Predator: Life and Death #2
Writer: Dan Abnett
Artist: Brian Albert Thies
Colorist: Rain Beredo
Covert Art: David Palumbo
Release Date: 04/06/2016
This story takes place approximately forty-three years after the events in the motion picture Aliens (and just over a year after the events in Fire and Stone). Captain Paget and her platoon of Colonial Marines are dispatched to Tartarus to enforce a Weyland-Yutani claim on the planet, only to find more than they bargained for. The surviving claim jumpers reveal that they discovered a derelict spacecraft of extraterrestrial design—and a group of XT hunters who, after practically hunting the claim jumpers to extinction, have set their sights on the marines. Now Paget and her troops must battle an enemy they can’t see while balancing the objectives of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation with the necessity of getting off the planet alive . . .
Predator: Life and Death #2 is the second part of the four issue miniseries by Dark Horse Comics. It will also be part of the other ‘Life and Death’ stories coming out this year by Dark Horse in a manner like they did last year with “Fire and Stone” – Which was the theme linking together Aliens and Predator lore with Prometheus in the Dark Horse Comics Canon. This issue continues the adventure on Planet Tartarus with the Colonial Marines, now working with Weyland-Yutani, and come across the crescent-shaped spaceship from Prometheus.
The issue seemed to start out slow and drag a bit at the beginning and makes you wonder how many groups of people are going to be together in this story with these conflicts. Anytime you see Weyland-Yutani Logos, you know there is going to be trouble, betrayals, and deaths to follow. People are racing to scavenge the planet for whatever they can for their own personal reasons and the companies that they work for. Little do they realize, they are being watched by a pack of battle hungry predators. Its kinda funny, how a story dealing with spaceships, aliens, and other planets that when someone goes crazy from witnessing a predator in the wild – no one believes him!
The Colonial Marines leave the camp and go scouting. It’s kinda fun and makes you think of the very first movie. It seems like a group of teenage boys ripped out of an 80’s action movie. They goof around, and have a good time, not knowing their pending danger. Once the Predator Ambush happens, then the real action begins. Abnett does a great job setting up the moment for the ambush, while Thies draws us out a well orchestrated battle between the marines and the Predator. The colors though seem to be on and off. I know that we have to keep in mind that we are on a far away planet that will have different colors of the atmosphere that could change, as well as the tone. When the Predator first came out and made his presence known, I thought it was Skeletor wearing a Predator mask! The way his body was structured made me think Keldor had come to another planet and found some Predator gear. Though the Predator was a lot more Brutal to the team than Skeletor would be.
Predator: Life and Death #2
- Story - 8/108/10
- Art - 7/107/10
The Verdict
Predator: Life and Death #2 was a fun and gory blood-fest. The body count goes up as our favorite trophy hunting extraterresrials go on the hunt. I’ll also mention that I love the cover art. The cover is painted in a way the Predator is slightly camouflaged while hunting the marines. There is a moment that I would think all Predator fans will like. When they run into a character who got into their camp. They ask him how he got there and he says “The same way we stayed alive. We move quietly, and we’re unarmed.”
