Predator Comic Series Preview

Io9: There’s Predator, Predator 2, and Predators. Are they all canon?

Williamson: It’s all canon to me. I love all three movies. I remember seeing Predator at home on video and then seeing Predator 2 in the theaters at the tender young age of 9. I’m pretty sure it was the most violent movie I’d seen to date and I loved it!

If you look at how the continuity works in the original films they each work alone, but still acknowledge the ones before it. That’s the same attitude I’ve had with my Predator story. Listen, I’m a continuity junkie, to toss anything would be sacrilege, but I don’t want it to overpower what I’m trying to do here.

So does "launching this fall" mean September?

I imagine it will be released without referencing the old EU.  That way there is nothing that conflicts either way.  Fans of the old EU can say that it didn't outright conflict what was already written.  Fans of the new EU won't have to accept the old EU if they don't want to.

Works better that way imo.

I imagine it will be released without referencing the old EU.  That way there is nothing that conflicts either way.  Fans of the old EU can say that it didn't outright conflict what was already written.  Fans of the new EU won't have to accept the old EU if they don't want to.

We'll have to see. If they're doing these sort of Q and As this many months before release, I would think that they'll reveal at least a bit more. I'm looking forward to the exclusive art that will come with their answers.

Allie: Just miniseries, and then the fifth book is a one-shot titled Prometheus: Omega.

Allie: A lot of terrible things are drawn to the moon where Prometheus took place on, leading to a great deal of suffering. A salvage crew goes out looking for answers to some simple questions, they face some bigger questions, and are sucked into a very high-pitched horror adventure story that wrestles with some of the same questions as Prometheus, and the themes the best of these films tackled.

Allie: Short answer is yes. I haven't read anything for the next film, and I've been told relatively little, but the guys at Ridley's office are making sure what we're doing works with what they're doing.

These writers are creating the Luke, the Vader, of the Dark Horse version of Prometheus, et al, and they're really pushing to make the characters special.

April Fools?

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The link doesn't work and that picture looks like a Tholian from Trek.

CR: Initially we were really bummed when Fox came in and told us to trash our scripts. My first issue was already written and Patric [Reynolds] was already well into the pencils, but when we got the mandate that we include Amanda Ripley, Ripley's daughter who, I think, appears in one deleted scene of Aliens, that just opened a whole new world of really cool possibilities for us.

CBR: So your series will dovetail with the new game, Alien: Isolation? Was there any collaboration between the writers and the game developers?

CR: Creative Assembly was great to us. Obviously since those guys are over in the UK they couldn't physically be there in the writers room with us, but we got to see a lot of fantastic concept art, and, of course, they sent us enough story details for us to work around. All I can say is that my Aliens series picks up about two years after the events of the game, and it sort of provides the next logical step for Amanda's story. She's gone toe to toe with the creatures her mother faced, and now she's looking for answers. Through a few twists that Paul [Tobin] sets up in Prometheus, she winds up making her way LV-223, but I can't say much more on that.

CBR: We know that Prometheus is the "beating heart" of this reboot, so how much of a role will the Engineers play in your story?

CR: The Engineers will be a very consistent presence in all the books. What's funny is that people very rarely ever address the other aliens in the Aliens universe. Randy Stradley, who has done a lot of work on Alien and Predator books in the past and wrote the very first AvP story, along with Kelley Sue [DeConnick] had a huge binder this thick of Alien bible stuff. I kind of made it my mission to pick and choose a few choice thing from the universe Dark Horse has built and work them in to give fans something to get excited about. So part of what I do in Aliens is address the relationship between the Engineers and this species called the 'Giffs', who are from a novel that John Shirley wrote a few years back. There a couple of things like that in the different series that fans should really love.

Quote from: Xenomrph on Mar 31, 2014, 02:01:23 PM

there's so much variety and uniqueness shown in both the movies and the EU that Predators' sport-hunting practices could be very similar to human sport-hunting practices - that there isn't so much "tradition" as there's individuals (or at best, small groups, tribes, or clans) who have personal preferences. Each clan might have internal "traditions", but they certainly aren't "traditions" that apply to the entire species.

Even if there is a "code of honour", each individual predator decides how strictly he'll observe it on an actual hunt, especially if the predator is hunting solo. In Prey, it's obvious Broken Tusk is a predator who actually takes honour seriously, whereas many of his students couldn't give two sh*ts about honour when the senior hunters are no longer around. They just want to murder whatever crosses their path

there's so much variety and uniqueness shown in both the movies and the EU that Predators' sport-hunting practices could be very similar to human sport-hunting practices - that there isn't so much "tradition" as there's individuals (or at best, small groups, tribes, or clans) who have personal preferences. Each clan might have internal "traditions", but they certainly aren't "traditions" that apply to the entire species.

I mean previous material suggested that the traditional hunters abhor the idea of using attack dogs, as seen in Three World War and even Evolution.

I guess you could...but the question is why? The Hish and the Super Predators are both rather lame concepts, but the Hish are even worse IMO. If they decide to use the Super Predators, I'd prefer that they don't try to write them as Hish. Why mix up the two concepts? Writing the Super Predators as Hish wouldn't improve the Super Predators, it would make them even more lame

However the Super Predators are supposed to be a cousin race or species to the traditional Predators. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to write the Hish as the Super Predators

I like neither the Hish concept nor the Super Predator concept...but if I had keep one, I'd prefer Super Predators to Hish. Of course, my first choice would be to have neither. Yautja and Bad Bloods is what I've always been fond of.   

It sounds like this new series will probably stick to the "original movie predators". I've always felt like Yaujta are a solid expansion of the predator mythos based on the clan in Predator 2. I can only hope that this reboot keeps some elements of the nomadic, clan-based Yautja who hunt for both sport and honour. Aside from Steve Perry's Yautja, I thought Jeff Vandermeer's version of the predators in South China Sea was quite good.     

No arguments, but I want to hear somethings from the writers themselves. Any wrong in that?

Unpopular opinion, but I thought Rebellion did that quite beautifully. I loved AvP2010. I would go as even far as to say that might as well have been the third AvP installment in continuity with the AvP movies.

I don't think that they really so much as care about maintaining the reminder of two less than well received films. Granted I liked the AvPs, again another unpopular opinion but if anything merchandise is really meant to hook in the fans, reel them in and grab them for whatever cash that they can really dish out to obtain said items. Fans collect, for one reason for another.. Either way, Fox and the partners ends up getting the profits. It's about the money as far as merchandise is concerned.

The Hish concept, as... awful as that pill was to swallow could still be used in Predator novels or such. Just write the Super Predators as Hish and the regular Predators as Yautja, there you go.

Dark Horse doesn't need to be an authority in order to say what FOX thinks. At least, it hasn't stopped them in the past.

AvP2010 referenced 'AvP' because Rebellion thought it would help their story.

It's also something that keeps a franchise in the public consciousness and reminds people that something exists. If FOX didn't want people remembering the AvP movies and all the things in them, why would they keep authorizing things from it and keep reminding people of something they want everyone to forget or ignore?

Compare it to, say, the Hish concept - evidently FOX literally told other EU writers to outright not reference the Hish concept. That could mean it's been retconned out of existence per FOX, but who knows?

But I think we'll get something along the lines: "We're not an authority on what's canon or isn't" in regards to that question.

I don't see how merchandise has any bearing on the canon or storyline of the franchise. Merchandise is something which fans buy to add to their collection.

Call it an educated guess based on past behavior.

Ask the creators, I'm pretty sure I already know the answer.

We're still getting prop replicas and other merchandise from the AvP movies to this day (S.H. Monsterarts just did the 'AvP' Alien and 'AvPR' Wolf, Sideshow recently did a mask from 'AvP', the 'AvP' Alien designs are showing up in the AvP miniatures game, and NECA has the 'AvP' figures in the pipeline). If they're intending to ignore the AvP films wholesale, they're doing a pretty garbage job of it.

Can I ask how do you know this?

Explain "recently".

And how do you know Fox is still supportive of the AvP films in other media? The last ones were AvP2010 and Evolution but Evolution only had the temples, not so much Karl Bishop Weyland or any mention of Charles.

I asked a few that I doubt they'll be able to answer, but I figured it's worth a shot.

I wish they had revealed a bit more, but I'm not surprised that they didn't. I think they're being so secretive not just to avoid spoiling things , but also because they fear that Fox will force further changes, and DH doesn't want to be in the position of promising things that don't pan out.

The authors are choosing to for the purposes of the story they want to tell, that doesn't mean it's "not canon" in the grand scheme of things.

I'm very confident it was a personal choice. FOX has been quite supportive of the AvP films in other media very recently.

That's what made it extra hilarious to me when people would complain about "strict continuity" and how the EU "violated" it.
As if the movies were much better.

Hence why I'm a fan of "fuzzy continuity" (and I assume why others like a "multiverse" idea).

Quote from: Xenomrph on Mar 29, 2014, 09:56:02 AM

Quote from: Nazrel on Mar 29, 2014, 08:55:49 AM

So just for my understanding... theyre taking the first three alien films, Predator 1-3, Prometheus and Alien Isolation; wrapping them all into one canon universe?

Among other things (e.g.: everything else you didn't list).

Except they are ignoring AVP & AVP:R.
And likely the rest of the dumb shit.

I wonder if the decision to ignore the AvP films was either a personal decision by the writers or mandated by Fox.

Quote from: Ultramorph on Mar 29, 2014, 11:46:35 PM

Scott Allie is more focused on earliest movies, says even all the movies don't really fit in a single neat line.

No disputing that. Absolutely no disputing that.

Scott Allie is more focused on earliest movies, says even all the movies don't really fit in a single neat line.