Fans have wondered for decades who would win in a fight between the X-Men's most savage hero, Wolverine, and the alien hunter only known as the Predator. Marvel's 20th Century Studios comics imprint is aiming to solve this conundrum in Predator vs. Wolverine #1, an impressive start to a grisly series. Written by Benjamin Percy, drawn by Ken Lashley, Andrea Di Vito, and Greg Land with Jay Leisten on inking duties, colored by Juan Fernandez and Frank D'Armata, and lettered by VC's Cory Petit, the first installment in this four-issue miniseries looks back at why Logan and the intergalactic warrior Yautja would have beef to begin with -- and how long their rivalry has been going on.
The story takes place across three different time periods, highlighting their battles over the years. The bulk of the first issue is set in Alaska in 1900. The reader follows a young Logan, who has been hired to help a prospector named Tucker rescue his captured son. At the same time, a Predator arrives on Earth and starts to test its might against a variety of creatures it encounters in the tundra. Inevitably, Wolverine and the Predator cross paths, giving way to a vicious and violent battle.
In a past interview, Benjamin Percy revealed his passion for this crossover and how it's almost unfathomable that these two iconic characters haven't encountered each other before. Having the chance to pen this clash is clearly a thrill ride for Percy, with the writer utilizing the opportunity to craft a tale that fills in the blanks for both Wolverine and the Predator's pasts. Both have existed in the pop-culture stratosphere for ages, but fans don't know everything about them. This allows Percy to step into the space to flesh out these characters and their pasts a little more.
It isn't an origin story per se, though it does help the reader understand their motivations better and see why their feud would last as long as it did. While it might have been easy for Percy to treat Predator vs. Wolverine #1 as a tease for a big fight to come, Percy and the art team fully commit to introducing the action from the start. In fact, the issue doesn't even need to showcase a winner after the first round here. Instead, the story leaves the issue on a cliffhanger that promises an even bigger encounter down the line, which should get the fans excited about the remainder of the story.
With several artists handling the three timelines, there is a notable art shift between the pages. Petit provides consistency with a lettering style that most readers of the current X-Men books will be familiar with. Lashley and Fernandez collaborate to great effect in the present-day part of the issue, delivering an aesthetic that captures the best versions of the two characters and blends both the past and present eloquently. Similarly, Di Vito and Fernandez's team-up for the Team X portion pays tribute to the era in the design of the characters and costumes.
Land, Leisten, and D'Armata receive the majority of the focus in this issue. Their art brings the young Wolverine story to grisly life. D'Armata's nostalgic colors complement the other sections of the book, while the art boasts cleaner and less rugged linework. It's easy to see the intention behind this stylistic choice as it's meant to symbolize a time when the characters had fewer scars and baggage than they do later on. Predator vs. Wolverine #1 lives up to its promise of pitting these fearsome fighters against each other in a hotly contested fight. Neither of them holds anything back in the first issue, baring their teeth and testing their combat skills against each other. If this is a sign of what's to come, fans better be ready for more gore and violence. In short, it's everything fans have been waiting for in a crossover between the two.