Backed into a corner.
Creative Staff:
Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Christopher Mooneyham
What They Say:
As the Predator sets out on his greatest hunt, Galgo must decide if atoning for his past sins is worth the ultimate sacrifice!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Predator arc of the Fire and Stone series is one that I’ve noted a few times is a bit harder in a sense to work through since the ostensible main character of the Predator himself has to have things communicated through action rather than words. That makes it a bit more of a challenge for both writer and artist, but when it’s pulled off it definitely works well. While the Predator miniseries wasn’t an out of the park experience, it was definitely solid and the team has pulled it together in a great way here at the end while setting us up for the next one-shot with Omega. There’s a big world of stories to tell in this particular shared universe and I’m keen to see this team – both characters and creators – tackle more of it.
The finale here gives us a neat little bit of history for the Predator, presumably the same one, as we go through over a hundred years of its life across multiple planets in different hunts after we see that initial piece similar to what started the Prometheus mission. Bringing it all together into the present with him coming across Galgo and then recognizing the Engineer, that pushed them towards working together and got him to bring Galgo back to LV-223 in order to take it down. That fight itself is a sprawling piece of work here that dominates the book in a very rough and raw fashion that Christopher Moonheyham really makes come alive in a sense of how much power is being thrown at each other between the two creatures physically and through their weapons. Wordless for the most part, it’s definitely an actions speaking louder than words but with a lot of detail that gets you to slow down and really savor the panels.
There is some natural conflict that goes on for Galgo throughout all this as he’s not exactly keen on it, and he’s not the most sympathetic lead to have, but it works well and feels more honest here because of his self interest and self preservation. So when things do come to a head and he has to make a choice, it’s the right one but you can sense the conflict. I also like how the Predator handles it all and the primal/trophy aspect as well. Thankfully, we do get some time with Foster and the surviving crew members and how they spend their time on the planet going forward, which will lead into the next book to bring things to a proper close. Suffice to say, there’s an interesting group that’s sort of formed on this world to survive and a strange kind of excited energy about it.
In Summary:
The Predator finale for this overall storyline is definitely a solid one and it brings a certain arc to a close in a solid way with no real ambiguity to it. We get some solid time with the Predator and the Engineer duking it out, which is what I wanted from it at this point, but also some really good stuff with Galgo as he’s become the male lead I’m glad I hate but enjoy watching him do his thing. There’s an unpredictability to him that I like since it’s not your standard good guy or evil guy but rather someone who understands in situations like this that you do have to look out for yourself, but also look at the bigger picture. The team on this book did a solid job and bringing it to a close has worked very well considering the difficulty in working with a character like the Predator. It’ll be interesting to see how much better it all reads in one sitting instead of over several months while mixing in the other books in the event as well.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 28th, 2015
MSRP: $3.50
Great review bud. I thought the predator was awesome in this comic.he showed his hunting skill and his power at the same time.
I do like the visual of it all and Chris Mooneyham nailed it, but the Predator material is fairly limited in a way – similar to the Alien material – since we’re not able to really get to know them for who they are, their society and processes in a way. After, what, thirty years of material, there’s been little real expansion on them as a property.