Dan Abnett and Dark Horse Comic’s new Predator book is classic Predator, but it feels fresh in a way that it hasn’t to me in such a long time. Maybe it’s the fact that it takes place in the expanded world that last year’s Fire and Stone anthology set up. Maybe because I feel the pieces being laid out for this year’s 12-part anthology of which this is the first arc. It’s issue three and a handful of interesting characters are stepping forward: the hardass Captain Paget of a colonial marines unit; Rucker, a colonial marine who accidentally shot one of his own in the firefight,;Goode and his salvage operation caught on the planet and now under the thumb of the Paget for showing up to salvage Wayland property; and a slew of others. How many will make it to the end of the book, and how many will continue to the next series arc? It’s exciting to see with each page turned just who’s going to make it and who isn’t.
Brian Albert Thies' slightly elongated human and predator forms add a slightly surreal quality to the imagery, making what’s happening almost seem like a waking nightmare. Rain Beredo’s coloring and shadows remind me of the classic EC and Vault horror comics. Combined, it gives this story an eerie quality that I wasn’t expecting.
It’s also nice to see the Colonial Marines hold their own, however briefly. Their tech is far more advanced than the weaponry that belonged to Arnie back in the day, and it does give them the advantage and the brief wins they need to keep going as they set out to salvage what they can from the crescent-shaped ship on the planet. My guess is once they get inside, everything will change.
On a side note, as we see the humans’ technology advance, I wonder, does the Predator’s technology ever advance? Or do they simply have the same tech they did from the '80s?