Summary
- Humans have found ways to defeat Predators throughout history, but to kill them, one must think like them.
- In Marvel's Predator series, a woman named Theta seeks revenge on a Predator who killed her parents.
- Theta's quest to kill Predators has transformed her into one, wearing their armor and collecting their trophies.
The to kill a Predator it's vital to think like one, and the franchise is now offering a tragic example of how that can warp its heroes into versions of the alien hunters they once defeated.
In Marvel's ongoing Predator series, Predators are being hunted by a woman named Theta. When she was a child on assignment with her scientist parents, Theta's family was attacked by a Predator. It didn't deem them a threat until her parents brandished a weapon in fear. Theta survived the attack, but her parents didn't. Years later, Theta is hunting predators down in search of the one who killed her parents. She wants to get revenge on this particular Yautja, which lost one of its mandibles during the fight with her family.
In Predator #5 by Ed Brisson and Kev Walker, Theta is captured by the human corporation that her parents used to work for. She had been using her parents' ship to travel around the galaxy and the company wants it back. However, when one of the company's employees goes inside the ship, he is startled to learn how many Predators Theta has actually killed. She even keeps all of their helmets mounted in the ship as trophies. This trophy wall is eerily reminiscent of what the Predator does to its own conquests, as shown most famously in Predator 2.
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Theta Hunts, Dresses, and Takes Trophies Like A Predator
Over the course of the series, readers have gotten to see what Theta has become during her mission. In order to hunt down and kill Predators, especially dozens of them over the course of more than a decade, she's essentially had to become one of them. She has learned to hunt in the wilderness without any base or reserves to call on. This is how a Predator hunts when it's dropped into a war zone on Earth. Theta has also taken to wearing Yautja armor and wielding their weapons in combat, to the point she's been mistaken as a Predator by other alien species.
Indeed, such moments are now building into what's doubtless the point of a Predator series which focuses on a human - Theta's quest to kill Predators has effectively turned her into one, with the minor quibble that she hunts Yautja rather than humans. This tragic change has happened little by little, but it's an aspect seen throughout the series - killing a Predator is a transformative act, and one that makes humans more like the villainous aliens they go up against. Sometimes, this happens in less extreme ways (like Naru proving herself as a hunter). But in Theta's case, her long quest has ensured that the process is completely taking over.
Predator #5 is now available from Marvel Comics.
