Back Issues: Aliens, Predator and more menace comics

Franchises take on Batman, Superman, each other

Movies continue to draw concepts from comic books, but it's not uncommon for the process to flow in the other direction as well.

A host of popular big-screen properties have jumped to comics over the years, some for brief entries and others establishing their own impressive runs.

After hunting Arnold Scwarzenegger in the jungle, a Predator landed in comics published by Dark Horse, tangling with the brother of the future California governor's Maj. Alan "Dutch" Schaefer.

The company continued to publish original "Predator" stories featuring the alien hunters in a variety of settings. In 1990's "Dark Horse Presents" #36, a Predator was pitted against Ellen Ripley's extraterrestrial enemies from the "Alien" franchise, paving the way for the first "Aliens vs. Predator" limited series.

Written by Randy Stradley, with art by Phil Norwood and Chris Warner, the series focused on a colony planet caught in the middle when a group of young Predators are dispatched to hunt the chest-bursting Xenomorphs. One of the human survivors was Machiko Noguchi, who earned the respect of a Predator and was made a member of his clan.

The two sci-fi/horror franchises would be linked for years in comics and eventually come to blows in theaters in 2004.

Dark Horse continued with comic installments of both "Aliens," "Predator" and "Aliens vs. Predator," while also finding other franchises for them to battle. In a three-issue 1991-92 series, a Predator landed in Gotham City and started eliminating various gangsters until settling on the most dangerous prey of all in the city: Batman.

The Predators would face the Dark Knight in two follow-up series, the second starting in 1997. That was the same year DC and Dark Horse teamed up for the "Batman/Aliens"two-issue series. The Aliens and Predators faced Superman as well, before all four properties matched up in 2007's "Superman and Batman vs. Aliens and Predator."

Predators also squared off against some of Dark Horse's original characters, Tarzan, Judge Dredd, Valiant's Magnus: Robot Fighter, the Justice League and weirdly enough, Archie, in 2015's "Archie vs. Predator" and a sequel being published right now. The Aliens would take on Green Lantern, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Image's WildC.A.T.S. Both franchises also shared billing with Judge Dredd, Witchblade and the Darkness in other crossovers.

Another multi-front battle pitted the Aliens and Predators against Schwarzenegger's Terminator. It was released the same year as "Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future," in which the murderous robots followed Sarah and John Connor to Metropolis and ran afoul of the Man of Steel.

Eight years earlier, the first Terminator comic crossover was published, positing that the origin of Skynet's takeover of the world stemmed from one source: Robocop. "Robocop vs. Terminator" was written and drawn by comics legends Frank Miller and Walt Simonson, respectively. It spawned a video game but no movie -- yet.

Before that, Marvel Comics ran a 23-issue Robocop series. The property has moved between several publishers, not racking up the same amount of crossovers as "Predator," although BOOM! Studios did its own Terminator mash-up in 2011.

Miller, writer/artist of the famed "Dark Knight Returns" and creator of "Sin City," wrote the original screenplay for "Robocop 2." It got heavily revised and rewritten before being panned in theaters, but Avatar Press adapted Miller's version as a comic book series in 2006.

It's not just the big franchises that live on in comics.

"Fight Club" has never gotten a sequel on film, but Chuck Palahniuk, author of the original novel, has written two as comics for Dark Horse. "Meteor Man," an underrated 1993 movie about an inner city teacher who develops super powers, continued as six-issue Marvel limited series in 1993-94.

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Recommended Reading

* "Aliens vs. Predator" -- The inhabitants of the colony planet Ryushi are caught in the middle when a group of Predators start hunting Xenomorphs. Eventually, the surviving humans and Predators are forced to work together to survive.

* "Batman vs. Predator" -- A trade collecting the three limited series in which the Dark Knight matches wits and skills with the movie monster, who has made Gotham City its new hunting ground.

* "Robocop vs. Terminator" -- The techno-action franchises face off when a member of the human resistance goes back in time to stop the rise of the Terminators by eliminating them at the source -- cyborg cop Alex Murphy.