Things go bad for the black ops crew.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chris Warner
Art: Agustin Padilla
Colors: Neeraj Menon
Letterer: Michael Heisler
What They Say:
Afghanistan is called the ”Graveyard of Empires,” but it may also soon be the graveyard of the Hunters when they go up against a Predator who has honed its skills fighting the jihadi and U.S. forces!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As we close in on the finale for Predators II we get some good mission moments here. While Warner’s script hasn’t exactly leaped off the page for me, partially because of some minimal characters to work with and a Predator that’s kept largely off-panel for a good deal of the run, there’s been a good build-up of tension as events move forward. The main draw continues to be Agustin Padilla’s artwork and this issue really draws that out in a big way with some great end-page material but just a whole run of action that absolutely delivers what you want to see from a man versus Predator event. Combined with the great color work from Neeraj Menon that captures the bleakness and harshness of the landscape, you definitely feel events here.
Our core crew is amusing and interesting to watch with this issue as they’re they b-plot for the book. With Atal insisting that he knows where the Predator’s lair is he’s intent on bringing them there into the mountains. Jaya’s got some natural distrust of him because it could be a trap or just bad information, especially when on the journey they think they’re overtaken by the military black ops operation that goes for one of the bases in the area. But Atal’s insistent that the place isn’t where the Predator resides and he knows how to get to the real place. I like the uncertainty within the group but I particularly like seeing the way that Atal and Swain develop their relationship a bit as it goes on since Swain is protective of him but Atal has lived the hard life here and, largely, knows how to survive it. That does earn him a spot overall in a way that reminds me of Newt in Aliens as the kid that gets the basics of how to handle this.
The bulk of the issue focuses on the black ops team and their helicopters arriving to get the Predator and particularly its gear. It’s a standard professional infil kind of event that generally works well in terms of presentation, showing us a solid by the numbers approach until they realize the scale of the bodies in the building that they’re finding and just how brutal the Predator is. When it does show up after they get ready to leave, allowing it to go after them with their guard down initially, it’s pretty striking as it deals with their transportation before really going after the soldiers one by one in the middle of all the debris, smoke, and chaos. Padilla puts together a really brutal looking Predator throughout this and especially in the last panels where its size simply feels incredibly imposing.
In Summary:
Predator II continues on the mission and sets up for the finale in the next issue, which doesn’t exactly excite me too much because it’s either going to be an incomplete ending or one rushed through far too much to really feel engaging. While that’s coloring my view of it to some degree there’s a lot to like in this book as Padilla gets to put together a whole lot of action with the black ops crew going up against the alien and it plays out as violently as you’d expect. It’s light on story points but it’s an engaging and fun action piece with the key things that makes a Predator story work.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 24th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99