There are two issues left of the Life and Death cycle, with sixteen issues total encapsulating the worlds of Predator, Prometheus, Alien, and AvP under one umbrella. Truthfully, after fourteen issues, it doesn’t feel like a lot has happened.

The current issue is an example of this. Our stranded team of Colonial Marines meet up with Galgo and Ahab (a Predator), but with a small outfit of other Predators, they don’t have a lot of time to catch up. Ahab goes down to parlay with the others of his kind, and the rest of the book is mostly a ritualistic fight for power while the humans watch from afar and talk about it. Who wins or what happens, I won’t say.

There are a lot of interesting ideas that are sprinkled throughout the meandering story of survival, but the struggle of survival only occasionally feels immediate. Those moments are fun to partake in, but when they do happen, nothing really changes.

This issue might have worked better if there was a visceral feeling within the visuals. Unfortunately, when the Predators battle, the panels are abstracted to the point that you can’t tell what’s going on. Even the final page of the book, which is supposed to be a “holy crap!” moment, falls flat because you can’t really make anything out.

This cycle started with a lot of promise. The first Predator arc was quite good, and I don’t even really like Predators, but it’s really lost its way. Maybe these next two issues will somehow pull a fast one on me and be awesome. As I said, a few elements are at play that are interesting. I’m in until the end. Fingers crossed that the payoff is at the very least awesome.