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Predators: Welcome to the Jungle is a comic book story that was first published by Dark Horse Comics in Predators in June 2010. It was written by Marc Andreyko, illustrated by Guilherme Balbi, inked by Jose Verissimo, colored by Gerry Henderson, lettered by Nate Piekos and edited by Scott Allie, Sierra Hahn, Freddye Lins and John Schork. The comic tells the story of Drake, the American soldier found dead on the Game Preserve Planet by Royce at the others, and also sheds more light on Noland's past.

Publisher's Summary

#1: A team of Navy Seals is in the midst of a firefight when it suddenly goes dark. They awake to find themselves in a new and more deadly environment, stalked by a strange enemy. One by one these special-ops officers are killed by an unseen threat, until only one man remains. All alone in a strange world, he must do what he knows best-survive against all odds.

#2: The lone Navy Seal finds himself in an uneasy alliance when he discovers another survivor on the planet — but he also learns that here humans are prey, transplanted from Earth to this alien jungle, to be hunted for sport.

#3: The human alliance strains under the threat of the vicious Predators, an elaborate system of traps, and the impossibility of escape, until the men are locked in their own game of cat and mouse against each other.

#4: Traps are set off and new Predators enter the fray in the blood-drenched conclusion: the set-up for Robert Rodriguez's reboot of the Predator film series!

Plot

US Navy SEAL Drake leads his team on a mission in Afghanistan to eliminate a terrorist cell. The operation goes wrong when a suicide bomber charges the group and detonates his explosives-laden vest, but instead of being killed Drake and his men awake to find themselves freefalling towards jungle. Their descent is slowed by parachutes strapped to their backs, but soon after landing the team is attacked by a Predator and several members are killed. Over the next few days the group is whittled down until only Drake remains.

While fleeing from a Predator, Drake runs into Noland, who Drake initially mistakes for the individual responsible for killing his men, given the Predator armor he is wearing. The two fight before being interrupted by a real Predator, which Noland prepares to ambush and kill before Drake causes him to miss his chance. The two men return to Noland's hideout, but quickly begin arguing about their next course of action — Drake wants to take the fight to the Predators, but Noland wants no part of it, seeking only to survive, one day at a time. Unable to convince the other man, Drake leaves, stealing a Predator disc weapon from the wealth of weapons Noland has stashed. Back in the jungle, he is attacked by a giant insectoid alien, but he disembowels the creature with the disc before again encountering Noland, who has come to retrieve the stolen weapon.

Drake finally convinces Noland to help him tackle a Predator, and the two men succeed in overpowering one. Noland intends to kill the captive creature immediately, but Drake refuses, planning to use it as bait to lure more Predators into a fight. When Drake refuses to accept Noland's repeated assertions that taking on the Predators is suicide, the two men part ways. Drake constructs a series of rudimentary traps from the jungle itself, but as his plan nears completion he is found by Berserker, Falconer and Tracker. The three Super Predators kill the captive Predator by setting it alight, before Berserker fights Drake, finally shooting him through the chest with its Plasmacaster. Berserker stands over Drake as he dies, while Noland watches from a tree nearby.

Some time later, Drake's body is found by Royce and his group.

Appearances

Reprint History

Predators: Welcome to the Jungle was later collected, along with the other Predators tie-in comics, in a single trade paperback released in October 2010.

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