It is no secret that Predators are some of the toughest creatures in all of science fiction, and in one Alien vs Predator comic, it is revealed that they’re even tougher than fans originally thought while perfectly explaining why they are so hard to kill in the first place–and it’s all thanks to their shocking healing factor.
Yautja were first introduced in 1987’s Predator where one of the planet-hopping hunters comes to Earth and slaughters an entire team of highly-trained mercenaries before eventually getting bested by the last-remaining human on the squad. As more movies were made, video games were developed, and comics/novels were written, the lore of the Predator species was greatly expanded upon–especially when considering their shared history with Alien’s Xenomorphs. Yautja are expected to kill a Xenomorph as a rite of passage before being considered true hunters by their species, which means the Predator culture is entirely dependent on Xenomorphs’ continued survival in the cosmos. Predators even go so far as to seed entire worlds with Ovomorphs, infecting that planet forever with the parasitic organisms just to ensure their young can participate in the ceremonial hunt–though sometimes, the fallout of that action leads to a less-than-glorious outcome for the Predators involved.
In Aliens vs Predator #2 by Randy Stradley and Phill Norwood, a team of Predators descended upon a world that had already been settled by humans and decided it would be the perfect Xenomorph breeding ground. However, after the humans found a dead Facehugger and went to investigate the area where the alien was believed to have been found, one of them ran into a pack of Predators. While trying to escape, the man investigating the Facehugger accidentally rammed one of the Yautja with his vehicle, shooting them both into the side of the Predator ship and creating a huge explosion. This resulted in the human’s death while injuring the Predator greatly. Later, a team of people following up on the Facehugger investigation find the injured Predator laying in the dirt amid the rubble of the detonated ship. The humans then take the Predator back to their base for treatment, and before the suns set on that very same day, the Predator had nearly fully recovered.
Predators’ Healing Factor Makes them WAY Deadlier
This Predator not only survived an explosion that vaporized the human who ran him over, but was able to heal from the injuries sustained in that explosion impossibly quickly. From what was gathered in this AvP issue, the Predator suffered a number of broken ribs along with other injuries that weren’t disclosed to readers–but those other injuries become utterly irrelevant when it’s learned that two of the Predator’s ribs had completely healed before nightfall. This means that Predators can heal broken bones in a matter of hours, which is something that is incredibly useful for a hunter that sometimes takes days to kill its desired prey.
Any injury a Predator would sustain during the day on any given hunt would be completely healed by the next morning. This explains why humans have such a hard time killing them, as every day they don’t defeat the creature, the Predator essentially resets to full strength while the people fighting back are getting increasingly more worn out as the days go on–a grim truth that just goes to show how even the deadliest creature in the cosmos can always get deadlier.
