By: Ian Edginton (story), Francesco Trifogli (art), Cris Peter (colors)
The Story: Talk about selling out your fellow humans…
The Review: The biggest failing in Hinterkind’s debut was a lack of context. Although Edginton had produced a fairly potent combination of fantasy quest, action-adventure, and post-apocalyptic survival, there didn’t seem to be much unifying substance in the joints between these genres. Consequently, Hinterkind has come across less like an original story and more like an assemblage of discrete fictional parts.
Slowly, however, Edginton begins to thread these parts together. We had assumed that these mythic creatures, officially called “Hinterkind” (as opposed to, say, mankind), came part and parcel with “the fall” mentioned last month and were in some way responsible for the current state of human affairs. That assumption proves false when Prosper and Angus, after dealing with a troll, indicate it’s the first time they’ve ever seen or heard of one. If the Hinterkind weren’t the cause of the fall, then where do they come into the story?
It seems that the Hinterkind have simply taken advantage of the disaster that struck down humanity to assert their own dominance. Tersia, a member of “the Sidhe,” oldest of the Hinterkind, rants, “[Humans] drove us to the edge of extinction! They murdered my brothers and sisters!” She views the fall as karmic revenge, and the Hinterkind’s role as finishing the job. Her mother, the queen, sees things differently: “We were a lost cause once, just like them. We too narrowly escaped extinction but the wheel turns. Fortunes fall and rise.”
So the Hinterkind are neither just victims nor aggressors in this conflict, nor are they even united by their shared disgust for humankind. There are internal struggles and power plays among the various species that have nothing to do with humanity’s doings: “Agrios and his horse-clans are already founding an empire in the Midwest. The Ogri have already pledged to his banner…” Against this background, humans are mainly of symbolic use to the Hinterkind; there’s no better way to inspire morale and display strength than to pointlessly crush the helpless.
That’s not to say that humans don’t have some monetary value in themselves. How else does a nomadic hunter like Jon Hobb make a living if not by selling out his fellow man?* But his relationship to the Hinterkind goes beyond a limited trust between buyers and seller. Not only is he on a first-name basis with a band of roaming fauns, goblins, and ogres, he holds a position of superiority over them. “Sorry, boss,” apologizes Lachlan the faun when Hobb snaps at him for drooling too obviously over Prosper and Angus.
These are the really interesting dynamics in the story: the way humans must adapt or submit to the creatures they once upon a time persecuted (allegedly). Edginton should focus on these tensions, rather than continue with these morose journal entries of Prosper’s. The entries only remind us that she’s in no immediate danger and do little to flesh out the story, rehashing increasingly tiresome anxieties and self-judgment. “[T]o the Hinterkind we were the monsters, and bred of a bone-deep hatred they came for us, with fire, fangs and a terrible fury. Then we knew…we all knew what fear truly was.”
You have to wonder if Hinterkind would be more engaging than it is now with more substantial art. Trifogli is in no way deficient—he conveys the basic points of Edginton’s script without confusion—but his thin, straightforward lines have little intensity and too much good humor to undermine any fear Edginton wants to get across. There’s definitely a comical appearance to the Hinterkind that somewhat contradicts Prosper’s insistence of their dangerousness. Peter’s colors are similarly a bit too bright and cheery to sit nicely with the world’s supposed desolation.
Conclusion: You’re still not entirely convinced that long-term investment in the series is necessary, but this issue does begin to make a better case for interest.
Grade: B-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: * It’s possible, considering that the Sidhe are virtually indistinguishable from humans, that Hobb is not actually human, but for now I’ll go with the more intriguing assumption.
Grade
Conclusion