Batman vs. Predator: Comic Plot, Characters & Lore

Published: December 1991 to February 1992
Writer: Dave Gibbons
Art: Andy Kubert (pencils), Adam Kubert (inks)
Colors: Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh
Lettering: Adam Kubert
Cover: Arthur Suydam (prestige), Chris Warner and Gregory Wright (regular)
Publisher: DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics
Format: Three-issue miniseries in regular and prestige formats
Setting: Gotham City, the Batcave and Wayne Manor

Batman vs. Predator is a three-issue crossover written by Dave Gibbons, penciled by Andy Kubert and inked by Adam Kubert, published by DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics between December 1991 and February 1992. A Predator came to Gotham City to hunt its strongest prey, starting with a heavyweight champion and the gangsters behind him, and only a badly wounded Batman could stop it. It was the Dark Knight's first meeting with the hunters, and it began the long run of Batman vs. Predator encounters that followed.

Plot Summary

A Title Fight In Gotham

Batman in armor and the Predator side by side, the hunter snarling with its mandibles spread, art from Batman vs. Predator

The first issue opened at the Gotham Arena, where heavyweight champion Marcus King beat Bull Bersaglio in a brutal title fight. King was backed by the gangster Alex Yeager and Bersaglio by his rival Leo Brodin, two men who had fought over the city's rackets for twenty-five years, and Commissioner Gordon watched them trade threats from ringside. Across town, an unseen hunter killed junkyard owner Woodrow Pickett and his dog Satan at Pickett's Salvage, then repeated "Congratulations, champ" from the fight broadcast in a borrowed voice, the first sign of the mimicry the Yautja use against their prey.

After the fight, Yeager celebrated with Mayor Lieberman and introduced his associate Raymond as a new investor in his corporation, while Gordon was reminded that these men ran corporations, not criminal gangs. A scuffle broke out with one of Brodin's men, and Alfred asked whether Master Bruce was ready to go home. Later that night, the champion took his girlfriend Lita up to his penthouse at the Plaza Hotel, telling her that now he was a public figure he had to be careful, unaware that something was already watching the building.

The Champion Is Taken

The masked Predator standing with both wrist gauntlets raised beside a caption about Gotham's gang war in Batman vs. Predator

The Predator crashed through the skylight of the penthouse at the Plaza Hotel, caught King in a net and killed him, while Lita hid and was spared. Two guards were shot, and King was found hanging upside down with his head and spinal column torn away, the kind of prize kept in Predator trophy rooms, and his championship belt and hands were missing. A police radio report of the incident sent Bruce out into the night, with Alfred wishing him good hunting.

At the hotel, detectives told Gordon that the killer had come in through the skylight, that marks on King's body looked like a net had been used, and that the feud had already cost Brodin two brothers and Yeager his son and right eye. Batman then fought his way through the boxers at Brodin's Gym to reach the gang boss and told him that, either way, he should watch his back. Watching through its thermal vision, the Predator muttered "wrong guy" and "no shape" before killing a stray cat, and on the news Mayor Lieberman dismissed Gordon's warning of rising gang violence.

Rules Of The Hunt

The Predator standing on a stone gargoyle with its arms raised below the Bat-Signal and the words Batman has deserted Gotham in Batman vs. Predator

In the Wayne Manor trophy room, Bruce and Alfred went over the evidence: partial footprints suggesting a large body mass, signs of sophisticated weaponry and flakes of corroded metal. The hunter then slaughtered Bull Bersaglio and the fighters at Brodin's Gym, taking Bersaglio's head and hands but sparing a blind old trainer, who told the police that it walked like a man. Brodin had been away visiting his mother, and the trainer was the only man left alive among the bodies.

When the Predator fired a plasma bolt from a rooftop and SWAT teams opened up, Batman stepped into the open as a target, and the hunter held its fire with its three-dot laser resting on his chest. He said that he was starting to understand the rules, and Bruce later told Alfred that the killer acted within a savage code of honor that let it choose only the strongest prey. That night Brodin went on television to promise "You'll pay, Yeager", raising the stakes in the gang war.

The Duel At Pickett's Salvage

The unmasked Predator roaring with a spinning disc in its hand amid smoke at the junkyard in Batman vs. Predator

Lab work showed that the metal flakes were magnetized rust, as if from a large electromagnet, mixed with car paint and alluvial mud from east of the river, so Bruce sent Alfred to search the East End junkyards. Property tycoon Raymond Squire called Yeager and Brodin to a peace meeting at the Squire Center, and the cloaked attacker came through the glass, killing Yeager with a thrown disc as his bodyguards opened up with Uzis. Batman leapt at it just before Brodin's shotgun blast sent both of them out of the window.

After the fall, Squire insisted that the killer was not human, and Alfred reported that Pickett's Salvage on Eastern Avenue was deserted. Batman entered the yard alone and found Pickett's corpse hanging among trophy skulls while a sitcom played on the television. There the Predator removed its bio-mask to face him, and when Batman said that taking it on was nothing compared to undergoing major surgery, the creature laughed and echoed a line from the sitcom: "that pot roast smells great".

The Batmobile To The Rescue

The unmasked Predator raising its claws over a bloodied Batman with the words son of a in Batman vs. Predator

The hunter flung its smart disc across Batman's side and closed in with spear and disc in hand. Batman swung a crane magnet loaded with scrap onto the creature, but it pushed free, extended its wrist blades and snarled "son of a" over him as the first issue closed. The second issue opened with the Predator echoing Batman's own talk about understanding the rules and the championship as it prepared to finish him, while the wounded detective reached for a remote control on his belt.

The Batmobile smashed through the fence and rammed the hunter, which answered with its plasma caster and drove its spear through the canopy. The car dragged the Predator across the yard, and Batman told it to take him home as police cars raced past. Gordon arrived to hear that a caller had tipped off the police, and he ordered his men into the yard with orders to search and destroy, though the place was so big that the creature had many places to hide.

Squire's Last Day At The Office

The Predator looming over Raymond Squire's terrified secretary as it asks good day at the office in Batman vs. Predator

On News 2, reporter Jennifer said that police had failed to catch the killer at the junkyard, that a strange net weapon recovered from the Squire Center had gone for forensic tests and defied chemical analysis, and that the missing remains of King and Bersaglio had been found among the trophies. Squire blamed Brodin's reckless use of firearms for the escape, Mayor Julius Lieberman threatened to have Gordon's head on a plate, and Batman lay unconscious in his wrecked car in the Batcave.

Brodin's mother urged him to make a deal with Squire and take Yeager's place as a respectable businessman, but Squire stalled him, ordered his communications encrypted and arranged to disappear to a ski lodge. He also had his secretary Marcia ask Yeager's old "extermination service" for a quote on Brodin. Then the lights in his office went out, and the Predator tracked him by his heat as he begged and offered to pay; it killed Squire and greeted the screaming Marcia with "good day at the office?" before leaving her alive.

Brodin's Last Stand

The Predator bursting through a brick wall into Leo Brodin's strong room in Batman vs. Predator

The police found that Squire had been filleted in his elevator and his blood spread over the model of his city, though guards had been all over the building, and Detective Kandowski called it an invisible killer with weapons the lab had never seen. Gordon insisted that Batman was no coward, and at Sunday service in old St. Martin's Cathedral a preacher called the killer a demon from hell. In the Batcave, Bruce woke at seven on a Monday evening with puncture wounds, lacerations, burns and a concussion.

News reports blamed a "See-Through" Slasher, and from his home on Westgate Drive Brodin vowed on television to hunt the killer down, while the Predator watched from its lair. His hired guns joked about a bear hunt until one saw a shape by the fence like a mirage, and the hunter used its wrist blades and plasma fire to cut them down as it echoed "should watch your back". It smashed through the strong room wall and killed Brodin, leaving Ma Brodin alive beside his body.

A City Without Batman

The Predator lunging forward with its plasma caster and wrist blades as it charges across a rooftop in Batman vs. Predator

Gordon's Bat-Signal went unanswered for several nights, and when he asked whether anyone was left on the list, Kandowski answered "Only one, sir", so he called Wayne Manor only to hear Alfred say that Mr. Wayne was out of town. At City Hall, Mayor Lieberman told Gordon that it was an election year and demanded a massive show of force, including the National Guard. He stepped into his private bathroom, and moments later Gordon found him murdered, the latest victim of the killer.

Gordon announced a dawn sweep by SWAT and the National Guard, the hunter roared from a cathedral gargoyle as the city decided Batman had deserted it, and Bruce phoned Gordon to say the killer was not of this world and was on safari for the most powerful prey. At Gordon's home the creature called out a cheerful "Hello, dear", and Kandowski shot it, spilling its yellow-green alien blood before she pushed the commissioner through a hatch and was cut down. The wounded hunter crashed out mimicking "fight me".

The Rooftop Battle

The Predator landing on a crushed police car with its disc in hand and yellow blood dripping from its mask in Batman vs. Predator

Bruce left his cane in the Batcave and built a sonar visor and reflective armor that hid him from heat vision. The police found the creature's lair of skulls at old St. Martin's, while seven officers lay dead at Gordon's home and the wounded Gordon took charge from a temporary headquarters. On a rain-swept roof, he told his officers that Batman was on their side, and Batman declared in the storm that he was the one the creature wanted and that it should come and get him.

The third issue began with Batman sending the police below as the Predator, perched on a cathedral gargoyle with a skull trophy, shattered the glass with plasma fire. His reflective armor deflected its shots, and the creature called out "see you" and "fight me?" as Batman swung a long staff. Their charge across the cathedral roof in the lightning ended with the hunter falling down the side of a building onto a police car, where frightened officers urged their sergeant to fire as the Predator rose with its disc in hand.

The Trap In The Batcave

The Predator tangled in a giant net in the Batcave as an armored Batman descends behind it in Batman vs. Predator

The hunter mocked Batman as a "loser" and promised "major surgery" before the Batmobile drove it off its feet and carried it away on the hood. Under voice control, the car fired on the creature as it clung to the roof shouting "not again", and Batman told it to go. It raced past a News 2 van and a stunned Gordon, who could only guess where Batman was taking the killer, and it overrode the Gotham Central traffic control computer to clear the streets ahead.

As the car left the city, the Predator smashed through the canopy and repeated "pot roast", but Batman ordered turbo and checked his map until he was near enough to stop. He threw the hunter off in the woods and used a device that made a high squealing noise, and a swarm of bats poured out of a hill near Wayne Manor and engulfed it as it shouted "search" and "destroy". It shook them off and charged him, snapping branches, and followed him underground.

The Countdown

The Predator trapped behind the titanium steel bars of a cage in the Batcave in Batman vs. Predator

In the Batcave, Batman asked whether the automatic systems were ready, and Alfred answered that they were primed. A giant net dropped over the creature, much like the nets Predators use on their own prey, but it cut itself loose with its wrist blades and again echoed his warning that he should watch his back. It snatched Batman's cape, told him he was "caught up" and threw him down, and its blades scraped across his armor as the Predator promised "gonna get you".

Bars of titanium steel slammed down around the hunter, and Batman said that it would never cut through them in time before shooting it with a wide-spectrum tranquilizer strong enough to stop a herd of rhinos. He had tested its blood and found it alien but still carbon-based, yet the creature only laughed, echoed "understand the rules" and counted off "eight, nine, ten! It's over!" on its wrist computer. Bruce realized it was counting down, one of the self-destruct devices the hunters carry to avoid capture.

Alfred Joins The Fight

The unmasked Predator throwing Alfred down the Batcave stairs as it snarls crazy in Batman vs. Predator

Batman tore open the cage, warning that the device would kill them both, and grappled the Predator until a huge electrical blast burned it out. The creature was still standing and said it was still dancing, and the fight raged through the Batcave past the giant penny, the dinosaur and the Gotham model. Batman fired on it as it climbed the stairs and tore away its mask, exposing the mandibles beneath, before it turned on him and mocked him with "hello".

It slammed Batman into the giant penny and shouted "son of a" as it pinned him, until a polite "ahem" behind it announced Alfred. The butler fired an antique blunderbuss into the creature's back, and Batman shouted that he had told Alfred to get clear. Alfred apologized, saying that he could not just stand by, and as the hunter grabbed him he insisted that it did not scare him, calling it a big bully, before it threw him aside and staggered away toward the stairs with its strength fading.

The Final Round

A huge Predator spaceship landing among fallen trees in the woods with a beam of light shining down in Batman vs. Predator

Alfred said that nothing was broken and that he only prayed the same was true of Bruce, as the hunter, slowed by the tranquilizer, staggered upstairs into the manor's trophy room among the mounted animal heads. Bruce called his armor dead weight, refused Alfred's help with "no seconds out" and went through the grandfather clock passage into the manor for the final round. He found that the creature had smashed its way past the billiard table and out of a window, leaving a trail of Yautja blood.

Bruce jumped from the window with a baseball bat in hand and tracked the trail of yellow blood under the full moon into the woods. When the wounded Predator turned to him and said "Hi", Bruce answered "It's me" and swung the bat, beating it to the ground before naming himself as Batman. The dying creature only laughed, repeating the name back at him as it lay among the trees, and Bruce stood over it with the bat in his hand.

A Trophy From The Stars

A cloaked Predator elder handing a trophy to an unmasked Bruce Wayne in armor in Batman vs. Predator

A huge Predator ship landed in the woods with a beam of light, and a party of armed hunters stepped out in armor and capes to surround Bruce and their fallen champion. One called it a "loser", and the defeated hunter died by a blade, a fate covered in the article on Yautja failure. The cloaked leader handed Bruce the curved sword, much as the elders reward other worthy humans, and the ship rose into the night as Alfred arrived.

Bruce told Alfred that the creature was dead and had been taken by its kin back to the stars, and agreed that there was a whole planet of such creatures somewhere out there. He explained that they lived by a cruel alien code of combat in which defeat equaled death, that he had beaten their champion so it had to kill itself, and that they had made him a present of the weapon it used. When Alfred asked whether they would return, Bruce answered "They won't", and the two walked home under what Alfred called a real hunter's moon.

Key Characters

Batman / Bruce Wayne tracked the hunter across Gotham, survived two near-fatal fights and beat it in single combat in the woods beside Wayne Manor.
The Predator, called the "See-Through" Slasher in the news, hunted Gotham's champions and gangsters, mimicked their voices, spared the weak and died by its own blade after its defeat.
The Elder and the hunting party landed near Wayne Manor to reclaim their fallen champion, and the cloaked leader gave Batman the sword it had used.
Alfred Pennyworth traced the evidence to Pickett's Salvage, nursed Bruce back to health and shot the Predator with a blunderbuss in the Batcave.
Commissioner James Gordon kept faith in Batman while the mayor blamed him, and survived the Predator's attack on his home.
Detective Kandowski worked the killings with Gordon, wounded the Predator at his home and gave her life to get him away.
Mayor Julius Lieberman threatened Gordon and demanded the National Guard before the Predator killed him at City Hall.
Marcus King was the heavyweight champion backed by Yeager, killed in his Plaza Hotel penthouse hours after winning his title fight.
Bull Bersaglio was Brodin's fighter, who lost to King and was killed with the boxers at Brodin's Gym.
Alex Yeager was a gang boss who had lost his son and his right eye in his feud with Brodin, and was killed by a thrown disc at the Squire Center.
Leo Brodin was Yeager's rival, who had lost two brothers in the feud, shot the Predator at the Squire Center and was killed in his strong room on Westgate Drive.
Ma Brodin was Leo's mother, who urged him to go legitimate and was spared when the hunter killed him in front of her.
Raymond Squire was a property tycoon who called the gangsters to a peace meeting, tried to hide away and was killed in his office building.
Marcia was Squire's secretary, who arranged his escape and was left alive when the Predator killed him.
Lita was Marcus King's girlfriend, who hid during the penthouse attack and was spared.
Woodrow Pickett owned Pickett's Salvage on Eastern Avenue and was the hunter's first victim, killed with his dog Satan.
The blind trainer at Brodin's Gym was the only man spared in the massacre there and told police the killer walked like a man.
Yeager's bodyguards and Brodin's hired guns fired Uzis, shotguns and machine guns at the Predator and were cut down at the Squire Center and the Brodin estate.
Jennifer and Mel were the News 2 reporter and anchor who covered the killings for Gotham.

Editions

DC Comics and Dark Horse published the three issues between December 1991 and February 1992 in two versions at once: a regular edition with covers by Chris Warner and Gregory Wright, and a prestige edition with painted covers by Arthur Suydam, heavier paper and a set of trading cards. The trading cards featured artists such as John Byrne, Mike Mignola, Walter Simonson and Joe Kubert, and their art was also reprinted as pin-ups in the second issue. The series was later collected as a trade paperback, and Batman went on to face the hunters in Superman and Batman vs. Aliens and Predator as well as the other Batman vs. Predator crossovers of the 1990s.

Behind The Scenes

Dave Gibbons, best known for drawing Watchmen, wrote the series as a detective story, and the hunter's habit of collecting the strongest prey turned Gotham's boxing and gang feuds into a natural hunting ground. Andy and Adam Kubert, the sons of Joe Kubert, drew the book together, and Adam Kubert won the 1992 Eisner Award for Best Inker for his work on it. The story set many habits for later crossovers, from the Predator's mimicry and the honor code that spared the weak to the Yautja clan that collected its fallen champion and left Batman a trophy.

Conclusion

Batman vs. Predator is the 1991 miniseries by Dave Gibbons and the Kubert brothers that sent a Predator to Gotham City to hunt its champions, gangsters and finally Batman himself. It moved from a title fight and a junkyard duel to the murders of Squire, Brodin and the mayor, then to the Batcave, where armor, nets, a cage and Alfred's blunderbuss were all needed to bring the hunter down. Its ending, with the defeated Predator taking its own life and its clan handing Batman its sword, made the Dark Knight one of the few humans to earn the hunters' respect.