Predator #4 - Marvel Comics

PREDATOR No. 4, January 2023

Despite depicting some genuinely pulse-pounding predicaments for young Theta Nedra Berwick as she “goes head-to-head in an all-out dogfight” against two Predators on the frozen planet of Tusket. It is quite possible that some within this twenty-page-periodical’s audience might find the sole survivor’s persistent brushes with death all a bit too unbelievable by the comic’s climax; “I gave him the advantage. Served myself up on a platter. Useless. Weak. An injured animal… screaming… Here I am! Kill me!”

Foremost of these unconvincing contrivances occurs straight from the start when Ed Brisson proposes that the woman’s clunky-looking Astar Industries spaceship is capable of outmanoeuvring a pair of Yautja attack craft for long enough to allow its drunk pilot to clamber outside onto the hull and destroy one of her fast-paced pursuers with a hand-held surface-to-air rocket launcher. Sure, some bibliophiles may well argue that the human hunter has doubtless upgraded her interstellar vessel since she first seized control of it in order to track down her parents’ extra-terrestrial killers. But considering that Theta is supposedly 'the worse from drink' having consumed an entire bottle of booze from Port Medway, it’s debatably difficult to comprehend how she maintains either her balance or deadly one-shot aim.

Perhaps just as unpersuasive is Berwick’s subsequent decision to go toe-to-toe with the remaining Predator. Ed Brisson goes to some quite considerable lengths to inform the reader just how inebriated this comic’s central protagonist has become, as well as how badly the unaccustomed alcohol is affecting both her decision-making and fighting abilities. So, it comes as no surprise when “the daughter of botanists” is outmatched by her superior opponent despite initially gaining the upper hand. However, rather than being filleted by her foe, the Joe Shuster Award-nominee has the ‘Damara dropout’ conveniently rescued in the very nick of time by a team of gun-toting Astar employees who appear completely out of the blue.

Much more credible are Kev Walker’s layouts, which do a really good job of showing just how chaotic Theta’s actions are forced to become during her efforts to elude capture. The panels depicting the Sandpiper being buffeted whilst its pilot desperately tries to lock her weapon onto the Yautja will doubtless cause some to uncontrollably sway in sympathy of the ship’s sickening movements. Whilst others may well feel the anger emanating off of Sandy’s ward as Berwick realises the folly of her confrontation and that the woman’s fifteen year-long revenge mission is about to come to naught.

Writer: Ed Brisson, Artist: Kev Walker, and Colorist: Frank D'Armata