Hey comic book fans!  PREDATOR #1 (OF 4) $3.50 (John Arcudi / Javier Saltares)Last month I geeked out about one of my all-time favorite things: Aliens (link). I say that with a capital "A" because I don't just mean anything that is not from this world, but the actually Aliens franchise owned by 20th Century Fox. I provided the link above, so I won't go on about my love for it again, but I will say that my love for the Predator franchise is almost as strong. I remember when the first movie came out and I had my mother watch Good Morning America so that she could tell me all about it when I got home from school; to her credit, she did, or at least, faked it enough to make me think that she did. When it finally came to HBO I watched it several times, and even taped it onto a VHS tape. I watched that beat up tape so much that it somehow made an impression on my very young and impressionable little brother. At two years old it was his favorite movie and he asked to watch it over and over, constantly asking to watch "the monsch" (as he could not fully say "monster" yet). So yeah, I loved Predator so much that I potentially warped my two-year-old brother (he's 23 now and still loves the franchise, so maybe it was a good thing). Sometime thereafter Dark Horse got the rights to make comics based on the character, the first mini-series being a direct sequel to the film, though this one starred Dutch's brother, a policeman. I looked everywhere for that first issue and never found one. A friend of mine that also collected comics was out in New Jersey for the summer and he somehow managed to score TWO copies of Predator #1, first print. He was supposed to come back and sell one to me, but by the time the summer was over the issue was quite the collector's item and was worth significantly more than its original cover price. My friend decided in was in his best interest to keep BOTH issues for himself. That was a thorn that dug deep into my side for many, many years. Sure, I got my hands on a copy of the second print of the first issue, but if you're a collector, well, you know it's just not the same. Eventually, about nine years ago the comic book industry wasn't doing so well and as a result the back issue market basically crashed. It was during this time that I was able to grab all of the "classic comics" that I always wished I could have, like Watchmen #1-12 and The Dark Knight Returns 1-4, and yes, Predator #1-4, the latter I think for about $4 (and yes, I realize that Predator wasn't an instant comic book classic, but for me it was still very important)s. YES! There's little about The Predator I don't love. I mean, even though there are naysayers out there, I even loved Predator 2. I remember going to a small nearby theater on Thanksgiving night, and when the end of the movie came and we got to see the trophy case, well, I think I had a geekgasm right then and there (the movie came out some time ago, so I hardly consider this a spoiler, but yeah, there was an Alien skull in that case). For me things just couldn't get any better. Little did I know that such was not the first time the two species met. I heard about and then searched for an issue of Dark Horse Presents #27, a comic that showed the relationship between these two extraterrestrials. I found it, bought it, and it is still a treasured part of my collection. So now Dark Horse is going back to these characters that it published back in the day, only this time instead of the Predator species hunting humans we're going to get a peek into their society as civil war erupts. SWEET!!! Happy Michael is very Happy!  GREEN LANTERN #42 $2.99 (Geoff Johns / Phillip Tan)Yes, we all know how much I love Green Lantern right now so I'm not going to say too much here, except for this spoilerific stuff: . . . . . S P O I L E R S P A C E . . . . . WHAT THE HECK?!??! Larfleeze conjures up an axe using the power of the Orange Lantern and uses it to cut off the hand that Hal Jordan has the Blue Lantern ring of hope? And then the Blue Lantern ring accepts Larfleeze?!?!? Who saw THAT coming? WOW! If the rest of the "Blackest Night" event is even half as good as all the lead-up I am going to be a VERY happy comic book geek. 'Nuff said!  WILDCATS #12 $2.99 (Christos Gage / Neil Googe)So, there's Majestic (aka Majestros), and he's basically gone mad and is "protecting" Savant over in Hawaii whether she likes it or not. The Wildcats team, save Ladytron, decide to rescue Savant and take on Majestic, something very hard to do considering that he's basically a Superman type character. Using an exploding Spartan the team basically gets the jump on old Majestros, and they try to make it back home to the Halo Tower in L.A., which just so happens to be under attack by Lord Defile and his minions (Daemonites) with just Ladytron defending the place; luckily, she's using some of Noir's old armor to her advantage. Oh, and Majestic might not be entirely dead. Welcome home guys! What comics did you get geeked out about this week? Just stop by the WLG message boards (see link below) and share! See you next week! Peace! -Diaz |
