Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Hinterkind #1Hinterkind #1
Vertigo (DC Comics)
Edginton & Trifogli

Apocalyptic comics are a dime a dozen. The greatness sometimes lies in the idea behind the end of humanity, but more times than not it depends on how interesting the characters are as to whether or not the book can rise up above mediocrity. This particular comic offers an inflated page count for three bucks and that allows the book the space to lay some character groundwork before dropping the floor out from the reader at the end. Overall, I liked this book and plan to pick up a second issue.

The book resembles many other stories in the initial pages. A young man and woman are looking for food and the female seems to be an exceptional archer. The pair talks about life back at their camp and the struggles of maintaining balance between the politics of the situation and general survival for those they care about. There are elements of The Hunger Games, generic teenage angst and a little bit of some zombie stories (minus the zombies). The characters are likeable and the dialogue is enough to make it something more than just a throwaway intro.

From there the book leads the reader to the camp and we begin to get a glimpse of their surroundings and the decimation. We also get to know some other characters including loved ones as they all discuss one of them leaving.

At this point the book seems like The Fellowship of the Ring. There is an unknown journey that calls to one of the characters, others want to follow and there is a lot of decision making about who should or should not accompany the character and why.

As you might expect danger finds a couple of characters that venture out of the safe zone and they are met with the hostility that seems to have knocked mankind off of its perch. The final four pages are fantastic.

The book has a ton of questions that aren't fully answered in this issue. Even smaller ones, such as to why the humans are safe from the threat in their village but not when they venture outside it. I'm also not clear why characters are in such a hurry to leave the camp in the first place. However, the book is strong enough to overcome these logical questions a reader might have on the writing of the few characters and the revealed threat at the end.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsI like the artwork. There seems to be a shift in the Vertigo house style from the muted coloring and dark shading and more towards the open color spectrum with wider pencil lines; something from Sweet Tooth or Saucer Country. The creativity with the characters and desolation is something that makes the book stand out slightly from the other apocalypse titles. The art helps to push the story forward and is a positive mark in coming back for a second issue.

Hinterkind is a story about a couple of characters trapped at the end of mankind's rule of Earth. The book uses some frightening characters as the foil in the book but sticks to basic human characters to help ground the book with the reader. I liked the first issue and I am interested to see where this series is headed. This is worth checking out.

4 out of 5 Geek Goggles