In comics, crossovers can be a hit or a miss. It is, however, always eagerly anticipated. There is something wonderful about seeing characters from two different realities join together as allies or foes, and DC Comics is no stranger to doing so.
Dark Horse Comics’ Batman vs Predator series from 1991 was an example of a successful crossover. These comics are part of a three-issue series written by Dave Gibbons that received the Eisner Award! Dark Horse Comics’ Predator issues have a devoted fan base as well, but since the first Predator picture hit the realm of science fiction in 1987, its celebrity has soared into the mainstream. And its popularity has only grown in recent years. So, for readers and fans of both Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics, seeing these terrible aliens take to the streets of Gotham has been quite an experience.
Andy and Adam Kubert were in charge of the pencils and inks for the issues, while Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh was in charge of the coloring. The covers, designed by Arthur Suydam, were the icing on the cake.
Following the success of the 1991 issue, the series was followed by Batman against Predator II: Bloodmatch, which ran from December 1993 to March 1994. Batman against Predator: Blood Ties, the final issue, ran from December 1997 to February 1998.
The Predator, who arrives in Gotham in a spaceship and kills with a code of honor, is the subject of the three issues. As the aliens massacre the citizens in order to capture their heads as trophies, Batman must once again intervene to save Gotham. In the first issue, he fights the Predator alone, but in the next two, he is accompanied by Huntress and Robin. Plus, there is more. Apart from the extraterrestrial mass murderer, he appears to have a slew of additional concerns in issues two and three, with the druglord Terraro putting a price on his head and Mr. Freeze, respectively.
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The Arrival Of The Ruthless Trophy-Hunter
The first issue begins with a gruesome boxing match between Bersaglio and King, two top-tier boxers of Gotham City. Both are backed by Alex Yaeger and Leo Brodin – the biggest gangsters with Yaeger backing the champion Marcus King. The two leaders have had a longstanding feud and the match was less of a fight between the boxers and more of a fight between the gangsters. Yaeger invites Bruce Wayne to celebrate King’s victory as they find themselves talking about investments and charity.
King checks into the Plaza Hotel to celebrate his victory with his woman. As they lay on the bed, she asks him whether they are alone. King says that only Yaeger’s men should be in the elevator. Barring that, there is no one else. However, blood drips from above and something crashes into the skylight. It attacks King and kills him. It had also killed the owner of an RV previously.
News of the incident gets to Batman and he reaches the Plaza to investigate. The crime scene is bloodied and there are barely any records on who attacked Marcus King because the perpetrator wasn’t even visible. It had used a net to subdue him and subsequently removed his head and spinal cord. His palms and trophy belt were missing. It had killed two armed guards as well.
Suspicions begin to arise and people believe the murder to be Brodin’s doing. Batman storms into Brodin’s den, who is chiding Bersaglio for losing to King. The gangster gets into a nasty altercation with the Bat after he denies being the one who committed the crime and Batman leaves with a threat.
Bersaglio is later attacked by the same killer and is murdered. Batman asks the witnesses about the perpetrator but to no avail, as no one was able to see it. He assumes the thing to not be a person but rather, something inhuman. A shootout breaks out between Yaeger and Brodin’s gangs which is thwarted by Batman.
The news reports the incident as Bruce Wayne and Alfred discuss the matters when Wayne deduces that the murderer is picking his prey. The media pronounces Yaeger as the biggest power in Gotham city following the misfortunate incidents. Yaeger’s longtime business partner and friend, Raymond Squires, calls for a meeting at the Squire Centre to diffuse the tension between the two mob bosses. Brodin accepts.
Bruce Wayne decides to attend this meeting and asks Alfred to sniff around the junkyards on the East End. When asked for an explanation, he examines his Batsuit and tells Alfred about rust flakes, automobile paint, and particularly a mud that is special to the East End.
Brodin thinks Yaeger had Bersaglio killed as he suspected Brodin called for the hit on Marcus King. He explains how he had nothing to do with this. As they discuss the events, something targets Squires from afar. It breaks into the room and kills Squires but the intruder is invisible. People begin to fire at it and finally, Batman gets to see its form, which is far from being anything close to a human being. He tries to engage the creature in battle but as it flees. The Bat follows him to his lair.
The lair is an abandoned scrapyard where Batman sees skulls, palms, spinal cords, and King’s trophy belt. It was as if the killer took home a trophy after each murder. The two engage in a lethal duel. Batman is completely overpowered. The creature practically slashes through Batman who is severely wounded by the end of their fight and he almost dies but the Predator escapes.
The news reports the incident and interviews Squire, who puts the blame on Brodin for raising his firearms. Squire meets with his secretary but the Predator reaches them and kills them both. There are talks about Batman’s absence following the fight, which concerns the people as Batman is not one to run away from a grave situation.
Bruce Wayne is seen wrapped up in bandages, to the point of resembling a mummy, following his terrible injuries. Alfred reveals that he lost a lot of blood, sustained deep puncture wounds, extensive lacerations, a severe concussion, and third-degree burns. He plans to fight the killer again after his recovery.
Gotham is in despair as there are no resolutions to the mass murderer who is running loose on the streets. Police commissioner Gordon is not revealing the details to the public either and the Bat-signal has been failing time and again to summon Batman. Following Alex Yaeger’s death, the underworld has also gone into chaos due to the power vacuum left by the gangster. Brodin challenges the killer.
The Predator finds its way into Leonard Brodin’s property and attacks him while he is with his mother. She screams at the creature to not kill Leonard but it shows no mercy. The city is once again in cahoots, particularly over Batman’s absence. Gordon gives a press release about Batman never failing but people suspect him to be dead. Meanwhile, public perception regarding Gotham City Mayor Lieberman begins to worsen.
Lieberman plans to take on the matters with massive force to strengthen his election campaign when the Predator bursts into the room and attacks the Mayor. James Gordon almost loses his life but another officer sacrifice himself and the commissioner survives. As Wayne gets news of this, he plans to take action, much against Alfred’s wishes of Bruce Wayne recovering well.
Gordon goes on television and pleads Batman for his help as the death toll increases daily. The SWAT teams and National Guard initiate a countdown. If Batman fails to appear within that time, they plan to search for the Predator in every street, which is quite a bad idea, really.
Batman fits into a custom-designed auxiliary Batsuit. The exoskeleton is solar-powered and is likely to hold on its own against the monstrous alien. The suit is equipped with machinery that can counter the Predator’s stealth mode, increase Batman’s strength, and compensate for his poor vision following the injuries. Meanwhile, the countdown is over and the Predator is on a rampage. Batman arrives in the nick of time in his heavily armored suit.
He engages the alien in a battle on the roof of Gotham’s Police Department. The Predator is unable to slash through him like last time as the suit is made of Titanium Steel. He rams into the Predator with his Batmobile. Batman chases it outside Wayne Manor in his Batmobile and the fight eventually leads the both of them into the Bat-cave. The Predator manages to draw the upper hand on Batman but Alfred, equipped with Blunderbuss, blasts at it.
The Predator successfully sustains injuries caused by the Bat’s attacks and the Blunderbuss. He throws Alfred aside but Batman uses a wooden baseball bat from his mantelpiece and swings it brutally, taking the killer down. A spaceship with several aliens of the same species as the Predator lands as the two continue to fight.
This Alien-Mother Ship brings the Predator’s clan to Earth. They have the Predator use a sword to commit honor suicide after losing to the Bat. The commander from the ship bestows that sword upon Batman as a trophy for defeating the Predator. In the end, Bruce Wayne tells Alfred that they will not return, having witnessed what Gotham is made of. However, that turns out to be a prediction gone wrong.
The Hunt For Batman
In the next issue, the story begins with Batman and Huntress tailing criminals affiliated to a drug-related homicide. Batman isn’t too pumped about working alongside Huntress. As the drug dealer Panetti kills two people, Batman crashes the party. The guy refuses to give out Terraro’s whereabouts and tries to shoot Batman when Huntress shoots an arrow impaling Panetti’s hand to the post which makes him drop the gun.
Batman and Huntress get into an altercation regarding Huntress’ brutality in fights and spilling unnecessary blood. Needless to say, he doesn’t quite get along with her. After knocking him out while talking to Huntress, Batman helps Panetti regain consciousness with water and inquires about the time he had said Terraro had marked Batman. It is revealed that there’s a price on Batman’s head, and the amount is pretty damn large. Terrero has also hired seven professional assassins to hunt him down.
A terrible heatwave encapsulates Gotham City. Meanwhile, a bright object, almost like a meteor, comes into Earth’s atmosphere and lands in the Palisades Area beyond Gotham River. It is reported to be a meteorite but it doesn’t cause the damage a meteor would, implying that it must be something else.
Huntress thinks about her dynamic with Batman. She wants to take down Terraro by herself. She doesn’t care whether the Bat wants her in or not. She is reckless because when she worked as a teacher, a student of hers had died due to his involvement with Terrero.
As one of the assassins tries to kill Batman, the Predator kills the assassin instead. The predator becomes the prey when a bigger fish arrives in the sea. As Terraro’s associates discuss their plans, one of the steps on blood. Looking up, they see a decapitated dead body suspended upside down by a rope. The head comes in a net, in true Predator fashion. The creature kills them and moves towards the Gotham City Police Department for more flesh.
The cops engage it in battle but guns seem to have no effect on the invisible killer. They see it carrying the heads of two. Officer Gordon understands it wants Batman’s head. Huntress steps in and engages it in battle. It uses the alien technology in its armor to paralyze her and then scans her. On realizing that it’s not Batman, the Predator casts her aside.
Others from the drug business spot the Predator and try to gun it down but are all killed in the process. Batman gets news of this on the radio on his Batmobile and is greeted by the suspended dead bodies with no heads. He realizes that the Predator is back as he spots a Bat-Signal from beyond the river which is the area of the so-called meteor landing.
The news reports the presence of the ‘see-through slasher’, similar to the events of a year ago. But this time, it was not the same Predator but another one of the same species. As Commissioner Gordon gets treatment for his injuries, he tries to warn Batman about the signal being bait but Batman follows it anyway. He finds seven decapitated heads suspended from a tree in nets, three of them belonging to those of cops.
The creature ambushes him and the two engage in a fight but Batman realizes that not only was this one younger and larger but, it was also more ruthless and reckless. A lot more bloodthirsty. One of Terraro’s assassins enters the scene of action but hides as he plants a bomb to annihilate Batman. On the other end, Huntress investigates the place where the assassins sat and finds a picture of the man who planted the bomb. She goes to the Palisades Area where she sees that Batman has been suspended upside down from the tree. She uses a fiery arrow to free him and they try to escape. The assassin activates the bomb but Batman and Huntress dodge it. The Predator gets caught up in that mess and assassinates the assassin.
In the car, Huntress tells him about the assassins and a woman who aims to kill Batman, just like the Predator. She convinces Batman to let her help him in both the cases – the one with the Predator and the other with Terrero.
The female assassin Huntress had spoken about, enters Terraro’s base and kills some of the others there, and demands a larger sum. Batman brainstorms over the assassins in his Batcave when the news reports another meteor blazing through Gotham.
Huntress seeks to kill the alien Predator, despite knowing that it will make her a target as well. As Batman gears up for the fight, Alfred points out how the Titanium Steel exoskeleton worked out in the last fight but this time, Batman wants to silence stealth, and speed. In true Batman fashion, he needs to be a creature of the night.
The Predator is shown by itself, almost roasting the heads of its victims into soup until only the skull remains.
Batman begins to develop a gauntlet that can generate an electromagnetic pulse. Having researched its alien DNA, Batman deduces that the electromagnetic pulse can counter and disrupt whatever technology allows the Predator to be invisible.
Huntress tails Terraro’s men and accidentally witnesses two of his assassins kill one another. Batman arrives at the scene and Huntress tells him that she did not kill them. Gordon is still in the hospital, mumbling about letting Batman know regarding the Predator’s return. The FBI plans to formulate a special strike force that can kill the creature. It did not work out the last time the cops tried to do it by themselves but oh well.
Batman tracks down Terraro’s location in his Batcave and sets off to confront him with Huntress, but separately. They spot Song Sung, the female assassin. Huntress and Song Sung fight one another in Terraro’s den. He tries to kill Huntress but Batman arrives in the nick of time. The Predator crashes in and kills Terrero. Batman follows it while Huntress captures Song Sung and ties her up.
Batman follows the Predator but finds the corpse of a different one. Another alien comes to retrieve that corpse and Batman realizes that they are tracking the Predator who is on a killing spree in Gotham. That Predator kills members of its own species, much like humans.
Batman disables his last two assassins – Scarlatti and Demon Man. He pairs up with Commissioner Gordon who is now wheelchair-bound and regroups with the FBI. They use his Bat-Signal to lure in the alien to attack it.
However, the plan turns out to be a failure as both the FBI agents get killed by the creature. One of the aliens who was hunting the killer down was accidentally mistaken for the murderous one and subsequently injured. Meanwhile, the Predator captures Lieutenant Stocker from Batman’s team and takes him hostage.
Batman and Huntress track the Predator and reach its ship in the Palisades Area. They battle it before the ship takes off. The last standing assassin of Terraro trails them but the Predator kills him. Batman and Huntress engage the Predator in a fight but get overpowered easily. Lieutenant Stocker helps them out by sacrificing himself as he uses a spear to impale the predator and with that, himself. Before dying, the creature manages to activate its spaceship’s engines by stumbling into its control panel. This causes the ship to malfunction.
Batman and Huntress escape but fall into the docks of Gotham as another renegade spaceship appears from the waters. As Batman uses the new ship to break his fall, the two ships crash into one another and the aliens die. In the end, the Bat-Signal lights up once again and this time, it indicates the notorious Joker causing troubles.
Father and Son Alien Duo versus Batman and Robin
The third issue begins with Gotham City once again dealing with a severe heatwave and sweltering temperatures. Even though the drug problems with Terraro, Brodin, and Yaeger have been taken care of, gang warfare did not decrease in the city.
Callous murders have increased as well and they are all of the same nature – bodies with their spines and heads removed. Some order a check on Arkham Asylum having any recent releases or escapes. Batman, who is now aided by Robin, is sure that the killer aliens are back. However, instead of disclosing the specifications of the enemy to Robin, Batman decides to conceal the matter.
The Predators are killing people, rhinos, and other animals. Batman keeps lying to himself and Robin as he says that the incidents might be a regular murder case. But he is just trying to pacify himself. This time, however, there are two beasts. An elder one and a younger one.
Forensic reports on victims find that the victims were seared by the killers and that their heads and spines were in fact, torn off, not cut off.
Robin overhears Batman and Alfred discussing the case and mentioning something about having visitors once more. He gets curious but Batman does not tell him anything, once again, which irks him. The criminals in Gotham, however, are unaware of what’s going on. Mr. Freeze and his associates try to rob the main vault of the Gotham Trust and Securities.
Mr. Freeze uses his cannon to make the vault reach the optimum temperature of absolute zero and break through the wall. But Batman and Robin catch up and get into a fight with Mr. Freeze’s team. Just then, the aliens arrive at the scene in stealth mode and attack Mr. Freeze and his henchmen. They kill everyone but keep Freeze alive. As the Predators use infrared vision to identify people, Mr. Freeze’s lower body temperature makes him undetectable to the aliens. He escapes but finds it hard to survive in the heatwave.
Robin overhears a conversation Batman has with the commissioner about the perpetrator and he allows Robin to aid him until they find Mr. Freeze. Meanwhile, Mr. Freeze, unable to deal with the terrible summer, has hidden in the freezer of an ice-cream truck.
Batman discusses the plan with Alfred and confesses his reluctance in letting Robin know about the aliens is because he wants to keep Robin safe. He believes that they’ve been coming to Earth to hunt for centuries now.
Robin tries to find out what he can as he converses with Oracle about Batman hiding stuff. He then does some of his own research and finds that the perpetrator is stealthy, invisible, and hunts for prey. This brings Catwoman into the picture as she shares some similar characteristics and she is inadvertently saved by Batman, who was on the hunt for the Predators.
Batman uses a super-advanced prototype for a helicopter from Wayne Technologies to fight the aliens. They resist its attacks and land on the streets while being chased. Batman splashes epoxy-based paint with a hint of radium all over the aliens, turning them green, for better visibility.
Batman tracks them down to fight again but in the end, his helicopter ends up exploding. He uses a parachute to land safely. Meanwhile, the Major Crimes Unit tracks down Mr. Freeze but does not find him. They just find the dead bodies of some of the workers in the Ice Cream truck place.
Batman and Alfred are greeted by Robin in the Batcave after a devastating loss. Robin chases after Mr. Freeze and finds him in cold storage. The two fight but Robin subdues him with ease. Batman arrives and finds out about the attack from Freeze. Robin asks Batman for more details but as usual, Batman refuses. He asks Robin to take time off and spend it as Tim Drake. Robin leaves, mocking him.
Batman tells Alfred that he needed to lure the aliens into a trap where he would have terrain advantage over them, if he ever wanted to win, considering that there were two of them now. This is something Batman wasn’t aware of but had learned from Freeze himself. So, he makes a plan to close down Wayne Tech for an entire day so that he can turn it into a battleground where he has the advantage and control.
Meanwhile, Mr. Freeze is kept in a refrigerated cell as the Crimes Unit interrogates him about the incident that caused his henchmen to die.
Robin goes to the mall with Ariana because Ariana wanted to be in the AC. They decide to go to the movies with two other friends while Batman uses an auxiliary suit similar to the one he wore in his first encounter with the alien. The suit hides his thermal temperature, exploits the alien’s vision, and deduces that they are similar to reptilians, in the sense that they cannot tolerate the cold temperatures. This is why they would often attack during the heatwave.
Batman lights up signals to lure them into Wayne Tech and it works halfway as it lures only one of the two Predators. Batman takes a shot at it using Mr. Freeze’s absolute zero cannon and freezes it. He then proceeds to attack and asks where his partner was. As the alien responds, he understands the other is missing as it was hunting Robin. He immediately conveys the message to Robin.
Robin was in a drive-in theatre watching a 50s science-fiction movie with his friends. He gets a call from Alfred who tells him that he and his friends were in grave danger because the Predator was hunting him. He accepts it as the truth and escapes immediately, after laying off his friends. He notices the silhouette of the alien through the screen and goes to the Batcave.
He meets with Alfred who is reluctant to tell him the details regarding the creature, enraging Robin even more. The proximity alarms go off as the alien enters the Batcave, having followed Robin. Batman returns, injured and bleeding while carrying the ornaments of the Predator he had defeated. The younger Predator enters the camera room and looks at the screen, trying to find its prey. They spot the creature and decide to go to the bridge that is heading towards the Citadel.
The creature takes the bait and attacks them. They fight back and Batman joins it. After subduing the alien, Batman asks him to go back home with the elder Predator, who was still alive but defeated. He reveals that the aliens saw Batman and Robin as father and son, like they were, and wanted to kill them to make them their trophies. But in the end, they were defeated and humiliated once again.
What did you think of these three issues? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye and have a nice one!