Xenomorphs have proven to be instrumental in a Predator’s life cycle, and now it is revealed that humans are just as significant to the Predators.
While the extra terrestrial species known as Predators have always considered Alien’s Xenomorphs to be their ultimate prey, they have also held humans in a high enough regard to see them as worthy adversaries as well, and, in fact, the Predators have set up humans as the perfect opposite to the Xenomorphs in regard to their own life cycle. While Xenomorphs might have evolved specifically to fight Predators, humanity’s innate skills are more than a match for the alien hunters.
The Predator was introduced in the 1987 Action/Sci-Fi movie Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch, the action-heavy hero who succeeds in defeating the highly skilled and highly advanced alien hunter. Since that film, the Predators have consistently used humans as prey to test their own might, from sequel films to comic book franchises. The fact that humans have the Predators’ attention at all is a testament to humanity’s collective strength as a species on a cosmic scale, and it seems their role in the Predators’ lives are more significant than simply being a foreign creature they hunt from time to time.
Long before Judge Dredd would face both Predators and Xenomorphs Dark Horse Comics’ three-part miniseries Predator Versus Judge Dredd by John Wagner and Alcatena, sees a Predator descends upon the futuristic city of Judge Dredd’s Mega-City One where the creature proceeds to cause havoc in the name of sportsmanship. In the final issue, Dredd is able to kill the Predator only to discover that the creature was greatly sick and didn’t have long to live. It is revealed that since this Predator was dying, they wanted to have one final hunt against worthy prey in the hopes that they would die a warrior’s death rather than succumb to illness.
Within Dark Horse’s established Alien vs Predator universe, it has been made clear that the Xenomorphs are used by Predators as a means of initiation. When a Predator is old enough, Predators are tasked with hunting Xenomorphs to prove themselves worthy members of the species as Xenomorphs are perhaps their most deadly prey. Basically, the Xenomorphs are instrumental in the beginning stages of a Predator’s life cycle, and this issue of Predator Versus Judge Dredd indicates that humans can be used as a worthy end to that cycle.
While this comic isn’t suggesting that dying by a human’s hand is the only way Predators can die worthy deaths, it does make clear that being killed by a human is a worthy enough way to die. Xenomorphs are used for initiation, and humans can be used as means to a satisfying end, proving that Predators have set up humans as the perfect opposite to Alien’s Xenomorphs.
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