Higgins, Piper, and Galgo made their escape after the events of Prometheus: Fire and Stone.  Taking one of the Engineer’s weapons as booty, the three realize that a Predator stowed aboard their ship.  The hunt is on as the three men look to rid their vessel of the excess baggage.  However, the roles get reversed as the Predator lives up to his name.  Galgo’s Engineer weapon holds the answer to the Predator’s motivation in stalking the men. Christopher Mooneyham’s art recreates all of the Predator motifs that fans of the franchise have come to know over the years: the cloaking technology, the thermal vision, and the shoulder mounted laser cannon.  His subtle use of gore makes for some great scenes without being too excessive or cartoonish.  Best of all, he faithfully depicts the Predator in all its savagery as it springs forth from the bulkheads to attack its prey in one very detailed panel.

As far as Joshua Williamson’s story is concerned, it is accessible and typical of the Predator format (and the Alien universe, as well).  We have the greedy individual who seeks to cash in on the extraterrestrial technology, we have the machismo crew, and we have the confining corners of the spaceship as backdrop.

While the script provides routine entertainment that one would expect from a Predator series, it offers little of anything new.  One nominal token is the Engineer weapon, and that will play out in the oncoming issues.  While issue one provides a serviceable story with one slight twist, we have a decent opening to a series that will hopefully pay off in some way with a good deviation from practice and some interesting new plot threads in this crossover with the Alien (Prometheus) storylines.

Score: 3/5

Writer: Joshua Williamson Artist: Christopher Mooneyham Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.50 Release Date: 10/22/14 Format: Mini-Series (1 of 4); Print/Digital