Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa: Plot & Characters

Published: 1994, two parts in Dark Horse Comics #20 (April 1994) and #21 (May 1994)
Collected: Predator Omnibus Vol. 2 (2008), Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (December 2022)
Script: Terry LaBan
Pencils and Inks: Howard Cobb
Colors: Lea Hernandez
Letters: Vickie Williams
Cover: Brom (Dark Horse Comics #20)
Format: Two twelve-page chapters in an anthology
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Setting: The Navajo reservation and Two-Witch Mesa, after Predator: Big Game and seventy-five years earlier

Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa is a two-part Predator comic written by Terry LaBan and drawn by Howard Cobb, serialized by Dark Horse Comics in Dark Horse Comics #20 and #21 in 1994. A sequel to Predator: Big Game, it found Enoch Nakai discharged from the army, working at a gas station and tormented by nightmares of the monster he had killed. His grandfather answered with a family secret, the story of how his own father had watched a hunter slaughter oilmen drilling on the sacred Two-Witch Mesa seventy-five years before.

Plot Summary

Nightmares Of The Monster

In a red-tinted nightmare, the Predator looms over Enoch Nakai while another soldier runs as the hunter is hit by a blast in Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa

The story opened with Enoch Nakai trapped in the same dream he had almost every night, in which the creature killed his buddies one by one or hunted him alone and he could never get away. He woke screaming in his grandfather's hogan, and the old man made him coffee before dawn. His grandfather warned that the evil of the thing was pulling him deeper into hochxo, an illness, and Enoch snapped that no ceremony would make it go away and that he needed answers. The old man replied that it did not matter, because Enoch was the one being harmed.

In a flashback, an army officer told Corporal Nakai that the army gave him a lot of credit for killing the thing. He added that Nakai had also disobeyed orders, trespassed in restricted areas, abandoned his post and probably got more than a few people killed. The army had arranged an honorable discharge on the condition that he tell no one what had happened, and he was dismissed, for now. Back in the present, Enoch was working behind the counter of a Fastway gas station when his coworker Mike shouted that he had been yelling at him for two minutes about a phone call.

Alda At The Diner

A man in a cowboy hat and sunglasses reads a newspaper over coffee and listens as Enoch Nakai talks with Alda in a diner booth

The call was from his girlfriend Alda, reminding him of their dinner, and at the diner that night Enoch barely heard a word she said. She told him he had never been easy to talk to but had stopped even looking at her, and warned that if she left he would not see her again for a long time. He finally admitted that it was the monster, and that what angered him most was how the government had made him help cover it up. The thing had come down from somewhere, killed people and blown up a whole army base, and the government only worried that someone would find out.

He told Alda that he had been hauled into a top-secret room and questioned like a criminal, then given a pat on the back and told to go home and never tell anyone. At least, he grumbled, they could have gotten him a decent job. She said they had treated him badly but that there was no use feeling sorry for himself, and that she was glad he was alive even if he was not. Enoch insisted he had a right to find out what more the government knew, while at a nearby table a man in a cowboy hat and sunglasses listened through an earpiece.

The Dart

Enoch Nakai sits on a rock with a bottle under a full moon and a starry sky beside his grandfather's hogan in Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa

That night, Enoch sat on a rock under the full moon with a bottle, insisting to his grandfather that he was only having a sip so he could sleep. The old man showed him an object, and Enoch recognized it as one of the darts the thing had used. His grandfather said it had been given to him many years earlier by his own father, who may have met the same monster. He had promised to keep it a deep secret, and he had feared it would only add to Enoch's hochxo, but now he believed more knowledge might help restore his grandson's hozho, his harmony and balance.

A few years before the grandfather was born, the government had begun leasing the rights to drill for oil on the Navajo reservation, and oil companies signed contracts with Navajos who lived far from the drill sites. One day, while herding sheep near Two-Witch Mesa, Enoch's great-grandfather met armed white men building a fence who told him to leave. A trader later explained that someone claiming to represent the clan had taken money from an oil company, which planned to drill on the mesa. The great-grandfather was astounded, because the mesa held the houses and pictures of the Old Ones, and disturbing them could bring disaster.

The Drilling Camp

Navajo riders face a line of armed guards in front of the oil derrick at the Two-Witch Mesa drilling camp

Already a respected yataali, or healer, the great-grandfather rode around warning the people, and a council decided to send a group of men to reason with the drillers. That night he saw a bright object like a shooting star fly across the sky, hover over the hills around Two-Witch Mesa and slowly sink out of sight. There were no satellites then and the few airplanes never flew at night, so he took it as a bad sign but told no one. The next morning the riders reached the drilling camp, which had been built like a fort, and angry guards fired over their heads until the Navajo left.

The group camped close to the mesa that night, and some of the younger men wanted to fight the drillers. The great-grandfather counseled caution and suggested sending people to Window Rock to talk to the agency there. He felt that the air smelled strange and that there was danger in it. Late that night he heard laughter and gunshots from the direction of the oil camp, and he later learned that the guards had been drinking and holding a shooting contest, firing at the ancient handprints and figures painted on the Two-Witch Mesa rock.

Angry Ghosts

A drunken oil guard is struck by a Predator plasma bolt while an inset shows the red laser sight on his chest in Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa

Lying awake, the great-grandfather thought he could feel angry ghosts all around him and saw the air shimmer as something passed by, and he had never been so scared. The shimmer was a Predator moving under its cloak, and the comic showed the drunken guards through its heat vision as glowing shapes. A red laser sight settled on one guard before a bolt from its shoulder cannon blew into his chest while his friends looked on. The great-grandfather later said that even the angry ghosts of the Old Ones could not have done what was done to those guards that night.

The Hanging Tree

The skinned and gutted bodies of the oil camp guards hang upside down from a tree in Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa

The next morning, an old driller in red long johns stepped out of his tent, stretched and wandered off to relieve himself. He found the guards hanging upside down from a tree, some of them skinned, with their rifles and bottles scattered in the dirt below. The second chapter opened as the oilmen gathered beneath the bodies, and the great-grandfather said that even though they had profaned the sacred Two-Witch Mesa, nobody deserved such a fate. Back in the hogan, Enoch said the same thing had happened to his friends, and his grandfather replied that one who met such an enemy was forever changed.

Enoch asked whether his great-grandfather had actually seen the monster and wondered aloud if it had been the same one. The old man promised to get to that soon and went on with the story. The next morning, the Navajo were packing to return to their hogans when shots rang out from the surrounding cliffs. The great-grandfather fell with a bullet in his shoulder, and before the others understood that the oilmen were attacking them, two more men had fallen, one of them dead. The Navajo were unarmed, so they had no choice but to ride away and leave the wounded behind.

The oilmen took the great-grandfather and another wounded man back to their camp as prisoners and showed him the bodies, and he retched in horror. He realized why his people had been attacked and tried to tell the oilmen that they knew nothing, but he spoke no English and they spoke no Navajo, so they beat him. The two men were tied to a tree to wait for a sheriff, since there were no roads and the next town was almost seven hours away. They were given no food or water in the heat, and when the sun set and the sheriff still had not come, they were given no blankets.

Massacre At Dawn

A red plasma bolt tears through the chest of a shirtless oilman as he drops his rifle during the dawn gunfight on Two-Witch Mesa

Enoch's great-grandfather barely slept, and when he dozed he dreamed of horrible things, including a shooting star and a masked hunter. At dawn he heard rifle fire and war cries as the Navajo came back to rescue the prisoners and take revenge. The oilmen fought back, and bullets struck all around the tied men until he was sure he would die. Then he saw something worse than anything yet, as a bolt of energy burned through an oilman's chest. At first he could not tell what was killing them, only what it did, as an invisible shape drove a pair of wristblades into the back of the old driller in long johns.

He still thought it might be the angry ghosts of the Old Ones, until a bolt struck down one of the Navajo fighters and he knew the Old Ones would never turn on those who had come to defend them. It became a massacre, as both the oilmen and the Navajo panicked and fired wildly, sometimes at their enemies and sometimes at each other. The cloaked hunter kept killing men from both sides, using the chaos to pick off anyone who came within reach. Neither side knew that the thing walking among them was the reason the guards had died.

Something Awful On The Ridge

The wounded Predator roars on the ridge of Two-Witch Mesa, clutching its bleeding forearm, beside close-ups of Enoch's great-grandfather and the stunned oilmen

One of the stray bullets hit the creature, and suddenly the great-grandfather saw something awful standing on the crest of the ridge. The Predator appeared in full view, its mask framed by long dreadlocks with gold rings and its body covered in purple armor over a mesh suit. It clutched its arm as glowing green blood ran over the wrist gauntlet, and it let out a terrible roar. The oilmen and the Navajo stopped fighting and stared up at the Yautja in shock.

The Sheriff Arrives

The dreadlocked Predator crouches on the slope as the sheriff's men fire down at it from the hillside

The great-grandfather said they were lucky that day, because shots began coming from the other side of the camp as the sheriff finally arrived with his men. Their guns cracked from the hillside, and the wounded Predator crouched on the slope beneath the gunfire. Whatever the monster was, it could be hurt or killed by bullets, and now there were too many of them, so it vanished without a trace among the rocks. Its retreat showed one of the weaknesses of the hunters, which was that even a cloaked Yautja could be driven off by enough armed men.

The Broken Weapon

A car passes a power line pylon and a roadside sign reading Two-Witch Mesa National Monument, Next Left, under a caption about the oil companies leaving, beside an inset of Enoch Nakai telling his grandfather it was quite a story

There were many dead that day, Navajo and white, but everyone had seen the monster and knew the Navajo had not killed the guards. The great-grandfather was taken home to heal, and about a week later the wife of a man who had been wounded at the mesa and since died came to see him. She gave him a broken weapon that had been removed from her husband's shoulder, because she was afraid to keep it in her hogan. He was afraid too, but he kept it, and it was the same Predator weapon that his son later showed to Enoch.

Soon afterward, an agency man came and asked the great-grandfather some questions, and he heard nothing more after that. He never spoke of it again, even to those who had also been there. A few months later, the oil companies moved their machines off Two-Witch Mesa, and the last fence posts were cleared away when it became a park, now marked by a roadside sign for the Two-Witch Mesa National Monument. Enoch told his grandfather that it sounded as though his great-grandfather had met the same monster, and that the government had acted the same way seventy-five years earlier as it did now.

John Smith

Enoch said it meant a lot to know he was not alone, and that the other man to meet the thing had been his own great-grandfather. He was now sure the government had more information and wanted to know how much, and what they were doing with it. Outside, a man in a van wore headphones and listened to every word through a bug hidden near the stove. The next day, the man from the diner walked into the Fastway, introduced himself as John Smith of the Defense Department and asked to speak with Nakai outside.

Behind the gas station, Smith asked how Nakai would like to step up from being a pump jockey to working for Uncle Sam again. He explained that his people had been watching Nakai and were very interested in his case, since he seemed to have an understanding of unusual visitors. Nakai snapped that he did not appreciate people listening in on what was not their business, but Smith calmly offered a new job that might be of personal interest to him. Smith told him to call on Monday and left him holding a business card, and Nakai muttered that it was better the devil you know.

Key Characters

Enoch Nakai was the former army corporal who had killed the Predator in Big Game. Discharged and haunted by nightmares, he learned his family's secret and was recruited by a government agent at the end of the story.
Enoch's grandfather was the old man who shared his hogan with Enoch. He kept the dart his father had given him and finally told the story of Two-Witch Mesa to restore his grandson's harmony.
Enoch's great-grandfather was a respected yataali, or healer, who tried to protect the sacred mesa. He was shot and taken prisoner by the oilmen and witnessed the Predator's massacre.
Alda was Enoch's girlfriend, who grew frustrated with his silence and nearly walked out on him at the diner.
John Smith was the man from the Defense Department who eavesdropped on Enoch and offered him a job dealing with unusual visitors.
Mike was Enoch's coworker at the Fastway gas station.
The oilmen were the drillers and guards who fenced off Two-Witch Mesa, desecrated its rock art and blamed the Navajo for the Predator's killings.
The sheriff was the lawman whose men arrived during the massacre and drove the wounded hunter away.
The widow was the Navajo woman who gave the great-grandfather the broken weapon taken from her husband's shoulder.

Behind The Scenes

Blood on Two-Witch Mesa ran in two twelve-page chapters in Dark Horse Comics #20 and #21, cover-dated April and May 1994. Terry LaBan wrote the script, which Dark Horse promoted as his premiere script, and Howard Cobb penciled and inked the art, with colors by Lea Hernandez and letters by Vickie Williams. Brom painted the cover of issue #20, showing a Predator holding a feathered skull, a trophy raised before a Navajo sand painting. Issue #20 also carried the second part of X: Welcome to the Jungle, while issue #21 opened Urban Renewal and carried a cover by Mark A. Nelson.

The story was one of several short Predator serials in the Dark Horse Comics anthology, following Predator: Rite of Passage, Predator: Blood Feud, Predator: The Pride at Nghasa and Predator: The Hunted City. Unlike those standalone tales with their own casts, it was a direct sequel to Big Game and joined the long tradition of Predators facing Native Americans. Its flashback gave the Yautja an early place on the Predator timeline, seventy-five years before Enoch Nakai met the same kind of hunter near his own army base.

Dark Horse later reprinted the story in Predator Omnibus Vol. 2 in 2008, alongside Big Game. Marvel included it in Predator: The Original Years Omnibus Vol. 1 in December 2022, where Brom's painting appeared as the opening page of the story. John Smith's offer at the end of the story was left unanswered, but Nakai later returned to fight the hunters again with a privately funded team in Predator: Hunters, written by Chris Warner more than two decades later. That series carried his story forward from the quiet gas station where this comic left him, with the devil he knew.

Conclusion

Predator: Blood on Two-Witch Mesa turned Enoch Nakai's victory in Big Game into a lingering wound, and answered it with a story passed down through his family. Terry LaBan framed a frontier massacre inside a quiet conversation between grandson and grandfather, while Howard Cobb gave the cloaked hunter a ghostly presence among the oilmen and the Navajo. By linking two generations of government secrecy and ending with an offer from John Smith, the comic set Nakai on the road that led back to the hunters.