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Publisher: Dark Horse
Writer(s): Marc Andreyko & David Lapham
Artist(s): Guilherme Balbi & Gabriel Guzman
Cover: Paul Lee

“Welcome to the Jungle pt 3”: It’s week three of Dark Horse’s Predators series, and this one here is probably what a lot of you were waiting on. Drake is finding out that the creatures hunting him aren’t the only deadly things on the planet, and Noland has to save him from becoming a meal to a giant bug. After going back to Noland’s hideout, Drake is still fixated on taking the fight to the Predators in an attempt to kill as many as possible. So after finally convincing Noland to take part in the plan, the two set out to make that happen by using the jungle as their weapon, along with whatever they have from Noland’s camp. However, they are unaware that they are being watched and tracked as they set out on their version of “To Catch a Predator.”

Okay, I still think Drake is an idiot, but in this issue Andreyko makes him a little more likeable (intentional or not), and it was the exchange between him and Noland after he was saved that did it for me. Andreyko has both characters playing off of each other really well in this one, and it seemed like a buddy movie that made for a quick laugh or two. There was even a nod to the original Predator movie during their conversation, which I thought was kind of cool as well. Combined with Balbi’s artwork here as he got to show off another Predator, the story looked and read quite well. Yeah, there’s still the shadowing issue with the faces, but not so much here, which was a good thing because he was able to show more emotion with them. And speaking of emotion, I’m glad they chose to blow away some of the Predator’s helmet to show the pain and anger in his eyes instead of trying to emote through the helmet. It’s just something that will never make sense to me when artists do that.

David Lapham and Gabriel Guzman’s A Predatory Life pt 3 ends up putting Royce in quite the predicament, as he’s carrying out his mission. Everything seems to be going according to plan, and we see why he prefers to only work alone. There’s a precision to this man’s work that would probably go to hell if he had to rely on someone else, but it’s obvious here he can do the work of a team without any issues. Well, that is until he hears the cries of a baby right after taking out a room full of hostiles. And since we’re not shown anything, we’ll just have to wait until next issue for the outcome. Again, very strong work from both Lapham and Guzman in the few pages that they have to tell their story, and they make the best of it.

Predators has been getting progressively better with each issue, and I’m hoping that the ending will be just as good leading into the film. With the two writers fleshing out Royce and Noland pretty well here, I’m eager to see what they do on screen. Next week’s the final issue and the movie premiere on July 9th can’t get here fast enough!

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