The Predator Officially Joins The Marvel Universe
One of the greatest characters in science fiction, the Predator, is coming to Marvel and we cannot wait to see if it collects Tom Holland.
Is the Predator a Marvel villain? At long last, we finally have an answer to the question we just posed, and it turns out that while Predators may not be a villain or a hero per se, they are absolutely coming to Marvel. Specifically, Marvel Comics is publishing their first official appearance of the extraterrestrial hunter in a new series written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by Kev Walker. While there is a long history of various Predators being portrayed by Dark Horse Comics, this will be the character species’ first appearance in Marvel Comics since Disney (the parent company of Marvel) acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. Given Disney’s all-encompassing need to obtain all intellectual property that has ever, it is actually a little surprising it has taken them this long to utilize the Predator, but we look forward to the new adventures of the Yautja.
The new Predator Marvel story reportedly involves a young girl named Theta whose family is killed by a member of the Predator species and pursues some kind of blood feud against the creature. Writer Ed Brisson has said that he has been a longtime fan of the franchise and that writing the character is a dream come true. Dark Horse Comics began publishing stories involving the Predator species in 1989 and has periodically done so since, including notable crossovers with Superman, Batman, and Archie Andrews. The inclusion of the Predator in Marvel Comics opens a whole new world of who could be hunted by the species. Particularly given the recent interest by Disney in cross-pollinating their properties by way of Multiverses, it seems we could probably be seeing the alien game hunters popping up in a number of places.
The Predator being in Marvel Comics is just the latest expansion in one of science fiction’s greatest franchises. The original 1987 film was written by brothers Jim and John Thomas on spec, inspired by the long-running Hollywood joke “what if Rocky fought an alien?” While Sylvester Stallone has not yet come face to face with one of the many-mandibled aliens, it kind of seems just like a matter of time now. The first film was the directorial debut of John McTiernan (who would go on to helm Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October) and cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger’s status as one of the premier action stars of the 1980s.
It seems likely that the Predator and Marvel will have a long and fruitful partnership from here on. The original film spawned one direct sequel starring Danny Glover, and several match-ups with the Xenomorph Aliens of the other great sci-fi franchise, as well as the Dark Horse Comics and a number of spin-offs. Currently, Prey is scheduled to be released in the summer of this year, as a prequel movie involving a Predator in conflict with a Native American warrior three hundred years in the past. Now that Predator is part of Marvel, it is certainly possible that we will see an alien attempting to collect Tom Holland’s skull, but we will just have to see what Disney has to say about that.
