After completing my entire runthrough of all "Predator" comics I decided to move on to the "Predator novels. The reason I have inverted the word "Predator" in commas is because if it's Alien vs Predator or Batman vs Predator I haven't read them yet. I decided to first do only things named "Predator".
After reading the Predator 2 movie novel I noticed that it said Dutch was the "first human to actually defeat a Predator." Which means all of those comics/novels set pre 1987 and manage to kill a Predator don't fit. Which honestly is fine by me, because I always felt for an elite hunter their species win/loss record is kind of abysmal. When reading the comics I got the sense that some writers don't understand that I am not here for generic human #30. I am in fact here to see/read about the Predator. Even as little as ten comics in I began to notice a theme. 90% of the comic is about their human protagonist, the Predator has sparce introductions at the end of each issue and it always ends with their protagonist beating the Predator to make ANOTHER hero. Rinse, cycle and repeat for the entire comic line. The only time I remember them breaking the mold was for the "1718" comic with Greyback's backstory.
If we take this rule that no Predator deaths occurred before 1987 then the chronology timeline becomes a lot more realistic however we wipe out many installments and that is a shame but also I feel necessary to protect the Predator's capability. Here is what we would get without any Predator deaths:
1718 - Predator: 1718
1860-1890 – Predator: If It Bleeds: Buffalo Jump
1926 - Predator: God's Truth
1933 – Predator: If It Bleeds – Blood and Sand
1936 - Predator: The Pride at Nghasa
1939-1945 – Predator: Demon's Gold
1958 – Predator: Kindred
1959 – Predator: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension
1983 – Predator It It Bleeds – The Pilot
All the other installments have a Predator die thus not making Dutch the first human to kill a Predator and breaking the lore. Further information from Hunting Grounds, and the original Predator and Predator 2 novels also suggests that the Predator species didn't see humans as worthy of hunting until Dutch. Before then the human species just wasn't worth the effort. There was no pride in hunting humans and a human trophy would essentially be scoughed at. Which is why I see Jungle Hunter as sort of a game changer. Some see Jungle Hunter as sort of a cheat or one could say even coward for challenging these unworthy humans. But on the contrary I see him as perceptive and ahead of the time. He saw a challenge in humans and further more went on to prove it. When Dutch and his team put up a great battle even defeating him in the end. Which City Hunter then saw and wanted to challenge his own skills against the human. In some dark way you could say Jungle Hunter was pulling for humans, almost saying "this species is worthy and deserves a chance". Elevating us and now putting humans on their radar.
Anyway I feel this fact has been backed up with new recent installments and in later novels such as Predator 2 when it says that the human species has advanced with the likes of soldiers and weapons. They also see a large majority of us as worker ants but every once in a while a queen ant will emerge such as Dutch, Harrigan and later Royce and so on. It is this type of human, a queen ant/leader/soldier that they want for a challenge. Before 1987 with the lack of weapon technology and the fact that they just didn't deem us worthy that I don't think a Predator would even consider hunting us. The Predator 2 novel strictly states that they keep records of their kinds death and Dutch was the "first" to kill a Predator in their records.
Finally I brought this to a friend who also follows the series and he said well maybe the Predator's are unranked and unskilled but isnt the lore that only skilled elite Predators are able to hunt alone. Which means most of these Predator's that died (alone) had to be on earth by themselves meaning they were ranked and highly regarded as an elite so they weren't unskilled.
I feel until this point this rule of no Predator deaths on Earth pre 1987 can be followed by the movies and novels with the exception of some If It Bleeds stories. It is mostly only the comics that break this rule. It would appear that the new movie is also going to buck this trend and break the lore by adding Prey to that list of pre 87 deaths no longer having Dutch as the first human to kill a Predator. Let's face it the Predator is going to die... again.
I am interested in everyone's thoughts on this as I am not new to the series been following it on and off since around 1995 but this is the first time I have taken a deep dive into the expanded lore and tried to make sense of the surrounding elements.