Added on July 14, 2010    cash whore , Dark Horse Comics , merchandizing , movie tie-in , Predators

Dark Horse Comics PREDATORS Official Sequel: Strangers in a Strange Land: Preserve the Game

SPOILER ALERT!: They kept the Predators movie open for a sequel, meaning some of the characters survived.
SPOILER ALERT!: The sequel is here… in comic form.

I liked the Predators movie (see my review of it here). I liked the comic book tie-in prequels (and reviews of those here).  Emphasis on LIKED – not loved. But… isn’t this a bit much?  This starts to seem like Predators: The Search for More Money pretty quickly, or maybe I’m just reaching the theoretical limit for how much merchandizing I can take for a single, increasingly marginal franchise, whose idea of more content increasingly becomes an exercise in proving the law of diminishing returns.  That being said, the actual comic isn’t terrible.

The biggest change you’ll notice? Suddenly Adrien Brody’s character now has a space mullet.  Yay. Which would lead us to believe he’s been here for many months rather than just a few weeks, as the narrative suggests.  But I quibble.

And so it seems the Predators’ new game, rather than hunting him down, is to have him be more of a gladiator fighting other beasts.  And they give him a mini-Predator suit so he can see in infra-red, too.  Aw, how nice.

But there’s some decent action. He has to work with Izzy to take down a Predator. Hijinks ensue.

The art is decent, script and story are ok.

Bottom Line: If you’re a fan of the franchise and the comics, pick it up.  If not, you might want to spend your time and money elsewhere.  IE, that awesome Star Wars: The Old Republic comic from last week. 2 stars