Based on the comic book by Mark Verheiden.
This was the first licensed predator story following the first film and precedes the sequel. published in 1989 this tells an alternate but very similar predator 2. The major difference is this has Arnold back for round 2 instead of danny glover.
and also without any of the concepts from 2 such as the Yautja being a race obsessed with honor and fairness.
We are shown a take with the Predators being a very advanced species that has a drunken redneck problem. They dont have nukes to hide tech. They dont give a damn about man. They just wanna fight and are spiteful bastards.
What they do care about are trophies and no pred would ever let themselves be made a trophy.
This gets fucking insane. A fun read which quickly turns into an X-com prequel. The first of a three part series spanning all the way to 2001. You can see the roots of what will become predator 2 though, a Big city (NY not LA) a Heatwave, Big Willy the voodoo king, no feminist chick detective though, or annoying reporters, or basically all the shit that sucked in the actual sequel. Whats missing? basically the entire ending is completely different with the lore being established in a very different direction. Updates later on the direct sequel Cold War