Wednesday Comics: Predator vs. Wolverine

 

I am a man of simple tastes.  I don't need every comic story to be Watchmen or Doomsday Clock.  

Sometimes I just want to see some bloody mayhem.

And that is what I got with Predator vs. Wolverine.

While it comes with a hefty price tag for a floppy ($7.99), it was much more entertaining that most of the comics I have read lately.  Also, at 48 pages it gives you your money's worth.

The story begins with a horribly beaten Wolverine being chased by a Predator.  Logan is definitely on the ropes and it looks like he could be outmatched.  We then spend most of the time in a flashback to 1900 Alaska.  A young Logan is eking out an existence of the harsh wilderness.  In the meantime, a Predator makes his way to the same territory for some hunting.  There are some great shots of the Predator going after some of the while life, including an orca.  

But sure enough, Logan finds himself on a collision course with this being and the two are more evenly matched than they realized, causing some brutal carnage along the way.

I enjoyed the simplicity of this story.  Writer Benjamin Percy is not trying to do anything too pretentious.  There are moments where Logan pontificates on the encroaching settlers and their "civilization."  But this does not detract from the intensity of the story.  The main artist for this issue is Greg Land and he does an excellent job of giving us a harrowing setting for this battle in the snow.  Mixed up in the elements, the landscape only serves to emphasize the brutality the way the jungle did in the original movie.  Watching Logan and the Predator claw at each other felt like some wonderful fan-fiction match up in the best possible sense.  You can feel the visceral thrill of the wild slashing of their claws and blades.

Percy knows not to linger too much.  He also understands one of the key ideas in a Predator story is that you not only have to be strong, but ultimately you have to outwit the Predator.  If you don't there will be consequences.  

Again, this isn't anything terribly ground-breaking, but I have still been thinking about the story for the last few days.  I thought this was a one-shot, but the book ends on a cliff-hanger which teases an even better story in the next issue.

And I will definitely be picking that one up.