Ed Brisson’s run on Predator has been exciting, especially due to the creation of the new character, Theta. With a title like Predator, it’s clever to make the human hero the predator. In the third trade paperback of her ongoing adventures, Brisson and artists Francesco Manno and Erick Arciniega go on one last mission to free human captives from the Predators’ game preserve. From surprises in the group of human survivors to the final battle, there’s a lot to love in this collection.
Brisson does enough to catch up with new readers at the start, and Theta continues to be well-written. She’s getting older, tired, and maybe even better at working with people. The issue opens with a lengthier action scene, but for the most part, this is a mystery with sci-fi written all over it.
We open on an alien world in the year 2066. A crashed spaceship rendered beautifully by Manna suggests all is quiet – that is, until a Predator lands nearby and starts slaughtering aliens. After a lengthy fight scene, our attention is brought to a single button. It’s this button that draws in Theta and her trusty sidekick. After shifting the story a few years later, we’re introduced to our heroes, who are investigating a bloody scene only to be attacked by aliens riding on the back of alien birds. These two scenes seem to juxtapose the types of Predators we’re dealing with, two of which are humans underneath the familiar suits.
Prepare for Predator action.
Credit: Marvel
The larger story is built on the general setup of Predators capturing aliens to hunt them on a planet devoted to hunts, which is quite compelling. Considering this story takes place only a few decades from our own, is in canon, and seems to be on a crash course with revealing more about the Predators, there are a lot of reasons to be invested in this story. The fact that Brisson makes Theta so unique in her obsession with killing Predators is another big draw.
One of the survivors is a bold choice. A relative of a key character from one of the films, Brisson has the potential to tie this series to the films in a fun way. The captives have been taken at different times, but due to cryogenic sleep, they wake up without aging. The potential for storytelling is huge.
The art by Manna is very cinematic, which suits this sort of story. Even though characters are simply talking for most of it, his choices keep you interested, be it a close-up on a character’s face or a new angle on something they’re doing. While I found the opening action scene unnecessarily long, Manna makes it fun to read as the Predator slices and dices. Colors by Arciniega highlights the gory adult violence.
If you’ve been following Theta’s story, this collection also feels like a natural place to end. Her fight isn’t over necessarily, but she’s accomplished a major feat and gained a new edge in saving more humans.
If you like hard sci-fi, you’ll like Predator: The Last Hunt. There are interesting ideas at work here as Theta continues her quest to kill every last Predator, and she anchors the story with a character you can root for. Throw in the fact that this is adult-leaning violence, and this series sits right at home with the best of the Predator films.
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