Hinterkind Vol. 1: The Waking World
Written by Ian Edginton
Art by Francesco Trifolgi
Review by Stephanie Cooke
Hinterkind is a post-apocalyptic fantasy story that is set some time after an unspoken something happens to the earth, nearly wiping out the population of humans. You know, like what happens in post-apocalyptic stories. Except in this story, the Hinterkind happen to be a bunch of mythical creatures that have come forth to reclaim the earth and take out their vengeance on the last of humanity.
This is a fantasy story with lots of ambition and even though it’s set on earth, it’s set in a different earth than we know and that requires world building. World building in comics can be a little easier than in novels since you can see what’s going on in and you don’t have to rely on lots of details on what the characters are seeing, but it seems that in lieu of having to build up all of these images for everyone, Edginton has set out to make this book as difficult to follow in every other way possible.
Six issues into this book (aka the first volume) and I have yet to come across a character that I like. A certain selfishness comes along with being the remaining survivors in a post-apocalyptic world; survival of the fittest and such. Somehow these characters manage to be whiny and entitled each in their own way, making it hard to enjoy reading about them. There are a few groups of characters that we follow in the first volume (with different, intertwining stories) and I don’t know which one I like reading about less. Consequently, I don’t really have any interest in learning what happens to any of them. The part of the story where mythological creatures actually exist and are coming back to reclaim the land is a neat premise but there’s nothing given to me from that drawing me back into the larger picture.
The art is mostly good and I find myself enjoying it generally and then something will be off and it throws me a bit. The art is definitely the better half of the equation between that and the writing. It’s also worth mentioning that the incredible cover for the first issue by Greg Tocchini and Francesco Trigolfi is what initially drew me in.
As fewer and fewer Vertigo titles seem to be hitting shelves (although more than not too long ago), I really wanted Hinterkind to knock it out of the park. It had a lot of potential to be great and maybe it still will turn out to be something worthwhile, but right now with so much to read out there, I don’t have time to continually invest in a series that’s forgettable at best.
VERDICT
Pass. As much as I would love to recommend this series, it just misses the mark on all fronts. Hinterkind feels like a mediocre first issue throughout the entire first arc and unless someone recommends the following issues after this, I don’t think I’ll be carrying on with the series.
