Predator: Badlands Officially Changes Canon to Adopt a Classic Term

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This feature does the opposite of another one I created: while that one highlights how comic book characters are changed by things like movies and TV, this one focuses on characters who originated in those other media – meaning they didn’t start as comic book characters at all.

With so many comic book adaptations available today, we’re highlighting examples that pull from lesser-known stories – not the big, famous ones like Spider-Man. Today, we’re looking at how the series Predator: Badlands finally brought a piece of Predator lore – originally from a novel inspired by a comic book – to the screen.

Licensed comic books have become much more popular recently, largely because the companies owning the licenses are giving creators more freedom than they did in the 1980s. We can generally break down the history of these comics into three main eras.

Licensed comics have gone through different phases. In the beginning, around the 1950s and 60s, companies like Gold Key and Dell were happy to just receive licensing fees and didn’t worry much about what was done with the properties – leading to some unusual titles like comics based on The Lucy Show or Leave it to Beaver. From the 1970s to the 90s, licensors started paying closer attention to how their properties were used. Now, it seems like companies are giving comic book publishers more freedom to experiment and try new things.

With more companies being bought by larger parent companies, it often simplifies things. For example, Disney now owns both Marvel and 20th Century Fox. Because of this, Disney also controls the rights to the Predator franchise, leading them to move the Predator comic books from Dark Horse Comics to Marvel.

What’s really noteworthy about Predator: Badlands is that it brings something from the comics into the movies. The Predator series has officially embraced a term that first appeared over 30 years ago in a novel based on a comic book – a surprisingly roundabout journey!

When were the Predators first referred to as Yautja?

Back in the late 1980s, Dark Horse Comics published comic books based on both the Predator and Aliens franchises. Artist and editor Chris Warner proposed a crossover story pitting the two against each other, which was released as a three-part series in the Dark Horse Presents anthology comic in 1989.

The concept was a huge success, leading Dark Horse to create an entire Aliens vs. Predator miniseries. The original short story was even republished as a special #0 issue.

In 1992, Dark Horse continued the story with a sequel series. Then, in 1994, S.D. Perry and Steve Perry, a father-daughter writing team, adapted the comic book Aliens vs. Predator into a novel called Aliens vs. Predator: Prey.

In that novel, the Predators are referred to as “Yautja.”

It’s interesting that turning a comic book into a novel and giving the aliens a name wasn’t a common practice, so later Predator comics almost never used the term. This makes sense because the Predators usually fought humans on Earth who wouldn’t have known their alien name—similar to how Superman didn’t learn about Krypton’s history for a long time in the original comics, as he had no way of finding out.

This likely explains why John Shirley felt justified in creating yet another name for the Predators in his 2006 novel, Predator: Forever Midnight. He chose the term Hish-qu-Ten.

The Yautja weren’t consistently portrayed in comics until Marvel obtained the Predator license.

After it was first used, the term quickly became common throughout the comic book world, particularly in Marvel’s crossover stories featuring Predator.

How did the term become Predator canon?

Dan Trachtenberg, as many people know, is a huge comic book enthusiast. He once wrote in the introduction to a comic that he dreamed of drawing comics as a child – it was the first career he ever considered. However, he admits he wasn’t very good at drawing!

I got my hands on books like How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. I even had a local art teacher, Joe DiDomenico – who’d done some comic work himself – give me private drawing lessons. I practiced for years, but I realized something: I wasn’t very good at drawing. Then I discovered video cameras – specifically Hi8 tapes – and everything changed! I didn’t need to draw. I could create superhero movies using action figures and my friends.

He’s a huge comic book enthusiast, and a dedicated fan overall. That’s why he was so proud to have included the term “Yautja” in the live-action Predator movies. Before that, he was the first to bring the term into the Predator universe with the comic book Predator: Killer of Killers.

2025 saw a lot of development in establishing “Yautja” as a key part of the Predator universe. While it’s not as widely recognized as “Xenomorph” yet, there’s still plenty of opportunity for it to become just as famous!

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2026-01-16 22:45