The Predators have attacked Batman and Superman more often than you and I could imagine. As members of Justice Leave, both superheroes had previously engaged in individual combat with the hunters.
However, in this scenario, they battle the Predators as a pair, and these hunters are very dissimilar from any Predator that has previously been seen. If you have ever wondered how Predators and Xenomorphs fare against superheroes, Superman and Batman versus Aliens and Predator by Mark Schultz and Ariel Olivetti is a wonderful comic.
The topic of heroes against epic movie monsters gets even more intriguing now that Marvel plans to put these two apex hunters in mainstream comics. We will look at one of the most intriguing crossovers from the 1980s in this video and examine a Predator colony and a Xenomorph nest that had lain underground for 14,000 years. Shall we get started?
The Living Fossils
Predators were dispatched by a colony ship from an area around the star Arcturus, about 36 lightyears from Earth, to disperse the Predator empire and population throughout the galaxy. However, there was a problem with the ship’s guiding system. The Predator ship was passing by Earth at the time, and even though this was not their intended course, they were compelled to land here. However, Earth was in the midst of a major ice age at the time — 14 millennia ago. The Predators, who enjoyed the heat and detested the cold, were obviously not suited to Earth’s climate.
They initially made an attempt to lift off again, but their ship had sustained damage that prevented it from escaping Earth’s gravitational pull. In addition, the extreme cold was enough to kill them in a matter of days. So what would they do in a world that did not have the climate that they needed? Well, the beastly hunters found a more hospitable refuge down below the Earth’s inhospitable surface.
They found a subterranean cavern under a dormant volcano, which was hot enough for the Predators to survive through the ages. This perfect hot-house came packed with nitrogen-rich air, which eased their survival. Over time, the Predators developed a new way of life, one in which the Xenomorphs they brought along for hunting rituals became a part of their new ecosystem.
Sealed away from the mainstream, the Predators and the aliens had no idea whatsoever was happening on the surface, and how Earth underwent a steady geoclimatic change. However, as the long-dormant volcano in the depths of the Andes suddenly stirred to life, and Batman and Superman find themselves caught in the middle of this lost subterranean colony thriving with alien life.
In the present times, a group of geophysicists and physical volcanologists visit the newly active volcano called Viejo Abuelo, the old grandfather of volcanoes. It had been dormant for so long that even the native Indian tribes did not have any mention of its last eruption in their records. However, one of the crew members visiting the volcano kept looking behind his back, as if he was being followed by someone or something.
And it wasn’t before long that his worst fears came true; the scientists had been slaughtered, their heads decapitated. Meanwhile, Batman was on one of his missions in Gotham City when aliens of unknown origin ambushed him, but since he was already familiar with Predators, he was not surprised, but was worried about their presence amidst humans. On the other hand, John Henry Irons, or the DC superhero Steel, informs Superman about an overheating power generator. Superman’s needle of suspicion pointed at Lex Luthor, of course, but John Henry tells him that Lex Corp was as clueless about the malfunctioning of the power generator as they were.
Upon reaching the piece of technology, Superman finds out that the generator had been modified by someone. But Superman is shocked after realizing that the modifications were made by Predators, beasts from the far reaches of the galaxy who almost killed him once. But this time, Superman had not been weakened and could have taken them down with ease, but they managed to flee him well before.
Superman returned to Daily Planet as Clark Kent. The editor asked him to visit Mount Viejo Abuelo in Peru to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a few scientists, who were climbing the volcano. Now, if it were me, I would maintain some safe distance from an erupting volcano, but you know how scientists, superheroes, and characters from horror movies are – they just love some action.
Naturally, Clark agreed to go to Peru and take stalk of the situation, and somehow, Lois Lane, his wife in the comic, thought it would be a nice exotic place for a vacation with her husband. This girl has superman as her husband, but still needs to hound him on a work trip. But then again, who are we to judge! Moving on, the couple reaches the Andes in the southern part of Peru and hires a couple of guides. While trekking, Clark comes across a piece of fabric, but he could not recognise the components, not even with his micro-vision.
But right at the next moment, Superman hears some chopper departing after dropping off many armed men. The sounds came to him from a distance, so he could not understand much else. However, he asked Lois to take the guides and walk down the hill. Clark Kent had now become Kal El, the son of Krypton, and flew away toward the erupting volcano. Superman found one of the armed men – but he was long dead; someone had struck a spear in his chest.
As he inspected further, he found many more dead men, but he could not find the attackers anywhere. So, who had killed these men? It was now that the caped crusader made his presence known and answered Superman’s question, saying that the attackers had fled underneath the Earth’s surface. Meanwhile, Lois Lane and the guides had been attacked by the Predators. Although they decapitated the guides, Lois’s life had been spared, or so it seemed as of now.
Batman recognises the dead armed personnel as members of the Terrestrial Defence Initiative, an armed force dedicated to finding and destroying all the Predators who set foot on Earth. The men tracked the Predators to Mount Viejo Abuelo, and so did Batman, which was why he was there. As the two entered the mouth of the volcano, they both got attacked by Predators. But this was only the beginning.
Not before long, Xenomorphs were there to slay the super-guests. As Batman struggled to keep the Xenomorphs away, he was surprised to see that the black aliens had been pushed away by Predator weapons. But were the Predators there to rescue Gotham’s silent guardian? Well, no. He was taken deeper inside the cavern, which was both a colony of Predators and a nest of Xenomorphs. He was brought before the leader of this Predator clan, a Predator who looked different from what we have seen so far in comics and movies.
This big guy had no high-tech weapons, and surprisingly enough, he did not even have any trophies on him – no human skulls, nothing! However, Batman did not come empty-handed; he had brought his blowback modified defibrillator and knocked the Predator down. By knocking him down, Bruce had displayed an unanticipated force in a culture that valued power and cunning above all else, and this ensured that he was respected by the hunters and not deemed prey. Meanwhile, Superman heard the cries of Lois Lane being attacked, and immediately left for her rescue.
He found that the Predators were taking his wife away, and could not let that happen. He first channelled the magma away and secured the area, so that Lois did not get hurt. He then proceeded to knock the Predators one after another to secure Lois. Superman’s next mission was to find Batman so that they could leave the place immediately and let the Predators face their sorry fates.
But he was shocked to see that Batman came to greet him along with some of the hunters. Batman tells Superman, “They did not realise Lois was your female. They apologise and that’s saying a lot for these characters, but they do not want to insult a sun spirit.” So, Batman had told the Predators that Superman was some kind of a sun god, and although the Predators had not seen the sun in fourteen thousand years, they still respected the yellow star.
During his time with the Predators, Batman learned all he could about the Predators and their story. However, these alien hunters were now in dire need of help. If they were not rescued from the cavern under the volcano, they would be dead for no reason. And, this was why they were now on the surface, looking for land to settle in. However, they could not be left to thrive on the surface, because that would mean endangering entire humanity. Having said that, however vile and violent they may be, both Predators were living beings and had the basic right to life.
So, Superman and Batman agreed that the best way forward was to send the Predators back to where they came from, but that would mean fixing their ship, which was now in a sorry state. But Superman was determined, and he claimed, “I will bring the technology that can make it happen, I will bring my fortress of solitude here.” However, the volcano was not the only threat that the Predators were facing, the Terrestrial Defence Initiative officials were planning to launch a nuke on the volcano, and vaporise everything that lay within its depths.
Superman returned from the arctic circle to Southern Peru in under fifteen minutes, but by now, the Terrestrial Defence Initiative had already launched a nuke toward the volcano. Although the nuke hit the volcano, the Predators, Batman and Lois had managed to survive.
The TDI officials could not understand what exactly the fortress of solitude was; they thought it was either a weapon or Superman was bringing the Predators some aid. The stupid fools came to a conclusion that the Terrestrial Defence Initiative was called so for a reason, and that Superman was an extraterrestrial being… and, it was time that they took some initiative in that regard and ended his life.
But they could not be more wrong, could they? When Superman returned to his wife and workmate, they were both dressed in traditional Yautja attire. Lois explained, “It seems like the Predators don’t think we’re getting out of this alive, and they consider it a great honour that I die as a member of the tribe.” Clearly, the Predators were in no mood to go down easy and wished to make one last glorious break for the outside world.
They wanted to die in honour. Well, what a bunch of righteous asses! Superman asked Batman to get the Predators inside the fortress of solitude, but Batman warned him that once they were inside, all bets would be off. Superman thought that his robotic staff would understand the Predator language and make them understand what was happening, but the Predators were minions of chaos and doom.
They started destroying Superman’s robots once they were inside Superman’s house. Once the last of the Predators had gone inside, Superman expressed his desire to bring back whatever Xenomorphs he could, but Batman stood firmly against the idea, knowing full well how disastrous it could be. He knew that however violent they were, the Predators could still be reasoned with to a degree, but the Xenomorphs were a different ball game altogether.
But Superman replied, “They’re living beings, they have a purpose, even if we cannot see what it is.” And he left to bring in whatever Xenomorphs he could, while Batman and Lois went inside the fortress. Unfortunately enough, Superman kept his fortress in zero gravity, and the Predators had begun to lose their calm. And honestly, you cannot really expect them to behave! They are called Predators for a reason.
While Lois and Batman tried their best to evade death at the hands of the Predators, Superman had reached a small Xenomorph nest with several Ovomorphs. He froze the creatures with his icy breath and brought them inside the Predator ship. He now had just one last thing to do, pick up the damned ship and bring it to the fortress. Once he reached his living room, Superman found his guests behaving badly with his wife. And naturally, Kal El would not have it anymore. He struck several of them and knocked them unconscious.
Following this, he asked his robot, Kelex, to activate the Super Robot, and established contact with TDI so that they could be convinced not to blow up the fortress and its denizens. Superman left to find Batman and Lois, but they were in big trouble. A Xenomorph Queen was on the loose, and she was killing Predators left, right, and centre. However, Batman injected some kind of anesthetic into the beasts, which put them to rest at least for a couple of hours.
Batman and Lois were lucky enough to have found jetpacks because Lois had been to Superman’s ungodly big playhouse earlier. But unfortunately for them, there was still no sign of Superman. Meanwhile, Kelex had activated a robot that seemed to impersonate Superman so that it could talk to the TDI. However, the talks failed, and they gave a window of one hour to eject from the volcano; otherwise, a nuclear strike was imminent. Kelex informed about this to Superman, who made it his primary goal to find Lois and Batman.
Somewhere else, Batman and Lois got attacked by the Xenomorph Queen, and although Superman reached just in time to save Lois, Batman had been taken away by the Queen. While on their search for Batman, Lois constantly claims that they were moving either in circles, or aimlessly. However, Superman knew his house very well. In reality, the Fortress was a tesseract. Now, you may have heard of the term in the MCU, or maybe if you are a science geek.
But for those many of us who are not science freaks, a tesseract is basically a four-dimensional figure. In other words, what a cube is to a square, a tesseract is to a cube! The containment sphere is just a reference point for accessing the tesseract, which in itself is a massively huge undeveloped universe in its own right. To help us understand this better, we humans have divided the Earth into latitudes and longitudes.
These help us in finding reference points, which make the calculation of distance much easier. But Earth’s geography is limited and not ever-expanding. However, the limit of Superman’s fortress was figuratively pretty huge, may be more equalling the space covered by a galaxy, if not more. However, Superman once again reached just in time to save the caped crusader. But the strength of the Xenomorph Queen was displayed when Superman’s suit was left torn by one simple swing of the Queen’s powerful tail.
Back at the containment chamber, the Predators had come to life and were battering the crap out of Superman’s robots. Superman would have done something rash, like slaughtering all the Predators without breaking a sweat, but he was not a ruthless murderer. He asked Batman if he had any more of the compound that could take down the Predators, and the silent guardian had just the thing.
Although, I have to admit that the Silent Guardian has been far from silent in this comic. Frankly, it is a bit bothering, to be honest. Anyway, Batman gives the formula to Kelex, who analyses and duplicates it to pump through the ventilation system, and within seconds, all the Predators lost their consciousness. But there was another hiccup, and a pretty nasty one at that. The fortress’s anti-gravity system had failed and there was no time for repair, because the TDI was going to launch the nuke in about three minutes.
This meant, that they now had to manually give the ship enough power to break the threshold of gravitational force. To achieve this, Superman flew the fortress up and above, giving it enough velocity. Meanwhile, Batman took control of the Predator ship. When the escape velocity was achieved, Kelex opened the doors of the fortress, and Batman flew the ship out into the space. He exited the ship using the emergency escape and was now free falling. However, Superman saved him just in time.
Back on Earth, Superman and Batman were discussing superhero ethics. While Superman believed that no life should be taken, no matter how dangerous, Batman argued that he only promised to spare human life. However, Kelex tells them that had the nuke hit and destroyed the Predator ship, it would have started a chain reaction of massive explosions that could have annihilated not just humanity, but everything else on Earth. It seems that the better nature of the superheroes saved Earth, yet again.