Predator: Life and Death

Life and Death #1

by Dan Abnett, Brian Albert Thies (Illustrator), Rain Beredo (Illustrator)

Colonial Marines land on the planet Tartarus to investigate illegal prospecting by a rival corporation on a Weyland-Yutani claim. But what they find are the shell-shocked survivors of a battle with extraterrestrial hunters over the possession of a mysterious horseshoe-shaped spaceship of unknown origin.

The Weyland-Yutani rep demands the marines take the ship, and the marine captain is determined to protect her crew. But neither objective is likely when a band of Predators attacks!

Predator: Life and Death is chapter one in a new story cycle involving Predators, Aliens, and the mysterious Engineers from Prometheus!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Horror, Comic Book, Aliens, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2016

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Horse's Life and Death new Aliens/Predator/Prometheus crossover series set one year after the previous Fire and Stone one, started with a real bang for me.



This first volume was essentially a retelling of James Cameron's Aliens (1986), whose events happened 43 years before this story) with Colonial Marines battling Predators instead of Xenomorphs: we have the carismatic tough and respected military leader, a greedy and manipulative executive from Weyland-Yutani corporation, a team of testosterone-fueled macho-soldiers totally based on the marines from the movie so much that there is a Vasquez character-style almost identical one.





And there are so many references/easter eggs from John McTiernan's Predator that you can hear in your mind Alan Silvestri's soundtrack while reading this, my most favourite one was the marine disgusted by seeing the Yautja appearance like Schwarzenegger/Dutch in that movie.



Art was solid but sometimes lacking too much in details for my tastes and the final cliffhanger left me wanting for more.



Far better than expected.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Colonial Marines vs Predators. I liked the color palette but the art was vague and ill-defined in quite a few of the action sequences. Took away from the book as a whole. The characterization was good but ripped straight out of Aliens. It felt almost like Abnett changed the names of the Marines and used the same characters.

Received an advanced copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC REVIEW TO COME

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

No surprise this graphic novel was awesome and continued the stories of both the second movie (but 43 years later) and the Fire and Stone graphic novels (one year later). The crew of a United States Colonial Marine Corps has arrived at LV-797 with a Weyland-Yutani representative to attempt to salvage some items that were found there and stop any, essentially pirates, conducting illegal searches and claiming of said equipment. But when they land there this group of 33 USCM are in for a surprise not only with the 'equipment' but also a new species that only seem to want to hunt them all down.

Very good graphic novel continuing the series! I'm just bummed that I found this one and now have to wait a year for the next and so forth! Such a good read and would highly recommend the Fire and Stone series as well.

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

As book 1 of this crossover event, this not only set up a lot for the coming series, but also was a pretty complete story in its own right. Mostly standard fare with the Predators hunting and the humans not having a clue as to what they're up against, but still enjoyable with enough going to keep it interesting. There were some interesting characters, but they don't really get to shine all that much. When the humans start getting bumped off, there was no real attachment to them to really care all that much.
The artwork was okay, not to my personal tastes but I can't fault it. My only gripe with this series is there are no clear indications on the book as to the order to read them. It tells you what's next, but not what you should have read previously (when I picked up the Alien entry I thought it was a stand-alone).

[Jean-Luc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colonial Marines are called to the planet LV-797. The Weyland-Yutani corporation wants to terraform the planet, but they've received word that other companies may already be mining the planet. WY wants them out. The marines find survivors (not good), one of the Engineers' ships (also not good), and then they come under fire from hunters (really not good)!

This is the first part of the 4-part Life and Death cycle. Dan Abnett started by redoing the plot of Aliens but with predators (hunters) instead. This is an excellent look at what *could* have been had Ridley Scott bothered hiring competent scribes to write Prometheus. The superb art by Brian Albert Thies almost makes me forget that this will be retconned by Covenant and however many additional movies Scott has planned.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is pretty much an old school Aliens/Predator story. A group of colonial marines land on an alien planet and end up doing battle over a prize. The prize? An engineer's ship. This wasn't a really deep story but it was four issues of Colonial Marines Vs. Predators, which was cool because we've seen the colonial marines fight aliens, but they haven't fought the Predators quite as much. The art was good as well.

This was the first part of the Life and Death storyline, and leads into Prometheus Life and Death which is the next part of the bigger story. I'm a huge fan of Aliens, Predator, and all related titles so this is really enjoyable to me and I'm looking foward to the next part.

[Paul Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really simple and effective story from Abnett who I love as a writer.

The previous arc Predators: Fire and Stone ended on a different planet with our 2 human protagonists Angela, Galgo and Ahab the predator.

Now it's a new planet LV-797 and a new set of characters at the start of this new series. The marines are depicted well, the company guy as usual is a sniffling weasel and the predators are tough, mysterious and brutal as always.

I'm looking forward to where Abnett takes the series and feel it will benefit from having one writer to shape it.

[Zardoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a fan of the Aliens/Predator/Prometheus movies you will like this. Not much different plot wise from the movies. We have our macho marines, greedy man from the company etc.
A good light read, but don’t expect much past that.

[Brannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story felt very much like a part of a whole instead of a complete story and sadly it didn’t really make me want to continue. I also wasn’t a big fan of the art. I like a more detailed realistic approach.

[Julie Rylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want more... of course... next trip to the library will be for the next chapter.

The story line we all know... Military people in a planet they thought was inhabited turn out to be the prey of a bunch of predators.

[L J Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent graphic novel, the first of four volumes in the "Life and Death" series authored by Dan Abnett. A totally absorbing and exciting read.

[Michael Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark Horse consistently does good work with their Aliens / Predator / Prometheus books. I loved this one, a good combination of known elements with some weird new twists.

[Kavinay · Rating 2 out of 5]

By the numbers

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

We begin with a colonial marine unit arriving at a new planet, LV-797, for what’s described as a “compliance investigation.” While they're on their way down to the surface, they're observed by some Predators. They find a terrified survivor, who says, “You shouldn’t have come here. [...] No one should have come here. Not us. Not anyone. Because this all belongs to them, and now you do too.” DUN DUN DUN.

The marines get their asses handed to them by the Predators repeatedly. In spite of this, the Company representative keeps pushing the captain in charge of the marines to try to seize a crashed Engineer ship the Predators seem to be guarding. I really like some of these marines, especially a butch mohawk-sporting black lady named Freebody, and Captain Paget. Paget’s way more concerned about the lives of those under her command and repeatedly chafes at having to take the Company’s orders. And she’s also a lot more open with them about what’s going on than many of the other officers we see in the Aliens universe. She seems like one of the good ones. I actually get some FemShep (from Mass Effect) vibes from her.

Everything leads to some of the marines escaping on the Engineer ship and Captain Paget and the others (who were covering their approach) making their way back to their own ship to get the heck out of Dodge. The ending teases that an Engineer is going to be a going concern in the next arc as a stray bullet punctured its cryo pod.

All in all, this was a pretty great start to this crossover event! The story was pretty straightforward and combat-heavy, but like the previous crossover event they’ve done a much better job of actually making this engaging and fun to read than a lot of previous AVP arcs, and I genuinely like a lot of the characters.

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Check out my compilation review of the Alien and Predator franchises on my blog, 24,000 Miles to the Moon! https://24000milestothemoon.com/2022/...

[Oleg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome drawings (very bright and dynamic), interesting and consistent story.