A little more clarity.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chris Warner
Art: Agustin Padilla
Colors: Neeraj Menon
Letterer: Michael Heisler
What They Say:
A reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan turns into a deadly three-way game of cat-and-mouse as the Hunters track a Predator–and attempt to avoid a government-sponsored team after the same prey!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this storyline wasn’t one that really drew me into it in a big way though I did like the change in location – even if Afghanistan is a pretty loaded place to work with politically for the story. Chris Warner works it fairly well here while trying to expose some ideas and still keep it somewhat from being accusatory toward any side in the conflict and it’s a tight line to walk. Thankfully, you can easily ignore a lot of that and just enjoy Agustin Padilla’s artwork as he captures this barren landscape really well and engages with the Predator and how it looks in a very rough and raw way that adds to its sense of power. But he also excels with some of the characters, such as Atal, in playing to the usual movie style stereotype but giving him enough humanity in the visual design to make it work.
Jaya and her group are moving further and further into Afghanistan in search of the Predator and that comes amid events going on in the area among the villages. While the jihadi types are out there they’re not causing much problem these days for the locals, presumably because the Predator is taking them out. It’s earned him the name of a djinn that’s protecting them and that’s the angle through which Jaya is trying to get more information. What we do see of the Predator and the forces it goes up against are pretty well done but it’s the kind of one-dimensional pieces where we really have no investment in either side so it’s just a visual exercise, albeit a really beautifully illustrated and colored one. The power of the Predator is made clear and it’s easy to see why the locals are content to let it do its thing.
Where the group gets a little help is not from the village elders but from Atal, a kid who survived a Russian landmine where he lost his leg. He’s looking for passage out of Afghanistan and speaks English very well and has the intent of getting to Canada. This isn’t something that most of the group is comfortable with when you get down to it but at the same time they’re running out of options, which is even more apparent when Jaya reveals that there’s an American black ops team looking for the Predator in order to harvest its weapons and biology for weaponization. Jaya’s honest enough to admit her family made money that way itself over the years but after the island adventure she’s going down a different path than she was before and needs their help. They just wanted dead Predators.
In Summary:
While things are still in the build-up mode here it does prove to be a good bit more interesting than the first issue. I really liked what we get from the Predator as it roams the countryside and makes its kills and claims but I also like that we’re getting some honest from a few of the human characters as they talk about their intent and their uncertainty. Warner’s got a decent area to work with here and a lot of potential still but a lot of what’s making this engaging is Padilla’s artwork more than anything else. The detail is fantastic, the backgrounds are great, and the sense of raw power out of the Predator is spot on and really enticing to watch.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 5th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
