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

**Spoilers**

“Welcome to the Jungle pt 4”: The final issue of the prequel brings things full circle, as Drake gets his wish after setting up a captured and wounded Predator as bait and waits for its “friends” to arrive. However, things don’t go the way Drake anticipated, as he finds out that the creatures don’t reward or assist with failure in a hunt. Now Drake is on the run from a group of Predators, and the odds are not in his favor.

In the final installment of A Predatory Life, David Lapham and Gabriel Guzman continue to show that Royce is an efficient killer but isn’t completely heartless. With the target dispatched, we finally get to see the “mistake” from last issue. So now, after scolding himself for being careless, the only thing he has to do is get out of the hot zone alive, even if it means going through a former colleague to do it. And all the while Royce’s acts are being watched by a very distinctive looking Predator, who I’m hoping shows up in the movie.

In my review of Predators #3, I said that Drake was an idiot, and this issue pretty much reinforces my opinion of the character. Andreyko wasn’t too kind to the guy in the end, but the overall story was fun, and he delivered a nice quick peek into how things are gonna go, which I feel was what he was supposed to do. Balbi’s artwork still has the heavy inks issue that I’m not too fond of, but again the guy provides a visceral death scene, and visually brings the story right back to the first issue which I liked as well. Now, there was an issue with the gun that Drake drops in the pic above, as later on Balbi draws him holding it. The only problem with that is the scenes in between just show Drake on the wrong end of a laser blast. David Lapham and Gabriel Guzman again flesh out Adrien Brody’s character Royce a little more, and hopefully he’s as cool in the movie as he was in this prequel. Their addition of the Predator hiding in the bush was a nice touch, along with part of the creature’s design that was shown, though most of it was in shadow.

Next week Dark Horse is bringing us the film adaptation of Predators, just in time for the movie release on July 9th. It’s also not going to be your standard rehashing of the entire movie either, as it’s being told from a unique perspective. I understand that probably long time fans of the franchise might be more excited about this than others, however the writers make it easy for anyone to just ease into the story without the burden of having to know all of the back story.

Check out our reviews of issues #1, #2, and #3!

Infinite Speech
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