Predator: The Hunted City
Charles Moore (writing)
D. Alexander Gregory & Scott Fischer (art)
Initial release: December 1993-February 1994 (3 issues) (USA)
One of the big stereotypes of New York City is that it is a crime-ridden hellhole. Even now, long after the worst period of urban decay the nation had ever seen, decades after 9/11 had triggered a great change in the city's character, reducing it to a sort of Disney World version of itself, there are people who will tell you, with all earnestness, that New York City will murder you the moment you step foot into the city limits. I've been to New York City and I remain unmurdered, but that was in 2019; 1947 might have been a bit dicier, especially if you were a mobster. And in Dark Horse's Predator: The Hunted City, gangland has a little more to worry about than cops and their fellow mafiosi.
Like most short stories in Dark Horse's take on the Xenoverse, The Hunted City has a pretty simple premise. It's the hot summer of 1947, and while most of the city's crime families are uniting, Tony Vincenzo, who's never been the same since coming back from the war, is holding out. Amidst the violence comes a monstrous figure taking trophies for itself. The only man who might have a clue as to what's been bumping off the city's wise guys is a shrewd independent photojournalist, who is not only being targeted by the mob for what he knows, but also by the monstrous figure.
While Charles Moore has several credits in the independent comics scene, the fact remains that The Hunted City is a confusing mess. It almost feels like there's a whole issue missing, even though I know for a fact that there isn't. While not every one of Dark Horse's Xenoverse comics is a winner, I'm willing to vouch for some of the less popular ones like Strange Roux. I can't say the same for The Hunted City; the art is okay, but the script just can't string it all together. Things just kind of happen in this story, and we're along for the ride as the yautja tears mob goons apart. The strangest part is the claim that aside from physical power, yautja are drawn to political power, and targeting our intrepid photojournalist is entirely because a camera is as much a weapon as a gun. Absurd, to say the least.
The one thing about The Hunted City that may be of historical interest is that it seemingly anticipated the cult game Predator: Concrete Jungle, which has you playing a yautja fighting against mobsters in the 1930s for the first portion of the game. It's not the silliest idea, given the Predator franchise's fixation on placing its titular alien hunters into historical contexts to demonstrate their long lives and clandestine connections to humanity. I only wish The Hunted City had been written better.