. But the government has an offer: they might be willing to work with them, if they can explain their resemblance to earth creatures. Primaster, the leader, is reluctant, but ultimately decides to tell his story.

Primaster's race, the Majae, had interstellar travel well over 65 million years ago; and one of his family line was part of their exploratory mission to earth. While they had visited and experimented on hundreds of planets prior, they were caught off-guard by earth: their usual techniques to stun subjects for study proves ineffectual against a tyrannosaurus, leading to multiple deaths. But while the Majae were soon able to co-exist with dinosaurs, after a thousand years or so they realized "a cosmic-scale ecological disaster would cut earth's life short by several billion years." While he may have been unable to save the planet, Primaster's ancestor decides to save the life, moving them to "habitat worlds," where they could continue to thrive and evolve. While sucessful, after a while he starts to wonder if that had been the right thing to do; and eventually a 'routine' pick-up mission crashes into earth. It's the worst disaster in the Majae's history, and causes them to adapt a non-interference directive. Ever since, Primaster's family had been taking care of earth's refugees, helping them evolve into the Primortals; and he felt he still had a duty to earth.

The humans are a little concerned to realize their new alien buddies had "killed the entire planet," but Primaster admits that was only the beginning...I'm not sure how he could've topped that, though. "Yeah, humans totally weren't supposed to become the dominant life form on earth; pandas were. We aren't sure if we dropped the ball, or they did..."