Predator Confirms Exactly What the Yautja Are Learning from Humans (That Makes Them Even Deadlier)

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Predator vs Wolverine #4 The Predator species have held a collective fascination with Earth and the prey inhabiting it for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It’s well known that Predators love hunting humans, and they even make a fine sport out of hunting particularly dangerous animals like wolves and bears. But the more recent additions to Predator lore have made it clear that Predators don’t keep coming to Earth simply to hunt, but also to learn, which makes the entire species deadlier with every visit.

Readers have learned a lot about the Yautja species since Predator comics started being published by 20th Century Studios. In the main Predator ongoing series, readers learn that the Predators have been kidnapping people from Earth for decades, keeping them in stasis, and then hunting them at their leisure on a world designated for that specific purpose. This revelation confirmed that Predators study humans way more intensely than had ever been hinted at before, and are very particular about who they hunt, when they hunt them, and how that particular prey could strengthen them as a culture.

There isn’t a better example of Predators studying and learning from their prey than the crossover limited series Predator vs Wolverine. In this four-part storyline, Wolverine is being hunted by a Predator (sometimes multiple), and it’s a hunt that’s been ongoing throughout Wolverine’s extremely long life. With every attempt at killing Wolverine, the Predator learns something new, just like how its species as a whole learns something new with every human they study, capture, and then hunt later.

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Humans Have Taught Predators A Plethora Of Fighting Styles

In Predator vs Wolverine #4 by Benjamin Percy, Ken Lashley, Kei Zama, and Gavin Guidry, Wolverine is studying with Muramasa, a master swordsman who is teaching Logan the ways of ancient Japanese swordplay. Then, suddenly, the Predator who has been hunting Wolverine all his life shows up and attacks Logan.

Muramasa doesn’t help, but he does observe, and he tells Wolverine that this opponent has mastered many forms of martial arts. This implies that the Yautja wasn’t just learning from Wolverine himself during this decades-long hunt, but also from other human prey it’s killed in between their bouts, each one assuredly picked deliberately to help train the Predator for its ultimate battle against Wolverine.

Predators Choose Prey Specifically To Hunt & Learn From Them

Practically every chapter in Predator lore before this point implied that Yautja seek out increasingly deadly prey in order to hunt them using their own culture’s training and fighting styles, thereby proving themselves superior to any alien life form they come across. However, it wasn’t until this point in Predator canon that it was confirmed that Predators actively learn the fighting styles and techniques from the prey they hunt – predominantly humans. This is why Predators are so obsessed with hunting humans, not because they’re the strongest or even the deadliest prey (especially next to some of the Predator’s other prey, like Xenomorphs), but because humans have the most to teach the Yautja at every encounter.

Predators either abduct humans they wish to learn from to then hunt them in a controlled environment later, or they stalk them and hunt them outright on Earth. Either way, Predators are using humans for more than just a challenging hunting trip, but as a way to learn martial arts and fighting styles that make the Predator species that much more dangerous.

Predator vs Wolverine #4 by 20th Century Studios is available now.