﻿Hey everyone, I’m Moose,
and as much as I love seeing the Predator rip the spines from hapless schmucks.
if you want to see the Yautja go toe to toe with some more dangerous game,
you need to check out the expanded universe.
In the 31 years since the first film debuted,
The Predator has stalked some of pop culture’s most prestigious properties,
resulting in some of the most awesome and insane crossovers we’ve ever seen.
So stick around, because today, we’re talking about
The Predator’s Most Peculiar Prey
A lot of these crossovers come courtesy of Dark Horse Comics,
known for their licensed series like ‘Terminator,’ ‘Aliens,’ and most famously, ‘Star Wars.’
Their Predator line proved particularly popular,
and after the success of their standalone stories,
Dark Horse was ready to unleash the yautja on
The DC Universe,
DC met with Dark Horse to discuss a potential crossover back in 1989,
but the smaller company decided to keep things ‘in-house’ with their own established properties first.
After the original ‘Alien vs. Predator’ comic became a massive hit in 1990,
Dark Horse returned to DC with a pitch to pit their hunter against the ultimate target:
The Dark Knight.
When the world’s greatest detective tracks down a killer who’s been separating victims from their spines,
he find himself at the losing end of an alien ass-beating,
but eventually stops the hunter from turning Gotham into a game preserve.
The Bat faced the Predator in two more miniseries,
and in a tag team with the big blue boy scout.
Superman was hunted in his own crossover, too,
where the Man of Steel was conveniently de-powered by a virus,
because all the stealth camo in the world won’t hide you from X-ray vision.
And if the World’s Finest team wasn’t worthy enough prey,
the Predators eventually set their sights on the entire Justice League,
when a evil race of aliens engineered an army of yautja with the powers of the JLA.
Of course, now that they’re about to become property of Disney,
I wouldn’t expect to see Batman vs. Predator onscreen anytime soon,
but you can check out an amazing 2003 fan film called ‘Dead End,’
that imagines how a back alley encounter between the yautja and the Caped Crusader would really go down.
Predators seem to have a lot of trouble with peace officers,
whether its a masked vigilante,
or Danny Glover as an LAPD detective.
That's right, butthead. Poop happens.
But what about prey who doesn’t just enforce the law,
he IS the law?
I’m talking, of course, about
Judge Dredd
I AM THE LAW!
After the success of ‘Batman vs. Predator,’
Dark Horse teamed up with a ton of different publishers in search of more skulls for the monster’s mantle,
including Britain’s breakout comic book character, Judge Dredd.
In Dredd’s dystopian future,
the streets of Mega City One are policed by elite agents of order who serve as judge, jury, and executioner in one convenient package,
making them exceptional opponents for the glory-hungry hunters.
In the comic, Dredd teams up with the great-great-granddaughter of Arnold’s character from the first film,
and together, they put their Lawmakers to the test against the Predator’s plasmacaster.
The book was written by Dredd co-creator John Wagner,
and in keeping with the strict, realtime continuity of the series,
the Judge’s encounter with the yautja are still considered canon.
And speaking of canon,
one of literature’s most famous pulp heroes also crossed paths with the Predator,
the ape-man known as
Tarzan
When Edgar Rice Burroughs created Tarzan in 1912,
I doubt he’d have envisioned him facing off against an alien hunter with a face like a horseshoe crab.
But long after the author’s death, Tarzan of the Apes lives on through countless new books, movies, cartoons and comics,
and once Dark Horse got the rights in 1996,
they wasted no time pitting the Lord of the Jungle against the Lords of the Hunt,
in ‘Tarzan vs. Predator: At the Earth’s Core.’
The clan of yautja put the Earl of Greystoke's formidable survival skills to the test,
and if you think Arnold going full Snake Eater was impressive,
you’ve never seen Tarzan of the Apes literally bash in a Predator’s head with a rock.
Pretty hardcore stuff,
but that’s nothing compared to the brutality on display in the world of
Mortal Kombat
The Mortal Kombat series is no stranger to crossovers,
and in the cameo-heavy ‘Mortal Kombat X,’
the yautja unleashed hell on Outworld.
The DLC Predator is the perfect fit for the ultraviolent fighting game,
and not just because Cyrax and Sektor blatantly ripped off his design.
His entire moveset is filled with brilliant callbacks to the movies,
and his brain-splitting finishing moves make excellent use of the yautja’s arsenal.
PREDATOR WINS.
But if you can’t pull off the fatality, don’t despair,
every victory ends with you ripping the spine out of your opponent and placing it on your trophy shelf.
Predator even makes sense lorewise,
after all,
what prey is more worthy than Earthrealm’s most accomplished fighters?
There’s only one group of hardened warriors who could possibly provide a more thrilling hunt:
Archie and Friends
Over the last few years,
Archie Comics has brilliantly transformed their hokey, nearly 80-year-old characters into a multimedia empire,
by not taking things super seriously,
and exploring genres far beyond comedy.
Do you think I can use Jason Blossom's death as an excuse to get out of P.E.?
Don't joke about Jason Blossom.
Why? Sardonic humor is just my way of relating to the world.
But long before the Lynchian ‘Riverdale,’
The ball began rolling with ‘Archie Meets the Punisher’ in 1994.
Still, as fearsome as Frank Castle is,
he’s nothing compared to the Predator.
Unlike other series like ‘Afterlife With Archie’ or the revamped ‘Sabrina,’
‘Archie vs. Predator’ is drawn in Dan DeCarlo’s cartoony style,
which makes the exploding heads, impaled bodies and torn out spines even more unsettling.
Between the occult rituals,
interspecies surgery,
and Archie-shaped exosuits,
the entire miniseries is completely batshit in the best way possible.
Archie Andrews would go on to encounter even scarier foes like Sharknadoes and the cast of ‘Glee,’
but since their encounter, the Predator has been lacking in fresh opponents.
I mean, who’s left?
Scooby and the Gang?
Predator vs. Mario?
Honestly, with Disney in charge,
it might finally be time for that Boba Fett/Predator crossover the galaxy has been waiting for.
I’m not holding my breath for that one,
but no matter when the next crossover occurs,
there will always be plenty of plain old humans for the Predator to hunt.