by Ben “Zombie” Bedgood, Reporter
Colonial Marines on the planet Tartarus battle extraterrestrial hunters over the possession of a mysterious horseshoe-shaped spaceship of unknown origin. The Weyland-Yutani rep wants the ship, and the marine captain wants to protect her crew. But neither objective is likely when a band of Predators attacks!
* Predator: Life and Death begins chapter one in a new story cycle involving Predators, Aliens, and the mysterious Engineers from Prometheus!
Predator: Life and Death #1 is another crossover piece interweaving the classic Aliens and Predator sci-fi franchises. With the success of the Alien prequel Prometheus and a new sequel on it’s way, Dark Horse is riding the wave, but bringing the Predators into the mix as well. I am a die hard Dark Horse, Aliens, Predator and H.R. Giger fan. As soon as I saw the front cover, I noticed the beautiful depiction of a Predator hunting through the jungle with a crashed Engineers ship, looking like it’s been overtaken by decades of jungle growth in the background. Wasting no time, I dove in, and after heavy review, here is my breakdown of the start to Dark Horse’s latest Predator mini-series.
I found the story overall to be intriguing. There are sections of clever banter mixed with backstory too, in essence keeping the overall story forward. I did love the little quips that referenced both the Alien and Predator story lines. While story points were given as well as tidbits of backstory, there seemed to be moments that even the characters in the story were confused as to not only what they were doing but why. This confusion shows that these Marines know the Tennyson quote, “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die.” This made me feel like part of the squad of Colonial Marines as I found turning pages in hopes of getting some answers myself.
The overall Illustration I found to be pretty good, noting one of the best illustrations in all 23 pages of the comic was the front cover. It seemed to be a bit on the blocky side, but that’s just a stylistic choice.
The color scheme of the comic did stand out a bit to me as being much brighter in the color spectrum that one would expect for the Predator story line, full of yellows, oranges and similar hues did come as a pleasant surprise. I found the inking to be a bit above average similar to the color, taking the time to show the intricate parts of the ship and technology was another pleasant surprise. I was also impressed by the lack of framing on some cells, allowing the artist to work literally outside the box, as well as using the environment to create a negative space in essence framing the cloaked Predator’s.
I felt that between the decent illustrations and wanting to find the “why,” I was compelled to keep turning the page and will have to pick up the next issue. Overall, pretty decent start to a series. There’s enough here to keep me interested in the story and wanting to know more but nothing that was incredible. I am compelled to see where this is going.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Predator: Life and Death 3 cloaked killing machines out of 5.
For more on comics, movies, video games, cloaked killing machines, and EVERYTHING geek pop culture head to ComicsOnline.com. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, or follow us on Twitter.
