Predator: Kindred is a four-issue limited comic book series that was first published by Dark Horse Comics from December 1996-March 1997. It was written by Jason R. Lamb and Scott Tolson, pencilled by Brian O'Connell and Roger Peterson, inked by Bruce Patterson, colored by David Nestelle, lettered by Steve Dutro, and edited by Philip Amara and David Land, with cover art by Igor Kordey.
In Dark Horse's Predator comics line, Predator: Kindred was preceded by Predator: Strange Roux, and was followed by Predator: No Beast So Fierce.
Publisher's Summary[]
#1: Fleener Creek, Oregon, is a typical, small, Northwestern town — one that is ready to blow sky high with the repressed emotions in the hearts of the townspeople. And there to light the fuse is one of the most unrepressed killers in the cosmos! A community will either draw together or destroy itself when four kindred spirits are drawn to the forest: an action-starved sheriff, a serial killer, family man Buddy Wilcox, and — a Predator, the same one who killed Buddy's father right in front of him, in those very woods, thirty years before!
#2: A small northwestern town's heart of darkness is laid bare when evil comes to call! McCutcheon is a serial killer who finds himself no longer the hunter, but the hunted, as the authorities and some... thing chase him through the forest. Kelly Mathis is a small-town sheriff who must face old fears as she encounters the "boogieman" of her childhood. Buddy Wilcox is a family man whose father's brutal slaying still haunts him years later. Thirty years ago, a Predator came to town. Now these four kindred spirits are drawn together, toward an explosive conclusion!
#3: The sleepy town of Fleener Creek isn't so sleepy anymore. Young Sheriff Kelly is on the trail of a psychopathic killer, while Buddy Wilcox hunts the forest for his childhood obsession, a monster the other townsfolk believe exists only in his imagination — a Predator. The dark underbelly of this little community has finally been exposed, and, like raw flesh hitting sunlight for the first time, it's going to burn.
#4: Fleener Creek was a sleepy old town all right — like Andy and Barney could have walked right down Main Street on their way to fetch a slice of Aunt Bee's apple pie. But sleepy towns aren't always so dreamy. Sometimes sleep brings on nightmares, the kind that begin and end with an eight-foot-tall monster wielding spears and knives and all sorts of weapons. Fleener Creek may have been sleepy, but most of the folks in this town won't sleep sound again, not for a very long time. And others will never again wake up.
Plot[]
Oregon, 1988. While the residents of Fleener Creek battled a streak of irregularly hot and humid weather, the notorious "Condo Killers," who were set to begin their life sentences at the Haddison Institute after being found not guilty by reason of insanity, escape when the federal agents in charge of their transportation decide to take matter into their own hands by pulling the transport over and walking the four perpetrators into the forest to kill them. After just one prisoner is executed, a fatal disagreement erupts between the federal agents and correctional officers who get caught up in their own crossfire, allowing McCutcheon, to escape and seek refuge in the Red Ridge Hunting Grounds.
Not far from where the convicts sought refuge, Sheriff Kelly Mathis prepared to work alone for the weekend while deputies Hollis and Sunderson went pheasant hunting up on Red Ridge.
Reprint History[]
Predator: Kindred was first collected as a trade paperback in December 1997.
It was then collected again as part of Predator Omnibus: Volume 3 in June 2008.
The complete comic was released digitally through Dark Horse Digital on April 24, 2013, reusing Igor Kordey's cover art from issue 2.
Marvel Comics[]
Following Marvel Comics' acquisition of the rights to Predator comic books, the comic was collected as part of Marvel's Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Volume 1 collection, alongside many other early Dark Horse stories. The collection was released on December 27, 2022.
Behind the Scenes[]
Kindred is one of a number of Predator and Aliens vs. Predator stories to feature a human "Predator", that is to say a human being who dons Predator armor and faces the Yautja or fights alongside them. In this case it is revealed to be Buddy Wilcox.
Goofs[]
- The story opens with a flashback to 1958 that was followed with the remainder of the story said to be taking place "present day." While the comic series itself was released in 1996, it is repeatedly mentioned throughout the story that the events seen during the flashback occurred thirty years earlier, placing the events of the story in 1988, not 1996.