Predator (2022) #1-6

Predator #1-6

Originally released in 2022

Written by Ed Brisson

Art by Kev Walker

Predator is a movie series with highly varying levels of quality.  Some, like the original 1987 movie or 2022's Prey, are amazing action movies, while others, like 2018's The Predator, are poorly written to say the least.  I was curious to see which end of the spectrum this would fall on.

The series focuses on Theta, a young woman who has been hunting Predators for fifteen years after a Predator with only three mandibles (instead of the usual four) slaughtered her family and the research station where she grew up.  When she was introduced by decapitating a Predator, followed by the mention that she had killed about two dozen of them, I was concerned.  The Predators are generally portrayed as being much deadlier than humans, like how humans are compared to deer.  The main things that allow a human protagonist to survive a Predator are cunning and strategy, and I was concerned that this was being thrown out the window to hype up this new protagonist at the cost of the Predators.

However, over the course of the series, her other encounters with Predators are more like mad scrambles for survival, outwitting them and barely winning by the skin of her teeth or taking advantage of their honour system to fight dirty. (for example, when a Predator lands to fight her face-to-face, she crashes a hoverbike into it before shooting it with lasers from her spaceship)

As time went on, I started to look at this series as being more like a space western.  Theta travels from remote outpost to remote outpost, following the Predators' hunting patterns to try and track down the disfigured Predator that destroyed her home, like how a western protagonist might try to track down a criminal with a distinguishing mark in order to avenge a similar loss.  By 2056, humanity has expanded to the stars (likely with the help of Predator technology), though civilization is still few and far between from what we see, with most of the galaxy being uncharted. (though we do catch glimpses of alien life aside from humans or Predators)

From what we see of the Predators, there's a good variety in terms of their designs, and we get a good amount of human and alien spaceships along with different planets, so it's different from the movies, where there tends to only be one Predator and everyone is stuck to one planet/location.

Given that the story is about revenge, I thought it might end with the idea of revenge feeling hollow, or with the reveal that the Predator that she's been hunting died long ago, though that wasn't the case.  Instead, Theta finds and kills her parents' killer and decides to murder every single Predator, with that last part seeming like a disproportionate response.

This series was all right.  Part of me wishes it was longer, as I would have liked to see more flashbacks to show how Theta reached the point that she did. (how she got a Predator's armour, for example, or how she killed one the first time around when she didn't have anywhere near the amount of resources that she has now)  While I prefer the tone of the movies, where humans are outmatched and need to outsmart the Predators instead of being able to take them on in a direct fight, I appreciate that this covered concepts that would be trickier to do in a movie, such as visiting alien worlds and encountering a variety of different Predators.