JLA vs. Predator
JLA vs. Predator is a one-shot crossover written by John Ostrander, penciled by Graham Nolan, and inked by Randy Elliott. DC Comics published it with Dark Horse Comics on December 20, 2000, with a cover date of February 2001. Three Dominators escaped to the Justice League's Watchtower on the Moon, followed by Yautja hunters that their own people had cloned and altered to match each member of the League. The heroes split into teams to bring the Dominators back from Venice, the Amazon, and England's Lake District, and found a Predator waiting for each of them.
Plot Summary
The Dominators On The Watchtower
J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, was on monitor duty in the Watchtower, the Justice League's base on the Moon, when a badly damaged Dominion spacecraft passed within lunar orbit. Its crew could not reach Earth with their own teleporters, so he decided to bring them aboard. Oracle, Barbara Gordon, warned him that the Dominators were no friends of the League and had tried to conquer Earth before. The ship exploded, and J'onn teleported three Dominators into the Watchtower.
The Dominators accused him of taking them captive, refused to surrender, and fired at him, but their shots passed through his intangible body, and he made himself too hot to hold. One of them told him that by saving them he had doomed them, and that the hunt had begun. J'onn picked the word "hunt" out of their thoughts and sensed an assassin taking aim just before a plasma bolt missed him. He told Oracle that a fourth intruder, one whose mind he could not read, was slipping between the floors, and his link to her was cut off when he tried to switch to telepathy.
The League Assembles
Oracle sent a priority call to every member of the League. Batman found the League teleporter locked out, so Superman and Green Lantern, Kyle, flew to the Moon under the power of Kyle's ring, while Oracle called in Aquaman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and the Atom. In the Watchtower, Superman and Green Lantern found J'onn's head impaled on a spike. Kyle recognized the work of Predators, which he and Batman had both met before, and the computer listed their stealth fields, shoulder and wrist weapons, and blades. Superman added that the hunters' favorite trophy was the head and spinal cord.
J'onn's headless body answered that his brain was not in his head. Green Lantern held the body steady in a construct while Superman put the head back on, and J'onn explained that only fire could truly destroy him, although he had never sensed his attacker's mind. Batman came up once the controls were unlocked, examined J'onn, and judged that he would recover but was out of action. The sensors showed nobody else aboard, and the three Dominators had teleported to three separate places on Earth. Batman split the League into three teams to bring them back for questioning, while J'onn stayed behind to recover and coordinate from the Watchtower.
Ambush In Venice
Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Plastic Man went to Venice. Plastic Man turned himself into a gondola and its gondolier and sang from Pagliacci, while Diana talked about romance and Arthur complained about the quality of the water. Spear-like missiles hit the canal around them and smashed the gondola. Diana jumped clear and Plastic Man dodged, but something struck Aquaman under the water and dragged him away at the speed of a rocket.
Wonder Woman cleared the area and led the fight away from the crowds. A Predator tracked her with its heat vision and attacked while cloaked, and she realized there was more than one of them. Its electrified whip stunned her, and when it appeared it wore gold armor with a W on the chest, like her own emblem. Plastic Man, in the shape of a red jet, was chased over the rooftops by a fanged Predator fighter plane firing plasma. He took it for a better-armed Predator imitating him, lost it over the cathedral, and spotted a Dominator on the roof of St. Mark's.
Escape From Venice
Under the water, Aquaman recognized the three-dot targeting laser of a Predator's weapon, dodged the plasma blast that followed, and charged the spot it came from. He hit the hidden hunter hard enough to short out its invisibility device. Above him, Wonder Woman pulled the gold-armored Predator in by its own whip and punched it, but her strength and will to fight drained away, and she could not tell why.
Plastic Man coiled up the Dominator and wrapped himself around Diana, complaining that a shape-changing Predator was on his tail, while she deflected the gold Predator's blasts with her bracelets. Aquaman was launched out of the water unconscious, and Plastic Man caught him in his mouth because his hands were full. He fled down the canals as a red speedboat while a gold-armored Predator chased him on a hover bike and fired its cannon. Plastic Man called on J'onn to beam them up, but nobody answered from the Watchtower. J'onn stood alone in the empty station while a Predator watched him through its heat vision, and he told it that he had known it had not really left.
The Amazon Ruins
Green Lantern, the Flash, and the Atom went after the second Dominator among the ruins of an ancient step pyramid in the Amazon. The Flash grabbed him at once, and Kyle called him a show-off just before something fast struck the Flash and the other two heroes were hit as well. Three Predators appeared, each armored after one of the heroes, one in maroon with the Flash's lightning emblem, one in gold crackling with yellow energy, and one in white bearing the Atom's symbol. One of them repeated the heroes' words back at them, and the Flash wondered when Predators had started to attack in groups.
Kyle's plan was to split up and run. The maroon Predator matched the speed of the Flash, to his disbelief, and cut him twice with its wristblades, leaving him to wonder whether it was drawing on the Speed Force or on him. Kyle made a giant green monster with his ring, and the gold Predator shattered it with a yellow blast, leaving him surprised that his ring had a weakness.
The Atom worked out that each Predator seemed keyed to one hero's abilities, and that his could shrink as well. He followed it down and shorted out its equipment with a positive electron, then went on punching it without its weapons. The Flash seized the Dominator, ran, and called the Watchtower to beam them out, but J'onn did not answer.
The Lake District
In the Watchtower, J'onn lay weakened on the floor and told Wally that he was busy. Superman and Batman were searching for the third Dominator in the Lake District, on the northwest coast of England just below Scotland, and talked about Beatrix Potter as Batman scanned the National Trust land with binoculars. Batman spotted the Dominator running in its green robe, and Superman was struck from behind by something he could not see. He told Batman to take the Dominator and go, and wondered whether these were really Predators, since this one seemed as strong as he was.
The attacker was a flying Predator in blue armor with a shield like Superman's emblem and a red cape. It mimicked the words "Predators are here," and Superman punched it into the sky. Batman caught the Dominator and called for a beam-up, but the Dominator's scream warned him of a three-dot laser sight on his back, and a plasma shot missed him. A Predator in a dark cape and cowl, made to hunt Batman, stood right behind him.
The Metapredators
The teleporter brought all three teams back to the Watchtower, with Plastic Man coiled around two Dominators and Batman holding the third. J'onn was at the controls, scarred from his fight, and the Flash demanded to know why the beam-up had taken so long. Aquaman pointed out the reason, J'onn's own Predator, which lay beaten on the floor. J'onn explained that it had stayed aboard and given him little choice, and that he could not bring them back until the Watchtower was secure.
Batman demanded an explanation from the Dominators, who had come to ask the League for protection. They had captured Predators on a moon they controlled, cloned them, and changed their DNA to kill the Justice League, which always ruined the Dominators' plans. The Metapredators had woken up, killed everyone in the facility except these three, and hunted them as they fled. The Dominators had come to the League hoping the hunters would go after the heroes instead, because their instincts would bring them wherever the League was.
Batman reminded the team that they were on home ground and should fight together. Superman used his X-ray vision to see the cloaked Metapredators inside the Watchtower and called on them to show themselves. The counterparts of the Flash, the Atom, and Superman decloaked, repeating the Dominators' words about coming to hunt and kill.
Battle On The Watchtower
Green Lantern shielded the Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and J'onn in a green bubble against the gold Predator's yellow blasts, and told it that its power might have hurt the Green Lantern it had been made to hunt. The heroes changed partners. Kyle went after the Atom's counterpart, J'onn took on the whip-wielding Predator made for Wonder Woman, and Diana attacked the stretching Predator made for Plastic Man. Superman insisted that only he could fight his own Metapredator, and Batman tackled the Flash's counterpart so the Flash could take on the gold Predator.
Superman punched his counterpart, and Plastic Man wrapped himself around the Predator made for Batman. The Atom shrank down to attack Aquaman's opponent from the inside, and Aquaman knocked down an unmasked Predator, calling himself the King of the Seven Seas. J'onn scrambled the Atom Predator's brain with a telepathic blast, and Kyle flattened the Flash's counterpart with a giant green hammer while Batman held it. Aquaman tore a pillar loose and brought it down on the Plastic Man Predator, and the Flash wore down another Predator and offered Aquaman the final blow, which knocked off its mask. Kyle stripped the Atom Predator of its armor, and Superman knocked out the last one.
Batman warned that Predators were at their most dangerous when defeated, and Superman agreed that they had been known to sacrifice themselves rather than surrender. One of the fallen Metapredators, unmasked and bleeding green blood, repeated those words and fired its shoulder cannon into the hull. The blast caused an explosive decompression, and the Metapredators were sucked out into space while Plastic Man held on to all three Dominators and Green Lantern plugged the hole with a construct. When Superman asked about the Metapredators, the Flash told him they were gone.
The Dominators' Departure
The League later put the three Dominators aboard a ship in the Watchtower hangar, with its controls set to take them home, and J'onn planted a telepathic command so they could not change course. The Dominators pointed out that the League had saved them even though they had hoped the hunters would kill the heroes, and that they knew how to make more Metapredators, perhaps better ones. They asked why. Superman told them that preserving life was what the League did, that they would have saved the Metapredators if they could, and that all life had worth. He hoped that if the Dominators someday understood that, they might change their people.
Key Characters
- J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, rescued the Dominators, survived having his head cut off and mounted on a spike, beat the Predator that hid aboard the Watchtower, and scrambled the Atom Predator's brain in the final fight.
- Superman flew to the Moon with Green Lantern, put J'onn's head back on, fought his caped counterpart in the Lake District and on the Watchtower, and told the Dominators that all life had worth.
- Batman took charge from the Batcave, split the League into three teams, caught the third Dominator in the Lake District, and held the Flash's counterpart for Green Lantern's hammer.
- Green Lantern, Kyle, found his constructs broken by the gold Predator's yellow energy, stripped the Atom Predator of its armor, and plugged the hole in the hull.
- Wonder Woman was stunned and drained by the whip-wielding Predator in Venice, deflected its blasts with her bracelets, and fought the Plastic Man Predator on the Watchtower.
- Plastic Man escaped the shape-changing Predator over Venice, carried off the first Dominator and the unconscious Aquaman, and held on to all three Dominators during the decompression.
- Aquaman was dragged under the canal in Venice, knocked out the cloak of the Predator below the water, and later brought a pillar down on the Plastic Man Predator.
- The Flash, Wally, grabbed the Dominator in the Amazon after his maroon counterpart cut him twice, and beat down the gold Predator in the final fight.
- The Atom shrank down to fight his own counterpart, shorted out its equipment with a positive electron, and attacked another Predator from the inside.
- Oracle, Barbara Gordon, warned J'onn about the Dominators and called the rest of the League when he was attacked.
- The Dominators were the only survivors of the facility where their people made the Metapredators. They hid among the heroes hoping the hunters would kill the League, and the League sent them home.
- The Metapredators were cloned Predators with altered DNA, each matched to one member of the League. The heroes beat all of them, and they were sucked into space when one of them blew a hole in the Watchtower's hull. None of them is named.
Editions
DC Comics published JLA vs. Predator as a single issue on December 20, 2000, with a cover date of February 2001. The indicia titles it JLA Versus Predator, carries copyrights for DC Comics, Twentieth Century Fox, and Dark Horse Comics, and says it was printed in Canada. John Ostrander wrote it, Graham Nolan penciled it, Randy Elliott inked it, James Sinclair colored it with separations by Heroic Age, and Bill Oakley lettered it. Nolan and Elliott drew the cover, which John Kalisz colored.
Dark Horse reprinted the story in the Dark Horse Comics/DC Comics: Justice League Volume 2 trade paperback on March 8, 2017. The collection also includes Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-Woman, Green Lantern versus Aliens, and Spyboy/Young Justice, and its cover reuses Nolan and Elliott's art for JLA vs. Predator.
Behind The Scenes
The cover shows three Predators in the costumes of Superman, Green Lantern, and Batman, and credits Ostrander, Nolan, and Elliott "with James Sinclair." The publisher's summary described a rogue Dominion geneticist who helped the Predators turn themselves into "Meta-Predators." In the comic, the Dominators captured and cloned the Predators themselves to kill the League, and the hunters are called Metapredators and Meta-predators.
Kyle's remark that he and Batman had met Predators before points back to the Batman vs. Predator crossovers. Superman had his own history with Predators, beginning with the 2000 miniseries Superman vs. Predator. The two heroes later fought both species together in Superman and Batman vs. Aliens and Predator in 2007. JLA vs. Predator is one of the Predator crossovers that paired the hunters with heroes from other publishers.
Conclusion
JLA vs. Predator is John Ostrander and Graham Nolan's 2001 one-shot for DC Comics and Dark Horse. It follows the Justice League from the rescue of three Dominators to fights in Venice, the Amazon, and the Lake District against cloned Predators built to match each hero. The League beat the Metapredators on the Watchtower, and the hunters were sucked into space after one of them blew open the hull. The comic ends with the Dominators sent home and Superman telling them that all life had worth.
External Sources
Tag Categories: Predator Comics | Alien And Predator Crossovers
