The creators of Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider, Ed Brisson and Kev Walker, have done wonders with the new Predator comics from Marvel, where the hunters have turned into the hunted, and that too by a little girl named Theta. That strikes me as a really cool moniker for a Predator slayer.
The Predators, however, destroyed everything Theta had ever treasured the first time she came into contact with them. Even as a little child, she had nightmares of her parents being killed and murdered. However, Theta was resourceful and put fifteen years into training and learning how to kill Predators.
She no longer felt afraid since familiarity had taken the place of her anxiety, and she rather wished the Predators had tried to go asleep so they could wake up with nightmares of her, breaking out in a cold sweat and gasping for air. We will examine the first issue of this fascinating and amazing Marvel comic, which describes Theta’s adventure, in this video. Shall we get started?
In the year 2041, a small group of colonisers reached the planet of Damara, clearly, humans had developed the technology required to go on extensive space travel. They had been on Damara for some time now and were still studying Damara’s geography and the flora and fauna that came with it. Amongst these colonisers, there was just one child, a girl named Theta, whose parents were Fransesca and Hugo.
One day, Theta left the settlement and came near a water body where she found a native tadpole-like organism. Theta was a young girl, but she was quite intelligent, having read all the books in the settlement’s library over a hundred times. She had discovered a new species and wanted to name the same. Interestingly, she came up with the name Damara Lithobates Viridis Cauda. Apparently, she knew that all species get Latin names, and it was only prudent that the one she discovered also had a Latin name. Nevertheless, someone soon called out Theta’s name, and she knew she was in trouble.
It was her parents, they wanted her to come back, but Theta had no other child to play with at the settlement. I mean, it’s quite natural for Theta to wander off, given that the only so-called friend she had was the ship’s AI called Sandy. However, Theta’s father soon became alerted; he had heard or seen something in the bushes. He asked them to go back to the settlement immediately, but while he was still talking, someone or something shot him dead. Theta witnessed her father’s brutal murder and his blood splashing on her face.
Francesca grabbed Theta by her hand and started running toward the settlement on Damara. But Theta did not want to leave her daddy alone in the woods, and Fransesca assured her that someone would go back for him, but at that moment, she needed Theta safe and secured. Francesca reached her colleagues and declared a code red, but the killer was swift and followed her.
There was blood all over, and bodies had piled up in every corner. As for the humans, they could not figure out where the killer was or how many of them were there. Nevertheless, Fransesca locked Theta in a compartment and asked her not to open the door for anyone. Now, Theta knew all the nooks and crannies of the ship they were in, so it would not have been difficult for her to go someplace that was really safe. Furthermore, she knew how to reprogram Sandy’s autopilot, so that she’d be headed back to Earth.
However, young Theta blamed herself for whatever was happening. Had she not stepped out of the settlement, her parents would not have gone looking for her, and naturally, her father would still be alive. Nevertheless, it was no point talking about the What If scenarios! Francesca assured her daughter that it was not the latter’s fault, and sealed the lab before leaving to fight the killers. However, the intruder had come overboard, Sandy warned Francesca to turn back, but she knew that her people needed her. It was none other than the apex hunters from the far reaches of the galaxy, hunters who hunted because it brought them glory and honour. Now, Theta was witnessing her mother’s neck under the strong grip of the Predator’s hand.
But Francesca was absolutely furious about having lost her husband. Furthermore, now the bug-eyed alien hunter had come for her daughter. She did what any furious mother would do, and struck the Predator with a blade, chopping off one of his mandibles. It turns out that the predator was foolish enough to remove his mask in front of a mother who he had recently pissed off.
But the Predator was not going to let one of his attackers alive, right? Francesca was dead, and Theta picked up her fallen blade, threatening the predator to leave her alone. But Theta said, ‘Please!’ And although young Theta was armed, the Predator left her alone and exited the ship.
Strange is the code of honour of the Yautjas. They would kill almost anyone and anything as long as they were armed, but they would hold back from killing if their prey requested mercy! Francesca then asked Sandy to protect her child no matter what, and Sandy promised to obey the command. While growing up, Theta came to believe that this monster was some kind of an anomaly of nature.
She thought it was some sort of freak of nature, a singularity, and an aberration that was nothing more than a malicious mistake, but she could not be more wrong! She soon realised that the universe was capable of producing endless horrors and innumerable monsters. But she did not have to concern herself with all of them, and she only cared about the one that had killed her parents and slaughtered her colony.
It was now the year 2056, some 15 years after the events that took place in Damara. Theta was present on a planet called X14432-8. The planet looked much like earth. It appeared blue from space and had water and greenery. But there was something going on in the dense jungles.
Theta was battling a Predator. From a young child who lost her parents to a Predator, Theta was now fighting one, and she killed the beast with relative ease. Despite all the punching and slashing of the weapons, Theta emerged victorious and decapitated the beast. But she was not happy! In fact, she was enraged, as if she had committed a blasphemous mistake. She received a call from someone who asked for a status update, and asked how many! Theta replied, saying that the monster had all four.
Clearly, the caller was none other than Sandy, and Theta was talking about the four mandibles that this Predator had. She had been searching for the Predator with three mandibles, and she was going from planet to planet in her search. Sandy asked the ETA on Theta’s return, but she was not going to the ship, not yet. First, she had to look for anything that she could salvage from the Predator’s ship.
She entered the ship and searched for something very specific, and she found it– a red-coloured and egg-shaped device of sorts, that was more like the holy grail if someone wanted to learn about Predators. I mean, it had everything, including the travel logs, hunting routes, and other information, such as when one Predator is killed, another picks up the same hunting route within a year. This allowed Theta to anticipate which planet a Predator would hunt next. After retrieving the device, Theta started walking towards her own ship and Sandy. However, she gets attacked by the dominant native species of the planet.
She tried to explain to them that she was not the enemy, but they saw the helmet she was carrying and assumed that she was one of the Predators. Somehow, she managed to make her way back to the ship and flew away. However, Theta could not go on her next hunt before the ship’s gravitational stabilisers had been fixed. To make things worse, they did not even have the necessary parts to fix the issues. Sandy suggested that they could go to Port Medway, which could have the required parts.
However, it belonged to Astar Industries, the same industry where her parents worked and from where she practically stole the ship and Sandy, which were company property, making Theta an outlaw. However, Sandy reminded her that they were decommissioning the port and there were only two staffers present there. Sandy set course for Port Medway, but just before reaching their destination, the gravity stabilizers failed completely. Sandy asked Theta to land the craft manually, but Theta was a terrible flyer. Nevertheless, Sandy did manage to reach a Tundra planet, far away from the human colony. Her only option now was to trek through the planet and reach Port Medway to find the required supplies.
In the end, Theta, the girl who lost everything in the blink of an eye, had become a ferocious hunter. She had a singularity, a certain sense of purpose that was unbent, unbowed and unbroken. Yeah, well, House Martell of Dorne seemed to have given their motto to this young Predator killer. Speaking of which, are you excited about House of the Dragon? Let us know in the comments, and do tell us if you want us to explore the other comics starring Theta.