THE THRILL IS THE KILL!
"They say I'm the best there is... but I sure as @#&% don't feel that way. Not now. Now that I'm the hunted. Now that I'm the prey."
—Wolverine, Issue #1
Predator vs. Wolverine is a 2023 comic book Crossover from the 20th Century Studios imprint of Marvel Comics. The series is written by Benjamin Percy and art by Greg Land, Andrea Di Vito, Ken Lashley, Kei Zama, and many more.
Before he was Wolverine, an X-man, or had his adamantium skeleton, Logan once lived as a reclusive hunter in the 1900s, selling pelts. During this time, he met an equally dangerous hunter from beyond the stars:
The Predator.
The Yautja immediately targeted Logan, resulting in a fight between the two. Logan emerged victorious, but little did he know that he would cross paths with the Predator again in the future - and not just once.
The four-issue limited series follows the bitter rivalry between Wolverine and the Yautja, who's been stalking and hunting him across different periods of Logan's life to the present day, with both hunters on a path to ultimate victory... or a glorious death.
The first issue was released September 20, 2023
This series provides examples of:
- Arch-Enemy: The Predator becomes this to Logan after he bested the Yautja the first time, causing the Predator to harass and hunt Logan over the years until one of them kills the other.
- Blood Knight: After recovering a shuriken from his fallen brother, the Predator wastes no time and begins hunting down several animals, from deer, a bighorn sheep, a mountain lion, and even an orca.
- The Cavalry: The Yautja that Wolverine met in 1900 returns years later with an entire team of his fellow Predators at the end of Issue #1.
- Chameleon Camouflage: As usual, the Predators can turn themselves invisible with their tech. In Issue #1, the Predator used this to sneak into a village of Alaskan Athabascans and later slaughtered all of them. Years later, when Logan was a part of Team X, several Yautja use their cloaking to hide themselves from the mutant team.
- Chekhov's Gun: During his time in the Alaskan Territory, Logan used a cave to stash all his belongings with a bear that guards the place. When the Predator chases him, he lures him to the cavern, wakes the bear up, and has the animal take care of the Yautja.
- Crossover: Between Predator and Wolverine
- The Determinator: The Predator has spent over a hundred years hunting and harassing Logan throughout his life so he can take his spine and skull as a trophy. You can't get any more determined than that.
- Downer Beginning: Issue #1 opens up in the present day with a badly wounded Wolverine with a chunk of his arm missing on the run from the Predator.
- Eye Scream: During the final clash, Wolverine removes one of his own eyes to lure the Predator into a trap, hiding it in a pile to mud to trick his enemy into thinking he's hiding there while he actually sneaks up on it from behind.
- How We Got Here: The first part of Issue #1 opens with Wolverine on the run from the Predator. Then we cut to the Alaskan Territory circa 1900, showing how Logan first met the Predator and why he's hunting him.
- Long-Lived: The Predator and Wolverine, respectively. Wolverine, due to his Healing Factor, while the Yautja have long life spans and can live for centuries. The same Predator that Logan met in 1900 has been hunting him down to the present day of 2023, making the alien just as old as Logan.
- Lured into a Trap: This is what Logan did to get the Predator off his back the first time. Logan tricks the Predator into chasing him near the cave he's been using, wakes the bear living inside, and has it deal with the Yautja.
- No One Could Survive That!: Whenever Wolverine thinks he's gotten the Predator off his back, he ends up surviving.
- In Issue #1, Logan lures the Predator in front of a cave he's been using and sends the bear guarding the place on him. It doesn't work, and the Predator easily kills and decapitates the animal.
- Near the end of Issue #2, Logan uses the shuriken he took when he beat the Predator the first time and lures him and one of the other Yautja that came with him into a temple and blows the place up. The explosion gets both of them, but, of course, the Predator hunting Logan survives.
- Red Shirt: Jackson and Kruel, two previously unseen and unmentioned members of Team X, are introduced just to be killed by the Yautja.
- Scars Are Forever: After the fight with the bear, the Predator gains four big claw marks on his mask, and they're still there by the modern day.
- Tracking Device: As usual, the Yautja have tracking devices built into their tech to locate them; this is how the Yautja hunting Logan ended up on Earth. He followed the signal from a dead Predator already on the planet. Not long after taking the shuriken off his fallen brother, he wastes no time putting it to good use, hunting down the native wildlife, people, and, of course, Logan.
- When He Smiles: Logan smiles and cheers when he thinks he successfully beat the Predator by tricking the hunter into getting mauled.Logan: Don't got many smiles in me. But I might have cracked one then.
