Fannish Fifty #8: Predator Comics
Mar. 6th, 2023 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenmnemonicHaving watched Predators a couple of times recently, I thought for this Fannish Fifty I'd list some of my favourite Predator comics produced while Dark Horse held the license to produce tie-in comics. Dark Horse have produced a lot of Aliens, Predator, Aliens vs Predator and Aliens or Predators vs other comic crossovers, usually as either one-shots, 3-4 issue miniseries and an occasional longer run (Aliens: Colonial Marines was about 12 issues, IIRC). Some of the runs have sequels, and others don't, and the line's been rebooted at least once (there was a ten-year gap in the noughties).
Predator: Concrete Jungle was the first comic book series Dark Horse produced in the line, and they based it around the brother of Arnie's character Dutch Schaefer in the original Predator movie. The script was written by Mark Verheiden, who was all over the Aliens and Preadtor comics for years and years and whose name crops up in a number of the movies as a result. And he wrote a fair number of BSG episodes, too.
In Concrete Jungle Dutch's brother John, a New York policeman, gets embroiled in a Predator hunt taking place in New York. Things get progressively worse for John and his partner Rasche, not helped by interference from a dodgy government figure.
This comic series kicked off the line well for Dark Horse, and John Schafer crops up in a number of other comic runs, including one set in Siberia.
Predator: Rite of Passage is a short black and white comic originally published across a couple of issues of the Dark Horse Comics title (I read it in the UK equivalent published, I think, by Titan). One of the things I remember is how little dialogue there is in the comic, which I found very effective; it tells the story of a young Masai warrior sent out to hunt a lionness that's been preying on an antelope herd, only to discover that his village has been slaughtered. He sets out to hunt the Predator responsible.
Predator: Homeworld The penultimate story before Dark Horse put the Predator comics line on hiatus for ten years, this story actually takes place almost entirely on Earth. A naturalist and her assistant find themselves caught up in a Predator hunt - only this time, three young Predators who've turned into thrill-killers are being hunted by an older Predator, and the humans are stuck in the middle of it. Perhaps the thing I liked most about this story arc were the theories that end up surfacing about what the origins of the Predators might be.
I'd also like to mention one of the crossovers - Dark Horse partnered with DC to produce three Batman vs Predator crossover series, and I found each of them to be much better than I expected (and I'm also a fan of the Batman vs Aliens run). I think I went in expecting something kitschy, but it actually made a good case for why the Predators would consider Batman a good hunting target. Also, one of the series had one of the best adverts I've seen on the back of a comic book cover - the Batman logo in yellow on a black background, with three red dots in a triangle in the middle of the logo.
Predator: Concrete Jungle was the first comic book series Dark Horse produced in the line, and they based it around the brother of Arnie's character Dutch Schaefer in the original Predator movie. The script was written by Mark Verheiden, who was all over the Aliens and Preadtor comics for years and years and whose name crops up in a number of the movies as a result. And he wrote a fair number of BSG episodes, too.
In Concrete Jungle Dutch's brother John, a New York policeman, gets embroiled in a Predator hunt taking place in New York. Things get progressively worse for John and his partner Rasche, not helped by interference from a dodgy government figure.
This comic series kicked off the line well for Dark Horse, and John Schafer crops up in a number of other comic runs, including one set in Siberia.
Predator: Rite of Passage is a short black and white comic originally published across a couple of issues of the Dark Horse Comics title (I read it in the UK equivalent published, I think, by Titan). One of the things I remember is how little dialogue there is in the comic, which I found very effective; it tells the story of a young Masai warrior sent out to hunt a lionness that's been preying on an antelope herd, only to discover that his village has been slaughtered. He sets out to hunt the Predator responsible.
Predator: Homeworld The penultimate story before Dark Horse put the Predator comics line on hiatus for ten years, this story actually takes place almost entirely on Earth. A naturalist and her assistant find themselves caught up in a Predator hunt - only this time, three young Predators who've turned into thrill-killers are being hunted by an older Predator, and the humans are stuck in the middle of it. Perhaps the thing I liked most about this story arc were the theories that end up surfacing about what the origins of the Predators might be.
I'd also like to mention one of the crossovers - Dark Horse partnered with DC to produce three Batman vs Predator crossover series, and I found each of them to be much better than I expected (and I'm also a fan of the Batman vs Aliens run). I think I went in expecting something kitschy, but it actually made a good case for why the Predators would consider Batman a good hunting target. Also, one of the series had one of the best adverts I've seen on the back of a comic book cover - the Batman logo in yellow on a black background, with three red dots in a triangle in the middle of the logo.
