Predator: Hell & Hot Water

I do not buy comics because of the main character - I buy comics because of the creators. I think there are a number of disappointed reviewers who bought this because it was about the Predator. I like Gene Colan, and I especially love his pencils. His pencils are reproduced here, without ink. The colorist did a good job on Gene's work, avoiding the photoshop trickery that mars many modern comics. He enhances the work, rather than obscuring it. Gene has a shadowy style - realistic in the renderings of facial expressions, but expressionistic in the renderings of action and movement. In his fight scenes he renders the chaotic nature of battle, with limbs flying in every direction. He has a cinematic approach. Modern comic readers may have trouble with this collection - the heroes are not overly muscular, but rather ordinary looking, there are no poster-style splash pages, Colan is not hyperrealistic. The plot has a slow, tho suspenseful, atmospheric build; with very controlled violence. There is no graphic blood letting.Colan renders the underwater scenes with the same dark, misty, rich atmosphere as he did London's streets in "Tomb of Dracula." Where the book falters for me, was in the writing. Mark Schultz is a good writer, but here his approach is mostly formulaic. The plot is predictable and at times contrived. There is a large and, thankfully, multi-cultural cast. Unfortunately, except for the two main characters, they are one-dimensional. Schultz decided not to use captions, a popular conceit with writer/artists - Barry Windsor Smith has made much of his eschewing of captions. Since they are mostly used for descriptions, the idea is that descriptions are unnecessary because the art speaks for itself. Anyone who has read a Stan Lee comic can attest to the fact that it is annoying when a writer covers beautiful art with captions describing what's there to see.However, the length of "Hell & Hot Water" did not allow Schultz room to develop his characters. After an introduction and a page for each to display a little attitude, they all don identical scuba gear and dive underwater. Without captions, and with Colan's purposely shadowy style, it is hard to know who is who. The group of six divers splits into two teams of three - and without being able to tell skin color, and with so little characterization, I often could not tell which team was which, as the story shifted scenes between them.Schultz realized - or perhaps letters let him know - that going captionless was causing problems by the third issue, so he has the main character act as a narrator. The story is solid, but you know the drill - most of these people aren't going to make it - just like any hollywood horror movie. There are some very contrived moments that Schultz uses in order to maintain that worn out horror movie cliche of characters dying one by one. Schultz throws some good surprises in there, though, to keep the story interesting, and I have to admit I did not see the ending coming. With the use of the narration, the third chapter is the best, so the story ends on a strong note.The art is stunning, beautiful, gorgeous. Colan's renderings are exquisite - whether it's a fight scene, a facial expression, an alien life form, a storm at sea, or an underwater world full of strange animals. His use of panels and page design is inventive, even for Colan. It is wonderful to just stare at a page and appreciate the work. The upside of Schultz not using captions, and being spare with the dialogue, is that Colan's art is mostly unobscured.The reproduction value is mostly good, tho Dark Horse didn't leave enough room at the end of the paper, so one must nearly pull the book apart to see some of the art. Also, it is printed on glossy paper, which is less absorbent, thus muting the rich qualities of the colors, while at the same time making them appear garish. Glossy paper also makes comics harder to read, as light reflects off the page obscuring your vision. I will never understand why people want to pay for expensive paper that obscures and dampens the art. The colorist, however, did such a good job, he mitigates the problem somewhat.This book is a must have for any Gene Colan fan, the story may not be great, but it is very good, and the art is astounding.

Good story would be a good movie. The artwork was a little busy and hard to interpret.

Another super excellent novel for all dark horse collectors.

I thought the premise of this book was quite interesting, and although it was too short to really develop the characters to their fullest, they ended up being quite interesting and sympathetic. I liked the idea of setting the action underwater as well. The only problem for me was that I didn't like the art. I had been under the impression that the cover art was indicative of the quality of the inside art, but aside from a few pictures done by the cover artist the style is very sketchy, which is alright by itself, but the characters are very indistinct and it's often very hard to tell what's supposed to be happening. Weird transitions and vaguely defined figures make the action rather confusing a lot of the time. I wish it had been refined more before publishing.