Welcome to the jungle…
Creative Staff:
Story: Chris Warner
Art: Francisco Ruiz Velasco
Letterer: Michael Heisler
What They Say:
Contact! The assault team encounters the Predator at night on the tropical island! First blood goes to the alien hunter, but ten-to-one odds and machine guns favor the humans . . . unless there’s something about their quarry they don’t know!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As we hit the midway arc of this miniseries it does fully feel like we’re getting something of a movie structure to it but one that would have the series run a bit longer than five issues. Warner spent some solid time doing background and exposition the last time around to get us to know the location of where things are going down and that was really first act kind of material that ended up being more middle act than anything else. What that allows is for the end of this issue and the next two to really work the big action pieces to carry us through the finale, which is just feeling weirdly paced to me in what it’s trying to accomplish. Thankfully, Velasco’s artwork is still very much a draw, especially with the more “primitive” style Predator that we’re dealing with.
A good bit of time is spent with the Bunting descendants and those that are aligned around him on this quieter island next to where the Predator lies and hunts. It’s certainly interesting as our human cast of characters engage with them, operating under their cover stories for the most part, and getting a decent feeling for how it all operates and some of the legacy of what the great-grandfather did. But it’s all something that even itself feels like a cover story and leaves you wondering what darker truths may be coming from it because it all feels far too simple and nice in a lot of ways. Nakai, amusingly enough, barely retains anything of his own cover story and that gets him into a spot of trouble but not enough to really change things, at least beyond being put to the back of the queue when the real mission starts.
When it comes to the real island they’re after itself, well, that’s where the book feels like it clicks far better. The team is advanced in their tech and skills to handle this, at least they think so, and coming up with suits to cool down their body temperature is a nice trick and they’ve got the advanced weapons, skills, and drones to investigate things. Which is why it’s fun to see how fast it all turns to crap even among those experienced in dealing with this opponent before. It doesn’t get nearly enough pages overall in the issue, it should have been almost the whole book, but it’s thrilling watching them move through the jungle, lyric and all, and discover that they’re up against far more than they expected and how radically that changes the hunt.
In Summary:
Predator: Hunters still just feels weirdly setup for me as so much of what we’ve had in the first issue comes across as first act material instead of taking us to the halfway mark of the run. There are neat things to it and I like the cast, even if they’re mostly unmemorable at this point in time outside of their personalities and knowing Nakai from past adventure material. The Bunting side of the book feels like it’s going to be more important but you can’t be sure while the island action is what delivers – but nowhere near enough of it. The action is very well handled and Velasco hits some great notes with it that makes it tense and fun, especially as it starts to go more and more wrong. Perhaps it’ll read better as a whole but I’m just feeling a bit disjointed by it all.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 5th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
