Dark Horse Announces Predator Hunters III!

Started by Katanu, Nov 13, 2019, 06:11:03 PM

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Dark Horse Announces Predator Hunters III! (Read 58,062 times)

426Buddy

426Buddy

#180
Wow what the hell was that? Got mine in today.  :laugh:

They really dropped the ball in the second half, such a waste. The art is pretty great and the  story starts out good but it completely tanks by the end.

felix

What happened?

Katanu

Katanu

#182
Honestly, I think the lenght of the series didn't allow for the story to be properly fleshed out. Everything feels rushed. It really could have used a fifth issue.

SuperiorIronman

Non-spoiler review verdict (despite spoiler tag): Wasted potential.

Spoiler
I don't feel this story follows through on any of its premise. The Humans don't contribute anything for a group who are Predator survivors, the Predators are baffling towards the end, and I have no idea the reason why Herrera is even here. Nobody really contributes anything to the plot which means that the narrative essentially goes nowhere. Even Schaffer still has no idea what Dutch is doing. I guess that can't be helped given we didn't know anything as a community until earlier this year..., but it's November and Dutch returned in May, we could've gotten at least a line of dialogue.

The art is..., alright. I don't love it but I don't hate it either. I like the design of these Predators being very Jungle Hunter but having unique details. That all being said the Humans look a bit too young for older combatants. The side mouth also looks bad. This isn't Sonic, put the mouth in the right place.
[close]

Really is a shame this is how the solo line goes out. C-
It's passable but for the last Predator story under Darkhorse its disappointing especially given its premise.

Xiggz456

Finally read it! I had fun with it but I think it could've used one more issue to further flesh out the narrative. I loved the art though especially any panel with a predator.

Spoiler
I'm guessing it was a father son dynamic going on with the preds. We haven't seen that since Batman VS Predator 3. Also there seemed to be some nods to AVP's Mayan connection which I found cool! Wish the Hunters team had to face off against the preds but the second half of the series really became Ligachev's story (although I guess technically she's a Predator hunter as well).
[close]

All in all I've thoroughly enjoyed following the Hunters team through the three volumes (13 issues). Here's to hoping we haven't seen the end of them!

Voodoo Magic

Quote from: Katanu on Nov 18, 2020, 12:21:28 PM
Honestly, I think the lenght of the series didn't allow for the story to be properly fleshed out. Everything feels rushed. It really could have used a fifth issue.

Well, I thought Hunters II was fantastic and that was only four issues I believe.  I just think Warner had no clear direction on where to take the next chapter. That's how it felt to me at least. Not the way I hoped we go out. :-\

426Buddy

426Buddy

#186
When I initially read it I only skimmed through the second half of the story. Now I've had time to sit down and do a full re-read and it isn't as terrible as it first seemed but its not good.

Spoiler
It starts out nice continuing on from the last story with Stargazer releasing Herrera for unknown reasons. We get a sweet predator in his backstory here. It brings in some old characters for a set up that seems like its going to have an explosive finale. It seemed interesting when the predators were arguing, at first I was thinking that one was becoming a bad blood perhaps? But it wasn't really coming across clearly and then seemed muddled by the end. The story just never pays off on any of the threads started in the setup. Really it falls apart in the last issue for me though. Schaefer runs out into the jungle and fights the bad blood in one of the weakest predator battles ever. The predator is literally only stabbed twice causing him to throw Schaefer out of frame. Then that's it, suddenly the fight is over and battle with the Russians is over. The other predator comes back and helps the wounded predator escape up a pyramid to wait to for rescue by their ship.Then the bad one tries to self destruct instead so the other predator just kills him. I just felt this whole portion made no sense, why would they try to escape after two stabs with a knife. I mean look at what the predator in Hunters II went through, now that predator was epic.

In the end Schaefer and the Russians didn't do much and neither did the rest our predator hunter team.
[close]

The one thing I did love was the art. There are some just fantastic predator panels in this and that helped elevate the story a little. But in the end I was really disappointed in this one... By far the weakest of the three.


Corporal Hicks

Quote from: Katanu on Nov 17, 2020, 08:34:16 PM
So yeah, a sad way to finish Dark Horse's Predator comics, and also not a good conclusion to the Hunters series. I hope this isn't the end, and that Marvel continues with a fourth volume for this series.

I think the problem is this wasn't intended or written as an end... It's very much another part in a longer story that we wont see played out.

I also think it was a disappointment, but only because of that. Because they'll be no further pay-off, so much so that most of what was done within the series feels pointless, I guess. We get these legacy characters back and nothing really of note seems to be done with them here, other than reintroductions. I'm not sure what the point of Herera being brought back was, because it didn't feel like much pay-off either.

Completely agree re: the Predator interactions.
Spoiler
At first I thought copper head was supposed to be a younger being trained, but that seems to flip around towards the end. I just didn't get what the intent was here? To show a divide that was going to be played on later? We didn't even get characters witnessing and speculating on the reasons (did Herera even see and mention the end? I don't think he did.)
[close]

That said, I continue to really love Brian Thies artwork, especially with Wes Dzioba on colours. Probably a 6/10 for me. It wasn't awful, it just feels a bit wasted.

Voodoo Magic

Very bummed this went the way it did. Before III, Hunters was my go to reading recommendation for the casuals. High on a pedestal it stood. :-\

Kailem

Got the trade for Christmas and just read it earlier. I agree that it's probably the weakest of the three volumes, but I think I enjoyed it more than it sounds like most people here did.

Spoiler
It was cool seeing Detective Schaefer again after all these years and finally getting a first name, not to mention Ligachev! I knew ahead of time that the former was returning, but I had no idea she'd be back too, so that was a cool surprise since Cold War was one of the first Predator comics I ever read back in the day. I do think that another issue would have been nice as people have said, since I would have liked to have seen more interaction between her and Schaefer and just had the back half of the story fleshed out a little more (I actually checked at one point to see which how many issues I'd read as it felt like there wasn't going to be enough left to finish everything off), but it was cool to see them both back even if they didn't really end in a different place than they began.

Certainly it would have been nice if there had been some update on Dutch now that Hunting Grounds has bought him back and given us the first official post-movie details on him since......ever......but I'm not surprised there wasn't any sort of cross-company coordination going on there. It does make Dutch seem like a bit of an asshole though. :P

I agree that the ending portion was the weakest, which in part felt like it was because of the subversion of what we'd come to expect from the previous volumes, with one or more of the characters engaging in a big fight with the Predator(s) and ultimately beating them. We got that to start with, but then things got turned on their ear by essentially having the Predators deal with themselves without the main characters having to do all that much.

So yeah while it did feel like a bit anti-climactic as a result, I appreciated that it went in a different direction, since as cool as the first two volumes were I was already thinking to myself "and this is the part where we see the Predator wrecking a bunch of guys and throwing one of their quotes back at them etc." at various points, so I liked that it mixed things up there.

I assume Herrera's actual dialogue was unimportant in terms of the reader fully comprehending what he was saying, so that part didn't bother me too much either. I do think he somewhat disappeared into the background as the story went on so that Schaefer could take centre stage though, and that contributed a bit to the ending not feeling as strong as those of the first couple of volumes.

As for the Predators themselves, I just assumed that one of them was a jerk! :D It seemed like "Copper Head" as Hicks called him disliked that he went after that third diver and killed her when she wasn't entirely within the realms of "legitimate prey". Whether there was tension between them before that or not who knows, but it reminded me of Broken Tusk vs his "student" in the original AVP where one Predator was just an asshole and needed to be put in his place. So I had no problem with that.

I also liked the twist that there were two. In retrospect it was obvious since the masks in the various covers weren't the same, but I just took that as down to artistic license, and I didn't notice the one that jumped out of the water originally being different, which it clearly is in retrospect.

I also liked the artwork, especially any time the Predators showed up or we got an action scene. They got as close to an AVP movie nod as I would have liked them to get. A clear reference but nothing overt. And I dug the "King Willie" homage too.
[close]

I think like Hicks said, one of the main problems is just that this wasn't intended to be an ending, just the next chapter in an ongoing story that we're unfortunately more than likely never going to see now, which sucks even more because Hunters 4 would surely have been focused on Mandy, and that could have been something I'd have liked to have seen.

So yeah overall I don't think it's as strong as either of the first two volumes, but it's still good, and if this is the end of Hunters as it unfortunately almost assuredly is, then I'm glad this turned out to be such a solid run overall.

So yeah, come on Marvel! Hunters 4 if you wouldn't mind, please! :laugh:


DaniillLogOut

DaniillLogOut

#191
Yay!


GreybackElder

Great job as always boys! I'm glad I wasn't the only person who was a little confused when I finished Hunters 3. The confusing relationship between the predator hunters made me have to reread certain sections. I actually thought I missed a page or two but nope. I also felt the inclusion of detective Schafer was pointless and really lackluster. You guys definitely nailed it with the thought that perhaps this story was going to continue and this abrupt and lackluster ending was because of dark horse was finished with alien and predator. I hope the marvel entries hold up. I just feel that the predator and alien will be overshadowed with whatever hero they have it pitted against. Do you think there will be original stories simply about alien and predator with no "hero"?

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: GreybackElder on Mar 15, 2021, 10:41:45 PM
I just feel that the predator and alien will be overshadowed with whatever hero they have it pitted against. Do you think there will be original stories simply about alien and predator with no "hero"?

While I'm sure the crossover is inevitable, we know Alien's debut series is solo, so I wouldn't worry about that just yet. I'm sure Predator's will be too once it's announced.

Glad you enjoyed it :)

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