Mark Verheiden

Dark Horse Comics set the comics industry on its ear with its comics expansion of the Predator mythos, a comics series so true to the spirit of the original 20th Century Fox film blockbuster that concepts from the first Predator comics series were incorporated into the Predator screen universe. Now, the three core Dark Horse Predator graphic novels-Concrete Jungle, Cold War, and Dark River- are collected together for the first time, in a value-priced, quality-format omnibus, featuring over 400 explosive story pages in full color.

Predator Omnibus

Wynter

May 29, 2017: I am a huge Predator nerd, so naturally I had to go back to the earliest graphic novels to see where the franchise was trying to head back in those days. What can I say, this omnibus feels very early 90's - just what the franchise should be all about. 

The first three stories feature Dutch's brother - Detective Schaefer of NYPD. Dutch is missing after the events of the first movie, while his equally macho brother must face a group of Predators that have been using New York as their personal hunting grounds. Eventually he gets involved in the international cover-up and travels to Siberia, where more Predators begin targeting a research station. But man-hunting aliens don't leave him alone there either; soon Schaefer must follow a trail to South America - the place where his brother was seen last. 

New York story borrows elements from the second movie, even copying some of the scenes. This is actually what Predator 2 would have looked like if they didn't eventually rewrite it. Not a bad variation on a cult classic, but Schaefer's behaviour was borderline psychotic. His roid rage bravado was getting stale by the page. But I guess that is what was popular back in the day: authority-defying lone heroes vs. clueless police lieutenants. All three episodes suffer from some repetition and cheesy one-liners.

"Right of Passage" and "The Pride at Nghasa" were two odd little tales set in colonial Africa. I actually thought the art and writing were the strongest here, even though I didn't like the Predator design as much. I enjoyed that the man vs alien scenes were rather original, compared to the rest of the stories. Definitely the best in the set.

"The Bloody Sands of Time" and "Blood Feud" take us back to World War I and Feudal Japan respectively. I didn't care for these two. The focus of these stories was to shock, rather than to tell a cohesive narrative. Both were hard to follow, being rather rushed, made little sense, and featured subpar art. 

Read Schaefer's story for the nostalgia, African tales for the great entertainment, and skip the rest.

Predator Omnibus

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