Much like there’s been comics based on Aliens for nearly 40 years past, there’s also been quite a few based on 1987’s Predator, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger (and the movie did have at least a few sequels in the years ahead). SpaceCom listed several examples, mainly published by Dark Horse Comics, which they consider the “best” of another horror-themed franchise. There’s at least two examples here that show just how sad the influence was on comics in terms of darkness becoming a marketing tool:
Having a Predator face off against a renowned superhero isn’t a novel idea. On top of the Yautja species’ many crossovers with the Xenomorphs, Dark Horse Comics already ran collaborations with other universes/publishers. According to most Predator fans and comic book readers, chief among these is the original, three-issue Batman vs. Predator series written by Dave Gibbons.
DC and Dark Horse’s 1991 collaboration was a great success and spawned two sequels years later. You could say the story almost wrote itself, as having the Predator show up in Gotham City felt remarkably natural. The galaxy’s greatest hunter against the world’s greatest detective and vigilante? This one was an easy win for everyone involved.
It’s not like Batman’s world never saw elaborate sci-fi storylines emphasized before (The Brave and the Bold served this purpose quite a bit when it became a Batman team-up title in the latter part of its 1955-83 run), but that doesn’t make this such a big deal. And seeing they linked to an earlier item about Marvel’s crossovers with the Predator franchise adaptations, that too is the kind of merchandize mashup that fails to excite these days.
Another addition to the list is “Deadliest of the Species”, written, most fascinatingly, by the man most known for X-Men:
We’re of the opinion that the Predator IP benefitted from crossovers much more than Alien, perhaps because of how remarkably simple and easy-to-digest the core premise behind the Predator franchise is. That’s why several Alien vs. Predator crossovers are very easily among the best Predator comic books of all time, and Deadliest of the Species continues to be a must-read.
The 12-issue series, written by none other than Chris Claremont, takes place after the events of Aliens: Outbreak and its sequels, that is, after Earth was overrun by aliens and later liberated. Much has changed for mankind, and the story follows a genetically engineered ‘trophy wife’ named Caryn Delacroix as she unveils her past as well as surprising connections to both Yautjas and Xenomorphs.
Deadliest of the Species has everything you’d want out of an AvP comic book, plus it’s got a surprising storyline with several crazy twists and even a female Predator known as ‘Big Mama’ (really).
I wonder why Claremont thought this was such a big deal either, to pen a story coming from the horror genre, and just shortly after he left X-Men? This decidedly is another example of how Claremont lost his way in later years as a writer, and anything he’s written for the Big Two since was nothing to write home about. To pen a Predator story as much as an Alien story is decidedly pretty cheap, when here, he could’ve tried to jazz up the comedy genre along with anything else considered an optimistic theme.
Unfortunately, as this suggests, Claremont could not break free of the theme of darkness even his X-Men stories built upon, and that apparently led him to work on what would definitely be an obvious choice of writing today. Too bad. I’m not impressed by the addition of a female Predator either. It sounds like Claremont’s ideas for villainesses from X-Men gone too far. Besides, what’s so easy to “digest” about something drawing on jarring violence as the movies did?
If there’s too much of the Aliens franchise today, then there’s also too much of Predator to boot. I think we could honestly do without it. Not a fan.
Originally published here.
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