The ultimate confrontation between the two most potent entities that have ever existed is what we are witnessing. The fact that one is the greatest hero on Earth and the other is the deadliest hunter in the galaxy makes for a fantastic crossover that is sure to keep fans on the edge of their seats.
Superman vs. Predator is a three-issue limited crossover comic book series co-published by DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics. It was written by the renowned David Michelinie, with art by the esteemed Alex Maleev and coloring by the renowned Matt Hollingsworth.
We all know how powerful Superman is, but we also know that Predators are notorious for their highly developed arsenals and their love of a good fight. So, all you have to do is watch this video through to the very end to find out if the Predator actually had a chance against the Man of Steel.
You better be prepared for this because we are going to be exploring all three of these topics in great detail! Let us get started, shall we?
Superman vs. Predator
ISSUE #1
The action of the narrative takes place in the deep forests of Central America, which the locals refer to as La Jungla De Las Sombras or, more simply, The Jungle of Shadows. It strictly belongs to the category of the least explored regions on the globe and is one of the most hostile jungles. Sincerely speaking, based on how the jungle seems, it is certain to bring back vivid memories of the Central American rainforest from the original Predator movie for every fan of the series.
Returning to the plot, we find out that S.T.A.R. Labs funded an expedition based on rumors and sent a research team there to find an object in the area—or, in the words of Dr. Marla Rollins — an astounding scientific discovery. When the team is able to find what appears to be a spaceship of unknown origin, they ultimately make a breakthrough discovery. Marla turns the tables on Dr. Casey Trabor, the Xenobiologist on the research team, by telling him about all the potential valuables, technologies, relics, and theories that the spacecraft might be hiding inside.
Casey suggests using dynamite to clear the spaceship of its persistent jungle of vines. It is fairly clear that the ship is a wreck that has been abandoned for a long time. A number of human skulls and spinal cords fall to the ground when Marla orders the local men who are with them on the excursion to cut the vines. Everyone is completely taken aback by the spectacle, and Marla decides to take some safety measures moving ahead.
The readers are then transported to Metropolis, a bustling city where Superman is doing what he does best: rescuing the day. Now that the cops are calling him “Big Blue,” he can be seen heading to the Daily Planet building’s roof, where his wife Lois Lane is waiting for him in his usual business attire. The two’s talk reveals that he had to skip lunch in order to fight crime. As they return to their offices, they learn about the enigmatic finding made by S.T.A.R. Labs and how the company hopes Superman can assist them.
As Superman discloses his intentions of finding out about the discovery to Lois, the latter goes up to Perry and asks him for the authorization to use the Planet’s Learjet in order to take a trip to the jungle and cover the exclusive story. Coming back to La Jungla De Las Sombras, Casey and Marla are seen to have a discussion; while the former has his doubts on the spaceship, the latter believes in taking risks. Marla, who happens to be the physicist of the current project, states to Casey about her having degrees in chemistry and astronomy, and the fact that she is pretty convinced that it is science… and, in this case, alien science, which is the answer to the ultimate elevation of humankind.
Their conversation gets interrupted by the arrival of Superman, who tells the team that he’d like to check things out before they went ahead. The Man of Steel scans the ship using his x-ray vision and detects a self-destruct device. With him not able to make out much of it, he decides to probe deeper and attempts to tear open the craft in order to see what else is inside.
But while he is at it, he gets struck by some kind of an electronic beam. He calls it a micro-burst, one that’s too compacted for human hearing, but to him it almost felt like an electronic shriek inside his head. Unbeknownst to Superman, the beam sent out a signal which gets picked up by a Predator scout ship found sauntering within the depths of space. With Superman deducing that there’s no danger, another panel shows the Predator ship rerouting itself towards earth.
Soon, the effects of the micro-burst start showing on Superman and it begins with his x-ray vision, which starts to fluctuate. Suddenly, a team of mercenaries, led by a certain Mr. Skane, arrives at the very spot and starts firing. The plan isn’t to hurt any of them but take them all as hostages. Of course, Superman tries to fend them off but soon realizes he is getting too weak to do that.
He tries lifting a truck but soon starts feeling the weight of it, and to top things, his vision also gets blurred at the same time. While most of the mercenaries are not able to figure out what’s happening with Superman, Skane decides to take advantage of the situation and shoots at Superman. Like it or not but it actually hurt the son of Krypton and he skidded on the ground to his own shock. With difficulty, he resorts to using his heat vision and aims at the gas tank, thereby blowing it up and buying him some time to escape along with Casey, Marla and the local Machu.
The fact that the ship is of strategic importance and it actually bore advance technology capable of modernizing humanity to greater levels, becomes pretty clear when the men of Skane are seen transferring items from the craft to their truck. As for Skane, he is seen to be on a call with a certain Mr. Ward, telling him that the objective is secured and also informing him about Superman. With Skane further stating to Ward how the presence of Superman will not be a problem, the latter tells him that their operation is at a very vital stage and that they cannot afford to have any kind of interference. Ward asks Skane if he will be able to take Superman out of the picture and the latter is seen to give him an assurance.
With Superman and the rest making their way through the jungle, they come to an assumption that the micro burst which Superman earlier came in contact with must have carried some kind of a virus, one that was harmless to the pilot of the ship and human beings, but somehow infected Superman’s Kryptonian physiology, thereby affecting his powers and making him weak. With Casey stating that in all probability the ship might contain the cure to the virus, Marla says that finding the cure will be their top priority, but only after they are able to report the attack on them.
With Machu abruptly stopping and telling the group that they have to turn back and find another way, the rest of the group finds a massive crater right in front of them. While Superman tells the group that the pit looks fused, Casey points towards the soil erosion at the edges, which indicates that the place is pretty old. This is when Machu starts telling the group an ancient story about how a monster dropped from the sky. He was a Devil Warrior that had come to hunt the hunters. The demon is said to have battled using unholy weapons and would take trophies of blood and bone post each battle.
But the sky creature was eventually in his shame, and he called up fire from Hell to devour his body apparently at the location of the crater, and that is why it is forbidden to walk this ground. The locals believe that doing so might just wake up the demon and bring him back. Casey and Marla are seen to engage themselves in a conversation when a helicopter is spotted above, one that Superman wasn’t able to hear, in the first place. He realizes that his super hearing ability is also fading away.
Meanwhile, Skane, upon hearing the sound of the helicopter, decides to blow it up. His logic is pretty simple; his boss did say no interference. Superman resorts to his x-ray vision at the same time to focus on the crew and spots Lois there. With one of Skane’s missiles hitting the helicopter, Superman rushes to save Lois and with great difficulty, may we add, manages to land the vehicle to safety. Of course, Lois is taken aback to find the superhero literally on his knees. Skane’s men chain him up and take the rest of them as hostages.
It is also around the same time that the Predator, who had earlier picked up the signal, is seen to mark his presence by arriving in the sweltering jungle. As for Skane, he is seen taking the hostages inside some kind of a cavern. He tells Marla how his boss aka Mr. Ward intentionally chose this very spot, keeping privacy in his mind. Marla is surprised to find Mayan carvings engraved at the entrance of the cavern, to which Skane tells her how a group of Mayans had apparently fled to this very cavern centuries ago and built up a veritable fortress inside.
With Marla questioning him why the Mayans would do so, given that they were an advanced civilization with a complex social structure, Skane suggests maybe they were hiding there from something. But apparently, the whole Mayan tribe vanished from there within a year and nobody knows why. The group eventually comes face to face with Skane’s boss, Solomon Ward, who immediately recognizes Lois and greets her, asking her to be the very spokesperson of his project. He states how his organization ‘Better Tomorrow’ aims at eliminating elements that drain society of the time and resources it needs to breed the perfect beings that every human is capable of becoming.
In simple words, Mr. Ward happens to be a mad scientist, who has plans to wipe out the recessive genes that are carried by some human beings in order to keep the human race pure and strong. Their experiment will target only the unfortunate individuals that are born with a genetic defect and now that they have access to alien technology, the devices are bound to speed up the whole process in finishing their isotope cannon.
Lois is absolutely appalled to hear the whole thing and denies to be associated with Mr. Ward in any manner. Needless to say, she, along with the group, is made to join the rest of the captive S.T.A.R expedition team. Before leaving, Ward suggests Lois to consider things and join him.
The first issue ends with the Predator ambushing the men of Skane, the ones guarding the spacecraft, to be more precise, by using his signature weaponry that includes the shoulder cannon, the combistick, and let us not disregard those double-edged wrist blades.
ISSUE #2
While, the Man of Steel is seen all chained up inside a cage along with the rest of the expedition team, two groups have already been formed. One happens to be in favor of Superman and the other happens to be not for obvious reasons. Even the guards outside the cell seem to be discussing how Superman isn’t a threat anymore. Casey, on the other hand, is seen asking Marla for a hair pin.
Elsewhere in the cavernous compound, Lois is taken back to the base of Mr. Ward. The lunatic still wants her to be his spokesperson and believes how having a respected public figure narrate his project will prevent the very anticipated overreaction. Of course, Lois is not okay with Ward wiping out an entire classification of human beings and this only leads her to being taken away by Skane to get locked up with the others.
Ward is quite sure of finding someone else narrate his documentary. With Lois about to be locked inside, Superman incapacitates one of the guards and Casey takes away his gun. Fair to say the group manages to escape from there. With Skane informing Ward about their escape, the latter tells him how their project is at a very critical stage. If the energy pod that was removed from the spacecraft earlier can be integrated into the seeding generator, they will be close to execution in hours instead of days. Skane tells Ward that he will take care of things for him.
As far as Superman is concerned, he decides to take a tour of the spaceship all by himself to look for a possible cure on board. It is true that he needs to be at his hundred percent, if he has to stop Ward from perpetrating his act of genocide. He also tells the group to split up, something that Casey is in favor of. As he reaches the familiar clearing, he is a bit bewildered to find not a trace of anybody guarding the spaceship.
As he comes closer to the ship, he finds it swarming with flies, and then, to his absolute horror, he discovers decapitated gutted humans, next to which happens to be a pile of skulls. Of course, it doesn’t take him much time to realize that the cadavers hanging were the corpses of the very guards. While he is seen to join the dots, a familiar trio of red laser dots are seen getting placed behind his back, which of course is followed by a blast.
Speaking of Casey, Marla and the group, they are able to hear to sound of trucks heading their way. Casey asks everyone to keep it low, so as to avoid getting caught by the men of Skane. Marla asks him for an extra rifle, which surprises Casey, because he knows that she hates guns. Marla corrects Casey while grabbing the rifle, stating to him that as much as she dislikes guns, she hates being killed, after which she fires her gun into the air and lets Skane know of their location. Coming back to Superman, he finally comes face to face with the Predator.
Seeing the Predator retract his shoulder gun and extend his wrist blades, he tries to gauge the creature. With Superman hitting the Predator with a nearby branch that was lying down, the latter shoots at him once again with his shoulder canon. Superman swiftly makes it inside the spacecraft to evade the shot from his blaster, but with him trying to lure him inside the craft, he finds him actually running away.
As he attempts to figure out the reason, he sees a new device inside the ship, one that wasn’t there earlier. Upon seeing strange symbols on it that seem to change sequentially, he figures out it is a countdown and escapes seconds before the spaceship explodes. It becomes crystal clear to Superman that the Predator was here to blow up the ship and remove every bit of trace of their technology.
Marla and the rest are seen heading back to the cavern when they hear the explosion. While they are able to make out that the explosion came from where the spaceship was, Skane asks his men to count the prisoners. Soon, they figure out that Casey and Lois are missing and he asks his men to find them. Coming back to Superman, he is seen surviving the explosion and thus catching the attention of the Predator, who now sees him as a worthy opponent.
Marla, on the other hand, is brought to Mr. Ward and she tells him that she wants to be a part of the history that he is about to make. Mr. Ward happily welcomes her on board. Also, unbeknownst to Ward, things outside don’t look that great; while the Predator is seen blasting the Comsat dish using his Plasmacaster, Superman is seen attacking the soldiers on the other side of the mountain.
As for Lois, she finally makes it to the radio room, but there she gets greeted by one of the mercenaries, who had been stalking her all this while. Speaking of the Predator, he makes his way to the entrance of the mountain stronghold, only to discover all the soldiers there incapacitated. He realizes that he had been underestimating his enemy all this while.
The readers are next taken to a brief but intense fighting scene, one happening between Lois and the mercenary. With the latter using pepper spray on Lois and almost gets an upper hand on her, Casey intervenes and knocks him out, thereby rescuing Lois. With the duo heading over to liberate the other prisoners from the cage, Casey catches a glimpse of the Predator. As for Marla, she is seen impressing Ward using her intuitive logic and activating the alien pod, but soon gets interrupted by the presence of Superman.
Ward is clearly in no mood for any interruptions and therefore calls up the guards and orders them to kill the captives. He knows Superman will leave behind everything and go after the guards and in a way, he will give Ward just enough time to continue his work. Meanwhile, when Skane is informed about the exterior communications array blown up in pieces, he starts to think if Superman has got a partner. He assembles his men and heads with them to the motor pool. As Skane asks his men to spread out, they are able to spot the Predator.
As they look at the solitary being, most of them think that he doesn’t stand a chance against them, but that is before the apex hunter throws a smart disc towards them. We can’t really blame the mercenaries here; after all, they are new to this, but we as fans of the Predator franchise, clearly aren’t.
We know what the smart disc does and here it’s seen to slash through two of the mercenaries before boomeranging itself back into the hands of the Predator. Skane calls for a new strategy, one that involves trapping the hunter. As for Superman, he manages to get to the prisoners just in time and is able to stop the bullets and the eventual massacre. Lois and Casey are also seen to reach around the same time and as they help Superman get up, Casey decides to call in an airstrike and all of them escape into the forest.
Skane on the other hand, realizes what he is up against is way too fast, but then again, he has always considered himself superior than the rest of his lads. But even with his men securing the only exit there, the Predator simply aims his shoulder canon at the fuel tanker and blasts his way out of there. Skane is pretty sure that the Predator will come back again. Coming back to Ward and Marla, the latter tells him that they are ready for testing and the former asks her to proceed.
By then, Superman and the group are already out in the forest and happen to be at least a day’s march from the closest village, when they see this huge beam lancing right up into the air from behind. With most of them thinking that they are a little too late to do anything about it, Lois tells them that it is still not that late. She tells them that they have only tested their machine, while pointing out that the actual seeding is capable of starting within a span of a few hours.
The second issue ends with Superman deciding to go back to the cavern and asking Casey to join him.
ISSUE #3
The Predator is seen going back to a cave where his spaceship is. A look inside the spacecraft, and it looks more like a shrine. One can see his prized trophy collection, skulls to be more precise. The hunter knows what he has to do; focus on the prize and select proper tools for the job. To him, survival is an option, failure is clearly not and looking at the choice of his weapons, it is pretty evident that he is gearing himself up for his final battle against Superman. As for the son of Krypton, he is seen spying on the mercenaries from a distance.
You heard that right and while it is very unlikely of Superman to do such a thing, it’s also him who had made the noise earlier in an attempt to scare the mercenaries. It is a pity that the Man of Steel is left to doing such petty things since the time he got infected by the alien virus. We see a hand approaching him from behind; it is Casey, who had earlier decided to stay back with the group.
He tells Superman that he has found another way into the mountain stronghold. With Casey leading the way, he tells Superman not to worry about Lois and the rest of the group, as they are headed towards safety. With Superman asking Casey what changed his mind, the latter tells him that it is shame which is tougher to live with than fear and that is why he is there to help him out in the first place.
In the meantime, Ward is ecstatic to hear that they are ready to initiate primary function within half an hour. But somehow, Marla isn’t that excited anymore. With Ward asking her what’s bothering her, she addresses his goal as both noble and admirable, but at the same time, she is unable to fathom how the world will react to the colossal damage. Ward assures her that it will be history and not humanity that will be their final judge.
The duo of Superman and Casey are able to reach that part of the mountain where the now blown-up exterior communications array is. After discovering some kind of a utility conduit, Superman decides to go in first, followed by Casey. Coming back to Lois, her mind is clouded with endless thoughts, but she already knew what she was stepping into the day she married Clark. It goes without saying that Superman belongs to the world.
Anyway, with her thoughts running wild, Machu assures her that she is doing the right thing and calls her a wise woman. Speaking of the mercenaries that Superman was earlier spying on, they are clearly not okay with the fact that they are made to guard the very breach that the Predator was accountable for. While most of them think that the Predator would not make the mistake of coming back to the breach… surprise, surprise! the Predator does make a grand comeback. Activating his invisibility cloak, he brutally slaughters all of the mercenaries out there.
As for Superman and Casey, the utility conduit leads the duo to the radio room. With Superman looking for the control center, Casey abruptly stops at the location where he had caught a glimpse of the Predator earlier. With Casey stuttering, Superman urges him to tell him what he saw, further stating to him that there’s no time for secrecy. Casey begins his story by telling him that he was with the military before S.T.A.R. employed him.
Apparently, he was part of an elite team, one that was not only funded by black budgets but was also unanswerable to no one. With Casey fracturing his tibia on the first day of their last mission, he was left with no other choice but to be under complete bed rest. Of course, he was disappointed as he was actually looking forward to the assignment, one that involved probing deeper into theories about a certain race of warrior aliens, who had been using earth as a hunting ground for decades.
Casey was already in Iraq by then and was scheduled to be medevaced the following morning. It was during the night when he first heard the screams that he initially thought were his nightmares. Apparently, the thing that hit their camp and butchered eleven of America’s best soldiers in less than a minute, did not look anywhere close to a human. Then it set its eyes on Casey and even had the laser dots pointed at him, but somehow it felt that he wasn’t worthy enough and turned away.
Casey states to Superman how he had literally crawled his way to Afghanistan and put down his papers the very day he reached the States. With Superman asking if it was that very creature who has come to hunt all of them, Casey states that there’s no physical proof of these aliens in the first place, and that the one who is here has been sent to either retrieve or remove the spaceship that they had earlier come across. Superman thanks Casey for the story; well, he finally knows what he is up against and tells him that he will take things up from there. The Man of Steel, while spying on the mercenaries yet again, resorts to using the power of stealth, given his weakened state and even addresses himself as Batman.
As for Casey, upon coming face to face with the Predator, he decides to get out of his way, only to change his decision. Not wanting to hide anymore but help Superman, he loads his rifle and shoots at the Predator. The sound of gunshots lures Skane to Casey’s location and he ends up knocking the rifle out of Casey’s hands. With Casey asking for his rifle and telling Skane that he doesn’t have the slightest idea what he is up against, Skane discloses his plan of making Casey the bait so that he can easily hunt the Predator himself.
However, the Predator aims his shoulder cannon at Casey, but misses him by a few inches. Casey attempts to reason out with the Predator, telling him that he was the one who was injured the last time and now he is also unarmed, so the latter should be after Skane, who happens to be the dangerous one. Somehow, the Predator is seen to abide by him and goes after the mercenary instead.
Skane challenges the Predator without his mechanical weapons in a battle, only to have the latter strike him with a smart disc. As for Superman, he heads inside the cavern to stop the machine, but learns that he can’t destroy the device, because doing that will release the mutagen into the atmosphere.
Obviously, he starts looking for another way. Coming back to the intense battle between the Predator and Skane, the latter decides to shoot him, in spite of proposing that they won’t be resorting to any automatic armament. But this backfires on Skane and the Predator ends up killing him with his wrist blades.
With Superman eventually coming to a decision that he has to reach the generator and shut it down to render the device ineffective, he spots the Predator, who in turn detects his location. Superman starts wondering if both of them happen to be after the same thing, while he ponders if the creature happens to be his friend or foe. Ward, on the other hand, asks Marla to activate the procedure.
Marla has just clicked on the button when Superman and the Predator are seen pouncing at each other right in front of them. The final battle has begun. Ward orders the mercenaries to attack the duo, but they decide to run away from the scene. Meanwhile, it is a terrific battle between the two; the Man of Steel could have easily ended the whole fiasco with a slap and a shrug had it not been for the power draining virus. With the Predator using his smart disc on the son of Krypton, the latter realizes it is alien metal, one that is capable of cutting even his skin for that matter, and so he decides to resort to strategy instead of strength against his enemy.
The fight with the disc continues till Superman gains an upper hand on the disc and sticks it in solid stone. The Predator moves on to using his shoulder cannon. Casey, on the other hand, reaches where the fight is taking place and upon seeing Marla, tells her to shut down the machine. With Marla refusing to do so and stating to him how the whole thing is a beginning of a new age, Casey is left with no other option but to knock Marla out. Coming back to Superman, he eventually finds himself cornered by the Predator.
While the superhero is able to destroy the shoulder cannon using the full strength of his heat vision, the latter is seen to retaliate by striking him with his wrist blades. In fact, there comes a moment when Superman actually thinks that he is going to meet his very end in the hands, or in this case, the blades of the Predator.
Running out of options, Superman starts hitting the ancient walls of the cavern and consequently brings down the whole roof on the Predator, thereby trapping him. Of course, he doesn’t want to take any chances, so he ends up moving all the stones, lifting all the rubbles and imprisons the Predator inside a cage.
However, with Casey informing him that Marla could not stop the seeding machine, which is still very much active, and that the Predator is the only one who is capable of putting an end to the whole thing, Superman is left in two minds. After giving it a considerable amount of thought, he ends up bending the iron gates of the cage and eventually lets the Predator free to aid him in facing an even greater threat.
The trio is seen heading back at the generator pit where they encounter the mad scientist once again. For those of you who are wondering what the fate of Ward happens to be, we will give you clues. It’s got something to do with a certain smart disc and decapitation. Anyway, moving on, we see Superman hell bent on not leaving till he sees it with his own eyes that the machine is stopped.
He hardly has any strength left in his body and Casey literally has to hold him to make him stand. With the duo witnessing the starting of the seeding process, Superman hears a familiar beeping sound. It’s the same countdown sound that he had earlier heard inside the spaceship before it blew up. Casey realizes that it is the only way to keep the proof of the Predator’s race out of human hands.
Right after activating the self-destruct device, the Predator is also seen tossing some kind of a vial towards Superman, which the latter catches. Superman and Casey are able to make out of the cavern to safety split seconds before the whole place blew up. Also, in a smaller cavern situated miles away, another spaceship, one that had brought the Predator to earth is seen automatically exploding.
This shows that the Predator made sure to annihilate all evidences of his kind’s technology. As for the vial, Casey isn’t too sure if it’s a cure or a final bullet. Superman states to him as much as the Predator looked vicious, he wasn’t devious and takes a chance, demonstrating a bottoms-up right in front of Casey.
We are next taken back to Metropolis; a few days have already passed by now. With Lois asking Superman how he feels, the latter tells her that he started improving the minute he gulped the cure. It becomes pretty clear that the Predator did see the superhero as an honorable opponent and that’s why he even gave him a cure for his illness as a mark of respect and honor. The issue ends with Lois and Superman left to wonder that what would happen if they ran into a Predator with no honor.
What Did We At Marvelous Videos Think Of?
This three-issue comic here pits Superman and the Predator in a story that is pleasantly satisfying. It is a given that Superman, being one of the greatest superheroes in the DC universe, is clearly more than a match for the Predator; the latter being the best bounty hunter in the galaxy is inevitably strong, but however, he doesn’t have any superpowers. David Michelinie deserves full credits for writing a story that somehow made the battle between the duo a fair one. But then again, the story seems to come to an end the minute it actually picked up the tempo. We would have certainly enjoyed had there been more depth to the storyline.
With this, we have come to the very end of our video here. Do hit us with your thoughts in the comments section and let us know if you have had the time to read this three-issue comic book here. Also, have you seen the new Predator movie titled Prey yet? It is officially streaming on Hulu, in case you want to watch!
Stay tuned with us for more interesting content on Predator.