The Pull List One Shot: Predator: Concrete Jungle

Probably the closest thing we have to a true Predator sequel, 1996’s Predator: Concrete Jungle has the same basic premise as Predator 2 but ties back into the first movie in much cooler ways.

Set in New York City during a brutally hot summer, the comic finds Detectives Rasche and Schaefer investigating the mysterious and horrific killings of various criminals from both of the major factions in the city.  Bodies are found hanging upside down, stripped of skin and with their spines removed and before long, the intergalactic hunter makes his presence known:

After barely surviving a fight with the alien (and managing to steal his facemask), Schaefer decides he needs to get answers and heads to South America because, in one of the coolest parts of the series, his brother is Dutch and Dutch called Schaefer before he went on the doomed rescue mission of the first movie.  Schaefer finds the site of the nuclear explosion that resulted from the Predator of the movie killing itself:

and gets captured by rebels but the Predator follows him and kills the rebels trying to get Schaefer, but he escapes again and manages to get back to the states.  Realizing he needs all the help he can get, he recruits his partner and makes a deal with the gangs to stop the Predator before it takes them all out and, using the Predator’s facemask, he’s able to see them while cloaked.  A massive firefight breaks out in the streets but Schaefer is finally able to take down the Predator.  The Predator’s clan appears and take the body and their sense of honor allows Schaefer and the rest to live, since they killed their opponent fairly.  Schaefer believes they’ll be back next summer and is ready for them when they do.

Concrete Jungle is so much better than Predator 2 and Predators, both of which only make the most basic passing reference to the first movie.  Here, the story is tied directly to the events of the first movie and you get the awesome moments of realizing Det. Schaefer is Dutch’s brother and revisiting the location of the first movie.  The urban action is also so much more fun than whatever Gary Busey was doing with those liquid nitrogen guns in Predator 2.  If you see it at your local comic shop, it’s definitely worth picking up.