By: Ian Edginton (story), Francesco Trifogli (art), Cris Peter (colors)
The Story: When trying to escape a self-destructing facility, just follow your nose.
The Review: I know what you’re all thinking: how could I have possibly have delayed in reviewing what has been the most exciting series currently produced by Vertigo? Kidding aside, I do apologize for the lateness, but I sincerely believed that I had already Dropped this title. Talk about your Freudian slips. It doesn’t take a shrink to conclude that I was convinced I had stopped reading Hinterkind probably because I subconsciously wanted to stop reading it.
I don’t meant to suggest that Edginton’s writing has been bad, necessarily—just uninspired. In reading Hinterkind, I never feel like I’m reading an original work so much as a mish-mish of elements poached from other works. Now, this in itself is not a problem, so long as the writer can keep things clean and unified. Saga, for example, never has a problem with cohesion because no matter how many characters Brian K. Vaughan throws in, no matter their personal arcs, they all revolve around the nucleus of Alana and Marko’s illicit relationship. There’s no such common ground for anyone in Hinterkind.
And finding common ground is definitely the name of the game in this series. Why else would Edginton create Goodwin and his patchwork soldiers except to give Prosper, Asa, and Hobb’s respective gangs a threat they can all strive against? But even as a combined group, the primary cast doesn’t have much appeal. None of the individual cast members have enough charisma or personality to keep you interested, so putting them together accomplishes little more than forcing them to go through the motions of interaction.
That being said, there are a few moments here which signal at more meaningful developments to come. Angus’ mutation is clearly the bridge between mankind and Hinterkind, but Prosper is the one with the strongest moral values. That does put her in the right position to judge the actions of everyone else, even though those Book of Monday excerpts have long become an exhausting trademark of the series. Although Asa saves his granddaughter from having to work out a grisly ethical dilemma, he takes the opportunity to remind her that he won’t be able to do so forever, producing one of the strongest scenes we’ve gotten so far.
But just to point out how weak the characterization of our humans have been, it’s the power struggle between Tersia and her mother that has real stakes and intensity. Whoever comes out on top not only maintains her dignity and title, but also decides, to a large extent, the fate of humanity and the course of the Hinterkind revival. Honestly, it’s hard to see the queen winning this one, no matter how much you want her to. If her wisdom and compassion should prevail, that wouldn’t give our other protagonists much to fight against, will it?
Trifogli’s art is acceptable, but even for an indie series, it is very, very rough. He definitely struggles to individualize some of the characters, especially the patchwork soldiers, which explains why at one point, someone dressed in Goodwin’s uniform identifies himself as Major Kemp, even though Kemp had just earlier been seen wearing something completely different. Trifogli’s also not such a bad hand with the action, but like Alberto Ponticelli, his rudimentary linework is limited in giving the action its much-needed energy.
Conclusion: When the part are this underwhelming, you can bet the whole isn’t going to inspire either. Dropped.
Grade: C+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Letterer Dezi Sienty, I’m starting to have it up to here with you. Once again, he switches dialogue bubbles, giving what is obviously Goodwin’s line to a saluting underling. DC, are you just not paying attention, or what?
Grade
Conclusion