The Whispering Dark #1 Review
Written by Christofer Emgard
Art by Tomas Aira
Letters by Mauro Mantella
Reviewed by Lorna Maltman (maltmanlorna@gmail.com)
War stories have a long history in comics. The Whispering Dark slots right into this storied history, but so far does nothing to make it stand out from another average war story.
Hannah is a pilot who had a religious upbringing, and the comic starts out with her talking to her father about her decision to go fight. Cut to her in a crashed plane, where she becomes much to her chagrin the commander of the crash site survivors which consists mainly of Rangers. There are some additions to the story that make it obvious this world is not ours and more unique, such as the ‘go-pills’, the soldiers take to help them awake and sharp, but seem to have some interesting side effects. There is plenty of soldier lingo, which I presume is correct, but does help immerse you in the situation that befalls Hannah.
The art by Aira is much like the story, is solid but very middle of the road. The inking is often quite heavy and whilst that does bring some weight to the action, it means some details are obscured. There are moments where the use of colours and shadows make a panel standout; but in general, the art is satisfying but not stellar.
Verdict: Pass.
This could turn out great, but for a first issue, it failed to sell you on why you should pick it up.
