This article contains SPOILERS for Predator #2
There is a new Predator series out for Marvel Comics, and it seems as if the alien has taken a back seat in the story. While every entry is the Predator franchise is different from the last, their one uniting element is the title character. But Marvel's new Predator series is changing that.
In the future, as humanity colonizes the stars, a family is attacked by a Predator. The sole survivor of the incident is a girl named Theta. She was so traumatized and enraged by her parents' death that as she grew up she made it her life's mission to hunt the Predator down that killed her family and kill it for revenge. Because she doesn't quite know where it is or how to track it, Theta hunts Predators in general in the hopes that the one she finds is the one that killed her parents.
In Predator #2 by Ed Brisson and Kev Walker, Theta crash lands on a snowy planet in search of a Predator. This issue primarily focuses on Theta not only trying to track down a Predator on the planet but also simply trying to survive. The main incident in the issue is when a pair of scavengers come across Theta and try to steal from her. After overpowering the two aliens, Theta lets them go, understanding that they were merely trying to survive. Afterward, Theta enters into a base and sees footage of a Predator carrying her ax. The issue then closes as the silhouette of a Predator approaches her from behind.
This issue as a whole is largely uneventful. The bulk of the plot merely follows Theta as she wanders around the planet. A Predator only appears in the final , and even then, it's only in the shadows and never actually seen. So it's a bit frustrating for Predator fans that pick up the story hoping to see some awesome Predator action not to even see the alien at all in the issue. Of course, that doesn't mean the story won't pay off in later issues, but it seems as if in this issue nothing happened at all.
By itself, the story could be considered good. It's still too early in the arc to have any definitive opinion. Yet, the book is called Predator, So it stands to reason that the story should focus a lot on the Predator itself in some fashion. So far, in just two issues it seems as if the Predator is a minor or auxiliary character. The species serves as a plot device for Theta rather than a main focus of the story itself. One of the great features of the Predator that fans enjoy are the various gadgets and weaponry it deploys. If a title is called Predator, fans should expect to see lots of that type of fighting. It would have made more sense to name it something else if Theta's revenge is the main goal rather than the Predator doing the hunting.
Predator #2 is currently available from Marvel Comics.
